Is Iridology a quack/joke???

Question

i recently heard of iridology. got a pic of my eyes and they told me what some things were in my body. they gave me some all natural pills to take morning and night and they told me to change my diet. i have been taking the pills and they do seem to help. BUT i've been wondering if the Iridology is actaully for real or just something some guy made up. i work @ a vet clinic and i told the docs that this is what im doing. the next day one of the docs gave me a paper that said iridology is a quack. it was from a .org website not a .com. so do you know if Iridology actaully works?

i was actually thinking about NOT taking the pills anymore and in about 6 weeks go back, and get pics taken of my eyes again and see wat they say. should i do that??

Answer 1

There are actually several clinical studies both proving and disproving Iridology research. Try searching for clinical studies using "iridodiagnosis" since the most credible research has come out of Russia and that there are well over 5000 trained M.D's who specialize in iridodiagnostics.

For example:

Iridodiagnosis in the system of the follow-up

Iridodiagnosis in the system of the follow-up of the health status of the population living in an area contaminated by radioactive substances
Ponomarenko VM,
Shatilo VI,
Mal'tsev VI,
Polovka VM,
Didyk VS,
Iakobchuk VA,
Golovko VA.
The authors substantiate the practical employment of the iridodiagnosis screening-test using a system of archiving and visualization of the iris at the first stage of prophylactic medical examination and management. The economical and medical efficacy of the method has been established. Use of iridodiagnosis improved the detectability of pathologic conditions as compared with complex medical examination. Many specialists were freed from mass medical screening. The expenses for prophylactic medical examination became ten times less.

PMID: 1364605 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Iridodiagnosis in diseases of the hepatobiliary

Iridodiagnosis in diseases of the hepatobiliary system and kidneys
Lukash NV,
Pol'skaia LV,
Kliaritskaia IL.
Overall fifty patients with chronic hepatitis and 50 patients with concurrent pathologies were examined. The patients with chronic active hepatitis and in coexisting pathologies showed more profound depression of the immunity system as well as striking alterations on the iris of the eye. The former patient group received basic therapy, while the latter one were given immunomodulating agents against the background of basic therapy. Iridodiagnosis will, we believe, help in detecting concurrent pathologies of the hepatobiliary and urinary systems. The dynamics of the pathological signs in the iris is strongly related to the clinicoimmunological picture of the illness. Iridodiagnosis is a reliable test of a therapeutic effect in patients with chronic diseases of the hepatobiliary system and in those cases having this medical problem concurrently with the urinary system pathologies.

PMID: 9005066 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Many more clinical studies can be found at the Canadian Neuro-Optic Research website: www.cnri.edu

Iridodiagnosis is a credible and accepted science for health professionals in several countries throughout the world. In North America, many "iridologists" are poorly trained thus weakening the credibility of this science in the USA and Canada.

Iridology also has nothing to do with astrology.. but some people who don't have a clue about the science might make such a ridiculous statement.

Also, the negative clinical study previously posted about the gallstone study is a joke. Why would gallstones even show up in the eye when they are not connected of the human nervous system? The eyes are highly evolved nerve tissue which are not in any way connected to some stones in the body!

Iridology is only nonsense to those who believe that toxic drugs, radiation and chemo are the true healing sciences... and years from now we will look at these highly toxic conventional corporate approaches the same way we now look at the the Nazi doctors medical experiments..

Answer 2

As of this writing September 2007 Iridology is a quack/joke the same as surgery was when it was forbidden. It wasn't all that long ago that we didn't know that blood went around and around in our tiny little bodies

There's a few Textbooks out on the market and they're thorough but not all that detailed for the most part.

I still think you should ask Doctor Murphy about your participation in anything along that line though. If not then at least your family Doctor.

Lastly I don't know what exactly you're taking and for what but if it worked in a reasonable amount of time then what are you complaining about after all maybe you've got Lupus. Your Doctor can make a diagnosis of it with reasonable accuracy but without knowing what the problem was I can't say what you should do. Although I will say the stuff I was reading mentioned a lot of diet changes and the like but that was because the Iridologist was a Naturopath so well you do the math.

Answer 3

No, it's not a proper diagnostic method by any means. There certainly are medical conditions that do affect the appearance of the eyes, but the iridologic premise of the iris directly corresponding with various ailments, even orthopedic ones like bone fractures, etc., is complete fabrication. I don't know why you call it a "new medical practice", though. Iridology dates back to the 17th century.

Answer 4

Iridology Is Nonsense

Answer 5

I'm sorry to say it is pretty much a piece of quackery.

Here is the wikipedia article on it:
"Scientific research into iridology
Well controlled scientific evaluation of iridology has shown entirely negative results, with all rigorous double blinded tests failing to find any statistical significance to its claims.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Simon et al.[8], 1979), three iridologists incorrectly identified kidney disease in photographs of irises and often disagreed with each other. The researchers concluded: "iridology was neither selective nor specific, and the likelihood of correct detection was statistically no better than chance."

Another study was published in the British Medical Journal (Knipschild[9], 1988). Paul Knipschild MD, of the University of Limburg in Maastricht, selected 39 patients who were due to have their gall bladder removed the following day, because of suspected gallstones. He also selected a group of people who did not have diseased gall bladders to act as a control. A group of 5 iridologists examined a series of slides of both groups irises. The iridologists were not able to identify correctly which patients had gall bladder problems and which had healthy gall bladders. For example one of iridologists diagnosed 49% of the patients with gall stones as having them and 51% as not having them. He diagnosed 51% of the control group as having gall bladder problems and 49% as not. Dr Knipschild concluded: "this study showed that iridology is not a useful diagnostic aid." Iridologists defended themselves with the same considerations as above, but also attacked the methodology of the study.

Ernst[5], 2000, said: "Does iridology work? [...] This search strategy resulted in 77 publications on the subject of iridology. [...] All of the uncontrolled studies and several of the unmasked experiments suggested that iridology was a valid diagnostic tool. Such investigations are wide open to bias. The discussion that follows refers to the 4 controlled, masked evaluations of the diagnostic validity of iridology. [...] In conclusion, few controlled studies with masked evaluation of diagnostic validity have been published. None have found any benefit from iridology. As iridology has the potential for causing personal and economic harm, patients and therapists should be discouraged from using it." "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology#Scientific_research_into_iridology

Answer 6

Iridology is quite involved. But it is based on astrology which is based on the planets. Only problem is that we have since discovered 2 more planets- therefore throwing out the Astrology chart and so it also throws out the Iridology chart too.

Answer 7

An exam of the iris can suggest the diagnosis of Wilson's disease. That's about it, and considering the rarity of Wilson's, I think you can chalk up your experience to a good day's entertainment. Note that the term "all natural pills" is a huge billboard declaring quackery as well.

Answer 8

Like finger prints Iris pictures magnified several times can be used to identify people. Criminologists use iris pictures to trace and identify suspects. They can be identified even after they undergo plastic surgery of face. But it has no value in treating diseases as on today.
Coroner of China is angry.

Answer 9

No it isn't a quack, i went to one when all my hope was lost because i was really very sick, well now, I'm not sick any more and i don't have to rely on drugs to make me feel better. Trust me, it was the best thing i have ever done. And all they do is read your eyes, because our eyes are a map to the insides of our body.
And i knew it wasn't fake also because, the things that i knew were wrong with me, i didn't tell him, and he told me exactly how i felt and why, so keep seeing them,you wont regret it.

Answer 10

I've worked in opthalmics for years and everyone in this field say it's quackery.