Nov 20 2015
Vitastiq – Indiegogo Pseudoscience
Crowdfunding is an excellent application of social media and the web. Anyone with a great idea, who can sell their idea, can get funding from the public. You don’t necessarily need big investors.
But of course, any tool or application that can be used for good can also be used for ill. Crowdfunding sites have been used to fund pure pseudoscience. A recently example was sent to me by a reader – Vitastiq. The campaign was 185% funded, for over $210,000.
What the product claims to do is measure vitamin and mineral levels non-invasively by simply touching a small probe against a specific location on the skin. I was immediately skeptical of these claims – how can the blood level of vitamin B12, for example, be measured on the skin? Further, the probe just has a simple electrical conductor. At best it is measuring skin conductance, which can be used to measure sweat levels but not much else.
Exploring further, the company claims that there are specific locations on the body to measure specific vitamin and mineral levels: Vitamin C on the thumb, Copper on the left abdomen, etc. This is starting to sound like acupuncture – and there is a good reason for that. It is based on acupuncture.
It is further based on “Electroacupuncture according to Voll” or EAV. The company claims:
Vitastiq is a single innovative concept that connects EAV methodology to your smartphone. Expensive tests and specialist check-ups are not needed anymore.
EAV devices essentially measure the galvanic skin response. This is a common target of quack devices, because it can look superficially impressive. It is used for devices like lie detectors, in order to measure sweating. It cannot detect medical conditions or measure blood levels of anything, however.
The galvanic skin response pseudoscience is then combined with acupuncture pseudoscience, leading to the claim that the conductance at a particular point on the body relates to a specific condition or physiological parameter. Such claims are completely devoid of scientific backing, however. In short, this is complete and utter quackery.
It is a sad commentary that enough people bought into this nonsense that the campaign was fully funded. Even the slightest curiosity about how such a device could possibly work should raise serious doubts about the claims being made.
Where is the vast body of scientific research that would be necessary to establish first the basic technology and then the specific application, namely the locations on the body that correspond to each vitamin and mineral? Vitastiq does not even pretend to link to any supporting research.
Think about what would need to be true if chromium levels in the blood could be detected specifically in the big toe. What would this say about human physiology?
Further, the FDA might have something to say about such devices. According to Quackwatch:
The FDA classifies “devices that use resistance measurements to diagnose and treat various diseases” as Class III devices, which require FDA approval prior to marketing. In 1986, an FDA official informed me that the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health had determined that the Dermatron and Accupath 1000 were diagnostic devices that posed a “significant risk.” [11] No such device can be legally marketed in the United States for diagnostic or treatment purposes. A few companies have obtained 510(k) clearance (not approval) by telling the FDA that their devices will be used for biofeedback or to measure skin resistance, but this does not entitle them to market the devices for other purposes.
Vitastiq does not mention FDA listing or approval of any kind, and I cannot find it listed under approved devices. I sent a notice to the FDA, we’ll see how they respond.
Conclusion
Vitastiq makes extraordinary medical claims without the slightest bit of plausibility or evidence. The only way to characterize such a device, in my opinion, is as medical quackery. Anyone relying upon this device to monitor their health and make decisions about diet and supplements is at risk.
Indiegogo should not only be ashamed of facilitating this quackery, they should be partly liable for it. At the very least they should not allow campaigns for unapproved medical devices.
15 Responses to “Vitastiq – Indiegogo Pseudoscience”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
For what it’s worth, I wrote a complaint to Indiegogo.
“Electroacupuncture according to Voll”? This quack named his quackery after himself?
I’m tempted to start an Indiegogo campaign for the BDAS (Bullshit Detector according to Stimpyvan).
Anyway, “Doctor” Voll’s claims that the body’s “meridians” are more electrically conductive than other areas of the skin should be incredibly easy to confirm.
stimpy – I’d give you $20 for BDAS….
Scientology’s e-meter also uses galvanic skin response (GSR).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter
Just wanted to point out that GSR can be used in a scientific manner to measure differences in arousal states and such. That is, GSR itself is not inherently pseudoscientific – it’s just used often for those purposes because it easy and cheap to record.
“Scientology’s e-meter also uses galvanic skin response (GSR).”
Somebody stopped me on the street once and tested me with one once, back when I was young and naive enough to even glance sideways at people trying to stop me on the street. I only later found out that they were most probably Scientologists — in retrospect I feel quite cheated that they just let me go without even trying to sign me up.
Mumadadd:
That’s funny – maybe you’re already OT VIII?
They offered me the hand holds in a crowded mall during the holidays, which was a big mistake for them that day. They had the meter where the crowd could see it and were trying to explain what it meant. I sort of took over and explained what it actually meant as they politely tried to get it away from me….
Steve12,
“That’s funny – maybe you’re already OT VIII?”
Come to think about it, there may have been a bit of genuflecting before they scurried off.
“I sort of took over and explained what it actually meant as they politely tried to get it away from me….”
Good work! I’m sure they did say something about thetans to me but I just didn’t really get what they were talking about, shrugged, and went on my merry way — I was completely scientifically illiterate at the time so wouldn’t have walked away thinking, “That’s BS.”, I just didn’t find it particularly interesting.
The SI unit of electrical resistivity is the ohm⋅metre (Ω⋅m). The reciprocal of this is electrical conductivity, for which the SI unit is siemens per metre (S/m).
Nowhere in the fields of psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and diet & nutrition are patient assessments derived from, or expressed in terms of, units of electrical resistivity or conductivity. Only in the bizarre fantasy land of woo are such claims frequently made.
I don’t even like using paypal cause of the fees they charge. Fat chance I would ever contribute money to any of these services no matter how great the cause.
But than you also have the aspect your much more likely to be getting ripped off by promoting an unworthy cause like above.
Or as with a lot of the charitable appeals catering to somebodies narcissistic self serving desires not to have to be responsible for their own needs like everyone else. Such as when they opt out of getting flood insurance and than all the sudden cry boo hoo everybody let’s have a pity party for me.
Or my brother shot and killed a bunch of people is all over the national news & ruined my already scheduled wedding. Now I lost all of my deposits. Please help me have the wedding I aways dreamed of.
Christ, some narrative you got going there. The truth is you can’t have any safety net without someone somewhere abusing the system. The answer is to minimise the abuse, not to eliminate the system. Otherwise you abandon those who got there through no fault of their own.
An acupuncturist in my neighbourhood is treating diabetes, cough, infertility, headache and asthma, among other things. Compared to that, measuring something in the blood by measuring something on the skin is piece of cake.
BillyJoe7
>The answer is to minimise the abuse, not to eliminate the system<
I do emphasize for those who are genuinely in need through no fault of their own. And because it's volunteer would never suggest it be eliminated. I just would prefer to give my money go to an organization where their is some degree of transparency, and I can see the good they are doing. I don't know how that can be done with crowdfunding. Also I think 4% is high & some charge as much as 8% which seems pretty exorbitant for the service they provide.
Pretty much par for the course. Scientologists are notoriously reluctant to admit to who they are. They have a wealth of cover organizations they use to rope people in.
You’d think that an organization with a reputation for being deceitful might try harder to seem honest, but they appear to have given up on ever repairing their image.
stimpyvan: You really need to work another A into the name of your device, then it would be BADAS. 😉
…and another S
Indiegogo’s answer:
Hi there,
Thank you for sharing your concern with us. At this time, the campaign, ‘Vitastiq – A smart device for vital advice’, is under review to ensure that it adheres to our Terms of Use (http://www.indiegogo.com/about/terms).
So what happens now? We will include the information you have provided along with all other information at our disposal in our review of the campaign. In some cases, we will contact the campaign owner to have them edit their campaign and it will remain on our platform. If the project doesn’t follow our rules, we may remove the campaign. We may also restrict the campaign owner’s future activities on Indiegogo.
To protect our users’ privacy, we’re unable to share the action we take. At Indiegogo, we take the trust and safety of our community very seriously, and we greatly appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this review process. To learn more about Indiegogo’s Trust & Safety effort, please visit: http://www.indiegogo.com/trust
Please note that you do not need to contact us again. Doing so would create a new ticket and prolong the process. Thank you again for taking the time to get in touch with us and for helping to keep Indiegogo a safe and secure platform.
Regards,
Brian
Trust and Safety