El-Youm El-Sabe3 published an update on the Egyptian military devices that detect and treat Hepatitis C and HIV. Based on a military source the newspaper conveys the following points:

Interim president Adly Mansour introduced to the upcoming presidential elections the requirement that applicants undergo physical and psychological examination. I briefly argue that medical examination is problematic and psychiatric examination makes no sense.

The Egyptian military, with their recently announced Complete Cure device, is hardly the first to claim unproven cures for diseases that have ravaged millions of lives. Since the discovery of HIV/AIDS, unproven cures have been advertised and often endorsed by governments all over the world and specially Africa, the continent with the highest rates of infection.

More footage of General Ibrahim Abdel Aaty announcing the alleged HIV and Hepatitis C miracle cure appeared online. This one is a must see. There are English subtitles.

The Egyptian military announced yesterday that it has developed a device that can diagnose HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C virus non-invasivly with 100% accuracy and can do so from a distance of up to 500 meters. The device has no electronics and is claimed to be powered by the body's static electricity.

The man in white hair who looks like Jor-El and appears in the projected screen, just like in Superman II, is called Timothy Trujillo and he is someone who is "a Mind-Body Healing Specialist with certificates in Acupuncture, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, and Reflexology."

Reiki, Reflexology and Acupuncture are types of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) that have no solid empirical evidence to back them. Their practitioners claim that certain power fields exist and that these therapies modify such fields. But these fields can't be measured and don't make much sense giving our current knowledge of biology and physics. Although there are papers that claim they do have an effect, very often these studies are flawed or the effect is due to the placebo effect. (I won't explain the placebo effect here, look it up, it's very interesting)

I may be biased against CAM but lets examine the evidence quickly for the sake of this blog post.

Practitioners of CAM usually resist any criticism of their methods and are unwilling to provide evidence for its effectiveness by conducting proper studies. Often the sensationalism, the grand claims by CAM practitioners and perhaps giving the patient more attention and time are the main reasons that draw the public to it.

Hypnosis is a form of an induced trance state where the subject is suggestible and relaxed. It is a real phenomenon and may have some effect but has very limited applications, not easy and doesn't work with everyone. The public perceive hypnosis as something magical or intriguing possibly due to the practice of stage hypnosis which is pure deception.

كتب بلال فضل في المصري اليوم يوم 12/10/2009 عن طبيبة سورية تعالج التوحد بعلاج غذائي مُعين و ينتقد وزارة الصحة المصرية في عدم توفير هذا العلاج للمرضى المصريين و عدم توفير تحليل للكشف المبكر للمرض.

الطبيبة أسمها هيفاء الكيالى و مكتوب على موقعها أنها حصلت على ماجستير الكيمياء الحيوية و خبيرة بالعلاج بلأعشاب و عضوة جمعية المخترعين السوريين و " لها عدة لقاءات في الصحف والمجلات ولها العديد من المقابلات التلفزيونية".

التوحد من الأمراض النفسية الشديدة التي تصيب الأطفال و تعوق نمو الأعصاب الدماغية الخاصة بالتواصل مع الأخرين. و يشخص في السنين الأولى من العمر. و الحقيقة أنه تعددت النظريات حول المرض و أتهمت أشياء كثيرة بأنها تسبب للمرض مثل العوامل البيئية و الغذاء و المواد التي يتعرض لهل الحوامل في الأسابيع الأولى من الحمل. و الأرجح أن المرض سببة طفرة جينية في عدد كبير من الجينات (مثل أغلب الأمراض النفسية).

في الولايات المتحدة والمملكة المتحدة و بعض الدول الأخرى قامت حملة شرسة من أولياء الأمور و أطباء الطب البديل و الإعلام يإتهام تطعيم الحصبة (الثلاثي) بأنة السبب. و لا أعلم كيف أنتشرت تلك المعلومة و لكنها كانت قوية لدرجة أن تطعيم أحد أطفال توني بلير كان خبر هام جدا و للأسف زادت أعداد الأصابة بالحصبة. و نشرت دراسة ممتازة في الدورية المفتوحة بلوس وان تؤكد أن تطعيم الحصبة لا يزيد من فرص حدوث التوحد.

التوحد ليس له علاج و العلاجات السلوكية و الدوائية كلها للأعراض الثانوية للمرض و تحسين جودة الحياة.

ولا يوجد تحليل للمرض حتى الآن و كلها مازلت أبحاث أولية جدا تحوال إيجاد علاقة بين مواد في الجسم مختلفة و إن كانت تعطي مؤشر عن وجود المرض أم لا.

و للأسف تظهر العلاجات البديلة لتعطي أمل كاذب لأولياء الأمور. فظهر علاج يمنع الأطفال من تناول الجلوتن (بروتين في القمح و الشعير) و الكازيين(بروتين الألبان).

Evidence of the use of white phosphorus by Israel in its war on Gaza is everywhere. Videos, photographs and accounts by bloggers and reporters are more than sufficient.

Medical evidence on the effects and management of white phosphorus is scarce. Pubmed returns 14 papers with search criteria "`white phosphorus' burn" most of them describing the experiences of burn units along its years of operation with people who contacted the material accidentally.

White phosphorus is an extremely menacing substance whether it is used on a densely populated area or not.

It ignites spontaneously at temperatures above 34°C, producing fumes with a garlic-like odour and phosphoric acid which promotes further burning. It can be extinguished with water but will reignite again when dry.

So if a person comes in contact with phosphorus. He will suffer burns that might start again spontaneously inside his own wound. Even hours later.

A solemn account of the properties of white phosphorous burns is mentioned in the `In Gaza' blog:

      ``Habitual passive sodomite takes knee-chest position without shame during examination." —From Principles of Forensic Medicine by staff members of the Forensic & Clinical Toxicology Department. Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine.

Forensic examinations to prove habitual non-violent anal penetration are inherited from the textbooks of Victorian era medicine[1].

There are no peer-reviewed research that provides sound evidence in that area[2]. Because sodomy was decriminalized in western Europe by the beginning of the 20th century[1]. While countries that still considers such acts criminal are not publishers of sound peer-reviewed research.

Today, most of the descriptions inherited from old text books are easily discounted.

Published in the latest(April 2008) issue of Psychiatric Times an article about proposed new diagnostic guidelines for bipolar disorder by the International Society of Bipolar Disorder.

These new proposed guidelines might give insight to what may be set in the DSM-V. The two biggest changes will be discarding the Schizoaffective disorder and addition of a pediatric bipolar disorder.