Explanation of CEDS

High Technology meets Ancient Medicine

by Tom Klaber

Introduction By Burton Goldberg 

Introduction

A quarter century of intense research in the field of medicine has convinced me of the importance of electrodermal screening. I believe that it can and should be used to help recognize a patient's organ dysfunctions even before physiological symptoms manifest themselves. It can identify pathogens and toxins that are making the patient sick, and ascertain what medicines, supplements and other remedies are helpful-or harmful-to the patient. It can even determine the dosages that should be administered for maximum effect. It does all this quickly, inexpensively and non invasively.

First developed 50 years ago in Germany, electrodermal screening (EDS) has been continually improved and refined, and is now estimated to be used by more than 100,000 medical doctors and health care practitioners around the world. There is still considerable resistance to EDS in mainstream medicine in the United States because it is based on principles of quantum physics and traditions of energy medicine, neither of which is understood or taught in our medical schools.

I first became aware of EDS soon after I began studying alternative medicine. It sounded like hocus-pocus to me, and I said so to a doctor acquaintance I respected, Joseph McGovern, M.D. "Don't laugh at it," he said, "it cured one of my failures."

Dr. McGovern related how he had a farmer in the hospital, dying, and no one could figure out why. A doctor there used EDS to determine that the farmer was ill from the effects of exposure to a particular pesticide, and was also able to identify what remedies would neutralize the toxin and expel it from the body. The farmer made a full recovery.

I was later able to witness the efficacy of EDS firsthand. Harold Whitcomb, M.D., my family's primary care physician in Aspen, Colorado, was suffering from a number of severe allergies. Finally, he spent two weeks and $3,000 to go through painstaking allergy skin testing. Shortly thereafter we visited the clinic of Fuller Royal, M.D., in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Leonard Haines, M.D., tested Dr. Whitcomb using EDS. In 20 minutes Dr. Haines came up with exactly the same results that had taken two weeks to determine using traditional means.

Years later I took my son, Blake, to Dr. Whitcomb for testing before his first vaccination. Now a convert, and well trained in using EDS, the doctor determined that the first shot was safe but would cause a mild negative reaction. Further, he used EDS to identify homeopathic remedies we could use to counter these side effects. Sure enough, 24 hours after we gave Blake his vaccination he began to act uncharacteristically cranky. We administered the remedies and he soon returned to his usual cheerful self.

When it came time for Blake's DPT shot, Dr. Whitcomb tested Blake again and saw that a full-strength shot would cause a severe adverse reaction, but that a half-strength shot would be tolerated. We went ahead and gave Blake the reduced dose with no ill effects, and afterward used a homeopathic remedy to pull out the vaccination residue.

I have witnessed hundreds of successful diagnoses and treatments with physicians using EDS. It has revealed undetected gum infections causing chronic fatigue; mercury toxicity causing paralysis; parasites underlying immune disorders; and the hidden causes of many other health conditions that had eluded conventional physicians.

I am an instrument-rated pilot, and to use the vernacular, I consider any physician not using EDS as "flying blind." Anyone who is taking supplements, especially individuals with health problems, should have their vitamins, minerals, herbs, etc. tested to make sure that they are actually necessary and doing good. If someone needs to undergo surgery, then the type of anesthesia to be used should be tested. The list goes on and on. 

In this article, our editor-in-chief, Tom Klaber, interviews Scott Moyer, an internationally acknowledged expert in the field, discussing the development, use and scientific basis for EDS. It is my hope that this will help take the mystery out of EDS for doctors and patients alike, and that physicians will become adept in and utilize this marvelous modality as commonly as they now use their stethoscopes. -Burton Goldberg

Tom Klaber: First of all, Scott, just what is electrodermal screening?

Scott Moyer: Electrodermal screening is an overall term for instrument-based methods that provide information about the health of the body via electrical measurements of the skin at various points on the hands and feet. 

TK: Is this a new technique?

SM: Not at all. Electrodermal screening, or EDS, unites 20th century technology with the ancient healing arts of homeopathy and acupuncture. It was first developed around 50 years ago in Germany. It has been continually improved since then. The technique was originally and still is sometimes called "ElectroAcupuncture according to Voll," or EAV 

TK: Voll was a person?

SM: Reinhard Voll was a German medical doctor. In the late 1940s he was studying the Chinese acupuncture meridian system when he had an interesting idea. He reasoned that if acupuncture theory was correct and channels of energy did run throughout the body--coming to the skin's surface at various "points" along the way--there should be a way to measure this energy. So Dr. Voll constructed a device to measure the electrical conductivity of acupuncture points on the skin using a stylus-shaped electrode made of brass. It was basically an ohmmeter.

TK: And he found he was able to actually measure this energy?

SM: He didn't measure the energy itself, but rather the body's ability to conduct this energy. And in so doing he made two important discoveries.

First, Dr. Voll compared the acupuncture point measurements of healthy patients to those of patients who had conventionally diagnosed diseases. He found that the electrical conductivity of healthy acupuncture points measured within a given "normal" range, while readings outside of this range revealed disturbances in the tissues and organs traditionally associated with these points. In addition, he also noticed that major disturbances in the body produced a downward drop, or steady decay, of the conductivity indicator as the point was being measured. This became known as the "indicator drop. Second, he discovered that medicines placed in the proximity of the patient could change acupuncture point readings. He discovered this by chance. Let me read to you how this happened, in his own words: "I diagnosed one colleague as having chronic prostatitis and advised him to take a homeopathic preparation called Echinaceae 4x. He replied that he had this medication in his office and went to get it. When he returned with the bottle of Echinaceae in his hand, I tested the prostate measurement point again and made the discovery that the point reading, which was up to 90, had decreased to 64, an enormous improvement of the prostate value. I had the colleague put the bottle aside and the previous measurement value returned. After holding the medication in his hand the measurement value went down to 64 again, and this pattern repeated itself as often as desired."  This became known as the "medication test."

TK: So, it sounds like EDS can help pinpoint both health problems and possible remedies.

SM: Yes. EAV started a revolution in medicine. Doctors now had a noninvasive method that allowed them to evaluate their patients at the core energetic level. EAV also helped practitioners prescribe the best medicines for each patient by testing them first "in circuit" to confirm their effectiveness. 

TK: Has the correlation between "normal" and "abnormal" readings of acupuncture points been confirmed by researchers outside of this field?

SM: Oh yes. Remember that using electrical measurements for evaluation purposes is not unique to EDS. Conventional medical devices that use electrical current for patient evaluation include the commonly used electrocardiograph (ECG), to measure heart rhythms, and electroencephalograph (EEG). The biofeedback instruments commonly used by contemporary psychologists are based on galvanic skin response (GSR) circuitry-that is a change in the electrical resistance of the skin in response to a change of emotional state. From a technical viewpoint, EDS machines are essentially biofeedback instruments, since both use a GSR circuit with visual and/or auditory displays to signal a change in the patient's state.

TK: What about research specifically using EDS? 

SM: There have been many studies. For instance, in 1985, S.G. Sullivan and her colleagues at the UCLA School of Medicine reported in the American Journal of Acupuncture that patients with lung disease-confirmed by chest X-rays-had 30% lower electrical conductivity readings at lung points. I also have research papers on studies performed in the late '90s that supply the cellular basis for this finding. [See list of resources at end of this article.] Acute diseases such as viral and bacterial infections, as well as chronic diseases such as cancer, affect the electrical charge and water content of the cell and the pH of extracellular fluids, thereby influencing cell membrane potentials and tissue conductivity. Also, Julia J. Tsuei, M.D., Fred K. Lam, M.D., and their colleagues at the University of Hawaii must have two dozen papers published establishing the correspondence of EAV readings with physiological disturbances.

For example, a study of theirs published in 1990 in the American Journal of Acupuncture looked specifically at the treatment of diabetes. It showed how the bioenergetic measurement of acupuncture points was a beneficial adjunct to the physician in determining the proper dosages of medicines to the patient. It helped determine the correct dosages of both allopathic medicines such as glybunde and insulin as well as homeopathic remedies and nosodes.

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