When I first heard of bioenergetic scanning in summer 2016, it was through a compassionate Chiropractic Doctor.

According to her pamphlet, bioenergetic scanning was a noninvasive way to discover deficiencies, imbalances, and stressors that could be causing symptoms of illness in the body.

I thought it sounded pretty great.

At the time, I was going through some frustrating and elusive symptoms like unexplained weight loss, extreme fatigue, panic attacks, brain fog, low body temperature and chills, muscle pain, swollen glands, and intermittent pressure headaches, in addition to my usual allergies, migraines, and frequent colds. To put it frankly, I was not feeling well.

I had seen a dentist, who confirmed my wisdom teeth were not impacted or causing any problems, as well as an MD, who diagnosed me with iron deficiency anemia, but supplementing had not improved my symptoms.

So, a noninvasive test that could pinpoint the problem for only $100 seemed like a steal of a deal.

The science behind bioenergetic scanning made sense to me, too – that our bodies, along with everything else on Earth, are made of molecular building blocks that each have a specific energetic frequency. A bioenergetic scan connects to these frequencies, to detect any energetic imbalances in the body, such as deficiencies, pathogens, and organ malfunction. By holding onto a PC mouse-like “hand cradle”, your energetic frequencies are computed into the screening system.

In my first scan, the Qest4 System detected malabsorption, low hydrochloric acid, pancreatic enzyme insufficiency, B12 deficiency, iron deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, allergies, hormonal imbalances, and a Bartonella Henslae infection (Lyme coinfection) as my primary stressors.

So, I added several supplements to the few I already took for migraines and allergies. This particular Chiropractic Doctor endorsed Standard Process and MediHerb brands at her office, but after one month on her supplements, I chose similar products from other brands to cut costs. I added apple cider vinegar and digestive bitters before meals, a liquid multivitamin, liquid iron, turmeric, quercetin, and black currant seed oil.

On my own, I decided to transition to a Paleo diet to help with the weight loss and malabsorption, and began to treat the Bartonella herbally with a modified Buhner protocol. I couldn’t afford to take anywhere near the dose I needed to, however, since I hadn’t yet learned to make my own tinctures. Even at the low dose, though, the herbs helped some.

I had a Qest4 scan done for the last time in April, 2017.

It identified a few more Lyme coinfections, which did make sense, because I’d had two tick bites at once 2 years before. Otherwise, it seemed like I was on the right track. My diet change, supplements, and herbs were helping significantly.

If you’d asked me then what my thoughts were on bioenergetic scanning, I would have told you it was an innovative, affordable way to gain insight into your health and feel better again.

Since then, my thoughts have changed.

In early fall, 2018, I sought out bioenergetic scanning from another naturopathic practitioner, this time a Zyto Scan rather than Qest4.

I had begun to experience stubborn tension headaches that would last for 1-2 weeks at a time and come almost every month. Since I’d had such success with bioenergetic scanning before, I truly believed another scan could help me discover and solve the problem.

In addition to several things that made sense, the Zyto scan detected as a top stressor a disease called Creutzfeldt Jakob.

It’s a rare but terrifying condition in which prions in the brain become misfolded, leading to brain degeneration and unavoidable death within one year. There is no treatment or cure.

Naturally, I spiraled into months of panic, terrified that I really had this death sentence of a disease. Based on my prior experience, it’s the only explanation that made sense. Why would the Zyto Scan pick up the frequency if the disease wasn’t in my brain?

Others tried to suggest that perhaps I had simply been exposed to the disease, like you could be exposed to a virus. But prions aren’t like a virus that passes from person to person. They just spontaneously misfold in the brain, and once misfolded, can’t be undone.

There were two possible interpretations – either I had Creutzfeldt Jakob disease and was going to die within the year, or bioenergetic scanning wasn’t accurate.

14 months and a lot of research later, I can tell you I didn’t and don’t have Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, and that bioenergetic scanning is definitely inaccurate.

The problem is, these devices haven’t been clinically demonstrated to be able to detect anything, much less organ imbalances and infectious disease. Not only that, the scan results have been shown to vary wildly from scan to scan when administered to the same patient more than once in the same visit.

Probably worst of all, bioenergetic scans are used by practitioners to promote expensive, proprietary, restricted-access supplement lines. How? Because the bioenergetic devices “detect” the products the practitioner sells that will bring a patient’s biomarkers back into balance.

These kinds of supplement lines patent and package easily accessible nutritional and herbal supplement ingredients, overcharge for them, and then only allow practitioners to purchase them, to make the products seem even more special.

It’s easy to convince a patient to purchase a supplement for $50 that they could get for $15 anywhere else when you tell them there’s something so unique about the supplement line that only practitioners can access and prescribe from it, and that the bioenergetic scan “detected” that they need it to restore their health. It’s sad and reflects very badly on the complementary and alternative medicine field.

My chronic tension headaches turned out to be caused by a TMJ disorder and resolved after I started wearing a mouth guard at night.

I’m still very much alive.

I’ve now had reliable testing through a DNA Connexions PCR and Western Blot, which confirmed that I have Lyme Disease and Bartonella (a Lyme Disease coinfection).

Based on my experience, I think bioenergetic scanning has some interesting hypotheses behind it. One day, I hope it can be developed to be a reliable noninvasive health screening tool.

For now, sadly, if these bioenergetic scanning devices can tell me – or anyone – that we have a deadly disease when we don’t, how can we trust anything it “detects”?

To me, my husband’s and my health are worth too much to trust such an unreliable diagnostic device. Especially when there are other, much more reliable testing methods.

When you’re chronically ill, you need to be able to know what is wrong, not what might be wrong.

I can’t in good conscience recommend bioenergetic scanning to others, when I have no idea whether it will actually help them, or just give them anxiety and drain their bank accounts from unnecessary supplement purchases.

If bioenergetic scanning such as Zyto or Qest4 has helped you become healthier, I’m glad that it has worked for you and would never discount that.

However, if you’re wondering whether or not you should invest in a bioenergetic scanning appointment, I have to suggest that you don’t and recommend investing in other reliable functional lab work instead.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed doctor and do not diagnose or treat disease. Please do not substitute any of the information in this educational blog post for the personalized advice of your health practitioner