Imagine holding a sensor in your palm while it analyses your full body health through electromagnetic wave signals in two minutes.
This device is called Quantum Resonance Magnetic Analyser (QRMA), a device ‘medical scientists’ use to influence unsuspecting public to buy herbal medications or supplements that often come with a promise to cure the illnesses discovered by the QRMA.
This machine fascinated me when a neighbour, Tony’s wife, as I call her, told me how she was diagnosed with many illnesses by just gripping a kit-like machine with her palm. She also showed me some herbal medications she bought that could cure the illnesses found in her body.
On Tuesday, I set out to find out at Oshodi, Lagos home to a busy transport interchange and one of the biggest markets in Lagos, to experience this wonderful device. After walking for about 10 minutes under the scorching sun in the ever-busy Oshodi market, I found one of the “medical scientists”.
A large banner with the bold inscription “free medical test” invited passers-by to a canopy in front of the Commando Mother Care shop at Bolade Bus Stop, Oshodi. I observed for some minutes but the reporter in me asked to be discreet about my mission if I really wanted to get to the root of what’s going on. To achieve my mission, I posed as an innocent passer-by ready to take up the opportunity to patronise them. The noise from a small generator was buzzing and fuming away near where I sat, waiting for my turn. Opposite me, a woman in her mid-60s was being attended to by a light-in-complexion lady wearing a sky blue gown; while on my left, a young man bearing Feranmi, as I would later find out, was interpreting a test result to the woman before me.
How the ‘medical experts’ operate
Soon, it was my turn and the lady beckoned me to come over. Before we started, she said: “You will pay N200 for the maintenance fee after the test.’’ I agreed and reached out to my handbag for the money. She asked me to remove my wristwatch and stop pressing my phone before I could place my palm grip on the sensor handle. I complied fully. And in less than three minutes, about 48 comprehensive health analyses of my body organs were ready. The diagnoses include liver function, gynaecology, blood lipids, gastrointestinal function, and eyes, among others. My blood pressure was also checked. She wrote out the result on a branded slip bearing Feeds Circle Healthcare Service, a subsidiary of Feeds Circle Nigeria Limited at Shop 38, Adedeji Bloc, Ile-Epo, Oke-Odo Market, Abule-Egba, Lagos.
On the result sheet, there were one plus, double plus or triple plus on various segments. I waited for Feranmi to finish attending to the elderly woman before me. Just then, a plump-looking woman who looked older than me came and was asked by the lady to come over.
Feranmi, during the interpretation of my result, said I have bacterial infections in my pelvic. Unknown to him, I had carried out a swap culture test at MeCure Diagnostic Centre at Oshodi, Lagos some days earlier and my result was emailed to me. I told him that was not true.
Defending his claim, Feranmi said the QRMA detects hidden diseases that medical tests carried out in a certified laboratory would not find. According to him, the infection may have not surfaced at the time I ran my test. I kept mum and we proceeded to another results segment where he also said he saw an ulcer.
He asked if I usually have stomach upset. “I do have menstrual cramps sometimes, but I don’t have an ulcer,” I replied. He said judging from the result, I might not be experiencing the symptoms because it is still at the early stage. He added that the machine detects illness in the body as early as possible and that I would have to take care of it with some medications that he would prescribe. He went on to interpret other segments, including circulation, pains and body organs.
At the end of his interpretation, he recommended five medications that I would take to be well. “Where can I buy all these medications,” I asked. Feranmi said they have them and that it would cost me N24,000. I told him that I would love to buy the medications, but that I was not ready yet. He later gave me his contact. I promised that I would return to purchase the medicines whenever I was ready.
When I left, I waited for the last woman that came in after me to see her results. At first, the plump woman was skeptical to show me her result, but I told her that I wanted to make sure that they didn’t make a mistake in a particular segment of her result as they did mine. To my surprise, her results were the same as mine in the test segments. I told her that her results were okay while I pretended to go back to them for a correction.
Another user of QRMA, Mr Anya, said after he was diagnosed as having all manner of illnesses, he bought many of their herbal supplements, but the main illness that was disturbing him didn’t go away. “After taking all the herbal medication, I still didn’t get better from the illness that I had then,” I said.
Another user, Mr Sam Anomka, said the machine detected that he was overweight and had issues with his digestive system. “I believed that I was overweight because of the way I used to breathe. They sold some herbal supplements which I used to clean my system and I stopped eating late at night,” he added.
Anomka also added that he didn’t bother to carry out another test at a certified laboratory clinic because, according to him, he believed the test results to some extent. Meanwhile, since this device was being used to give diagnosis treatment, I decided to do a little research on this device.
How the QRMA device works
A selling website described QRMA as a high-tech innovation equipment that collects weak magnetic fields of human cells and then determines the health of a person. It also said that the machine combines the best of medicine – bioinformatics, electrical engineering and other sciences. It works by placing the sensor in user’s palm while the kit-like machine that is connected to a computer reads and presents the findings to the individual. It takes only two minutes to produce the results.
The machine comes in two forms – the type that looks like a suitcase with a sensor area and the other that looks like a small box with a probe (like the one I saw at Oshodi).
The analyser comes with a computer programme, which is loaded onto a regular laptop. It is this computer programme that converts the weak magnetic field into health figures. It was invented in China by a team of medical and computer experts. It was developed based on the study of 100 million clinical cases over many years. To get a health assessment using the device, one must hold the probe firmly, or put the palm on the sensing area, depending on which quantum analyser one uses.
More findings on the device
Surprisingly, trying to find a scientific paper that supports the accuracy of tests carried out by QRMA is like looking for a needle in a haystack. While there are numerous scholarly papers to prove the authenticity of test results done via regular diagnostic devices used in accredited medical facilities, I did not find one to support the authority of this device.
However, the QRMA device has a certification, which allows its sales in the European market. The certification does not show evidence of third-party testing; it’s not a mark from certified European test bodies and it is not a quality assurance declaration. Checks on the Jumia website show that one can purchase a QRMA machine for as low as N53,000 and N98, 000.
Digging further, I also didn’t find any scientific explanation of how waves released into the body translate into magnetic frequency emissions. An article by Neuroskeptic, which was published in the January 31, 2015 edition of Discover Magazine, concluded that the diagnosis of the machine could not be trusted. In most of the government and private hospitals, clinics and laboratories I checked around Lagos, there was no use of QRMA to diagnose diseases.
Experiments carried out on the device
A Danish YouTuber named Jørgen Jacobsen experimented on this device to authenticate claims made by its manufacturers. As demonstrated in the video, Jacobsen wrapped a damp cloth around the sensor seemingly to fool the device into thinking that someone was holding the probe and yet, the machine-generated a “health report.”
According to the QRMA machine, the cloth had various minor ailments, including “moderately abnormal” cardiovascular health.
In his conclusion, Jacobsen said: “The results must simply come from the data we put in; age, gender, height, weight. From that, the software can make many things seem like a hit to believers. That animation running when there is contact may look fancy, may look impressive, but I am quite sure that it is just the same animation over and over.”
Similarly, Alexander Todorov’s in his five-year-old experiment dismantled the machine to reveal a small motherboard attached to the screen of the device and a lot of space. Some comments bashed the findings of these experiments and praised the efficacy of the QRMA machine.
Expert position on the use of the machine
Infectious diseases expert/molecular biologist, Dr. Cashmir Ifeanyi, said QRMA is not an empirical methodology for evaluating the state of health of an individual, and neither is it a substitute for a proper medical evaluation.
He said: “QRMA is not part of or used in orthodox diagnosis but limited to practitioners of alternative medicine, practitioners of homoeopaths and related areas of health care provision.”
Describing the diagnostic ‘wonder machine,’ Ifeanyi said QRMA is based on geophysical and electromagnetic theory. “The producers of QRMA assume that in health and disease, your body generates a kind of energy, which they can harness using electromagnetic wave and depending on that wave they think that they have been able to develop bioinformatics platform to analyse this electromagnetic wave and therefore correlate them with health and disease. It falls short of normal scientific theory and disease postulate as set out by Koch’s postulate for the disease condition. It is an operating tool for those in alternative medical practice, those who use herbal supplements, homoeopathy products, and allopathic products to care for people.’’
He added that its use in Nigeria is not regulated to protect the patronising the public. “Individuals acquire them and, most often, individuals that use them are not healthcare professionals by training, certification and licence.
“Unfortunately, its use in Nigeria is not regulated. It is expected that since it falls within the alternative medical practice, there should be a framework for the regulation of its practices so that the activities can be rightly superintended to protect the condescending members of the public and that hasn’t happened.
“I will give a caveat that those who patronise them should beware because many have been maimed afterwards. There is an unprecedented increase in renal diseases and liver-related cancer diseases in Nigeria, all this is because we have an unregulated space where all and sundry can bring stuff and make the bogus claim. It is not evaluated and people go for them in the name that they want organic products.
“More often than not, these have their challenges; they orchestrate other conditions that may, ultimately, lead to depletion and death. Alternative medicine in Nigeria is allowed, but it is poorly regulated.
“A medical laboratory scientist is a qualified person because of medical education and he/she is akin to a clinician, not a physician. So, a situation where we refuse to respect professional charter and core competencies is partly why the medical laboratory space in Nigeria has become a comers’affair. If you need testing, approach medical laboratories or diagnostic centres that are operated by a qualified and licensed medical laboratory scientist. Patronise facilities that are registered and under the purview of the medical laboratory science council of Nigeria. Laboratories should conform to the standard as is the case in countries like the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Canada, United States and United Kingdom.”