Blood electrification

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Blood electrification is a method of alternative medicine that is claimed to kill viruses, bacteria and other pathogens present in the blood using small amounts of electric current, also known as microcurrents (in the order of microamperes). The use of microcurrents against pathogens is not FDA-approved and few peer-reviewed studies support it.

Blood electrification was originally developed in 1990 by researchers William Lyman and Steven Kaali, who observed that low electric current inactivated the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but did not adversely affect healthy human blood cells in a test tube. In fact, their work suggested the electric current induced a facilitation of succinate dehydrogenase and ATPase activity in the mitochondria. This facilitation, in turn, is associated to an increase in the ATP production, increasing the cell's energy. It was published ^[1] in 1991. They patented a device for treating infected blood ^[2], which included the idea of implanting an electrical device in the veins of the patient. Robert C. Beck later noticed the required amount of current could be easily driven through bare skin, through electrodes, and used this non-intrusive method as part of the "Beck protocol". He suggested using 4 Hz alternating current.

Proponents now claim that, according to their experience, direct current gives more results than 4 Hz AC. Much of this is only anecdotal evidence and testimonial of their subjective feeling of improvement in their conditions. According to their reports, application of a 300 microamperes 6V Direct current is very effective in treating diverse diseases like cancer. ^[3] and diseases caused by bacteria ^[4] ^[5], like tuberculosis, toothaches and other infections. They also have reported drastic reductions in PCR-measured viral load of virus like the HIV ^[6] ^[7] and hepatitis-c, and non-measured improvements in diseases like herpes, flu, CFS, and others. Despite those reports, no controlled studies have been performed to evaluate this technique in vivo, just in vitro. There is no scientific explication of how this effect could be produced, as each of those conditions involve completely different mechanisms.