One last CALMARE/"Scrambler Therapy"/CTTC post, with my apologies.
I forgot about Dr. Stephen J. D'Amato. In part because he cleverly disguises his involvement by changing the spelling of CALMARE. He does not peddle the crap known as CALMARE, no sir! His business is CALMARx.
I tire of these straw men, but imagine being newly diagnosed with CRPS. Remember how you went from the beginning of the internet to the internet's fabled end in search of something, anything? Perhaps you were being strung along by Worker's Compensation, a system soiled by the turds of Dr. Jose Ochoa and his years of accreted testimony, only unraveled over the past three or four years into the malicious, money-grubbing nonsense that it is and was. Perhaps you lived in a region devoid of experts in the fields of neurology and pain management, the two fields best equipped to recognize and appropriately treat CRPS. Today, there's much outreach to those likely to first see a developing CRPS case -- emergency room physicians and orthopedic surgeons (those brave enough to not fear litigation, those brave enough to diagnose and refer, an act more likely to engender eternal gratitude than a lawsuit). Much of that is due to the steady and reliable work of
RSDSA, Jim Broatch and his team.
Anyway.
It's sufficient to look at Dr. D'Amato's understanding of CRPS to know that he knows little to nothing about the disorder:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is generally broken down into three stages:
Stage one: During stage one the patient may experience burning pain, muscle spasms, stiffening of the joints, rapid hair or nail growth near the site of the injury. There is also the possibility of vasospasm which causes skin discoloration and fluctuating skin temperatures.
Stage two: During stage two the patient will likely endure even more intense pain at the injury site, the swelling may spread, hair and nails growth may cease, the joints will begin to thicken making them less mobile, and loss of bone density will worsen.
Stage three: With progression into stage three the pain will become unyielding, and most of the damage done to the skin and bones may be irreversible if untreated. The limb's mobility will become severely limited, and the muscles that help flex the joints will spasm. In some cases the limb may develop contracture and loss of function along with constant very painful skin even to slight touch ( allodynia)
Great job at copying from some old text, some out of date online source... but this is one of the greatest myths and greatest wastes of time, the promulgation of the "stage" theory. CRPS does not "break down" or neatly follow a path into any "stage" production. There are still people -- intelligent people -- with CRPS who bemoan their "stage three" status, and many who have gone on to invent the dread "stage four." Don't ask, you really don't want to know.
Stage three one week, Stage one the next... that is the reality. What is seen as a progression of symptoms is really just the perversion of CRPS, chameleon wannabe. The "stage" explanation has been discredited for so long that I'm amazed to continue to see it so frequently.
Maybe it responds well to a newly diagnosed patient's need for some order to return to their understanding.
Maybe it's the easiest thing for a doctor to spout, not knowing what s/he really ought to convey in terms of information. Maybe it's all that doctor knows.
D'Amato has more creativity than just that required to putz around with the CALMARE name -- he is also an inventor of myth. But Snake-Oilers also cannot help but rely on the snake oil scientific standard of... THE TESTIMONIAL. Right under his neat -- but erroneous -- categorization of CRPS as a disease of stages, comes this:
Who Commonly Suffers From Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
CRPS can strike at any age, however the average age at diagnosis is 42 and is 3 times more frequent in females than males. There are also studies which theorize that certain people may be genetically predisposed to developing CRPS after a significant or minor injury. Aside from predisposition studies show that statistically it is possible to associate smoking with CRPS. One study in particular showed 68% of patients were smokers as opposed to 37% in the hospitalized controls.
Our CRPS treatment at CALMARx PAIN RELIEF utilizes a unique method of electro-therapy and provides "incredible" results. View the testimonials below from our patients and their experiences.
None of his assertions are referenced to pertinent research. The smoking information is fascinating, as is the hilarious mention of the "37% in the hospitalized controls." There are investigations ongoing into genetic predisposition, but even if a genetic predisposition exists, science is years away from confirming it, or identifying gene abnormalities or sequences that may lead to real treatments or preventive measures. Some believe that
there is a predisposition among Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS) patients to develop CRPS, though it may also come down to something as simple as an increased tendency to injury, and how those injuries are or are not treated. The grand total of subjects upon which this baby-stage genetic theory was based? Four.
Japanese researchers posit that patients who are members of families with "first degree history of family headache" are genetically pre-disposed to CRPS. That gave me a headache, just reading the leaps and triple spins involved in the theorizing. Here's the abstract, and may it have led to further funding and other types of ka-ching ka-ching for the involved:
We investigated whether headache and family history of headache are risk factors for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) or not. Twenty-three CRPS patients and 69 healthy persons were interviewed whether or not they suffered from headache and had first-degree family history of headache. A headache sufferer was defined as a person who regularly suffered from headache for more than 2 days per month. Headache after an occurrence of CRPS (headache after an injury or operation in case of CRPS after an injury or operation) was excluded and just headache before an occurrence of CRPS was included. If a first-degree family had a regular headache, she or he was regarded as a headache sufferer regardless of the frequency of headache. Of the 23 patients with CRPS, 12 (52.2%) had suffered from headache before an occurrence of CRPS. Of the 69 healthy persons, 18 (26.1%) suffered from headache. Significant differences between patients and healthy persons were found. Of the 23 patients with CRPS, eight (34.8%) had a first-degree family history of headache. Of the 69 healthy persons, ten (14.5%) had a first-degree family history of headache. Significant differences between patients and healthy persons were found in a family history. The results suggest that headache and a first-degree family history of headache are risk factors for CRPS. To determine whether or not headache and first-degree family history of headache are risk factors for CRPS, further prospective studies with larger patient numbers should be carried out.
Elucidating the bias of questioning, translating that solid science to genetic research, or to whatever constitutes the science of predisposition (statistical analysis, I suppose, based on patient accounts), may lead to earthshattering... what? Talk about an urgent need to settle on a diagnostic protocol... Well, if it interests you, $39.95 will get you all the titillating details.
The same researchers who authored the "first-degree family history of headache" also came up with the theory that "Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1...Chlamydia Trachomatis, Borrelia Burgdorferi, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, human Herpes Virus type 6, and Circulatory Disturbances" may be root causes of CRPS, concluding that "
virus infection theory is an attractive hypothesis that accounts for many enigmas of CRPS."
Stanton-Hicks is reported via a fellow blogger to have investigated a case in which identical twins developed CRPS... but I am, right now, unable to find the source of that reference. And he's currently on The List -- just because of his love of gadgetry and intrathecal administration of drugs, the SCS, etcetera. All in all, though, he's one of the trustworthy, dedicated, and more brilliant researchers in the field. I'll forgive him his love of gadgetry as soon as CTTC is pulled from the trading floor.
Back to the Turd in question, Dr. D'Amato. I forgot to mention that he's been brave enough to wow the suffering CRPS patient with another synonym for the crap-science he's practicing -- "MC-5A technology," yes, just another synonym for CALMARE (or CALMARx, for the dyslexic) and "Scrambler Therapy." But it sounds impressive, no?
He refers those seeking even more convincing of his CALMAR machine with many knobs via the titillating testimonial world of cutting-edge science to his YouTube channel, where, once again, CALMARE is pointedly misspelled as the title of his channel:
Calmar Pain Relief
Here is Nancy, who described a pattern of CRPS spread that I've certainly never heard of and that kind of defies the general layout of the nervous system (sympathetic or otherwise). I am just so glad that she did not have her "spine filleted," as that would truly have been... weird.
I can tell you that people with CRPS -- and those blessed to have recovered -- could never have this lightness of tone, this unbearable lightness of being, or that hair color when referencing even the *memory* of their pain.
If you cannot see through this unsubstantiated bull crap, money-grubbing, soul-sucking exploitation of people living with severe chronic, never-relenting pain, get the hell off of my blog. And QUICK, go put your life savings into this hot stock tip: CTTC.
For shame, Dr. Stephen J. D'Amato, for shame.
