228 Diet Wise
Controversy
No technique of clinical ecology has been more heavily criticized
than Miller’s method. Nevertheless, most of us who use it do so because we
are aware of its capabilities and accept its scientific validity. More and more
papers are being published that show its effectiveness. Yet the controversy
won’t go away.
Over the years a number of studies have been cited to show
that Miller’s method is a fake. Almost without exception these have been
improperly reported, evidence for key statements has been missing and data
has been altered (or withheld) or the protocol so bad that it was obviously
designed to invite failure.
In 1973 the Food Allergy Committee of the American College
of Allergists, using sublingual provocation testing (see below), carried out
a study that showed that the neutralization basis of Miller’s method was
quite effective. Did they publish their findings? No, they repeated the whole
test again in 1974 and this time found that the statistics were not as good.
The second study was therefore termed ‘The Final Report’ while the first
positive study was simply cast aside.
The ‘Jewett trial’ carried our in 1981-83 was appallingly defective.
The results remained unpublished for seven years, so clinical ecologists
world-wide were deeply shocked when it was suddenly published in August
1990 in the New England Journal of Medicine. This, the world’s second
most prestigious medical journal, even went to the extraordinary length of
issuing a press release announcing that at last the clinical ecologists were
going to be sunk. I won’t say such spite is without precedent in medicine,
but it certainly has no place in a scientific periodical.
To my mind, Miller’s method is an outstanding contribution to
medicine. Like all medical techniques, it requires skill if it is to be performed
correctly.
Cytotoxic Tests
This next method sounds closer to the classic antibody blood tests,
such as the ELISA test. However there are significant differences and it is
far from mainstream yet.
Use of a white blood cell toxicity test for food allergy antibodies
was first recorded by P. Black in 1956. The test at that time was crude
and produced results that are best described as suggestive, rather than
conclusive.