Published: 2009-06-16 22:28:02
Author: Camille C. Spencer | Tampabay.com | May 15, 2009
WESLEY CHAPEL — Stephanie Turner had tried everything.
Over-the-counter remedies failed to relieve her 8-year-old son's severe allergies. The smallest sip of milk caused Bryson's throat to close and sent him into sneezing fits.
When her chiropractor mentioned an alternative laser therapy treatment, the Wesley Chapel stay-at-home mom jumped at the chance.
"He isn't being pricked, and he isn't taking drugs," said Turner, 41. "I don't see anything bad that can happen from it."
Maybe not, but the medical community isn't sold.
Richard F. Lockey, professor of medicine, pediatrics and public health at the University of South Florida, who also directs the university's allergy and immunology center, said allergies are far too complex to be treated with alternative treatments like the one used on Bryson.
"There's no sign that it helps," Lockey said. "Allergies are easily treatable with the medicines we have today. I don't know of any scientific evidence that it's helpful."
Insurance companies don't cover the treatments, which are about $85 each. And the procedure isn't billed as a cure.
Still, Bryson's chiropractor, Dr. Micah T. Richeson at Cypress Creek Chiropractic, is advertising treatments and says there are only two clinics in the Tampa Bay area that use the machine. Two weeks ago, the company that markets the product sent out a news release with this headline: "Revolutionary laser technology drastically improves allergy systems in 80 percent of patients.''
The procedure involves using a machine called a BAX-3000. It's a box that looks like a computer modem and, according to Richard Gant, chief executive officer of Virtual Medical Solutions in Wellington, it cost about $40,000. Gant sold Richeson the equipment.
Richeson, 33, worked at a chiropractic clinic in Gainesville with his father and brothers until October, when he opened his own clinic at 2304 Crestover Lane in Wesley Chapel.
Some of his patients had allergies, and Richeson came across the BAX-3000, which went on the market in 2007, while researching ways to help them.