Biophotonic scanner.... - Health + Injury

Lindy Lou

11/11/2004 at 12:15

Folks, I had a test the other night at my health club. It was a scanner, made by a co. called Pharmanex, that measured you carotenoid antioxidant levels - not quite sure what they are though! I got a really good Skin Carotenoid Score (apparently) of 55,000, which was pleasing as I do eat lots of fruit and veg and take supplements. Anyone else ever done this and or know anything more about the subject? LL

parrotmad

11/11/2004 at 13:53

Hi Lindy, I also had this done and got a score of over 50,000 (can't remember exactly). It very useful to be able to find out how high your antioxidant levels are, as it can indicate how well your body is able to deal with the "baddies" like free radicals which can damage normal cells. When you do a lot of sport, you levels of free radicals increase but so do your level of antioxidants to compensate...

Frisky Piskie

11/11/2004 at 13:56

Sounds really interesting - it is true that high intensity exercise will increase the free radicals in your body. Do you know what is a satisfactory/good/disastrous score on this test? I always wonder whether I should take a supplement (ACD, garlic oil etc) to increase my antioxidant level.

Lindy Lou

11/11/2004 at 14:01

Frisky - 10k - 20k was the lowest on the scale. Then there were two other 'levels', 20k - 30k, and 30k - 40k. Anything over 40k was the highest level.

Parrotmad, that is good then. Do you supplement your diet with pills etc, or do you get yours all from food? LL

Monkfish

11/11/2004 at 14:35

Did the people operating the machine explain much else to you? I'm a bit sceptical as to what exactly these scanners are suppose to tell you. There is no scientifically determined levels of what is good or bad, and they are one of the few nutrients that most people are not lacking in.

Lindy Lou

11/11/2004 at 16:56

Unfortunately it was all a bit hurried, and I didn’t have time to stay for much of the post-scan chat. I have no doubt that I would have been asked to think about buying their products – a number of vitamin/supplement packs on offer – although they would have had to try harder with me as I had a high score! I assume they would have gone into the science of it too.

Sarah Jones-Mills

04/01/2013 at 12:05

Hi I am interested in this, I agree it's not great having a random person carrying out the test, and then not be able to use evidence to back up the mechanisms. And if they are selling products too that doesn't sound convincing, did you have to pay for the test? was it expensive?

Oops just realised it's a really old thread....any comments welcome though as I am looking to get mine checked and want to know how much it costs.

fat buddha

04/01/2013 at 13:31

do people really fall for this nonsene???

if you look at the science behind this then it's flawed - big time.

the scanner works - no doubt about that - but all it does is tell you what the concentration of your skin carotenoids are. carotenoids (beta-carotene and lycopene mainly) are only part of the antioxidant equation and to do any good - IF they do any good and the jury is very much out on that - they need to be intracellular or in the bloodstream, not the skin. they may help prevent some skin damage in the skin but they are not going to help elsewhere.

and at the end of the day, the company promoting this scanner only wants to sell you supplements so that your skin levels are fine. and in 1997 the parent company, Nu-skin, were fined by the FTC in the US for misleading claims on supplements they sold.

it's complete and utter pseudo-scientific bollocks - don't waste your money

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