New technology is being applied to medicine all the time. The Electro Interstitial Scan, or EIS is a recent arrival to Ottawa from Europe.
Doctors are very cautious and you won't find it in hospitals. Those who use it find this all body-computer scan believe it has a role to play.
Richard Jackman owner of the MacLaren Holistic heath centre in Ottawa has one such device.
A patient's hands and feet rest on bare metal plates, and electrodes are attached to the forehead. The patient is then connected to a machine which passes a very small electrical current through the body.
The fluid in the body provides resistance to the current. That resistance is measured and analysed by a computer program which compares the readings to thousands of other peoples'.
"They have determined that the healthy zone is 20 points on either side of the middle line and if you are outside that range on something then there might be reason for concern over your physiology," Jackman says
EIS WorldWide, which sells the $14,000 machine, is based in Florida. It says it can analyse 22 different things in the body and give an indication of a possible problem.
Thw device is part of a growing movement called complimentary and alternative medicine.
One doctor told CTV Ottawa he's sceptical of the device, and that a good blood test might give you the same information.
One website warns consumers they should always consider three key points when looking at alternatives: is there any evidence of effectiveness, what is the level of safety and are the costs worth the returns?
