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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BDORT | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDORT | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:17:22.642607+00:00 | kb-cron |
The Bi-Digital O-Ring Test (BDORT), characterized as a form of applied kinesiology, is a patented alternative medicine diagnostic procedure in which a patient forms an 'O' with his or her fingers, and the diagnostician subjectively evaluates the patient's health according to the patient's finger strength as the diagnostician tries to pry them apart. BDORT has been cited and characterized at length by the American Institute for Technology and Science Education as a specific and noteworthy example of pseudoscientific quackery. BDORT was invented by Yoshiaki Omura, along with several other related alternative medicine techniques. They are featured in Omura's self-published Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research, The International Journal, of which Omura is founder and editor-in-chief, as well as in seminars presented by Omura and his colleagues. Omura is registered to practice acupuncture in New York State. In the only known full, formal independent evaluation of BDORT or of any other BDORT-related treatment and technique by a mainstream scientific or medical body, the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand ruled, in two separate cases brought before it in 2003, that Richard Warwick Gorringe, MB, ChB of Hamilton, New Zealand, who used BDORT (which he also called "Peak Muscle Resistance Testing", or "PMRT") to the exclusion of conventional diagnoses on his patients, was guilty of malpractice. In the first case, the Tribunal found it "is not a plausible, reliable, or scientific technique for making medical decisions" and "there is no plausible evidence that PMRT has any scientific validity". In the second case the Tribunal ruled Gorringe again relied on BDORT to the exclusion of traditional diagnoses, which ultimately led to the death of a patient. As a result of these findings and conclusions, Gorringe was fined and stripped of his license to practice medicine.
== Yoshiaki Omura == Yoshiaki Omura (大村恵昭, Ōmura Yoshiaki) is president and founder of the International College of Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics, president and founder of the International Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Medical Association, and medical research director of the Heart Disease Research Foundation.
== Description == The test is a subjective evaluation of a patient's opposing muscle strength in which a diagnostician employs the thumb and forefinger of each hand, formed in the shape of an O, to attempt to force apart an O shape formed by the patient who places the fingertips of their thumb and one of their remaining fingers together. At the same time, the patient holds a slide of organ tissue, a sample of medication, potential allergen, etc., in their free hand, or is otherwise 'probed' at an appropriate acupuncture point by the use of a metal rod or laser pointer. The diagnostician then uses their perception of the strength required to force apart the patient's 'O-Ring' of thumb and one of the remaining fingers to assess the patient's health.
== Patent == The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rejected the initial BDORT patent application as 'too unbelievable to be true'. The application was then resubmitted in 1987, and the USPTO again rejected it. After receiving expert testimony from Omura's "associates in clinical fields and basic sciences, both in Japan and the United States" regarding BDORT, the USPTO issued US 5188107 in 1993. The fact that a patent was granted to the BDORT has been cited as an example of 'high weirdness' by one firm of patent attorneys.
== Suggested uses and variants == The BDORT is capable, according to its proponents, of a wide range of applications in the diagnosis, prescription of treatment, and evaluation of efficacy of treatment of, amongst others: heart conditions, cancers, "pre-cancers", allergic reactions, viral and bacterial infections, a range of organic and/or environmental stresses, as well as the precise location of acupuncture points and meridians previously unknown or inappropriately identified. Other than the New Zealand Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal's reports, there is no known independent mainstream scientific or medical evaluation or validation of any of the BDORT or BDORT-related claims, including the following BDORT variants.
=== The indirect method === In the indirect method of application an intermediary is employed, and the patient is not directly examined. The intermediary, for example, directs a laser pointer held in their right hand at the appropriate acupuncture point, for example, atop the patient's head, while at the same time the diagnostician performs the test on the left hand of the intermediary.
=== Remote application === Omura claims that it is possible, if the procedure is performed by a very experienced practitioner such as himself, to perform the BDORT on a patient over the telephone without having any physical contact with the patient. In this procedure the patient is, for example, instructed to hold in one hand a substance being evaluated, while holding the telephone receiver at the bodily location prescribed by the diagnostician. The practitioner then evaluates the muscle strength necessary to separate the interlocked O–rings of thumb and forefinger of each of his or her own two hands, and uses this data in place of data from standard BDORT on the patient.
=== Selective drug uptake enhancement method === The selective drug uptake enhancement method is a central component of BDORT-derived treatments according to Omura. He claims that with this treatment it is possible, via BDORT diagnosis and evaluation coupled with appropriate acupuncture point stimulation, to "target" alternative or conventional medications to specific cells or tissues, for example, cancer cells. According to Omura, when this occurs the medications will have minimal 'uptake' by non-targeted tissues or cells, thus maximizing the efficacy of the prescribed medications while minimizing side effects. There is no known independent verification of these claims.