What is the "Bi-Digital O-ring Test"?

As noted earlier, there are well-established "official" standards for choosing psychiatric medications and their dosing. These standards are appropriate for many individuals. But, as discussed at length in this booklet, there are many individual differences from person to person. As a result, finding the right medication and the right dosage for each individual may often be one of trial-and-error, depending upon the person and their sensitivity to different types of medication.

Thus, in addition to the established guidelines, I have been using an additional technique called the "Bi-Digital O-ring Test" in my own practice. Over the past nine years, I have been refining this technique, and now have close to 90% accuracy in finding the right medications and their dosages for my patients.

The Bi-Digital O-ring Test was developed by Dr. Yoshiaki Ohmura, a Japanese physiologist, trained in both Engineering and Medicine. He unified all of his knowledge on Western Medicine, "Oriental Medicine" and "Applied Kinesiology," which was developed by an American chiropractor, Dr. George Goodheart, and formulated a fairly sophisticated, non-invasive technique for diagnosing medical conditions.

Dr. Ohmura has organized his findings and experiences, and published a book on his technique, in 1986 (in Japanese), and has patented his technique in the United States. Dr. Omura continued to refine his technique, and has also shown that it can be applied not only to diagnosing medical conditions, but also to localize a particular dysfunction in the body, and to identify drug compatibility.

According to Dr. Omura, he was often able to identify latent cancers long before any "modern" device such as X-rays, CAT Scans or MRIs was able to detect them. He has been lecturing extensively, and many "alternative medicine" advocates are slowly becoming aware of his technique, even in the United States. I use a variation of Dr. Omura's technique to identify which particular psychiatric medications are right for each of my patients.

Ancient Japanese doctors also developed various techniques to diagnose and/or determine the compatibility of certain drugs for a particular patient. These are known as "Fuku-sho" ("Abdominal Signs"), "Myaku-shin" ("Pulse Diagnosis") and "Shoku-shin" ("Diagnostic Palpation), which are used to "talk" to a patient's body and diagnose illnesses. There are even some doctors in Japan today who use these techniques to augment their "modern" medical practices.

The basis for all of these techniques, whether it be the O-ring Test, Applied Kinesiology, Fuku-sho, Myaku-shin, or Shoku-shin is that our bodies have some sort of "natural wisdom" to respond differently to different substances. Animals also appear to have this "natural wisdom" and use it to recognize good food from bad. Wild horses, for example, apparently eat only "good" grass and reject "bad" ones. In the wild, most animals do not eat poison mushrooms.

The difference is that in animals, the "natural wisdom" is an instinct, whereas humans rely more on their heads and, thereby, remain somewhat disconnected from our "natural wisdom." Only humans do not seem to be able to fully utilize our "natural gift." Nevertheless, using some of the techniques described above, it is possible for an experienced practitioner to "talk" directly to the patient's body, even though the patient cannot always "hear" what his or her body is "saying."

In my practice, I have found that the O-ring Test has worked best for me, with some technique modifications suggested by a friend of mine who is a practitioner of Fuku-sho. Over the years, I have further refined the O-ring test to be most effective for use in my psychiatric practice, adding a number of subtleties in how the various medications and dosages are handled and tested on the patient.

I have found that the O-ring Test helps me greatly in determining the right medications and their dosages quickly and effectively, without going through the long and lengthy "trial-and-error" process, which, as I have indicated in an earlier section, fairly typical in the profession. As a matter of fact, I have found that the trial-and-error process itself can be very misleading and difficult since there are too many intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting a patient's response to a medication. For example, the response to a medication can be influenced by the patient's mental or emotional attitudes towards medication or by stress factors brought on by family or work.

On the other hand, I have found that the O-ring Test is also not perfect (which is why I have only about 90% accuracy on the first try). For example, if a patient has a self-defeating or self-sabotaging tendency, the O-ring test may reflect that aspect and will point to the wrong medication! The patient's negative or positive attitude can also influence his or her response to a medication. These findings show how complex our bodies are and that there are many more as yet unknown dimensions.

In my experience, the O-ring Test allows me to "talk" directly with patients' bodies. I have had many years of experience with this technique now, and enjoy a rather high level of success. However, a casual use of this technique may lead to various complications. When applying this technique, the physician must also be free of his or her ego process. Thus, there is a lot of art in using this technique as well.

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