Earseeds, Acuseeds

Mij said:
Oh boy, looks like it's the year of ear treatment for pwM.E! New name same person?

'28 years of relapsing-remitting incurable condition #ME Have been wearing this since 9am and can’t begin to tell you the difference it has made'.

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Sorry but seeing this picture and imagining people walking around with it, I'm starting to wonder whether this particular 'issue' is one that is ripe for being dealt with by 'meming' with a few pee-takes along the lines of people posting increasingly bigger/more random items sticking out of their ears along with lines about what it has 'cured'

doesn't even have to be illness I guess, you could have a picture with someone hanging a xmas bauble off their ears and saying "10 years of spending hours remembering 'which 'safe place' did I store my christmas decorations in this year?' and the toll it takes on my sanity, all solved by this new ear bauble alternative"
 
elizhol said:
She didn't create the concept of ear seeds - they've been used in acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine for forever. So that adds yet another layer to her scamming and grifting!
1) the fake sob story
2) the fake healing claims
3) the misappropriation of TCM practices
4) the outrageous profiteering

I know we're mostly, as a ME/CFS community angry about 2 with a serving of 1 as well, and that is what most of the social media noise and complaints will focus on, but we can really hit her where it hurts by thinking about 3 and 4 as well....

Let's face it, there are still going to be a lot of people who will try these because they're a lot cheaper than pretty much every other option and people are desperate. Not just ME/CFS people, but all the other things she touches upon on her website - weight loss, anxiety, PTSD etc. All things that people get desperate for any help with.

We can let people know that if they do want to try these then a) try an actual TCM specialist first and / or b) order the exact same product she's selling at a 1000sx mark up on eBay, Amazon, Temu etc (a simple search on Google or any of these sites gives you loads of results of sets of 600 seeds for £5 and similar!).
If we can stop the boost she's getting by pointing people who do want to try it via replies and comments to the exact same but significantly cheaper versions of the product that'll soon stop her in her tracks.

According to that Mail article she made profit of £64k in her first year AND took a decent salary (£30k+)! That just illustrates the total grift she's on that she's made that much profit in year 1 from a very low base. She's had to spend nothing on product development because she's just stolen it from TCM!
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She says had a turnover of £92,000 in the first year.
 
Mij said:
BEST WEEKEND at Soul Circus festival doing ear seed treatments on everyone

Saw some amazing immediate results for back pain, knee pain, bloating, sleep, migraines and more
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Oh! So Ms Dragons's Den Golden Girl says that her tacky, wildly overpriced gadgets cure just about everything!

That is a Prime Hallmark of a Health Scam according to all the health scam debunking people.
 
WTF is this Acu Seeds/Giselle Boxer promotion doing on the UK Government (Gov.UK) Website ?????


https://dragonsden.blog.gov.uk/2024/01/18/dragons-den-ip-blog-series-21-episode-3/

Dragons' Den IP Blog - Series 21 Episode 3

Episode 3 got off to a kicking start with entrepreneur and ex-football player Gary Neville joining the Den

Entrepreneur and mum, Giselle Boxer, entered the Den ready to take the Dragons on. Giselle asked for £50k and help with scaling-up her business Acu Seeds, in exchange for a 10% share in the business.

Giselle told the Dragons about her inspirational story that led to starting her own business. She was diagnosed with ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) four years ago.

I went from working in a top advertising agency, with a busy social life and exercising regularly to being mostly house bound and unable to walk for more than 5 minutes without having to get back into bed. I was told by doctors that I would never recover, work again or have children.

She told them how she believes that using a combination of diet, acupuncture, Chinese herbs and ear seeds aided her recovery within a year. Soon after this she fell pregnant, and it was whilst on maternity leave that she set up her business, Acu Seeds.




*** Licensing to expand
Giselle told Deborah Meaden that she wants to grow the business as “big as it can go.”


One way Giselle could do this is by licensing her project out to wholesalers, granting them permission to use her products without infringing on her rights. A licence is an agreement between you as the IP right owner and another party. IP can be ‘licensed-out’ or ‘licensed-in’. You can ‘license-out’ to another company in return for a fee. You can ‘license-in’ if you want to use another company’s IP to develop your own business and products. The person granting the licence is usually called the licensor, and the person receiving the licence is usually called the licensee.

After the profit margins in Giselle's pitch knocked Sara Davies’ socks off, the Dragons all made offers, making her the first entrepreneur in Den history to receive six offers.

Giselle chose to go with Dragon Steven Bartlett for 12.5% of her full asking amount after being told in the past that she would “meet a man called Steven and that he was going to be really important.”
 
Lou B Lou said:
WTF is this Acu Seeds/Giselle Boxer promotion doing on the UK Government (Gov.UK) Website ?????


https://dragonsden.blog.gov.uk/2024/01/18/dragons-den-ip-blog-series-21-episode-3/

Dragons' Den IP Blog - Series 21 Episode 3

Episode 3 got off to a kicking start with entrepreneur and ex-football player Gary Neville joining the Den

Entrepreneur and mum, Giselle Boxer, entered the Den ready to take the Dragons on. Giselle asked for £50k and help with scaling-up her business Acu Seeds, in exchange for a 10% share in the business.

Giselle told the Dragons about her inspirational story that led to starting her own business. She was diagnosed with ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) four years ago.

I went from working in a top advertising agency, with a busy social life and exercising regularly to being mostly house bound and unable to walk for more than 5 minutes without having to get back into bed. I was told by doctors that I would never recover, work again or have children.

She told them how she believes that using a combination of diet, acupuncture, Chinese herbs and ear seeds aided her recovery within a year. Soon after this she fell pregnant, and it was whilst on maternity leave that she set up her business, Acu Seeds.




*** Licensing to expand
Giselle told Deborah Meaden that she wants to grow the business as “big as it can go.”


One way Giselle could do this is by licensing her project out to wholesalers, granting them permission to use her products without infringing on her rights. A licence is an agreement between you as the IP right owner and another party. IP can be ‘licensed-out’ or ‘licensed-in’. You can ‘license-out’ to another company in return for a fee. You can ‘license-in’ if you want to use another company’s IP to develop your own business and products. The person granting the licence is usually called the licensor, and the person receiving the licence is usually called the licensee.

After the profit margins in Giselle's pitch knocked Sara Davies’ socks off, the Dragons all made offers, making her the first entrepreneur in Den history to receive six offers.

Giselle chose to go with Dragon Steven Bartlett for 12.5% of her full asking amount after being told in the past that she would “meet a man called Steven and that he was going to be really important.”
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It sounds like the Intellectual Property department has a blog that I guess is scanning issues to do with the areas as topics for discussion/helpful ways of clarifying rules etc in the area by them being put into context?

As an aside, one of the unfortunate lose-lose situations for ME this has also reminded me of is that of if she is a 'scammer' or something 'bad' then it still plays into allowing those-who-choose-to-stigmatise-ME's charter of lies/reasons as to why it is 'deserved'. They dredge up claims of 'old days where there were apparently, in their head, people who got to retire or get off work because it couldn't be proven bla'.

Noone with other illnesses or diseases have this catch 22 where even if there were blatant scammers who never had it - and there are some, one who seem to have an early career in MLM schemes before apparently getting ME springs to mind - would tar other patients with the brush and infer it is a sign of how 'fakeable it is' (so they can see why the harmful guidelines etc) without blaming that on the deliberate set-up of those who were allowed to be in charge (or asking if it is a self-claim/diagnosis/straight-up lie) rather than suggesting it means 'plague on all pwme's houses'. And we can say some of those have tests or pathology, but ME isn't that hard to spot when it is bad if they tried and more importantly noone is checking references on other illnesses it is just if they did lie about cancer people would say that person who lied was immoral with no conversation about 'the illness being open to it'.

whilst I'm not 100% sure whether this lady falls into the 'deliberate scammer box', rather than the 'deluding herself (feeling like she can beat it short term) and will get lots of payback exertion-wise it just hasn't hit her yet' or the 'one of the more fortunate who recovered after what seems a long time to them but is a short time for 'ME' of a year and that topic has been badly covered by press/guidelines/charities etc - particularly as it relates to being able to get advice and change life quickly to get more rest, and so if she saw that message as part of the healing it would change things significantly for patients'.

This whole thing is quite interesting for the various conversations that we perhaps need to have as a community (so we can maybe nail a few of these things) it is bringing up.
 
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Andy said:
Sigh, a well-meaning relative has sent me a link to the BBC News article about this, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-68028447

Now I have to find the right words to gently explain why, despite appreciating their intentions for sending this to me, I think the subject of the article is horseshit.
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Just in case it might help anybody in the same situation, I came up with this wording - feel free to copy or adapt as might be useful.

"Many thanks for the link, I appreciate that despite everything you have going on you took the time to send it through. In the ME/CFS community we are used to seeing this sort of thing crop up from time to time, where somebody who improved attributes their improvement to whatever they happened to be doing at the time. The truth of the matter is that many people early on do naturally recover, even if that recovery takes longer than what society considers normal. It's a shame that this will attract as much publicity as it already has, and that desperate patients will, most likely, waste their money on it. Sorry that is such a downbeat response but I really do appreciate that you shared it with me."
 
Andy said:
Dragons’ Den contestant gets offer from all six Dragons for an Ear Acupressure Device

"Here, I am afraid, we might have a major problem:

THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT ANY OF THESE CLAIMS!

I thus do wonder whether the venture of Giselle Boxer might be a case for the Advertising Standards Authority."

https://edzardernst.com/2024/01/dra...ll-six-dragons-for-an-ear-acupressure-device/
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Found in the comments. I hadn't bothered to look whether there was, uh, "research" backing this but, yeah, of course there is, and it's similar to the usual biopsychosocial drivel: https://acuseeds.co.uk/blogs/articles/what-are-ear-seeds-and-how-do-they-work.

You could easily cook up some systematic review with about the same low-quality moderate-bias potential for shmaybe effectiveness in some and make it recommended since there is no evidence of harm. Right up Cochrane's alley, apparently it's their business model these days.
 
Andy said:
Dragons’ Den contestant gets offer from all six Dragons for an Ear Acupressure Device

"Here, I am afraid, we might have a major problem:

THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT ANY OF THESE CLAIMS!

I thus do wonder whether the venture of Giselle Boxer might be a case for the Advertising Standards Authority."

https://edzardernst.com/2024/01/dra...ll-six-dragons-for-an-ear-acupressure-device/
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In the comments
Dr Charles Shepherd on Sunday 21 January 2024 at 23:06
I have already brought these concerns about the therapeutic claims being made on both the Acu Beads Website and the Facebook page to the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority and will be writing to the BBC tomorrow (Monday)

There are several very lively and informed discussions taking place on the ME Association Facebook Page relating to all the different aspects of what has happened on Dragons Den

Dr Charles Shepherd
ME Association
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I do admire CF's endurance, forever responding to this never ending stream of BS
 




Tweet:
'More evidence of Acu Seeds Scamminess. Giselle flogging them at the Soul Circus Festival, claiming success curing everything, the Hallmark of Heath Scams. "Saw some amazing immediate results for back pain, knee pain, bloating, sleep, migraines and more"
 
April 2020 Giselle Boxer in Women's Health Magazine. She recommends structuring your life around Moon phases and ME/CFS is described as "an incurable condition that causes her to experience chronic low mood and exhaustion".








Article in Women's Health glossy magazine

'Lunar Rituals;

"Living by the Moon has changed my life"

 
From an Action for ME tweet

"We have coordinated an open letter with other M.E. orgs in response to the recent Dragons Den episode in which a contenstant made unevidenced claims regarding the efficacy of 'acu seeds' as a treatment for #MECFS You can view the letter here: https://ow.ly/qs3M50Qt12L"

"The letter has been sent to the Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee and the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee. Our Chief Executive, Sonya Chowdhury, also wrote directly to the Director-General of the BBC last Friday to voice concerns over the episode"

https://twitter.com/user/status/1749387858975072383
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Excellent lettter from MEAction UK to the BBC. Thank you @MBailey.
And many thanks to Action for ME for taking action too.
It's horrifying seeing the BBC being used to promote a scam perpetrated on seriously ill people.
I hope the BBC issues an apology and withdraws the program from iplayer.
 
Extraordinary article in today's Independent. It's a 1st person account 'As told to Zoe Beaty'.
Sorry I'm not able to post it here, perhaps someone else can?
 
On the 19th January A person called *Jason Bartlett* became a Director of Giselle Boxers company (which is called East Healing Ltd) which markets Acu Seeds

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14332155/officers



Jason Bartlett is also a Company Director of the Dragon's Den star Steven Bartlett's company called 'Steven Bartlett LTD'.

https://find-and-update.company-inf...cers/mI-nXcyM1L_TJn9AciIklk0NEbE/appointments


https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10943801/officers


https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-bartlett-a1237943/?originalSubdomain=uk




Steven Bartlett is the Dragon who, since the Dragons Den program of 18th January 2024, is financing Giselle Boxer's Acu Seeds company. It looks like Jason is Steven's brother, they are both Directors of Steven Bartlett's own company.


There appear to be a web of cross interests, possibly conflicts of interest, vested interests.

.
 
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