What risk of prohibition?

[SusanD]

Hi Sarah

Those of us who find dermaneedling effective and basically want to keep doing it as the years go by are probably quite alarmed when the HongKong government issues public warnings.  The next step for many governments might be to actually prohibit the sale of devices.  Have you researched how great the risk is of this happening?  Could this happen, lobbied probably by Drs and beauticians who want people to keep spending on their expensive Fraxel machines, or at least only have the option of professional (very expensive) dermaroller treatments?

[SarahVaughter]

You're raising a valid and interesting point, and indeed we have been worrying about that possibility as well.

Dermaneedling is a "game changer", a "paradigm shift" in skincare in the sense that extremely effective treatment suddenly becomes cheaply available to the masses. Suddenly, anyone with a few dollars and some effort and patience can greatly improve their acne scars and stretchmarks, something that used to cost thousands in a specialized clinic with lasers and the like.

Naturally, the thousands of wealthy doctors that paid a small fortune for their lasers will lobby to get home needling banned. They will most likely succeed, because authority figures, themselves unqualified, tend to listen to doctor's advice, and that advice will be "ban it". For the same reasons, home teeth whitening products have been banned as a result of the dentists' lobby, and those who sell them have been declared criminals of the worst kind (just below murder) and get jailed for YEARS:

https://http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2232745/Barrington-Armstrong-Thorpe-jailed-16-months-selling-illegal-tooth-whitening-gel-online-100-TIMES-safe-level-cleaning-chemicals.html

We will suddenly start reading media reports how "home rollers" died a horrible, drawn-out death of gangrene and their arms and legs and eventually their head had to be amputated etc. etc., with a warning about "ruthless cynical online scammers" selling "dangerous fraudulent needle devices". Then customs officers around the world will be notified not to let dermaneedling instruments through.

This exact scenario happened with the BreastLight for example, a cheap but rather effective home breast lump diagnosis device that puts the power of early diagnosis in the hands of women:

https://http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2215339/Breastlight-Thousands-misled-torch-claims-detect-breast-cancer.html

The Breastlight was declared a "fake and dangerous device" and its vendors criminals. The device was then banned worldwide. Not because it's illegal by any law, but just because. By some type of executive order or request to countries. And they complied.

So this scenario plays itself out whenever the profits of the established order are threatened. Something that is cheap and that really works is a severe threat and they will fight tooth and nail to get it banned.

[SusanD]

A depressing outlook!  Well, if you become aware that any such thing is afoot, please warn rollers so we can stock up while still legal.

[beaglemaster]

thousands of wealthy doctors that paid a small fortune for their lasers will lobby to get home needling banned. They will most likely succeed, because authority figures, themselves unqualified, tend to listen to doctor's advice, and that advice will be "ban it".

Another reason they will most likely succeed is because the government is corrupt.

[SarahVaughter]

Norway is a small country that does exactly what the US tells them to. Norway was the first country in the world where Codex Alimentarius was implemented and strictly enforced, as a test case to see how the people would react.

About 16, 17 years ago they had demonstrations in the streets because it became illegal to import or sell vit. C in any dose above the RDA. The government then made an exception for vit. C only, allowing the sale of 500 mg or even 1 g tablets. However, the import of vit. C in bulk (the chemical Ascorbic acid in kilogram amounts) remained a criminal offense (3 months in prison).

Norway is the model for the rest of the world. Anything that has any kind of positive effect on human health is by definition already banned (sans prescription) under Codex Alimentarius, the only thing now is to start enforcing that rule worldwide.

[beaglemaster]

Sarah,

All your points are right on. It all boils down to the fact that representative government has been stolen by special interest groups, leaving citizens powerless.

Again....the system is corrupt.

[SarahVaughter]

These scaremongering articles are bought and paid for.

CNN says: "Dermarolling might just kill us":

https://http://travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/life/microneedle-facial-treatment-335525

Every single claim in that FUD piece is a lie. They call it "massage". They say you can get AIDS from it (which would not even be possible if you would use long needles on a HIV positive person and then roll half an hour later on your skin because the HIV virus is notoriously fragile and does not even survive a few minutes exposed to the air.)

They claim that no disinfectant can sterilize it. Chloramine-T can, because it has dual antibiotic action (it works like an antibiotic and not merely like a disinfectant).

They talk about "soaking in hot water" and "rinsing with disinfectant", which are silly things to do. Instead, you soak in disinfectant. Soaking is not rinsing!

They display a picture of the scariest-looking roller they could find, the type we discourage from using due to the fact it has no needles but knives.

Funny how we sold tens of thousands of dermaneedling devices over the past 7 years and we have yet to hear of a single customer of ours that got an infection. 10000 people rolling themselves with 1.5 mm or longer and exactly zero with an infection. That's because it nearly is impossible to get an infection from rolling your skin. That's just not how the immune system in the skin works.

In fact, it would be very, very hard to give yourself a skin infection with a dermaroller. I would be very surprised if you would get an infection from rolling your own feces into your skin for example. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I am willing to bet a lot of money that you will not manage to get a skin infection like that. Reasons: The great majority of fecal bacteria are either dead or quite harmless in small quantities in the skin. And your immune system is intimately familiar with those bacteria (microinjuries in your GI tract cause antibodies to be produced against the gut flora) so you just won't be able to cause a skin infection by rolling your own shit deep into your skin. It's time to put a stop to all the paranoia about how risky dermaneedling is. It is not.

[beaglemaster]

"These scaremongering articles are bought and paid for."

They probably are. In a corporatist state, government officials act in collusion with favored business interests to design polices that either give those interests a monopoly position, or drive competitors out of business. "By hook or by crook" the special interest groups usually get their way with the politicians, to the detriment of both competitors and consumers. That's why it won't surprise me if the next attack on micro needling occurs in the United States, where corporatism prevails.