AAP FACTCHECK – Social media users are falsely claiming that listening to a particular sound frequency each day can kill parasites.
Experts say there is no evidence that listening to any sound frequency can kill parasites and while in theory it might be possible, the volume required to do so would likely make you go deaf.
The claim was made in an Instagram reel that advocates listening to the “1150hz Rife Frequency”.
“This sound can kill PARASITES,” text overlaying the video reads. “Royal Rife discovered that this frequency could destroy parasites on a cellular level.”
It says the frequency could be used for killing parasites, cellular detox and “clearing brain fog that comes from parasitic infections”.
“Listen on headphones for at least 5 minutes a day,” more text reads. “And drink plenty of water afterwards.”
Royal Rife, a scientist active in the first half of the 1900s, does not appear to have researched or advocated listening to this particular sound frequency, and experts say there’s no evidence that doing so will have the claimed health effects.
Dr Rife was known for developing microscopes in the 1930s, according to the Smithsonian Institute‘s 1944 annual report (page 207).
The institute says in the report that under Rife’s universal microscope “disease organisms … may be observed to succumb when exposed to certain lethal frequencies” (p216).
According to a 2003 article in The Guardian newspaper, Dr Rife claimed he could destroy bacteria by blasting them with electromagnetic waves oscillating at frequencies specific to individual organisms, and he claimed to be able to treat a number of health conditions by using electromagnetic waves.
He also created the Rife machine, which produces low electromagnetic energy waves to purportedly treat various conditions including cancer, but this has been widely discredited.
Cancer Research UK has advised there is no reliable evidence that Rife machines work as a cancer treatment and claims about their efficacy have been debunked by Reuters, AFP and FullFact.
AAP FactCheck found no evidence Dr Rife advocated listening to, or otherwise using, certain sound frequencies to kill parasites.
Hugh McDermott, an audiologist at the University of Melbourne, said there is no scientific or clinical evidence that sounds at any frequency can “destroy parasites”, provide a “cellular detox” or have any positive effect on a person’s health.
Sound frequencies could be used to damage “almost anything” provided the volume was high enough, Professor McDermott said, particularly if the sound frequency was tuned to resonate with the targeted object.
This is how playing a loud resonant frequency can break a wine glass.
But producing a sound through headphones that’s loud enough to damage a parasite would cause long-term hearing damage and only affect parasites directly in the ear.
“Only sounds that are dangerously loud could possibly destroy parasites on a cellular level,” Prof McDermott told AAP FactCheck.
“If parasites like mites are a problem, many safe and effective treatments are available.”
Augusto Simoes-Barbosa, an expert on treating parasites at the University of Auckland, also agreed there’s no evidence to support the treatment in the video.
“There is no scientific reasoning for a specific sound frequency to damage a parasite but not the person or animal who may host this parasite,” Dr Simoes-Barbosa said.
Wyatt Page, an acoustics and human health expert at Massey University of New Zealand, agreed there is no scientific evidence to support using a sound frequency to destroy parasites, and that the volume required to do so in theory would also damage your hearing.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All information, text and images included on the AAP Websites is for personal use only and may not be re-written, copied, re-sold or re-distributed, framed, linked, shared onto social media or otherwise used whether for compensation of any kind or not, unless you have the prior written permission of AAP. For more information, please refer to our standard terms and conditions.
