Increasingly I am seeing once reputable establishments peddle nonsense as viable alternatives to real medicine. The shelves in almost all my local pharmacies are stocked with a curious mixture of double blind tested remedies that have been proved exhibit beneficial effects statistically above the placebo effect, and those which have not gone through this rigourous test.

A recent study in New Zealand highlighted the problem we have allowed to develop in the mind of society. The study reveals that 96% of people think homeopathy really works, while only 6% of people know how it works. I suspect if more people knew how homeopathy actually worked then the number of people placing their trust in it would plummet.

So here it is – homeopathy in all its glory:

Rule 1: Substances which cause certain symptoms can be used to cure the same.

Let’s say you discover a plant in your garden produces boils and nasty rashes when rubbed onto the skin. Homeopathy says that if a patient presents with boils and a nasty rash you administer this plant to cure them. (Hey! I just work here)

Any person with half a brain can see that this is an obviously stupid idea. Surely rubbing this noxious weed onto the skin with just make the condition worse, not better? Ahhh, that would be true if it weren’t for the second rule of homeopathy:

Rule 2: Those substances are far too powerful to be used in pure form. You must dilute it in water.

You see. That answers all your questions!

What? It doesn’t? Oh. Perhaps some explanation is in order?

Since the pure plant causes boils and a nasty rash, then it stands to reason that a diluted version will cause fewer boils do the exact opposite. This leads us to the last rule, where things aren’t just off the tracks anymore – it turns into a complete train wreck:

Rule 3: The more you dilute the active ingredient, the more powerful the cure.

The magic here is that water has “memory” and somehow the molecules that have been in contact with the active ingredient tell their friends that it causes boils and a nasty rash in humans, so they should do the opposite. As the word is passed around between the water molecules more and more hear the message and “remember”. Thus the more potent the potion becomes.

Many homeopathic remedies have a little 10x, 20x, or 30x symbol on them. This is to denote the power to which the original active ingredient has been diluted, thus how powerful the preparation. For example 10^2 is 100. So 10^30 is a 10 followed by 30 zeros. At that level of dilution there is almost certainly not a single molecule of the original substance left – only the water’s very powerful “memory” of it.

Just how diluted is this? Well at 60x (a common dilution which was advocated by homeopathy’s creator in 1796)on average, this would require giving two billion doses per second to six billion people for 4 billion years to deliver a single molecule of the original material to a single patient. Now that’s one powerful homeopathic solution!

Oh – and I forgot to mention that you have to shake the water 10 times along the different planes. Exactly how you do this with with a volume 10^30 time the original substance is unclear.

How this “memory” works, is measured, or even how to determine if such an effect exists is completely unanswered. What’s also telling is the pedlars of this crap are unwilling or unable to demonstrate these facts. Of course, why would you want to prove your case when “the big business medical conspiracy” will just crush you anyway?

We are all open to the evidence should it present itself, but so far the snake oil sales men have been doing an incredible job of selling water to gullible sick people and cutting the pharmacies in on the scam.

What’s the harm?

“What’s the harm?” people ask. When you are in real need of medical attention, is it too much to ask that we actually get real medicine? Can we actually be sold something that has been shown to work when all the subjective bias has been removed from the equation?

The harm is that people will stick to homeopathic remedies when they are really sick, or in some cases when those they are caring for are. Thomas and Manju Sam were recently convicted of manslaughter for letting their baby daughter (Gloria) die from eczema. Eczema of all things!

The poor girls skin split everytime they changed her nappies. Gloria was bleeding from infected wounds and in constant agony before the parents finally sought proper medical attention for their baby girl. But it was too late. By the time they took her to the hospital her poor body was so weak from fighting the infections that she could not recover. Despite the doctors best efforts she died.

What harm does it do?!! Think about the suffering baby Gloria went through in her precious short life.

I can understand the desire for people to stick to “natural remedies”, but let’s not forget that a very large portion of nature would gladly eat you alive without a second’s thought – just to prolong its own life for another day. A blue ringed octopus is a beautiful creature of the sea, but I doubt people will be lining up to face one slapped on their face with the promise of curing their ailments. Why not? They’re all natural after all?



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