Baloo

Homeopathy Same as Placebo for Kids with Asthma

What I want explained is the chronology:
Step 1: Prescribe homeopathy as a asthmatic remedy for 15 percent of the children in the UK.
Step 2: Test to see if it actually works.

Why don't these things ever get done in the logical order?

Jinto

Because it's "alternative medicine," that is, the alternative to using medicine that actually works.

Craig

[Kyle]
Natural Toothpaste? You mean that stuff that tastes like ass and doesn't fight cavities?
[/Kyle]

I'm sure I got the quote wrong, but that was a funny Southpark episode.

Godot

homeopathic practitioners and their ilk are more attuned to separating you from your cash than they are with applying appropriate clinical trials to their natural remedies.

MadKally

I really like this subject.

Homeopathy: The Ultimate Fake

A 30X dilution means that the original substance has been diluted 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times. Assuming that a cubic centimeter of water contains 15 drops, this number is greater than the number of drops of water that would fill a container more than 50 times the size of the Earth. Imagine placing a drop of red dye into such a container so that it disperses evenly. Homeopathy's "law of infinitesimals" is the equivalent of saying that any drop of water subsequently removed from that container will possess an essence of redness. Robert L. Park, Ph.D., a prominent physicist who is executive director of The American Physical Society, has noted that since the least amount of a substance in a solution is one molecule, a 30C solution would have to have at least one molecule of the original substance dissolved in a minimum of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. This would require a container more than 30,000,000,000 times the size of the Earth.

Oscillococcinum, a 200C product "for the relief of colds and flu-like symptoms," involves "dilutions" that are even more far-fetched. Its "active ingredient" is prepared by incubating small amounts of a freshly killed duck's liver and heart for 40 days. The resultant solution is then filtered, freeze-dried, rehydrated, repeatedly diluted, and impregnated into sugar granules. If a single molecule of the duck's heart or liver were to survive the dilution, its concentration would be 1 in 100200. This huge number, which has 400 zeroes, is vastly greater than the estimated number of molecules in the universe (about one googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeroes). In its February 17, 1997, issue, U.S. News & World Report noted that only one duck per year is needed to manufacture the product, which had total sales of $20 million in 1996. The magazine dubbed that unlucky bird "the $20-million duck."

Godot

what really boils me about this stuff is that people buy into it.
I guess that pharmacokinetics and valid treatment modalities just get in the way for some folk.

beausoleil

It's the role of intent that I think points up the absurdity. One prepares a homeopathic solution of duck's a$$ or whatever and uses it to treat a cold. But one doesn't die hideously from the homeopathic trace quantities of extremely toxic substances present in ordinary drinking water.

Still, if it stops people demanding antibiotics for their cold viruses perhaps we shouldn't complain.

ps418

Oh, great. . . Next thing you know I'll find out that those shoe magnets I bought really won't cure cancer after all.

Feather

Dumbass. They don't cure cancer. They cure arthritis and help the blood flow. Jeez. When will you people learn?

openeyes

LOL!