Homeopathy: a panacea or pure water divorce? Bulky material

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The reader of the "Mouthpiece of Totalitarian Propaganda" sent a voluminous material on the problem of homeopathy.

I. Where did homeopathy come from?

It would seem how many times they told the world what homeopathy is. However, the broad masses of the people are still confused in the testimony, as the poll by VTsIOM in 2017 showed:

“One or another description of the concept of“homeopathy”was able to give 46% of Russians. As a rule, they imagine that it belongs to the field of medicine (15% - "medicine from natural remedies", 9% - "remedy", etc.), but they cannot give an exact definition. Recorded 1% of the responses “treatment of like like like”, 1% - “treatment with minimal doses of the disease itself”, 4% - “treatment with minimal doses of medications”, 3% said that this is pseudoscience and quackery. 17% of our fellow citizens did not know about the concept of "homeopathy" before participating in the survey, another third (33%) have heard this word, but do not know what it is."

Therefore, I have to say a few words about what it is.

Homeopathy was invented by the good doctor Hahnemann at the turn of the century before last (XIX) and before last (XVIII) centuries. Times were tough, especially for sick patients. Treatment options were, to put it mildly, controversial. For example, a study of the medical history of George Washington, who died in 1799, leads to the conclusion that he died not from an illness, but from treatment with mercury chloride and bloodletting. There were no concepts of sanitation and hygiene, doctors' instruments were not sterilized, and there were no effective pain relievers.

Looking at all this and devouring a large dose of chin, Hahnemann came up with his own way of treating blackjack and whores.

In short, and not go into the ideas of Hahnemann and other founding fathers of homeopathy about the origin of diseases, the principles of homeopathy can be described as follows:

1. Treatment of like like like. If a substance causes any symptoms, then small doses of that substance will cause the opposite symptoms.

2. Testing medicines on healthy people. If, when taking large doses, any symptoms are caused in healthy people, then the same substance in small doses in sick people will treat the disease with such symptoms. Proven, by God.

3. It is necessary to shake up. In order for small doses to work as they should, it is necessary to shake well during dilutions. Potentiation is called.

4. Treatment with small doses. Corollary from point 1. In order for the substance to work correctly, it must be strongly diluted.

5. Individual approach. The physician must comprehensively study the patient and his illness and make a medicine just for him.

As you can see, no horrors are expected, so it is not surprising that at the beginning of the 19th century, homeopathy was fashionable, and even showed its effectiveness. Which is not surprising either, they would have “treated” George Washington with homeopathy instead of mercury chloride and bloodletting, maybe he would have lived longer.

But from the point of view of modern, evidence-based medicine, the first four points are pseudoscientific nonsense.

1. Modern medicine does not treat like like like or opposite opposite, although homeopaths tease medicine with allopathy. Modern medicine treats with active drugs, and deeply do not care - they cause similar, opposite or even other symptoms in healthy people in case of an overdose. If vaccines (like similar) protect against infections, then vaccines should be injected to protect against infections. If clonidine lowers the pressure (opposite to the opposite), then it may be prescribed to lower the pressure. If an overdose of paracetamol leads to liver failure, this does not in any way cancel or confirm its action as an anti-inflammatory agent.

2. The method of "testing" drugs on healthy people is beyond understanding. A causal relationship is lost somewhere.

3. But "potentiation" is an interesting question. Modern supporters of homeopathy have heard somewhere about Avogadro's number and guess that the active ingredient in their pellets is often simply absent. Therefore, they go through all sorts of tales about the "memory of water" and all sorts of "energetic essences" that remain in solution after no substance is left in the solution. Unfortunately for homeopaths, water memory exists in a few tens of quadrillionths of a second (Cowan ML et al. Ultrafast memory loss and energy redistribution in the hydrogen bond network of liquid H2O. Nature 2005, 434 (7030): 199–202). The memory of water is much shorter than that of a girl's.

Against the "memory of water" can be argued "reduction to Hitler": each glass of water contains several molecules that were contained in Hitler's urine. But it doesn't matter, probably because Hitler shaken badly.

II. Breeding degrees

There are “decimal” (D) or “centesimal” (C) dilutions - how many times the solution is diluted with one dilution. The number indicates how many times this dilution was made. Some examples:

D2, C1, 10 ^ (- 2) - one in a hundred. The active substance is present and, for especially active ones, it can even cause something in the patient. Not the fact that something is useful.

D6, C3, 10 ^ (- 6) - one in a million. The active ingredient is present. But some action is most likely absent (it can be present only for the most "evil" substances or live viruses or bacteria). For example, to poison yourself with botulinum toxin (LD50 - 1 nanogram per kilogram of weight) in such a dilution, you need to drink an amount of solution equal to your weight.

D24, C12, 10 ^ (- 24) - about 6 molecules per mole of substance. For water, one mole is 18 grams. And since the solution is dripped onto the sugar pellets in much smaller quantities, the probability of having at least one molecule of the substance in one tablet is a lottery with very bad chances.

D52, C26, 10 ^ (- 52) - several molecules for the entire globe

D80, C40, 10 ^ (- 80) - several molecules for the entire visible part of the Universe.

How many Universes do you need to find one molecule at dilutions of C200 (10 ^ (- 400)) or even 10 ^ (- 2000), yes, yes, there is such a thing, you can count yourself.

III. The benefits of homeopathy

As soon as the question arises about the benefits of homeopathy, the "placebo effect" immediately arises, since all direct benefits are limited to this effect.

The placebo effect exists, but it often manifests itself in the patient's subjective assessment of the condition: "I ate the pill and it seems to feel better, and the snot runs less." In some cases, it can lead to real improvements, especially if the illness has a psycho-somatic cause. But we must remember that some serious diseases cannot be treated with pacifiers.

You can find some indirect benefits of "treatment" with homeopathy:

1. If the treatment is carried out by a homeopath, then these figures will not only prescribe sugar pellets for your money, but will also talk and pay attention. Some kind of psychological support, especially important for hypochondriacs.

2. A strict admission schedule (otherwise the medicine will not work, yeah) can lead to the normalization of the patient's mode of life, which can have a positive effect.

3. Self-medication with homeopathy is much less harmful than other remedies. If you eat anaferon uncontrollably, and not paracetamol in some Teraflu, then your liver will thank you. Or, if you eat anaferon instead of antibiotics for ARVI, it's also good. At the same time, evidence-based medicine does not recommend taking paracetamol uncontrollably and does not recommend taking antibiotics for ARVI. That is, here homeopathy contributes to the implementation of the recommendations of evidence-based medicine, this is such a squiggle.

This is where the benefits end.

IV. The harm of homeopathy

1. Money

The first obvious harm from homeopathy is waste. If some Vasya spends his personal money on appointments with homeopaths and on sugar balls (instead of buying them in the grocery), then he is his own evil Pinocchio. It's worse when budget money is spent on this bullshit

In 2010, at the initiative of the British Parliament, a study of the evidence base for homeopathy was carried out, with very disappointing conclusions for homeopaths. Since that time, various state and scientific bodies and organizations (mainly in the West) have been denying homeopaths money, respects and respect. From a recent one from wikipedia:

“In 2018, the NHS stopped funding homeopathy at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, the oldest and largest homeopathic hospital, formerly the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital."

2. Insufficient dilution

"Homeopathic dose" is already a saying meaning no dose. But sometimes it doesn't. For example, in the homeopathic remedy "Traumeel" you can find the following component:

Atropa bella-donna (Belladonna) D4.

This is a belladonna extract, which contains atropine, at a dilution of one in ten thousand. How safe it is is a separate question.

And here is an example when it was definitely unsafe:

“In 2010, the FDA, FDA, based on an investigation of more than 400 reports of seizures, fever and vomiting, as well as 10 infant deaths, concluded that the homeopathic remedies used by Hyland's and CVS were dangerous. containing belladonna venom, intended to relieve teething pain"

Shit, not enough to unleash the poison.

3. Selling active medicines under the guise of homeopathy

Cunning manufacturers of homeopathy, resigned to the fact that shaking badly (in any way) enhances the effect of diluted substances, sometimes, here and there, they sometimes began to add really working compounds to their potions in really working doses. And this is bad, because it leads to uncontrolled intake of drugs, which in turn can lead to overdose or taking incompatible drugs.

If you drink allegedly homeopathy with a dose of paracetamol and add funds where it is also available, then you can easily exceed the toxic dose, and your liver will say "crack", not "thank you."

4. Selling homeopathy under the guise of acting drugs

This is a clear deception.

The author of these lines once bought "Tenoten" on the recommendation of a doctor, as a real remedy for insomnia. It still hurts excruciatingly for wasted money. Needless to say, insomnia did not help?

In addition, such a dilution provokes the patient to refuse a really working treatment.

5. Refusal of the current treatment in favor of homeopathy

Sugar balls lacking an active ingredient are useless (apart from the placebo effect), but also harmless if taken together with active medications.

If the question arises, or homeopathy, or real treatment (if it exists for a given disease), then expect trouble.

Refusal of real treatment is the saddest thing that can happen to a patient with a serious illness. Moreover, this danger applies not only to homeopathy, but also to other methods of the so-called alternative medicine.

Alternative medicine is one that either has not been proven to work or has been proven not to work. Do you know what they call alternative medicine, about which it has been proven that it works? The medicine. - Tim Minchin

V. Summary of conclusions

1. If you want to spend your own money on “alternative medicine,” including homeopathy, this is your choice.

2. If you ditch real, actionable treatment in favor of “alternative medicine,” including homeopathy, that's your choice, but be prepared for bad surprises.