I thought that we gave up leeching, bloodletting and purging long ago but alas no, homeopathy is marching on. In fact, homeopathy is one of the longest running pseudo sciences in the modern world. What makes it so? One reason is lack of understanding about what homeopathy really is, even among health care providers. You see, homeopathy was invented by Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700s, a fact that most following the doctrine of better health through homeopathy don’t even know. Go ahead, ask a follower of homeopathy. I dare you. Homeopathy is based on the now outdated principle that “like cures like”. For instance, if coffee keeps you awake, then highly diluted coffee will put you to sleep. In this case, the more diluted the coffee, the better you will sleep. To figure out what remedy works for what symptoms, you look up your symptoms in a book (yes, you had to know there would be a book didn’t you?) listing all the different proving results and take the remedy that best matches what ails you. While there is more to it than this we won’t get into it. Trust me; it doesn’t get any more credible. Water memory? Seriously?
Homeopathy is about as silly as it gets people. Silly wouldn’t even matter if it indeed worked, but it doesn’t. There are over 4000 homeopathic remedies, none of which work. You may think it works because you get placebo effects and the homeopath keeps you entertained while you get better on your own. In homeopathy, any substance can be a remedy; even a non-substance. My personal favorite is “eclipsed moonlight.” I’m serious. Look it up. I’ve been trying to figure out how they collect it to prepare the remedy, but no one’s talking. Despite science and reason, it looks as though homeopathy isn’t about to go away anytime soon. But it has some really good things going for it. Typically when you visit a homeopath, he wants to know all about you. He gives you far more time and attention than your traditional MD will. He picks a special treatment designed JUST for you and if it’s not working? He has an explanation and something else to try next time; ever confident that he can help you get better. Aside from the fact that homeopathy is for the large part a bogus industry that offers little more than the separation of fools….I mean, patients from their money; it is harmless. Except in those cases where patients are persuaded or believe they should forego effective and proven medical treatment or harm themselves with the often overuse of non-regulated supplements and/or vitamins. (Don’t get me started on supplements) The fact is; not one single so-called homeopathic cure is scientifically proven to be valid. They would love to find scientific validation and not the kind where if you say something totally false often enough, someone may start to believe it, but the genuine variety. It becomes increasingly difficult to receive any kind of acknowledgement from the scientific community when they conveniently reject science whenever it doesn’t support them. Their repeated excuse is that the remedies are individualized so they don’t lend themselves to normal controlled trials and often cannot be duplicated with consistent or expected results. Nonsense. Arguments like these just serve to highlight the intellectual bankruptcy of the homeopathic belief system.
Now that we’ve mentioned supplements, despite all of the research and findings that contradict the benefits of taking supplements and vitamins as a disease prevention or cure, people are taking them more than ever. Often they are misusing or overdosing. “If they are good for us, then more must be better right?” Therein lays the hypocrisy of the naturalist or homeopath. On the one hand, vitamins themselves were discovered by medical and biological science, they play a vital role (by definition) in the healthy functioning of our bodies (when extracted from food), and deficiencies of vitamins can cause disease. So they seem perfectly legitimate. On the other hand the market is full of exaggerated and even magical claims about the cure-all power of vitamins. This has spurned a multi-billion dollar industry. However, the scientific studies that have been conducted showing the benefits of vitamins have all been studies that have shown the benefits from the foods we eat and NOT supplements used in place of food. Naturalists and Homeopaths by definition are against or opposed to what is “man-made”. Where in nature can you find a 1000 mg vitamin C in an orange? Do you know how many oranges you would have to eat to get that much vitamin C? Is that natural? And it isn’t even possible to eat enough foods naturally to get the most commonly sold supplement dosage of 100 mg of Niacin. Do you know what does occur naturally? Penicillin; commonly found in antibiotics. Pretty much everything that “man” makes is made from the ingredients that “nature” gives us. We cannot just “will” anything into existence. Fire also occurs in nature but does anyone really think our early ancestors just waited around for lightning to strike so they could cook a meal?
There is a lesson on human nature here. Our old friend and nemesis, cognitive dissonance, “don’t bother me with the facts.” Despite having the knowledge of ineffectiveness, people will still take supplements; billions of dollars worth annually. Perhaps they get something psychologically out of taking them. Again, there is that very real placebo effect. Or, more likely, the results reflect more the effects of successful advertising, propaganda and fear mongering than the actual benefits of the supplements themselves. The money they spend every month on this expensive urine would serve them better if they perhaps saw a therapist instead.
In 1994, Congress enacted the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This act allows for the marketing and sales of “dietary supplements” with little or no regulation by the FDA. Basically this means, “sell whatever you want, just don’t let us catch you.” And while manufacturers are not allowed to make claims that are not truthful or are misleading, I dare you to Google ANY manufacturer’s product and you will find, more often than not, supplements being marketed as having “real” effects of curing or preventing diseases. While you are at it, look up “eclipsed moonlight”. What is more frightening than this inexcusable lack of oversight is that many of the products marketed aren’t just vitamins and such, but products that claim to do the same things as real medicines. How are they getting away with this? Simple. If you ask me, this is dangerous and costly to consumers. It merely provides protection for business entities whose apparent purpose is to promote quackery for profit. Shame! And profit they do. I personally know more than a handful of people that spend at least $300 to $400 or more EVERY month on supplements alone.
A favorite author of mine, Terry Goodkind wrote, "People are stupid; given proper motivation, and almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe its true, or because they’re afraid it might be true. Peoples’ heads are full of knowledge, facts and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool." (Terry Goodkind, Wizards First Rule) The irony is that this came from a fantasy writer in a book about wizards and magic but it still has more truth and credibility than any of homeopathy’s claims. Look around in this day and age, at the things people believe in. Look at these people who believe if they fly jet airliners into tall buildings, they'll get 72 virgins in another life. That's pretty stupid. And it's not just a couple of guys who believe this – it is millions of people who believe this! But this is for another blog entirely. There are vast numbers of people who can be talked into the most ludicrous things. The "rediscovery" of these Dark Ages remedies, we now call "natural medicine" or "natural healing" is for the most part, a bunch of quackery. In drug stores you see real medicines that scientific research has brought to better people's lives being supplanted or pushed aside by folk remedies that in many cases do more harm than good! Aren’t we yet again trading one extreme for another? Hippocrates said there was a law of similar. Hippocrates also said ALL illness was due to an imbalance of the four humors. Today, lots of people believe in homeopathy. Lots of people believe in ghosts and angels, but that doesn’t make them real. At one time, lots of people believed the earth was flat as well. It should come as no surprise that homeopathy’s most influential players and supporters are the ones that stand to gain the most by its wide acceptance. Come on, follow the money folks.
Snake oil salesmen perfected the art of separating fools from their money. They too, would hawk their wares with unscientific and outright fraudulent claims about the health benefits of their product(s) as well as the hidden dangers. Bogus or unsupported nutrition claims are now big business. From the immune boosting and weight loss powers of the acai berry, to the cancer protective effects of vitamins, nutrition supplement and homeopathy pseudo sciences are all the rage. While raw, unpasteurized milk will never have quite the celebrity status of a “super food”, it is promoted with the same lofty yet empty claims, and provides the added bonus of infectious diarrhea and disease. I will spare you the baloney about milk causing mucus and the subject of lactose intolerance....for now. :)
Fanaticism in ANY form is not healthy; be it religion, politics, economics or health. I am a believer in a healthy diet based in good nutrition and moderate exercise, but don’t you think we are taking things just a little too far? What has happened to common sense, moderation and reason? Have we learned nothing?
"You cannot reason people out of positions they didn’t reason themselves into."
Ben Goldacre, MD
