Homeopathy still doesn't work

[Iason Ouabache]

http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/01/homeopathy-by-the-mindboggling-numbers.html

have just purchased a packet of Boots-brand 84 arnica homeopathic 30C Pills for £5.09, which Boots proudly claim is only 6.1p per pill. Their in-store advice tells me that arnica is good for treating "bruising and injuries", which gives the impression that this is a very cost-effective health-care option.

Unlike most medication, it didn't list the actual dose of the active ingredient that each pill contains, so I checked the British Homeopathic Association website. On their website it nonchalantly states that to make a homeopathic remedy, they start with the active ingredient and then proceed to dilute it to 1 per cent concentration. Then they dilute that new solution again, so there is now only 0.01 per cent of the original ingredients. For my 30C pills this diluting is repeated thirty times, which means that the arnica is one part in a million billion billion billion billion billion billion.

The arnica is diluted so much that there is only one molecule of it per 7 million billion billion billion billion pills.

It's hard to comprehend numbers that large. If you were to buy that many pills from Boots, it would cost more than the gross domestic product of the UK. It's more than the gross domestic product of the entire world. Since the dawn of civilisation. If every human being since the beginning of time had saved every last penny, denarius and sea-shell, we would still have not saved-up enough to purchase a single arnica molecule from Boots.

Also, the comments on that article make me fear for the future of humanity. 

[Cain]

Dear Boots,

I believe the following things to be effective treatments for headache, depression, nausea, injuries, bruising, M.E. and rickets, so demand you stock them immediately:

* Kittens
* Wurlitzers
* Bacon
* Those plastic tubes that go 'wakka wakka wakka' when you shake them
* The Greatest Hits of Slade

Yours in anticipation,

Nathan aged 34 3/4.

[Shai Hulud]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

[Dysnomia]

Boots is doin it wrong.  Only costs about $5 for my big bottle of goldenseal at the drugstore.  Cures mah sick every time, and I used to have chronic bronchitis, sinus infections, and laryngitis.

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

Details.  Details. 

[Jasper]

Anyone for sending him emails demanding stronger doses of arnica?

[Reginald Ret]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

You sir, fial at toxicity.
everything is toxic.

[The Johnny]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

You sir, fial at toxicity.
everything is toxic.

YES! BECAUSE EVERYTHING CONTAINS TOXINS! Thats why i never eat meat, only vegetables, and i never drink water either because it has toxins, i only drink green tea.

Thats also why i give myself an enema every third day after drinking a liter of Yakult.

[Shai Hulud]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

Details.  Details.  

According to the wikipedia entry on arnica, "Arnica contains the toxin helenalin, which can be poisonous if large amounts of the plant are eaten, and contact with the plant can also cause skin irritation.  If enough of the material is ingested, the toxin helenalin produces severe gastroenteritis, and internal bleeding of the digestive tract."

Which I think is the whole point behind homeopathy, that harmful substances like mercury or phosphorus, when diluted down to practical nonexistence, will have some effect.  It's based on bogus medieval theories to a time when poison used to be used as medicine.  But when you dilute it to the point where there aren't any molecules left, you can't even make a reasonable argument that it is any different than sugar pill.  Also from wikipedia (homeopathy), "since water will have been in contact with millions of different substances throughout its history, critics point out that water is therefore an extreme dilution of almost any conceivable substance. By drinking water one would, according to this interpretation, receive treatment for every imaginable condition"

[Freeky]

 Also from wikipedia (homeopathy), "since water will have been in contact with millions of different substances throughout its history, critics point out that water is therefore an extreme dilution of almost any conceivable substance. By drinking water one would, according to this interpretation, receive treatment for every imaginable condition"

I've heard that before. It still makes me laugh , because it's absurd. Which is the point, I always assumed.

[Iason Ouabache]

Which I think is the whole point behind homeopathy, that harmful substances like mercury or phosphorus, when diluted down to practical nonexistence, will have some effect.  It's based on bogus medieval theories to a time when poison used to be used as medicine.  But when you dilute it to the point where there aren't any molecules left, you can't even make a reasonable argument that it is any different than sugar pill.  Also from wikipedia (homeopathy), "since water will have been in contact with millions of different substances throughout its history, critics point out that water is therefore an extreme dilution of almost any conceivable substance. By drinking water one would, according to this interpretation, receive treatment for every imaginable condition"

LOL. Water has memory of poo and fish fucking!!!

[Jasper]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

You sir, fial at toxicity.
everything is toxic.

YES! BECAUSE EVERYTHING CONTAINS TOXINS! Thats why i never eat meat, only vegetables, and i never drink water either because it has toxins, i only drink green tea.

Thats also why i give myself an enema every third day after drinking a liter of Yakult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQFGlBKARos

[The Johnny]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

You sir, fial at toxicity.
everything is toxic.

YES! BECAUSE EVERYTHING CONTAINS TOXINS! Thats why i never eat meat, only vegetables, and i never drink water either because it has toxins, i only drink green tea.

Thats also why i give myself an enema every third day after drinking a liter of Yakult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQFGlBKARos

I dont get why they would use cheerleader girls for that kind of song.

[Jasper]

Tch, nice sarcasm.

[Triple Zero]

Apparently people are willing to pay for the placebo effect.  I suppose it's better than actually having arnica in it, since that's poisonous.

You sir, fial at toxicity.
everything is toxic.

YES! BECAUSE EVERYTHING CONTAINS TOXINS!

sarcasm didn't save you from completely missing the point here.

a toxin is "a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms" and has nothing to do with what Regret tried to say, which was:

toxicity is in the dosage.

you can drink 6 liters of water and die from it, because water is toxic at that dosage.

one can drink a few shots of home distilled moonshine every day and not go blind because methanol is only toxic at the dosage of a raging alcoholic.

[Jean-Lustine d'Hadamard]

Also, the comments on that article make me fear for the future of humanity.  

What I find even sadder is that some nonsense cooked up over 200 years ago is not only still doing the rounds, but is also burning up research time.