Have A Rant
Homeopathy.

People who practise this or market this or sell homeopathic medicines are either pathological liars or so self-deluded that they should be locked away for the publics saftey.

Homeopathy doesn't work. It's Junk-Science, bad science and it's right up there with voodoo, witchcraft and faith-healing. (And before anyone jumps in with "it works for me", so does witchcraft and faith healing)

Have any of you believers actually looked at what homeopathy actually is? It's rules, laws and principles? They're fucking laughable.

The first, and most important principle of homeopathy is "The Law Of Similars". This says that "like cures like". So if you have a set of symptoms, say a headache, then something that, in a healthy person will produce a headache, then thats what will cure your headache.

The rational behind this is that the body will not allow two identical diseases or imbalances and that by introducing an artificial set of symptoms, this will somehow "push out" the bad symptoms and you'll be cured.

Of course, it's a little more complicated, because the remedy or homeopathic dose has to be diluted. And it is. It's diluted by placing the remedy, let's say Ducks Liver, a common homeopathic substance, (apt for quackery) into a solution of water. 1 part duck to 100 parts water. Then it's shaken up and down ten times (the magic number). Then shaken side to side ten times, then backwards and forwards ten times. (I'm sure there should be some chanting here. Something like "hubble-bubble, toil and trouble..). And there you have a first dilution. But that's still too strong. So it goes through another dilution. One part diluted duck to 100 parts water. This is called succession. And it's a succession in the C scale.

Anyway, this dilution goes on and on and has a scale. A 1C is the first dilution. A 2C is the second and so on and so on. The founder of homeopathy reccomnds a 30C dilution for most ailments. Think about that. That's a dilution of 10 to the power 60. 10 with 60 zeros after it. To give you an idea of scale, 1ml of a solution which has gone through a 30C dilution would have been diluted into a volume of water equal to that of a cube of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 meters per side, or about 106 light years.

Let's put it another way. If you take a 30C homeopahtic remedy that claims an active ingrediant of Ducks Liver and subjected that to the best chemical analysis possible, and let's throw in physical analysis using the most powerful electron microscope available, you wouldn't find a single molecule, a single atom of Ducks Liver. Why? Because it doesn't fucking contain any.

So don't claim homeopathy is a science or deserves to be treated as a form of medicine because it isn't. It's faith-healing. And anyone who claims differently is a fucking liar.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 1:00, 17 replies)

I think
I love you Legless, (*)

It's such bullshit. "oh, but it's harmless, just the placebo effect". There was a recent conference in London by the society of homeopaths as to how this nonsense can be used to treat AIDS in africa. And it's been touted as a way of preventing malaria. Any of you snake oil peddlers care to tell me what's harmless about that?

(*) In a purely rant driven agreement way. Edited so as not to piss off Mrs Legless :)
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 1:23, closed)

I can see the AVON lady running for the hills now....
...as the kids with a bottle of water and rose petals revolt!
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 1:34, closed)

Rakky
Don't get me started on Malaria. These fucking snake-oil salesmen are selling their potions to naive students going to malaria regions in their gap year. Some of these kids are going to die.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 1:39, closed)

The word you are looking for is....
pseudoscience.

It *looks* like science and wants you to *belive* it is sciuence, but in fact, its just a heap of lies surrounded by some vaguley convincing (to non-scientists) science-y words.

I am a scientist and this kind of crap (see also crystal healing, astrology, creationism / ID, tarot) is constantly thrown in from of me and my colleagues by people who either a) should know better (people who use it) or b) people who actively practice it (who *must* know they are lying).

Have them killed, it's the only way.

Legal disclaimer: may not be the only way. But a good start.
(Bob the Scutter, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 6:45, closed)

Amen
A - fucking -men

And now some idiot is claiming it can help cure AIDS, in conjunction with some mystical music.
( chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 10:25, closed)

A friend of a friend
Forgot to take his homeopathic medicine one day.

Died of an overdose.
(snopesthetruth, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 12:32, closed)

Amen
I have a good friend who is into all that hippie crap and 'healing' mumbo-jumbo. I do adore her but sometimes she gets on my very last nerve.

One day, in response to me being frustrated about developing a reaction to a favourite food of mine, she chirped 'You know, there's a homeopathic remedy that will cure your allergies!'

In a bad mood, I replied 'Oh really? Then why are you still allergic to milk?'

She doesn't bring it up much nowadays(hurrah!).
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Sat 1 Dec 2007, 18:57, closed)

Agreed
Apparently the AIDs conference mentioned earlier involves the idea that you can send your cure over the radio?!? And homeopaths in the UK have a very bad habit of advising against the MMR vaccine - how long until these diseases come back in force?

It's all absolute bullshit. www.badscience.net is a very informative website on just how bullshit ;)
(Beans goes up to eleven, Sun 2 Dec 2007, 20:55, closed)

Absolutely!
Well said Legless. Homeopaths also spout all that bollocks about the water molecules having 'memory' of the substances once dissolved in them. There's probably millions of times more natural impurities than desired substance in the dilution, so what about the 'memory' of say lead contamination? Almost certainly there in some quantity.

It wouldn't be so bad if they only harmed themselves.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 8:56, closed)

Can't add much to ^these^
So you'll have to settle for a mere *click* from me.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 9:11, closed)

clicks
I thought homeopathy was a cure for gayness.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 11:45, closed)

Cosmetic companies are almost as bad
Although they're not preying on the ill, they're responsible for generating huge paranoia about the way we look.

When I wander past the women that stand on the cosmetic counters in Boots, wearing make up that even a drag artist would have to have put on with a trowel, it makes me laugh to hear them spout pseudo-science about the products they're trying to sell. The icing on the cake is that some of them are made to wear white lab coats in an effort to appear more scientific or medical.

Occasionally (if they have freebies) I'll stand and listen to their nonsense, smile and nod until they offer me a tester which I then pass onto a friend. If they're just trying to flog me something, I shake my head sadly and explain that I have eczema and couldn't possibly risk a flare up.

Woo for crap skin! :/
( e.m.m.y. foxtrot uniform charlie kilo india tango, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 12:51, closed)

A nice succinct layman's explanation
of why homeopathy is dogbollocks.

To paraphrase you sir, "cheers".
( chart cat has an itch, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 13:38, closed)

Go Legless!
Most of the reason I'm proud to be a misanthrope is bullshit like this. David Whitehouse said that every crop circle believer is "misguided, a fool or a charlatan", but it applies to every flavour of paranormal/quackery/religion out there. There are no other options.

What I want to know from the homeopaths is this: How do you clean your preparation flasks etc. in between preparations? Can't just give 'em a rinse like the rest of us, can you? Fucktards.
(misanthrope is so adjective he's verbing nouns!, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 13:48, closed)

Supposedly
water "remembers" the initial ingredient. Considering that tap water has passed through approximately 3 different people's bladders, I'd hate to think what else the water remembers.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 16:43, closed)

"science"
Oh yes. Faith or 'pranic' healing. That's a good one. My parents are now completely into this, and keep telling anecdotes of miraculous unexplained cures of terrible diseases.

I usually ask them the following question (and this goes for believers in "homeopathic" "medicine" too):

If it's so miraculous, why don't medical students study it? And why isn't there a faith healer on every street corner?

Still haven't had a straight answer out of anyone.....
( admiral crunch holds the newsreader's nose squarely, Mon 3 Dec 2007, 19:02, closed)

I would agree with you
Unfortunately, we still get taught it on Pharmacy degrees. I don't think anyone believes it works, but they're not allowed to say so in case they offend someone. Mad.
(pharmatron Death or Scunthorpe? CHOOSE!!, Tue 4 Dec 2007, 19:47, closed)