To Overdose On Homeopathy — Part II

Some may remember the article I wrote about a few posts ago, referring to the group of skeptics who were scheduled to 'overdose' on homeopathic 'medicine' in order to prove its inefficacy. Well it's happened, ergo nothing happened. Not only were there no side effects from the apparent overdose, but the stunt forced one homeopathic council to admit that their remedies contain nothing but water. Albeit expensive water. Read the lengthy, but oh-so-satisfying, excerpt:

A public mass overdose of homeopathic remedies has forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any "material substances". Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that "there´s not one molecule of the original substance remaining" in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry.

The NZ Skeptics, in conjunction with 10:23, Skeptics in the Pub and other groups nationally and around the world, held the mass overdose in Christchurch on Saturday to highlight the fact that homeopathic products are simply very expensive water drops or sugar/lactose pills. A further aim was to question the ethical issues of pharmacies, in particular, stocking and promoting sham products and services.

The Christchurch "overdose" included an "underdose" - homeopaths believe that the more dilute things are, the more potent they become, so the skeptics were careful to try that approach. There are also claims by product manufacturers that, in fact, dosage doesn´t matter at all - whether you take 1 pill or 100 - but the important thing is the frequency of dosage, and the skeptics covered that base too. No ill effects were reported, apart from a distinct drop in the level of cash in various wallets. For the demonstration, Hyde reluctantly purchased two small boxes of tablets and a 25ml spray from a Unichem pharmacy, costing $51.95.

Homeopaths claim all sorts of amazing results, from treating the 1918 influenza to AIDS. More dangerously, at least one New Zealand pharmacy has been known to push homeopathic water labelled as "vaccines" for meningitis and Hepatitis B. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most supportive test results are those which come out of the homeopathic industry, product manufacturers and other vested interests. Any completely independent evaluation, such as the highly respected Cochrane Collaboration, tends to find the results much more underwhelming, citing no convincing evidence in many claimed areas of effectiveness.

Fantastic. There you have it. A homeopathic organization calls its own 'medicine' bullshit. Finally. You can pay exorbitant amounts of money for nothing but water and take advantage of the placebo effect while lining the pockets of these quacks. Not that this is going to put a dent in anything, but at least we have the admission directly from the horse's mouth or, more appropriately in this case, the snake's mouth: homeopathy is bullshit.

Spread the news.