… the other day and how he liked natural solutions and remedies. I asked him if he knew what homeopathy is. He thought about it and said, “You know, natural stuff.” I told him that homeopathy is the belief that exposing yourself to very small doses, parts per million, of a harmful or toxic substance will in some way provide you with a resistance against such compounds.
Astonishingly to me, this did not appear to phase him at all.
I just don’t get it. How in the world is a small shark bite supposed to protect you from a big shark bite?
Actually it’s both better and worse than that:
* The substances are usually not harmful, and may be actually used in normal medicines, that do work.
* It’s not parts per million, its referred to as ‘nC’ (e.g. 20C) where the dilution is 100^n.
so 20C is one part per 100^20 = 10^40 or ten thousand million million million million million million !!!!
It’s worse than that. Homeopathic preparations are often diluted so much (more dilution supposedly makes them MORE potent) that in order to get one molecule of the allegedly active ingredient, you would have to consume enough water to form a sphere about eight lightminutes in diameter. That’s the distance from the Earth the the Sun.
Show your friend this homeopathy comparison using Felicia Day as a unit of measure: http://madartlab.com/2011/03/03/putting-homeopathy-into-perspective/
Yeah, that’s the bit I don’t get. You dilute something to make it more potent …
what the ?!?!
Dna
@Dna
Well, diluting it more certainly helps to prevent it from CAUSING the symptoms that you are trying to cure, and this is really the principle behind homeopathy. Homeopathy has always been an “alternative” therapy, but when it was invented, it was as an alternative to practices like bloodletting that actively harmed the patient. Compared to bloodletting, drinking a bit of water that used to touch a bit of water that used to touch a bit of water that used to touch a bit of water that had a little arsenic in it will leave you much better-off.
Why doctors of the day couldn’t come up with a better medical treatment than poisoning you or making you bleed is a bit of a mystery, but either way, less of it is definitely better for you. Throw in a placebo effect (which IS enhanced by the repeated ritualistic dilution and succussion of a preparation) and you can see how those who lack a healthy skepticism would see it as a good idea.
Of course, as an alternative to scientific evidence, choosing homeopathy is inexcusable.
Extremely relevant:
http://xkcd.com/765/
From the link above:
“Dear editors of Homeopathy Monthly: I have two small corrections for your July issue. One, it’s spelled ‘echinacea’, and two, homeopathic medicines are no better than placebos and your entire magazine is a sham.”
:)