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Homeopathy

www.sbmubc.org

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Table of Contents

• Famous Numbers• Homeopathy

– History– Dilutions– Common misconceptions– Homeopathic vaccines– Examples– Ethics– Interesting facts

Famous Numbers

• There are lots of famous numbers:• Pi, or π, or 3.14 Pi is not:

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Famous Numbers

• There’s also Avagadro’s Number:6 x 1023

That’s the same as a six with 23 zeros!600 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

That’s a BIG number!

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Famous Numbers

Avagadro’s number is reallyinteresting because that’s how many molecules of O2 there are

in 22.4 litres- About 6 milk jugs

Also called a “Mole”

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Moles

• A mole of paper would make a stack to moon and back 80 billion times

• A mole of seconds is about 19 quadrillion years

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Medicine and Homeopathy

• The numbers are important! (more later)

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Medicine in 18th Century

• Pre-scientific and often harmful

– Bloodletting• The cure often worse than disease!• Doing “nothing” appears

like good medicine

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History of Homeopathy

• Invented by Samuel Hahnemann in 1796– Germany

• Was bothered by current explanation for how cinchona bark cured malaria.– “Strengthens the stomach”– In fact contains Quinine

• kills malaria parasite

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History of Homeopathy

• Decided to dose himself with cinchona– Palpitations– Anxiety– Trembling– NO fever (malaria causes very high fevers)

• Concluded first tenant: “like cures like”– If two diseases with “similar” symptoms affect

patient, the “stronger” disease cures “weaker” – Only experiment behind “like cures like”

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History of Homeopathy

• Second tenant: Potentization – Serial dilutions and succussions (shakings)– Believed made remedy more potent

• Not a single molecule remained

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History of Homeopathy

• “Provings”– Healthy subjects given preparation– EVERY sensation, feeling, mood change, and

physical change over days to months caused by preparation• No matter how trivial or vague• Example: “dreams which are not remembered” or

“tickling sensation on the palm which obliges a person to scratch”

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History of Homeopathy

• Materia Medica– Textbook of provings– 1300 recorded– Half before 19th century– 65 from Hahnemann

• Randomized controlled trials:– “provers” not able to distinguish between

homeopathic preparation and placebo

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Modern Homeopathy

• Same core tenants– Homeopathic vaccines

• Opposition to immunizations– “Nosodes”

• Potentized diseased animal parts

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Homeopathic Logic

• Example: A drug that wakes you up?• Does decaf coffee put you to sleep? ...• Lets look at dilutions

– More fun with numbers!

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Dilute!

Dilutions

• Exactly how dilute does homeopathy go?• Listed as multiples of “C”.

– C is diluted 100 times. – 2C is 100 x 100 = 10 000 times diluted.– Up to 200C ...

• The “most potent” homeopathic dose is a dilution of 10400! (or a dose of 10-400)– A mole mole mole mole mole mole mole mole

mole mole mole mole mole mole mole mole mole UBC SBM

Dilutions

0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

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Dilutions

• Some perspective:– How much of 12C homeopathic remedy would

you need to get just 1 molecule of caffeine?

– The ENTIRE Atlantic Ocean!!!– How many molecules are you getting in a pill?

• Zilch. Nada. Zero.

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How do Vaccines Work?

• Vaccines can be made several different ways: weakening the bug, killing it, using only some of its proteins, etc

• What all of these methods do is allow your body to recognize part of the bug so that you can strengthen your immune system

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Homeopathic Vaccines

• Has no molecule of the bug!• Your body cannot build an immune response• Homeopathic vaccines have been shown to

not be effective to stop infection – Use proper immunizations!

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Misconceptions

• Homeopathy is NOT naturopathy. – But often naturopaths practice homeopathy

• All who trained in BC are taught it– Homeopathy = lots and lots of dilutions

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Examples

• Oscillococcinum– Very popular as “flu treatment” or “vaccine”– Duck liver and heart diluted 10400 times– No evidence to work

• “Neurexan” sleeping pill– Made from coffee!– Famously, people try to overdose on it

• They can’t.

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Ethics

• It is unethical to knowingly give a patient a placebo without telling them– Truth telling

• Homeopathy has been shown consistently to be no different from placebo.

• Therefore, it is unethical to not inform people that it is no better than placebo.

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Interesting Facts

• James Randi offers a $1 Million prize to anyone who can prove homeopathy works

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Summary

• Homeopathy started in Germany in 1700s, not thousands of years ago.

• Belief that “like cures like” – At infinitesimal doses

• No good evidence that it works• No scientific plausibility that it could work

• Ultimately: Very expensive water

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References

• Cullen W. Materia Medica. In: History of Homœopathy: its Origin; its Conflict, Ameke, WE (Eds), Gould & Son, London 1885. p.103.

• Hahnemann, SC. Organon of Medicine, 5th ed, Dudegeon 1833. www.homeopathyhome.com/reference/organon/18.html#53 (Accessed on July 15th, 2012).

• Fishbein M. The Rise and Fall of Homeopathy. In: Fads and Quackery in Healing, Fishbein M (Ed), Blue Ribbon Books, Inc., New York 1932. p.19.

• Brien S, Lewith G, Bryant T. Ultramolecular homeopathy has no observable clinical effects. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled proving trial of Belladonna 30C. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2003; 56:562.

• Walach H, Köster H, Hennig T, Haag G. The effects of homeopathic belladonna 30CH in healthy volunteers -- a randomized, double-blind experiment. J Psychosom Res 2001; 50:155.

• Vickers AJ, van Haselen R, Heger M. Can homeopathically prepared mercury cause symptoms in healthy volunteers? A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial. J Altern Complement Med 2001; 7:141.

• Vickers A, McCarney R, Fisher P, van Haselen R. Can homeopaths detect homeopathic medicines? A pilot study for a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled investigation of the proving hypothesis. Br Homeopath J 2001; 90:126.

• Dantas F, Fisher P, Walach H, et al. A systematic review of the quality of homeopathic pathogenetic trials published from 1945 to 1995. Homeopathy 2007; 96:4.

• Ernst, E. “A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy”. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2002 Dec; 54(6):577-82

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