A lot of the posts on this blog are looking at homeopathy and its harms. I've been working on the basis that most people that read this blog have a knowledge of what it is and how it differs from, say, herbal medicines. However, on speaking to a lot of people, it would seem that it is worth reiterating what it actually is, as this really helps to put into context the sort of harms that might be caused by it.
The ingredients of a homeopathic medicine are beyond a 12 C or 24 X dilution are as follows:
- Sugar
- Water.
That's it. That's all it is. Homeopathic medicines are so highly diluted that by the time the pills are made, there is essentially no probability of it having any molecules of the "active" ingredient in it at all.
So, although homeopathic medicines are made from all sorts of things- plant materials, heavy metals, conventional medicines, dolphin sonar, body part, tumours, ducks, exhaust fumes, the light reflected from Saturn etc, there is none of these ingredients actually present in the final formulation- the pill or tincture that you take. It probably hasn't even been within a mile of the remedy listed on the pack.
If you didn't know this already, you're now probably thinking 'Eh? What are they playing at? How on earth is that supposed to work?!" Well this website is probably the best one to tell you that:
How Does Homeopathy Work?
Herbal medicines are different. They are made from plants or plant extracts, and they haven't been subjected to the dilution process- in other words, there are high enough levels of pharmacologically active component in them to mean that they could-at least theoretically- work
Lake Superior as a homeopathic solution
A good way to illustrate what I mean about homeopathy is to use Lake Superior as an example.
At its longest, Lake Superior is 360 miles, and it is 160 miles at its widest point. Let's say we filled Lake Superior with a 30C Nat Mur (salt) solution.
Lake Superior holds 12,000 km3 of water.
In this volume of a 30C solution, there would be 40080 molecules of sodium chloride (salt).
40080 molecules = 0.000,000,000,000,000,003,89 grams of salt.
1 grain of salt weighs approx 0.064799 grams
If Lake Superior were a 30C Nat Mur solution, it would a teeny, tiny fraction of one grain of salt.
