Homeopathy Explained

I recently posted an article about homeopathy at www.humanbrainfitness.com and although I think this exposes homeopathy as a ridiculous concept, still many of us don’t really understand what homeopathy is, or why it is ridiculous. The idea behind homeopathy is that water maintains a memory, or an indentation in the form of a shadow if you will, of a substance that was once next to it. A water molecule will for example remember the molecule of ipecac that was placed next to it. Therefore, after many serial dilutions we are left with water that no longer contains any of the original treatment molecule (ipecac). Homeopathic practitioners will claim that the greater the dilution the greater the effectiveness of the treatment.

 

If we are to entertain this concept of homeopathy then some rather simple and logical questions readily come to mind.

Q: If instead of a homeopathic dose, you accidently gave the patient pure water, would you overdose them?

Q: Why does water only remember the molecule you choose? Wouldn’t it also remember molecules of feces and urine? Given that water has been on the planet for around 4 billion years, would it have 4 billion years of memories? Does water remember dinosaur feces being next to it?

 

Now for some logic. Let’s say that a homeopathy solution that is proposed is a 300C dilution and a practitioner suggests that it is not only the memory of the proposed treatment molecule but the molecule itself (ipecac) in trace amounts that is responsible for the effectiveness of the therapy. In a 1X solution you would have 1 mole, or Avogadro’s number of molecules (6.022 141 79(30)×10²³ mol^–1 ), in the sample. By diluting the sample 300X we would be left with a sample that is basically pure water. In other words, the probability that the sample you purchase would have a single molecule of the original Avogadro’s number of molecules would be extremely low. For example, in order to make a 1C dilution we would take 10mL of a 1X solution and add it to 90mL to make 100mL. Now repeat this process 300 times: 1M, to 0.1M, to 0.01M to 0.001M to 0.0001M… ok, you get the idea. In homeopathy these simple serial dilutions are called “potentisation” in order to make it sound more scientific.

  

Another reason why homeopathy simply makes no sense is the presence of isomeric compounds. Most of you are probably aware that in nature molecules exist in two isoforms that are mirror images of each other. It seems a general rule (with many exceptions) that the l-isoform is the most active in nature (e.g., l-tryptophan, l-tyrosine, l-alanine etc…). However the d-isoform is just as prevalent as the l-isoform. Some molecules used as drugs have either the l-, d- or even dl-isomers present in their chemical make-up. My question is why do water molecules only remember the isomeric structures that are relevant? Wouldn’t water molecules have equal memory of both isomers? If the memory is formed by the creation of a shadow of the molecule in question, is this shadow in the shape of the d-isomer for an l-isomeric molecule? How does this reverse shadow structure function to alleviate the condition in the patient? I don’t pose this question as a real scientific conundrum, but instead to point out just how ridiculous the whole concept of homeopathy and the memory of water molecules really is.

 

Another point that really makes me laugh out loud is that those that promote homeopathic treatments always claim that one of the key benefits of their “medicine” is that there are no side effects like those harmful drugs. Really, there are no side effects from taking pure water? I’m shocked! What is perhaps most shocking is that people like you and I would actually be foolish enough to part with a single penny of our money to purchase this ridiculous pseudoscientific snake-oil.  

 

~ by hbfarmstrong on March 13, 2009.