New Year, New Targets

Just briefly before I get started, I apologize for my absence in the last few months, hopefully that shouldn't happen again, as working on a few things to keep a constant, and perhaps increased flow of content coming to the site.

Homeopathy. This is a subject that has been a personal thorn in my side since I learned exactly just what it is. Homeopathy, at least in my experience, is something that not a lot of people are exactly sure what it is. Most people I've asked seem to think it is just another name for naturopathy, or some form of herbal medicine. And while I do have issues with these other types of treatments, at least they can claim to be working with real, tangible substances.

To bring it down to its essence, homeopathy is nothing more than magical water. It's based on the idea that the more you dilute a substance in water, the more powerful the medicinal properties of that substance become. Think about that one for a second. And the dilutions I'm talking about are minuscule. To borrow an example from Richard Dawkins, if you were to dilute a substance to it's recommended homeopathic ratio, one dose of medicine would contain as much active ingredient equivalent to a drop of water in all the oceans of the world. Tap water more likely contains more of any active homeopathic ingredient than the most expensive proscribed tincture.

If common sense isn't enough to convince you that homeopathy is nothing more than magical thinking, then there is also the rather overwhelming amount of scientific evidence that show that homeopathic treatments have no effect on patients whatsoever, with the possible exception of the placebo effect.

Now I have no problem if a person wants to drink magic water in the hopes of a cure for whatever is ailing them. The problem I have is that valuable resources are being wasted on this thoroughly debunked group delusion. Resources that could be so much better spent in the pursuit of real medical research.

My advice to anyone thinking of pursuing a homeopathic remedy for some ailment, find out how much a homeopathic doctor would charge you for that treatment. Take that money and instead donate it to an organization that deals in funding proper research for your illness. Then stay at home, scrunch your eyes up really tight and hope really really hard that you'll get better. At least my way you might actually achieve some good for somebody...