Homeopathy, Herbalism, Naturopathy, and Medicinal Botany: Part 1

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What is which and which one works? What about Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicine? How do we know what to trust, and how do you know you can trust this site to tell you? What are the limitations to modern science?

To start to answer these questions, first we need to define what these practices are. Homeopathy is a method developed in the 18th century which aimed to treat disease using two main principles: ‘”like cures like” (or, “hair of the dog that bit you”) and dilution makes the medicine stronger [1]. This dilution serves to create an “imprint” or “memory” of the active ingredient in the water, especially when the water no longer contains any of the active ingredient left [2].

Unsurprisingly, the outcomes of patients treated with homeopathy are identical if not slightly worse than those treated with placebos [1]. Water memories are not possible by the way hydrogen bonds with oxygen – impermanently. The molecule structures that make up H2O are constantly breaking and rebuilding, so no long lasting anything exists in water [2]. Even if the original, often toxic, active ingredient is diluted out of existence, companies sometimes use impure or chemical laden water to dilute it with [3]. Some companies use solvents like honey and market it as safe for infants risking harm, or outright poisoning them with the active ingredient itself (most notably, belladonna poisoning) [3].

Homeopathy, when it does appear to make an improvement on symptoms, works via the placebo effect [4]. The placebo effect eases the patient and appears to reduce symptoms simply because the patient expects it to work. The more the patient believes that the treatment will work, the stronger the placebo effect [5]. Typically, placebos are sugar water or saline, which also make up most of the ingredients in homeopathic products [4]. Although the idea of taking sugar pills to cure all that ails us is alluring, there are many problems with treating yourself with the placebo effect:

The effectiveness of homeopathy on the patient’s experience of symptoms is controlled by how much the patient believes it will work, despite evidence that the active ingredient either does nothing or does not exist in the product. This means that, simply, on its own – homeopathy does not work.

But what about all those herbs and plants that are supposed to help a plethora of conditions? Well, that is different – the active ingredient is actually used! Drinking green tea for energy is not homeopathy. Herbalism, Naturopathy, and Medicinal Botany are not homeopathy, but often are lumped in together. I will be writing more about these soon – but they also come with their own pros, cons, and warnings!

If you would like to see evidence with your own eyes, you can test the homeopathic basis of dilution in at home in your kitchen. The idea that diluting a substance makes it more potent is demonstrably false, and as such, I devised an experiment that you so you can verify it for yourself. All you need is some sugar and hot water.

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Dilution Experiment

This experiment will show us if diluting an active ingredient makes it more “potent” treatment. An easy way to test this is to dissolve a substance in water and dilute it. Sugar is a chemical that is easily detected by the human taste buds. It’s job is to make food sweeter. Let’s test if diluting a sugar syrup helps sugar do its job.

Hypothesis:

Diluting sugar will enhance its ability to taste sweet.

Materials:

  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • 1 Cup Water, Hot
  • Additional Water for Dilution
  • Coffee mugs, at least 4
  • Heat safe liquid measuring cup
  • Fork or whisk
  • Paper and a pencil
  • 4 clean spoons
  • Optional: Another person to verify your results
  • Optional: Another 4 clean spoons for second person

Method:

  1. To begin, warm up 1 cup of water to almost boiling. Add 1 cup of sugar to the heat safe measuring cup, and then add the 1 cup of hot water. Stir the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. This creates a 1:1 mixture of sugar to water. Measure the total amount of liquid, it should be close to 2 cups total.
  2. Pour about half of this liquid into a coffee mug, leaving 1 cup of liquid in the liquid measuring cup. Rip off a piece of paper, lay it in front of your mug, and label it 1:1.
  3. Return to your liquid measuring cup, where there should be about 1 cup of 1:1 sugar to water ratio liquid. Add an additional cup of water (room temperature or tap water is fine). Stir the two together. Now, you have about 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 and 1/2 cups water (or 3/2 cups), making this a 1:3 ratio mixture.
  4. Pour about half the mixture in a new coffee mug, leaving 1 cup of liquid in the liquid measuring cup again. Label the mug 1:3 with another small piece of paper.
  5. Repeat the dilution again, stirring in another cup of water. You will now have 1/4 cup sugar (half was poured out!) and 1 and 3/4 cup water. This equates to 1/4 cup sugar to 7/4 cup water, or 1:7. Pour half of this in a new mug, and label it as 1:7.
  6. You are now left with 1/8 cup sugar and 7/8 cup water. Stir in an additional cup of water, leaving you with 1/8 cup sugar to 1 and 7/8 (15/8) cup water, or a 1:15 ratio of sugar to water. Label it as such.
  7. Starting with the 1:15 ratio of sugar to water, use a clean spoon and taste the sugar mixture. Rate the sweetness on a scale of 1 to 10, and write it down next to the ratio, on another sheet of paper.
  8. Repeat this for the rest of the mugs.
  9. Optionally, find a friend, and four more clean spoons. Have your friend repeat steps 7 and 8, and compare your results.
  10. Repeat your experiment – the more data you have, the more accurate your results!

Results: Did the more diluted mugs taste sweeter, or less sweet? Did you and your friend have the same results? Was the 1:1 ratio a little too sweet for your liking? Did the temperature of the water make a difference, or any other environmental factors?

Discussion: The higher the amount of sugar, the sweeter the water should have tasted. Sugar is sweeter when it is more concentrated, the more your tongue tastes, the more the ‘sweet’ signals are sent to your brain, and the more sweetness you experience. This is the typical response.

If that is not what happened, there are a few explanations. There is a possibility that an overload of sugar to your tongue could have influenced the next mug. There is a possibility that the observer wanted the lower sugar ratios to be sweeter. In this case, this is why it is so important to grab a friend and have them verify your results. The less they know about the experiment, the better. This can negate any placebo effect.

Lastly, there are numerous ways that this experiment can be improved. If we wanted to blind the experiment, you would need to prepare the mugs without labeling them, and ask willing volunteers to rate the sweetness without knowing how much sugar is present. To double blind the experiment, the person who asks the volunteers to try the mugs also does not know how much sugar is in each. Each additional step, each additional volunteer, and each additional experiment makes the results more accurate.

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Sources:

  1. Ernst, E. “A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy.” British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology vol. 54,6 (2002): 577-82. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1874503/>
  2. Letzter, Rafi. “What Is ‘Water Memory’? Why This Homeopathy Claim Doesn’t Hold Water” Live Science, 26 December 2017. <https://www.livescience.com/61273-homeopathy-chemistry-water-memory.html>
  3. “Homeopathic Medications for Children Know the Risks and Proper Usage.” National Capital Poison Center, <https://www.poison.org/articles/2014-mar/homeopathic-medications>
  4. Gavura, Scott. “Placebos as Medicine: The Ethics of Homeopathy.” Science-Based Medicine, 9 June 2011. <https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/placebos-as-medicine-the-ethics-of-homeopathy/>
  5. Shiel, William C. Jr., MD, FACP, FACR. “Medical Definition of Placebo Effect.” Medicine Net, 21 December 2018. <https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=31481>