> -----Original Message----- > From: Erika L. Walker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 8:45 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Airborne anyone? > > ?? There arent any "Drugs" in it. It is homeopathic in the sense it's > natural.
Yes - but "Homeopathic" doesn't MEAN "natural"! You've actually touched on two peeves of mine here... but Homeopathy is the big one. ;^) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy http://www.homeowatch.org/ http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holmes.html It's taken on that meaning but Homeopathy is a very specific belief system created in the late 18th century based on the following: 1) "Like cures Like": Symptoms are all that matters. If you have the sniffles you find something gives a healthy person the sniffles (say black pepper). Substances which produce the most disease-like symptoms are best for curing that disease - these can be anything, synthetic or organic. (The word itself is from the Greek words for "similar" and "suffering"). All of this was figured out through simple observational testing: give somebody something and write down the results then correlate later. The original list has grown to huge proportions but much of it is online here: http://homeoint.org/books/boericmm/index.htm There you can find that if you have frequent urges to urinate you should take Alfalfa (take it for stuffed ears, increased thirst, gas and several others as well). Homeopathic remedies for ADHD (using caffine and other stimulants) are on the market as well as remedies for any number of psychological ailments. For example here's the entry for Tiger Lily (good for many "woman's complaints"): http://homeoint.org/books/boericmm/l/lil-t.htm A huge number of remedies are also derived from Mercury: http://homeoint.org/books/boericmm/m/merc.htm I'm not sure I would have liked being a compound tester... 2) To eliminate any negative effects and enhance the positive effects of these "cures" you must dilute them (usually with water but sugar or alcohol are also acceptable) and shake the result. This process is called "potentization" and is very specific: the dilution is one part of remedy to 100 parts of water, repeated many times (so one part of the result gets diluted with 100 parts clear water again and again). Each dilution MUST be mixed by striking the container on some particularly elastic surface (the inventor used saddle leather) exactly 10 times. Each dilution is supposed to strengthen the resulting medicine while eliminating more and more of the negative effects. Remedies are then labled as "C's" - a "2C" solution is diluted twice, a "10C" ten times and so forth. The inventor recommended a 30C solution for prime efficacy but many modern ones go to 200C or higher using automated equipment. Of course statistically by about 11 or 12C there's probably only one molecule of the original substance left... by 30C the chances of even a single molecule left in the result are astronomical. Put another way one milliliter of material diluted to 30C is the same as diluting that one milliliter into a cube of water over 100 lights years long on a side. Basically for a product to be truly "Homeopathic" any scientific analysis MUST show that none of the active ingredient(s) exist in the remedy! Homeopathy may be popular, it may appear on a lot of boxes but it's just plain magical thinking. My second peeve is pretty pedantic but true: just because something's "natural" doesn't mean it's not a drug. Most drugs are completely natural (aspirin and penicillin are "right from the vine" as are many, many others). Any compound that has a physiological effect is considered a "drug". There are a lot of concerns with "natural" remedies: 1) People tend to segment them. Despite the fact that people take these things because they believe they have an effect they don't consider them dangerous or worth reporting to their doctors. Many herbs, for example, cause increased blood flow and can cause the same kind of complications in surgery as aspirin. Many herbs react badly with doctor prescribed drugs (for example St John's Wort has been shown to increase the negative side effects of anti-depressants). 2) People tend to self-medicate and manufacturers tend to be lazy. Since herbal and other "natural" remedies are often sold without specific claims they bypass most of the FDA regulations. Dosages are all over the map and since people think that nothing natural can be bad they often take them more and more often. 3) The lack of regulation also breeds problems. Many herbal remedies are simply badly made: impurities, stale or spoiled product, etc are common. One case in Australia saw several dozen critical cases due to a poisonous mold contaminating a popular supplement. I'm not saying that these remedies are "bad", but they MUST be respected just as any other drug. You should also be skeptical of unproven or anecdotally proven remedies. I chew ginger to help with nausea - it works. But I wouldn't take St. John's Wort for severe depression (despite the claims) since it doesn't. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:253446 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
