Homeopathy Protests Outside Boots
It would appear that today there are to be protests outside Boots because of their stocking of homeopathic remedies. I like the fact that the protest is being organised by the Merseyside Skeptics Society.
The protest will take the form of a mass overdose on homeopathic remedies. As they contain nothing but sugar and water, the only result might be a small amount of weight gain.
Clare Balding on Radio 5 then talked about arnica to a jockey. Now arnica is not a homeopathic remedy but a natural one. I have given it to horses in the past and it helps stop bruising during castration. But it is only diluted to the same sort of levels as a cough syrup, not to the parts per billion billions that you get with homeopathy. As I said in an e-mail to Clare.
Arnica, of which the active ingredient is helenalin, is a natural remedy, which is partially understood scientifically. Aspirin and many other drugs, have similar natural roots. These have absolutely nothing to do with homeopathy. Natural remedies are valid treatments and work, the others are beloved of snake-oil salesmen and are just to relieve fools of their money.
One has to question Boots decision to sell these quack cures, especially as they admitted to the House of Commons that there is no evidence that they work.
But anybody who has investigated them properly knows that too. But think how many snake-oil salesmen would be put out of business, if this was the general belief.
The Anonymous Widower 