On Feb 3, 3:34*pm, "Existential Angst"
wrote:

Heh, cute, Avogadro's number.....

I'm not a big fan of the shennanigans that go on in homeopathy (and
chiropractic), but you should know that homeopathy is at least rooted in
science, and reputable chiropractic is a god-sent therapy.


Hormones, PGs, et al *have powerful effects in concentrations as low as
10^-12 molar, poss. even 10^-13 -- which are dilutions that are hard to even
comprehend. *True, not 10^-23, but even 10^-7 *(1 part per 10,000,000) is
homeopathic, imo.

So homeopathic tinctures could indeed have legitimate and meaningful
effects.
I think the real problem is that there are just too many variables to really
know what's what.

And let's put it another way:

Whatever fraud you can cite and document in various alternative health
modalities -- and I'm sure these are legion -- you can cite 100 times that
in Big Med and Big Pharm, fueled by Big Lobbyists in Big Corrupt Congress..
With the dollar value of the hustles in Big Med/Big Pharm dwarfing that of
alternative medicine by factors of 1,000,000s. *Yes indeedy, FACTORS of
millions.


EA


Okay you understand Avogadro'sl number. So what do you think about a
medicine that is diluted to one part to 100^200? See below.

Oscillococcinum, a 200C product "for the relief of colds and flu-like
symptoms," involves "dilutions" that are even more far-fetched. Its
"active ingredient" is prepared by incubating small amounts of a
freshly killed duck's liver and heart for 40 days. The resultant
solution is then filtered, freeze-dried, rehydrated, repeatedly
diluted, and impregnated into sugar granules. If a single molecule of
the duck's heart or liver were to survive the dilution, its
concentration would be 1 in 100200. This huge number, which has 400
zeroes, is vastly greater than the estimated number of molecules in
the universe (about one googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeroes).
In its February 17, 1997, issue, U.S. News & World Report noted that
only one duck per year is needed to manufacture the product, which had
total sales of $20 million in 1996. The magazine dubbed that unlucky
bird "the $20-million duck."

I think that Homopathic medicines ought to be held to the same
standards as any other medicine. That is they would have to prove
that it has some effect.

Dan