We're overdosing a bit on news at the moment, but just to keep you up
with the state of play, the NZ Skeptics and Skeptics in the Pub are
running a homeopathic overdose demonstration in Christchurch this
Saturday (10.30am, Jan 30, in front of the Cathedral in the Square --
come along if you can!).

TV3 should be filming it, so for those of you who can't make it here,
you may see it on the TV3 news that night.

I've appended below the press release we put out about our support
for the UK-based 1023 campaign which is encouraging such
demonstrations to highlight the dangers of pharmacies touting diluted
water as medicine.

Cheers,
Vicki Hyde
Chair-entity

Mass Overdose Planned

On January 30, a concerted global mass overdose will take place, but
no-one will die because the "medication" of choice will be
homeopathic. Homeopathic medicine consists of water or water dripped
onto sugar tablets; the UK-based 1023 campaign aims to highlight that
fact and protest against pharmacies touting such a product as
medicinal.

To mark the occasion, the NZ Skeptics have released a new Skeptics
Guide to Homeopathy, available as a flyer off their website
(http://skeptics.org.nz). It outlines the development of homeopathy
from a relatively harmless attempt to help people some 200 years ago
through to the multi-million industry of today. Throughout that time,
homeopathic practice has held to the idea that diluting substances
many, many, many times makes for a more potent treatment, reinforcing
that with the idea that water somehow "remembers" the health-giving
extracts it once had in it.

"We do have members looking to take part in the overdose, but many
have said that they can´t in all good conscience bring themselves to
buy the stuff in the first place," says NZ Skeptics Chair-entity
Vicki Hyde.

When Billy Joel's daughter attempted to commit suicide last month,
she chose to take an overdose of homeopathic medication, and thus
suffered no ill effects. Hyde points out that while that case was
fortunate, there are many cases where people have been harmed by the
use of homeopathic products in the place of real medicine.

"We´ve got a Coronor´s Court record of the death of a baby from
meningitis; it had been treated with homeopathic ear drops and the
mother was very reluctant for any hospital admission. And the website
whatstheharm.net lists many cases from around the world where people
have died or had horrible outcomes as a result of a mistaken reliance
on homeopathy."

Hyde has seen concerns raised about the increasing numbers of New
Zealand pharmacies -- "the health professionals you see most often" --
selling homeopathic preparations and even homeopathic first aid
kits, alongside other alternative health offerings.

"I try to ignore the herbs of dubious quality, the effusive claims
for magnetic bracelets, the offers to feel my feet to see what ails
me - all those things which seem a core part of pharmacy stock and
trade. I do wonder about the business and medical ethics though.
After all, what's worse - a pharmacist who apparently can't
distinguish between tested, regulated medicines and the hope-and-
hokum variety; or the pharmacist who does know the claims are not
founded and doesn't care because such stuff sells?"

Such dubious practices became a particular concern when an Auckland
pharmacy began selling homeopathic "meningococcal vaccine" and
"hepatitis B vaccine". Even some in the homeopathic trade protested
against that misleading labelling.

Over the past 30 years, a large number of studies have compared
homeopathic treatments with placebos (materials known to have no
effect on the condition being treated). These have shown consistently
that there are no benefits to homeopathy beyond the psychological
value of the placebo effect where people feel better because they
think they are getting treatment. Additionally, many of the
conditions allegedly treated by homeopathy are ones which
spontaneously improve.

Hyde is concerned that homeopaths rarely explain their odd beliefs to
their clientele. Most people, she contends, would think twice about a
product that claimed greater strength through dilution to the point
where no active substance was present any more.

"After all, you´d be dubious if someone said they´d make you a stiff
gin and tonic and then proceeded to add a Pacific Ocean of tonic to a
drop of gin - that´s the sort of dilution homeopaths use. Selling
these preparations allows for a huge mark-up, and any responses are
credited to the preparation, rather than the placebo effect. It´s a
win-win for the industry, particularly with very little regulatory
oversight or consumer come-back."

Hyde notes that society has fought long and hard for a patient´s
right to informed consent, for ethical standards for health
practitioners and for evidence-based medicine that does not rely on
deception or luck to work effectively.

"We should demand those standards be met by the alternative health
industry and then they could truly claim to be producing medicines."

For more information:

1023: Homeopathy, there´s nothing in it
http://www.1023.org.uk/

Homeopathy flyer:
http://skeptics.org.nz/download/flyhomeop.pdf




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NZ Skeptics Inc
Box 29-492, Christchurch http://www.skeptics.org.nz