# Homeopathy question **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 14, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092 "2016-01-14T00:43:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/21 "2016-01-14T22:52:46Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > And it’s quite effective that way. We had to purposely dilute the pool of posters until we arrived at that point. That just makes the homeopathic powers of this board stronger. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/22 "2016-01-14T23:26:30Z")
Thanks for the replies fellas, it really is one of those ideas you wonder how in the hell it ever got off the ground without being laughed out of town. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > The OP will probably want to run out and buy [this poster](http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/wp-content/blogs.dir/445/files/2012/04/i-92a672cd86da55e00adcceb730bdb501-Homeopathy.jpg). 😃 Love it. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/23 "2016-01-14T23:32:36Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uZK6mLY2Hfg/hqdefault.jpg "James Randi - Homeopathy (EN/NL subtitles)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZK6mLY2Hfg) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/24 "2016-01-15T00:53:38Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Thanks for the replies fellas, it really is one of those ideas you wonder how in the hell it ever got off the ground without being laughed out of town. . . . I can actually groove on the basic philosophical idea. You’ve got a fever? Okay, let’s give you a mild dose of a medicine that causes fevers. It’ll heat up your fever a little, because obviously your body wants/needs to be hot to get well. You’re pooping like a fire hydrant? We’ll give you something to loosen up your bowels a little, to help your body do what it clearly needs to be doing. It isn’t insane to think about. You’re just helping the body with its natural process of healing. It becomes stupid when it’s examined scientifically. When you take samples of patients and give some a homeopathic treatment, and the others an allopathic treatment – medicines that work against the symptoms – fever-reducing meds and meds that fight against diarrhea – and then see which group gets well fastest. That’s homeopathy’s glaring, raging, burning sin. It fucking does not work! ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/25 "2016-01-15T01:17:14Z")
Another homeopathy joke: [And now: a homeopathy joke @ Things Of Interest](http://qntm.org/joke) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/26 "2016-01-15T01:42:27Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Dunno how many homeopathic practitioners we have here, probably zero, but hopefully someone is familiar enough with it to explain this one to me. > > Right, so my understanding is that homeopathy’s basic idea is that water has ‘memory’, it can remember what has been put in it and amplifies its properties based on how diluted it is. > > So…I don’t wanna get too base, but if this idea is valid, aren’t we all drinking sewage? Given the amount of poo and pee that has been in water, it goes into the water treatment plant, evaporates, rains into the reservoir, dilution upon dilution… > > What’s their explanation for why 1:10000000 etc. dilutions of ‘medicines’ the water remembers, but not all the shite? My belief is related to quantum theory and Schrödinger’s cat analogy. It is intent that matters (one must look at the cat to determine it’s state, that the act of observing is needed, in other words ‘intent’). In that is it intent that is part of how it works and why it is different. The basic concept as I take it is that usually a irritant or toxin is combined with water or alcohol or other solvent. That gets entangles with the solvent. Because it is strongly and intentionally introduced pretty much all the water gets entangled with it. This overwhelms any other stuff the water encountered in it’s lifetime. By diluting it you are diluting the toxin but not the entanglement, the entanglement grows (as the entangled solvent entangles itself with new solvent) as the toxin dilutes away eventually to (practically) zero. The initial concentration insures that the this entanglement is far stronger then any other substances the water has encountered, and the intent that this happens also comes into play, the intent that this substance is the one that gets entangled is why it is what happens. As the toxin is diluted to effectively zero, there can be no harm, however the entangled water does act as if that substance is present so your body should act as if that substance is present but no harmful effects can happen. As I take it. YM(is free to)V ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/27 "2016-01-15T01:48:38Z")
If intent is all that matters (and if it actually worked) then what you would be describing is “practicing magic.” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/28 "2016-01-15T02:48:12Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > My belief is related to quantum theory and Schrödinger’s cat analogy. And my belief is that you seem not to understand either [Quantum Mechanics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics) or the [Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat) ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/29 "2016-01-15T18:06:50Z")
I suppose that soon homeopaths will start watering down Roundup to treat all the things the woo crowd claims glyphosate causes. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/30 "2016-01-15T19:18:11Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Thanks for the replies fellas, it really is one of those ideas you wonder how in the hell it ever got off the ground without being laughed out of town. Well, 200 years ago giving someone a cure of basically pure water was probably better for them than most medical procedures of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/31 "2016-01-15T19:25:50Z")
[quote=“drachillix, post:23, topic:743092”] [/QUOTE] That is a great talk by James Randi about homeopathetic "medicine"-thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092/32 "2016-01-15T22:33:25Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Thanks for the replies fellas, it really is one of those ideas you wonder how in the hell it ever got off the ground without being laughed out of town. > > Well, 200 years ago giving someone a cure of basically pure water was probably better for them than most medical procedures of the day. I have been told, though do not know if it is accurate, that at the time, the (throwing up) sick were not generally allowed food, but an early proponent allowed his patients to eat and they actually did do better than the other patients. Certainly, I had a teacher in high school (1990s) that was in her 60s that told me that when her grandmother was a child, several of the children in the family got sick. They were not given food. She’d sneak down after the parents were asleep and skim soup off the top of the pot to eat because she was hungry. So it apparently was a done thing by some people at least. She was the only one of the sick kids to survive. Can’t remember what the teacher said the illness was though. Also, I don’t know that it was really that popular even back then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeopathy-question/743092.md?page=1)