I am interested in this as a homeopathic treatment for sinusitus.
I have been trying to do some research with only limited success.
I have learned a great deal, but still don’t know where it comes from.
How’s it made? In what does it occur naturally?
Anyone out there happen to know the answers to these questions?
My searches are getting results but not of this nature.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
I assume you mean potassium dichromate:
K[sub]2[/sub]Cr[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]7[/sub]
since potassium bichromate:
K[sub]4/sub[sub]2[/sub]
makes no sense. Potassium dichromate is an oxidizing agent and a relatively minor (though meausurable) mutagen and carcinogen. It’s a bright yellow color, and tends to stain things green (which is due to the reduced form of chromium, Cr(IV)). Several oxidation states of chromium are quite toxic as well, and I wouldn’t want to mess with them. Generally, you want to PREVENT things from oxidizing in your body, as opposed to CAUSING them to oxidize, so I wouldn’t imagine why you would want to ingest it. Chemically, it would have about the same effect as drinking Chlorox. It’s often used in chemical fuses, sometimes used to start solid state oxidation/reduction reactions. A useful chemical, but I can’t imagine its medicinal uses… As far as anything else about it, I’m not sure. It’s probably not naturaly occuring, but it’s probably fairly easy to make. Go down to your local library and look it up in a Merck Index or a CRC Handbook. Both are very handy chemistry guides.
My suggestion is that you take a few introductory chemistry courses at a local university BEFORE you ingest anything that sounds like it might be dangerous. A little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but a lot of understanding can save your life.
The only way I would touch this stuff is if I were to follow the original methods of Homeopathy, where you create a series of dilutions, whacking the tank each time to get the molecules vibrating in unison. After a few steps you have, basically, zero parts per trillion of your original poison. But the water is buzzing with its vibrations.
The reason true Homeopathy worked one hundred years ago is because its practitioners ate healthy food and drank plain water that was disguised as medicine. Not beer, coffee, or whisky. Just extremely dilute solutions of the “medicines” that everybody else was taking at full strength and washing down with booze.
Homeopathic medicines that you find in stores today are for suckers. They cost more than the purified, manufactured forms in conventional medicines, in doses that are approximate at best. And many of the “medicines” have absolutely no basis in medical fact. Natural does not always mean better. And there is nothing natural about potasium dichromate. Its use belongs more on threads about blowing things up.
elbows
I don’t think I’d mess with the stuff after reading what jayron 32 said about it - especially his observation; Generally, you want to PREVENT things from oxidizing in your body, as opposed to CAUSING them to oxidize.
Somehow, that sounds like rational thought to me. Check with your doctor and get some antibiotics for your sinus condition.
Using that stuff as medication sounds suspiciously like when they used Mercury to treat VD lesions with.
Potassium bichromate, potassium dichromate, and red potassium chromate are all synonyms for the same poison, K[sub]2[/sub]Cr[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]7[/sub]. According to The condensed Cheimcial Dictionary Reinhold Publishing Corporation, it is derived by
The Merck Index 8th edition
I wouldn’t put anything in my nose that could destroy my mucous membranes, perforate my septum or cause lung cancer.
Thank you all for your input. Let me assure you I have no intention of just popping little of this poison!
No, no, I was just doing a little investigating. Thanks for your concern though. People with chronic conditions are always investigating new things. Once you’ve subjected yourself to surgery in search of relief other options don’t seem all that out of the realm of possibility. I’ve checked into many other things which I never ended up trying. This is sounding like one.
It is a really, really diluted version, and while it is a poison, many of the pharmacueticals I currentlly take are also poisons.
Not to worry , I’m not sold on it yet, still looking into it.
I do really appreciate all the information you have provided me with, {my background is arts, not science} so I need all the help I can get.
I’ve been working with Potassium Bichromate in a photographic process for many years. Photographers (who are chemists at heart, although sloppy, untrained ones) tend to refer to this chemical as either bichromate or dichromate, interchangably and with equal meaning.
When I first learned the bichromate printing process 25 years ago, I was told that the chemicals were nontoxic and safe handling would not even require gloves. Now I know better. In more recent times, the dangers of chemicals used in artist’s processes has become more strictly regulated, Material Safety Data Sheets are familiar to all artists, and here is a link to the MSDS for Potassium Dichromate:
http://chem-courses.ucsd.edu/CoursePages/Uglabs/MSDS/potassium.dichromate.-fisher.html
This chemical is EXTREMELY toxic, and contains chromium, one of the MOST toxic metals. Even extremely small dosages of chromium can accumulate in the body and build to toxic or fatal levels.
Do NOT ingest this chemical, even in highly diluted “homeopathic” concentrations. Just DON’T do it!!
As a chemist, i would definitely echo the sentiments of those before me, chromium, particularly chromium (VI) are often quite toxic. However, chemical warnings are often vastly overstated. For example, look in a typical chemical catalogue, eg Aldrich, Sand, white quartz: CANCER SUSPECT AGENT. Really?
“Sand, white quartz: CANCER SUSPECT AGENT. Really?”
Yes indeed. At least in California. The last time I bought sand for my kids’ sandbox I’m pretty sure the bag had a label on it declaring that according to California laws it had to be labeled as a possible health hazard and/or possible carcinogen. (They save on overall health expenditures in California by having the State legislators, working in their spare time, decide what chemicals cause cancer. This saves the expense of hiring expensive consultants with fancy degrees in chemistry or some health-related field.)
“Using that stuff as medication sounds suspiciously like when they used Mercury to treat VD lesions with.”
I’m not so sure. I think there is a difference. As I recall, the mercury compounds that used to be used, although toxic, did have some antisyphilitic activity.
Okay I’ll try and explain the thinking.
Y’know how hyperactive kids take Ritalin, that it’s a stimulant yet in these over stimulated children it has an opposite effect. This is not the only instance of this, though it’s the only one I can think of right now.
I have serious and chronic sinus problems for which I have seen many doctors, even had a nose job on a Dr’s suggestion. (And it would have been worth it too if only it had worked! Of course, I do breathe a lot better.) And I am not alone, I have been assured by every doctor I’ve seen that lots of other people suffer from such a condition, and many never find any relief.
Someone recommended this to me and I began to do some searching. I read a lot of stuff, pro and con, and while I’m not convinced either way I am intrigued by the possibility. The doctors have certainly showed a perverse willingness to just write prescriptions and investigate no further. I’ve never been happy with that attitude. And besides, I have demanded an active/challenging life.
I was aware, when I posted, that it was a deadly poison, but was curious as all my reading hasn’t yet told me where they get this from, an omission I found telling.
Thanks for all your input, I will consider carefully all of your words.
And you have provided me a wealth of other things to look into.