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  1. Naked Science Forum
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  3. Complementary Medicine
  4. Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
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Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?

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Offline SorryDnoodle

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Re: Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
« Reply #20 on: 11/01/2014 10:19:22 »
Quote from: CliffordK on 02/01/2014 19:22:34
Your posts about homeopathy appear to be very biased.

Say you go to your local coffee shop and get a shot of espresso...  It is dilute.  You begin with a coffee bean.  Roast it.  Grind it up.  Then press boiling water through it.  Then drink the black sludge extracted from it (often further diluted with milk).  Is it the same thing as eating raw coffee beans?  Probably not.  Does it have Caffeine (as the active ingredient in it)?  Most certainly. 


All true, but if you dilute coffee to just a few molecules and the rest water and/or milk it would't taste anything and would be pointless, just like giving someone a few molecules of penicillin would not cure them of a nasty bacterial infection.

Coffee that we drink contain way more than that, and comparing homeopathy "medicine" to making coffee is silly.
It is merely a placebo effect, which is quite silly to begin with but that is another story.
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Offline Redcat

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Re: Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
« Reply #21 on: 29/08/2014 10:20:32 »
We shouldn't take homeopathy as a part of biochemistry: homeopathy is not a herbal medicine by any means. I think homeopathy is more related to information technology rather than biochemistry. Computer's hard drive magnet retains information even when electric power is disconnected, but nobody calls this 'witchcraft'. Why is this label stuck to homeopathy?
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Offline dlorde

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Re: Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
« Reply #22 on: 09/09/2014 17:28:40 »
Quote from: Redcat on 29/08/2014 10:20:32
We shouldn't take homeopathy as a part of biochemistry: homeopathy is not a herbal medicine by any means. I think homeopathy is more related to information technology rather than biochemistry. Computer's hard drive magnet retains information even when electric power is disconnected, but nobody calls this 'witchcraft'. Why is this label stuck to homeopathy?
Care to explain what you mean? what does homeopathy have to do with IT? who calls homeopathy witchcraft?
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Offline precisioncomponents

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Re: Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
« Reply #23 on: 24/12/2014 01:50:32 »
Quote from: dlorde on 03/01/2014 16:51:24
Quote from: CliffordK on 02/01/2014 21:10:31
Calculating molecules based on moles doesn't really tell one much.
Most medicines have recommended doses, safe doses, effective doses, potencies, and etc.

One might take a dose of 1000 mg of Aspirin, but only 75 mg of Ketoprofen for a similar effect due to different potencies.

You may be able to get a similar analgesic effect by boiling willow bark and making willow bark tea.  Of course, salicylic acid or salicin isn't quite the same as acetylsalicylic acid, dosage is hard to control, and one there are many other ingredients that may not be desired.

Like Aspirin, many of our modern medicines are derived from natural plant or organism extracts.  Penicillin is derived from a mold.  Coumadin is also derived from a different mold.  Digitalis is derived from Foxglove.  Of course, in western medicine, one generally uses purified, and sometimes moderately modified active ingredients which are rigorously controlled.
You seem to be talking about herbal medicine rather than homeopathy. Homeopathy deals in extreme dilutions (a typical 30C dilution is 1 in 1060, equivalent to a dilution of one molecule in a sphere of water with a diameter of 150million km) and claims that efficacy increases with dilution. A 55C dilution is equivalent to one molecule in a universe-sized pool, but they go up to 200C...

[stats from 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre]

You seem to be talking about homeopathy,Homeopathy a birth, it was Western attack that homeopathic dilutions of drugs is not a drug, but a placebo. Homeopathy spread to the United States after the American tradition of Western establishment of the "American Western Society", the main purpose of the establishment of the Institute is to declare war and homeopathic medicine.
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Offline dlorde

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Re: Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
« Reply #24 on: 24/12/2014 17:37:41 »
Quote from: precisioncomponents on 24/12/2014 01:50:32
You seem to be talking about homeopathy,Homeopathy a birth, it was Western attack that homeopathic dilutions of drugs is not a drug, but a placebo. Homeopathy spread to the United States after the American tradition of Western establishment of the "American Western Society", the main purpose of the establishment of the Institute is to declare war and homeopathic medicine.
I'm sorry PC, I have no idea what you're saying; that post reads like it's been through Google translate once too often...
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Offline BS detector

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Re: Homeopathy: How do i calculate the number of molecules in a medicine?
« Reply #25 on: 16/03/2016 19:48:26 »
In a few weeks a fellow skeptic and I will commit drug induced suicide on air. I will consume nux vomica, all 250 tabs, 30x. I'll also take belladonna tablets, all 250 tabs at 30x and wash it all down with Allergena. I've offered a $10k bet I live. Any takers? Nux vomica? Strychnine. Belladonna? Atropine
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