We breed suckers according to Hahnemann
Even a court decision won't make homeopathy work!
It seems that in recent years the number of memes about homeopathy has grown exponentially. Funny videos are being shot about this alternative medicine and even songs are being sung. And popularizers of science write articles about homeopathy – however, sometimes texts become a cause for scandal. The publication of the winner of the "Educator" Prize Asi Kazantseva, which appeared in the publication "Around the World", led to the fact that the "National Council for Homeopathy" decided to sue the magazine. This unpleasant story, however, has already brought a lot of joy to the affected parties (that is, Ace and the publication).: the article "Dissolved Magic" entered the "top 10" in terms of the number of views among all the articles in the "science" section on the site, and sales of Asina's book "Someone is wrong on the Internet" increased. "The Streisand effect is such a Streisand effect," the main character of the scandal wrote on her Facebook page.
The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, November 30. On the same day, "Around the World" decided to hold an event ironically called "Homeopathy. Judgment Day." Four horsemen of the "doomsday" lecturers – biologist Alexander Panchin, internist Alexey Vodovozov, Doctor of Medical Sciences Vasily Vlasov and Asya herself were invited to speak at the event. "The program also includes a homeopathic buffet, where you can have a hearty drink and then legally get behind the wheel. And remember: even a court decision will not make homeopathy work!" – representatives of "Around the World" assured.
A united front against obscurantism.
Alexander Panchin, Asya Kazantseva, Alexey Vodovozov, Sergey Apresov and Vasily Vlasov.
"Right ideas are called science, wrong ideas are called magic"
The event began in the evening – by that time the whole enlightened public already knew that the court postponed the consideration of the "homeopathic" case to December 20. Five minutes before the start of the lectures, the seating in the hall ran out, and all the guests who did not come in advance had to huddle against the walls. Soon the moderator of the event, the editor–in-chief of the magazine "Around the World" Sergey Apresov came on stage, who invited the first lecturer - Alexander Panchin, who recently received the Enlightener Award.
The biologist, whom Apresov introduced as a "famous fighter against obscurantism," told the audience about "magical thinking." The speaker began his speech with the definition of "sympathetic magic", which operates according to two principles: similarity and contact. Because of the principle of contact, we do not want the packaging of cookies in the grocery basket to touch the packaging of gaskets, and because of the principle of similarity, we believe in the myth "We are what we eat". The audience, confident that the influence of sympathetic magic is alien to them, the biologist suggested presenting the following picture: you are being poured a very tasty soup, but you will have to eat it from a chamber pot. From the remarks that rang out in the hall, it became clear that the imaginary soup immediately ceased to seem appetizing.
In homeopathy, both principles of sympathetic magic merge together: the magic of contact (infinite dilution) is combined with the rule "treat like like". Alexander Punchin ended his speech with a quote from James Fraser, a British anthropologist who first spoke about sympathetic magic in his 12-volume work The Golden Bough:
"Since ancient times, man has been involved in the search for general laws of nature in order to benefit from them for himself. And in this long search, he discovered a huge number of rules, some of which are gold, others are nothing more than slag. Right ideas are called science, wrong ideas are called magic."
Tarantula for hyperactive children
Then Alexey Vodovozov came on stage, whom the editor-in-chief of "Around the World" mistakenly presented as another winner of the "Enlightener" Award. "Not yet!" the speaker corrected Sergei Apresov (however, the words of the presenter may be prophetic – not so long ago the doctor released the book "Patient Reasonable", which instantly became a bestseller).
"It is not quite right to start the history of homeopathy with Samuel Hahnemann," Alexey Vodovozov began his lecture. According to the speaker, the Saxon might not have come to his ideas if not for "Materia medica", a pharmacological treatise by the Scottish physician William Cullen. It contained, among other things, a description of quinine. This substance, extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, was used to treat influenza (influenza) and intermittent fever (malaria). Hahnemann tried a large dose of quinine and found himself with symptoms very similar to an infection: fever, chills, redness of the skin. But an overdose of this active substance is well known today and looks different: tinnitus, dizziness, insomnia, that is, the picture is a little different. What did Hahnemann have? Idiosyncrasy to quinine, that is, its intolerance, says Alexey Vodovozov, stressing, however, that this is his personal assumption, which is unlikely to ever be confirmed. Idiosyncrasy to quinine occurs in about 5% of people and is characterized by just the symptoms that the founder of homeopathy discovered. It turns out that a whole alternative current grew out of the paradoxical reaction to a normal medicine, because it was this story with quinine that strengthened Hahnemann's belief in the existence of the principle of similarity.
In general, this is more of a religious and philosophical system than a direction in scientific medicine, the speaker noted, noting that even Hahnemann's main work is compared by his admirers to Holy Scripture: "Organon for a homeopath is like the Bible for a Christian. Homeopathy should recognize the Organon as the foundation and foundation of its therapy." This is exactly what was stated in 1960 at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the "Organon of Medical Art". This teaching is based on three pillars: the principle of similarity, the principle of proving and the principle of breeding.
Alexey dwelt in more detail on the "principle of similarity", saying that, for example, in the "clinical cases" of homeopaths, there is such an absurd example from the point of view of common sense: if a hyperactive child comes to the reception, he should prescribe medicine from a tarantula (because the tarantula also jumps). Alexey complained that now homeopathic medicines are sold over-the-counter and in the family medicine cabinet there can easily be a homeopathic remedy for burns, which is used to treat children. "And when homeopathy penetrates into oncology, then I'm ready to go on stage and say all sorts of bad things about homeopaths," Alexey concluded his speech. The last slide of the speaker, by the way, was a photo of white balls with the inscription: "Don't let yourself get divorced."
Moonlight against worms and insults
The third was the "hero of the occasion" Asya Kazantseva. At the beginning of the lecture, Asya gave an example of the only case when homeopathy saved a person's life. We are talking about singer Alexa Ray Joel, who broke up with her boyfriend and decided to die from an overdose of painkillers. Fortunately, the painkiller turned out to be homeopathic and nothing happened to the girl.
Then the author of the "defendant" article shared what funny homeopathic medicines can be purchased in pharmacies. For example, on one homeopathic Odessa website, Asya read about the medicine "Moonlight". "This drug is made like this: you take milk sugar and mix it with a spatula under the moonlight… Max Fry had something about it, but he writes fantastic books," the lecturer noted. By the way, according to homeopaths, with the help of "Moonlight", it is possible to fight worms, treat epilepsy, nightmarish dreams, resentment in relationships with a spouse and even "acute pain in the big toe of the left foot".
Separately, Asya mentioned nosodes – homeopathic preparations made from pathologically altered human tissues. For example, from pus or tuberculous sputum. The area of application of nosodes deserves special attention – in particular, the nosode of syphilis is recommended for expressed interest in death, and the nosode of tuberculosis is the best suited for fear of black dogs. "That is, a homeopath will find out from you whether you are afraid of death or black dogs, and depending on the answers, he will choose a medicine for you," Asya summed up.
"The moral is this: the effect of homeopathy has not been found"
Vasily Vlasov was the last to enter the stage. At the beginning of the lecture, the Doctor of Medical Sciences spoke about the types of alternative medicine that were invented centuries ago and, unfortunately, are still being used. For example, they are still being treated with poisonous mercury compounds, and some people continue to drill their heads "for medical purposes." "Homeopathy is no exception in the field of alternative medicine," Vlasov explained. "But we need to determine whether homeopathy works and whether it can be measured."
According to the lecturer, the only way to understand whether a drug is effective or not is to conduct a double–blind controlled experiment. In addition, it is necessary to conduct meta-analyses of registered studies that help to understand whether the drug works. "Until the 90s, very few benign clinical trials were conducted in relation to homeopathy," the professor said. – And then homeopaths themselves began to conduct clinical trials. But when scientists did a meta-analysis of their tests, it turned out that most of them were of very poor quality."
"The moral is this: the effect of homeopathy has not been found. And if the effect is not found, then, from the point of view of a sober–minded person, it is not worth being treated with such drugs," the doctor concluded.
How to deal with homeopaths
When the lecture part was over, all the speakers took the stage and announced that they were ready to answer the audience's questions. Considering that more than 250 people gathered in the hall, there were a lot of questions. They asked about different things: why homeopathy seems to help some people; are there any cases when adherents of alternative medicine have been sued for poor-quality medical care? One of the viewers asked how it is possible to jointly counteract homeopaths who have not only turned "dummies" into a huge business, but also open departments and teach courses at respected universities. Answering this question, Alexander Panchin said that the Commission on Combating Pseudoscience is just preparing a memorandum against this type of alternative medicine.
Interestingly, the homeopaths themselves were in the hall, who were given the floor to express their point of view. "The statements of homeopaths have shown that their argumentation has not baffled scientists for a long time," commented Elena Smotrova, editor–in-chief of the translation and voice-over studio Vert Dider.
Considering that the audience did not run away ahead of time and had already managed to write satisfied comments on social networks, "Judgment Day" can be considered a success. "From the point of view of the organizer, the need for such an event has been brewing for a long time, and the audience was already internally ready, since even the general public had accumulated a fair number of questions for homeopaths, not to mention the scientific community," says Lilya Sabirova. – The story of the lawsuit against "Around the World" rather served as a trigger to launch an open confrontation, so we and the editorial board of the magazine had only to attract high-quality expertise, placing the right accents and launch the announcement, people did everything else themselves."
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05.12.2016