I was amazed to read this in the newsfeed on HP:
https://www.healthypages.co.uk/newsitem.php?news=6200
Whilst I am not a fan of homeopathy per se, I do like using homeopathic preparations in my healing work, because when used correctly, they do work. I wonder if these skeptics are really an independant charity or if there is a connection somewhere. I find it hard to believe anyone can be so stupid.
Aside from the irresponsibility of this stunt , how very sad that there is such an organisation as a "skeptics society". I can't think of anything more guaranteed to feed negativity!
The law of mass action is fundamental to the pharmaceutical mindset, so if you take more of something it will have a greater effect, until you take so much that it harms you.
Well, it doesn't even work strictly in pharmacology. The effect of a drug may be different from person to person, time to time, etc. The body may respond differently to the way expected, or not respond at all. It may react out of all proportion to the stimulus, as in say, an allergy to penicillin.
So the way skeptics seem to think that the body responds slavishly to the exact amount of a chemical stimulus is evidence of a supreme lack of appreciation of complex systems behaviour, and a naive understanding of pharmacology. To suppose that homoeopathy should obey the law of mass action says far more about the ignorance of skeptics than it can possibly say about homoeopathy.
So a drug works partly by chemical interruption of metabolic pathways, but partly by the way that the individual body responds to it as a signal. A homoeopathic remedy is entirely dependent on the signal. A comparison would be the way that the volume of sound that comes out of a loudspeaker depends on the power of the amplifier: the information on a CD determines the output, but does not provide actual energy for the output.
As for the retention of information by water, successive dilutions from an initially high concentration are intended to retain some information in the water at each successive, but gradual dilution with succussion, whilst reducing the quantity of the chemical. This is a far cry from just taking a tiny amount of chemical and adding a huge amoung of water.
Interestingly, a quick shufti of the BNF shows that most drugs can cause the symptoms they are supposed to relieve - migraine meds can cause headaches with nausea etc. Are not adverse reactions another way of viewing 'like cures like'?
Probably the only thing they'll prove is that homeopathy is safe!! What a bunch of half-wits.