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Marigold, used to make the homeopathic remedy calendula
Homeopathic marigold, known as calendula, is said to heal torn perineal tissues after childbirth. There is no scientific evidence that this works. Photograph: Alamy Photograph: Alamy
Homeopathic marigold, known as calendula, is said to heal torn perineal tissues after childbirth. There is no scientific evidence that this works. Photograph: Alamy Photograph: Alamy

Homeopathy awareness can make the world a healthier, happier place

This article is more than 9 years old

As anyone who has explained homeopathic dilution to an incredulous colleague will attest, raising awareness of homeopathy is the quickest way to dispel any belief in it

World Homeopathy Awareness Week – the annual promotional campaign organised by homeopaths around the world – kicked off on Thursday. This year, rather than ignore it, moan about it or condemn it, scientists and sceptics alike should join in.

This may seem somewhat perverse – especially given the comprehensive evisceration of homeopathy earlier this week at the hands of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, which concluded “there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective”. Yet what homeopaths are seeking – attention and awareness – is precisely what they ought to avoid. As anyone who has explained the baffling process of homeopathic dilution to an incredulous colleague will attest, raising awareness of homeopathy is by far the quickest way to dispel any belief in it.

With this in mind, the Good Thinking Society (a charity that promotes rational thinking) has launched its own homeopathy awareness week website: homeopathyawarenessweek.org. The site highlights 12 points that homeopaths seem surprisingly unwilling to make people aware of, including examples of where homeopathy has seriously harmed patients.

Apologists for homeopathy will argue that because the pills contain nothing but sugar, they can’t be harmful. While their chemistry may be accurate, their conclusion certainly isn’t. For example, there is the case of Penelope Dingle, a bowel cancer patient in Australia who followed the advice of her homeopath husband, and as a result suffered a painful and unnecessary death.

Equally tragic is the story of Gloria Thomas, a baby whose homeopathically treated eczema became so badly infected that it led to her death at the age of nine months. The public should also be aware that homeopaths often offer ineffective homeopathic "alternatives" to vaccines that put children at risk of serious disease. You won't find these stories on any other homeopathy awareness websites.

It is alarming to note that homeopaths around the world are right now claiming to treat a range of serious conditions, such as malaria, AIDS and even the Ebola virus. Indeed, Homeopaths Without Borders – a group of doubtlessly well-meaning folk – are flying into places of crisis in the developing world carrying suitcases full of homeopathic tablets that contain nothing but sugar. It is not so much Médecins Sans Frontières as Médecins Sans Medicine.

Of course, belief in homeopathy isn’t merely a curio found exclusively on foreign soil – it is well represented, for example, on the shelves of high street pharmacies in the UK. Boots – the company whose otherwise excellent reputation made it the target of demonstrations against homeopathy in 2010 – still unapologetically stocks homeopathic products on its shelves in thousands of stores up and down the country.

Fortunately, there are positive signs. In 2010, when I first became involved in alternative health activism, the NHS funded no fewer than five homeopathic hospitals; today all have either closed or faced a serious threat to their existence. Recent figures, obtained through a freedom of information request by the Nightingale Collaboration, show an encouraging swing away from homeopathy, with prescriptions falling from a high of 170,000 per annum in 1996 to just over 10,000 last year.

Clearly, demand is falling. Supply, too, is on shaky ground. When Nelson’s homeopathic pharmacy – sugar pill supplier of choice for Boots and Holland & Barrett – explored the possibility of exporting to the US, the resulting FDA inspection reached a startling conclusion. According to the report, the succussion process (the vigorous shaking that apparently activates the "vibrational memory" of water) meant that in one out of every six homeopathic vials observed, the magical drop of homeopathic liquid missed the sugar pills entirely.

“The active ingredient was instead seen dripping down the outside of the vial assembly. [Nelson’s] lacked controls to ensure that the active ingredient is delivered to every bottle.”

In other words, one in six vials of homeopathic pills from the largest supplier of high street homeopathy contain no homeopathy at all. That no consumers seem to have noticed speaks volumes for the efficacy of homeopathy.

Perhaps most surprising and encouraging of all is just how mainstream this discussion has become. Homeopathy is now the butt of mainstream comedians' jokes and TV sketch shows, and homeopaths have become a watchword for anachronistic thinking, overtaking the Flat Earthers. And, judging by the responses on Twitter to our homeopathy awareness website, these days almost everyone has their own "homeopathy is useless" gag.

So, I say: bring on greater awareness … but awareness in its truest sense. Awareness that homeopathy has no scientific basis, is a waste of your money and has the potential for great harm. If we can continue to spread this kind of awareness, we’ll consign homeopathy to the history books where it belongs.

Michael Marshall is the project director for the Good Thinking Society. As vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, he is also one of the organisers of QEDcon, which starts tomorrow. He tweets as @MrMMarsh

More on this story

More on this story

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