Head On - Apply Directly to the Trash Can...

In much the same way that the phrase "A Sci Fi Channel Original Film" actually means "crap", the word "homeopathic" is actually a codeword for "useless". I bring this up because I'm sitting here looking at a tube of Head On (apply directly to the forehead) that has come into my hands through the capricious machinations of fate. Head On is a homeopathic preparation that allegedly cures headaches - most people know it from an series of remarkably annoying commercials that ran incessantly a few years ago. Like essentially all homeopathic treatments, Head On is a con, a way of selling people inert binders in the guise of medicine for $3 a tube.

Homeopathy is in some sense alchemy's uglier little sister. It is predicated on the twin beliefs that "like cures like" and that (somehow) the more diluted an ingredient is in a solution, the more powerful it becomes. That is to say, a material that causes, say, explosive vomiting when taken directly will actually cure explosive vomiting if taken in a very diluted form. Except for the fact that this simply isn't the case it makes perfect sense...

When you look at the package of a homeopathic preparation, you'll note that every active ingredient is a.) some compound you've never heard of and b.) is follow by a number accompanied by the letter X or C. X represents a dilution of 1 part active ingredient into 10 parts inert material, while a C represents a dilution of 1 part active ingredient into 100 parts inert material. Remember, however, that in the crazy world of homeopathy dilution = strength. Make sense? Didn't think so.

Turning back to my tube of Head On, I note that it has 2 active ingredients - kali bichromicum and bryonia alba. Some quick Google Fu indicates that kali bichromicum is a toxic chemical used to finish wood and bryonia alba is actually a poisonous plant called White Bryony. The website Plants for a Future says that eating it will cause "death within a matter of hours". Scary. And yet Head On says you can apply it as much as you want with no risk of side effects. How can that be? Let's have a look.

The kali bichromicum is found in Head On in a 6X solution. That means one part of that stuff is suspended in 1,000,000 parts inert material. That's right, one part KB diluted into a million parts of bollocks. It gets better though, because the bryonia alba is diluted to a 12X solution - one part active ingredient in a trillion parts inert suspension. And yet it gets even better, because the first ingredient is also only 0.05% of the product and the second is only 0.04% by weight. That is to say, we have this tube of junk that is 99.91% nothing, just binders, and the two ingredients that make up the other 0.09% are diluted to one part in a million and one part in a trillion, respectively. Most of a stick of Head On is actually an anti-microbial preservative called diazolidinyl urea, which is classified as a known human carcinogen according to the World Health Organization.

Check out the embedded video below to see James Randi give a much longer explanation of homeopathy, but before you laugh, remember that people are wasting money on this stuff that they could be using for real treatments.

No Insurance of Effectiveness...

Well, I'm in a bit of a grumbly mood because scant hours ago I got out of a meeting at work that was called to explain how our employee health insurance premiums went up by something like 12% this year. Fair enough - inflation, litigation, and real costs affect insurance premiums and if I were buying it privately I'd be paying through the nose. Thing is, near the top of the procedures that the company insurance is paying for is good ol' same-as-placebo acupuncture. That leaves me curious as to how much the influx of "complementary medicines" and whatnot into the realm of insurance-covered procedures is impacting the insurance premiums of those of us who favor evidence-based medicine. I don't have any philosophical problem with someone paying money to get needles stuck in his posterior or candles jammed into his ears, I just don't want to end up paying for it myself via my insurance premiums.

Weirdly, considering acupuncture's place of honor on the list of covered procedures, chiropractic and homeopathy "therapies" were nowhere to be found. I'd actually be curious to know exactly how the lists of approved treatments get concocted...