Homeopathic overdose is a phrase taken very seriously by many people, whereas mocked by many as well. In January 2010, protestors took to the streets to overdose on homeopathic medicine (also called remedies) in an ode to mock the science. They were suggesting that there are absolutely no effects of homeopathic medicine and it is merely a placebo.
On the other hand, at one point in history, the website homeopathy-soh.org stated that one could not overdose from homeopathy, considering that the medicines created have very diluted active ingredients. However, if you look up the page today, that content has been removed. Probably they did find that an overdose was possible.
Discovering Homeopathy
Homeopathy is the science of alternate medicine. The practitioners of this science, also called homeopaths, believe that a symptom of an ailment in a healthy person can cure the same or a similar sign in an unhealthy person. Therefore the medicines that are created are an image of this ideology.
Besides that, the medicines that are formed are highly diluted. People negating homeopathy even say that the drugs are nothing but diluted sugar syrups given to people as placebos. However, homeopathy believes that the potency of active ingredients increases with dilution. This concept is, however, a bit difficult to swallow.
Why do people believe in homeopathy?
Homeopathy has been around in the world for more than two centuries now. Many people have been cured by its magical recipes, which is why it still exists and is a thriving field in this day and age. Developed, tested, and proven by Samuel Hahnemann in 1796, it rejected traditional medicine for its inefficacy and harmful effects.
However, can everyone agree that homeopathic medicine is that effective? The medication induces its effects in the patient at a very slow pace. Traditional medicine doctors believe that most people see positive changes after using the medication because they take these meds during recovery.
Can you believe this is why there's no scientific evidence?
In 2015 the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia concluded that the science of homeopathy is not beneficial to any ailment or medical condition. However, the requirements for the inclusion of a particular study for the assessment were pretty rigorous. And the inconsistencies of homeopathy were to blame for many studies being excluded.
Homeopathy devises cures and medicines tailor-made to each person and the medical condition an individual wants to be cured of. Crucial things such as the weight of the person, sleeping habits, and other minor details surrounding a person's lifestyle can change the medicine's overall composition.
This is another reason why homeotherapy conflicts with the fundamentals of science
Homeopathy is overall controversial as it's been discussed time and again. One major reason it contradicts the fundamentals of science is that it uses active ingredients in tiny quantities, which become unmeasurable. This gives rise to significant challenges in terms of investigating the efficacy.
However, as per nccih.nih.gov, researchers have recently started to study the physical attributes of these medicines to see if they can characterize them in the future. While the ones in favor of this science are hopeful, many that argue against it would think otherwise. The war between the ones favoring the science and the ones against it, is not due to end soon though.
A major cause of overdose
It is believed that the slow effects of homeopathy lead to people overdosing on these meds. While patients are generally advised to take a good quantity of the dose every now and then, they take excessive amounts in anticipation when they don't see a notable change in their symptoms and see no side effects.
And as it's usually said that this form of medication is highly diluted, its side effects start showing up when the patient has overdosed on the medicine for a prolonged period. However, there have been examples in history where a single event of overdosing has led to severe consequences.
Misunderstanding Homeopathic medicine
According to the United States National Institute of Complementary and Integrative Health, even though homeopathic medicine is usually highly diluted, at times, other medication with greater contents of an active ingredient is sold under its label, which can often cause confusion and may lead to consequences.
Consumption of such products can lead to drug interactions or side effects that are otherwise not expected. And these side effects and drug interactions are, as you might have already guessed, attributed to pseudoscience, thereby further degrading its integrity and affecting its statistics in terms of success. It's for us to decide in the end which medicine providers are legit in this case.
The guy from Germany
Let's take the example of the 53-year-old man from Germany mentioned in an article by forbes.com in June 2021. The case included a man with a stomach ache who was prescribed a particular homeopathic medicine. He ingested around 30 drops for some reason, after which he had to be taken to the hospital.
Within ten minutes of the event, he started to experience symptoms ranging from confusion, dizziness, aphasia (loss of sight), and an inability to walk. He was taken to the hospital after 1.5 hours. When they tested the drops in the lab, they found an anti-choline drug in them.
Consult One Doctor
All in all, what every medical practitioner, either conventional or homeopathic, will always emphasize, is to consult only one doctor you trust. Consulting multiple doctors/practitioners can lead to adverse effects and your medical issues never being solved overall. Think of it as every practitioner has a different means to a result.
This is one other possibility of the side effects resulting from drugs and medicines. These events may lead to a severe drug interaction or a drug overdose. Such cases have also been found in the medical history, thereby establishing the need to only refer to a single person for advice.
Homeo-philes
Despite the lack of evidence for the efficacy and evidence of the toxicity of these remedies, millions of people still favor this science. There are a lot of controversies that surround its usage. Some researches and papers recommend against it.
However, according to Gibson (1980), 42% of all homeopathic patients worldwide wholly discontinued the use of pharmaceutical therapies. Also, as per the National Institute of Health in the United States, about 5.5 million people around the globe opt for homeopathic medicine to cure their ailments. On the other hand, about 200 million people use these meds regularly. Now, that is a significant number.
The extensive industry of homeopathy
Even though we do not hear about many users of homeopathic medicine, the statistics that you're about to hear will blow your mind. According to finance.yahoo.com, this market was worth about $18 billion in 2021. We probably don't hear about it very much because people don't go about talking for no reason.
However, a large population consults this science for their medical conditions regularly. The same article suggests that the North American market dominates this field due to the increased healthcare expenditures. But is homeopathy really cheaper than conventional medicine? There are articles that suggest it's cheap while the others shall suggest that it's way more expensive.
Questioning the toxicity
The question still stands; are people aware of the possible toxicity of these medicines, or not. There are multiple researches that have been conducted through the history on this topic. Such as the International Journal of Clinical Practice, a renowned research journal in medicine, claims that homeopathy can potentially harm its consumers directly or indirectly.
Considering this statement to be as big as it is, people need to research and understand their medicines and ingredients before consuming them. More importantly, it is up to the drug regulatory authorities to check, test, and verify each medication, prescription, and any previous claims before placing it on the shelves.
This is how homeopathy differs from conventional medicine
You don't know it's working unless it starts magically curing the symptoms. WebMD, another renowned medical encyclopedia, has only good words for this science. Homeopathy is defined in WebMD as a process where like cures like, as discussed above. The basics of this science are different than traditional medicine making it a whole different industry.
In allopathy (conventional medicine), antibodies (fighting agents) developed against an ailment are administered to cure a patient. However, both processes seem successful and popular with large populations alike. The major difference discussed in many studies so far is that Homeopathy is slow-acting, whereas allopathy is comparatively faster.
Other differences between homeopathy and allopathy
There are many other differences between the two sciences. While homeopathy is a relatively older science, its counterpart is very new. While homeopathy was discovered in Europe, it is primarily followed in the Indian subcontinent and might have the highest number of users from around the world.
While pharmaceutical medicine has very calculated doses, homeopathic medication is free to take as much as the consumer can, mainly because it is administered in diluted solutions. The diagnosis of ailments in the two differs a lot as well. Traditional medicine focuses on investigations and clinical findings while the counterpart sees physical symptoms, psychological state, and the patient' s constitution.
Proving the voodoo
Homeopathic medications have ingredients such as poison ivy, white arsenic, and crushed whole bees. Some studies, such as one on the website baksonhomeopathy.com, also claim that these meds contain corticosteroids (steroids, basically). If so, they can't be a placebo now, can they?
The dilution of the meds used in homeopathy leads to its slow-acting phenomenon, which is often the cause of criticism. That is probably the only reason users of such medication might soon find it useless and claim that this science is just a fad. And this is exactly the claim that the people against this medicine use in their protests.
Homeopathy is recommended for these ailments
There are a few medical conditions for which homeopathy is suggested to be the way to go. A 2022 article on indiatimes.com says that homeopathy has been around for a couple of centuries, known for curing many diseases. The ones that it mentions explicitly are auto-immune, degenerative, psychiatric, and seasonal diseases.
Millions of people worldwide suffer from a range of conditions within the four categories mentioned here—no wonder this science is so successful and has such a following. If remedies can cure all these diseases, it is bound to sell. And the protestors can take it to the streets but they just might not find success.
10:23
Have you heard of 10:23? It was often written as 1023, which is derived from Avogadro's number, and was first used by Merseyside Skeptics Society to name their anti-homeopathy campaign. They took out massive protests in the UK in 2010 and 2011, where the participants overdosed on homeopathic medication.
They did so in front of retailers that kept such medication to prove the science wrong. People who do not favor homeopathy post derogatory content on the internet to support this campaign. Recently a person made a video of himself overdosing and put it up on Youtube. Now, these people find homeopathy to be a total fraud concept.
The Unknown: How does toxicity work
Have you heard of alcohol poisoning before? This refers to consuming large amounts of alcohol until a certain level is ingested inside the human body. It can lead to severe symptoms, including extreme nausea and vomiting. Usually, poisoning from a certain ingredient is only possible once you ingest a certain amount of that ingredient.
The case is similar for homeopathic medicines. Overdosing is unlikely even if you ingest a lot because they are diluted to the level where you can't unless that threshold is surpassed. This, on the other hand, is again very difficult since the body excretes such compounds from the body from time to time.
10:23 Participation
The first-ever anti-homeopathy protest was held by the Belgian Skeptical Organization in front of the Ghent University, where they attempted mass suicide by overdosing on homeopathic meds. The participants claimed that this science is a fraud or a public misunderstanding with no results.
This event was minor, and about 30 people participated. They consumed solutions such as diluted snake poison, belladonna, and arsenic. And obviously, nothing shall have happened, since the remedies had very small amounts of the active compounds. The success led them to do the same again a few years down the road in 2010. Now that was big.
The 2010 protest
In 2010 people from the Belgian Skeptics Organization met with the Merseyside Skeptics in an informal social gathering event that is called Skeptics in the Pub. This was a gathering aimed at promoting social networking among freethinkers, skeptics, and critical thinkers.
At this meeting, they came up with the idea of holding a mass protest. They thought that this thing should go global to have the world know about the fraud that was going on. In the same year, skeptics members gathered in several public spaces, mainly outside retail outlets that sold homeopathic remedies and mass overdosed on Arsenicum album.
2011 was huge
The second annual 10:23 challenge event went down in 2011. A group of people from about 23 cities in ten different countries participated in it, and took various meds ranging from sleeping pills to Arsenicum album. The protestors proved their point; that these meds were nothing but a waste of money.
Not even a single case was reported where a protestor was affected or had to go to the hospital for overdosing. While it may seem strange that none of them saw any adverse effects, it is possible that the participants did not reach the toxicity threshold for any bad symptoms.
Homeopathy Demonstration
In the 2011 protests, the Canberra Skeptics incorporated of Australia not only protested by consuming remedies, they even said that they were going to prepare these medicines themselves to demonstrate to the public what homeopathy is all about. They showed the public how dilution was done and reportedly prepared a diluted sample of hydrochloric acid to consume in public as a part of the protest.
Of course, the protestors must've proved a point, but the long-running effects of the remedy produced would be unobvious to the observers as well as the skeptics. Since those were yet to be experienced by them in the coming years or probably decades.
2012 protests
In April 2012, about 100 skeptics met again at the Berkeley SkeptiCal conference. The Sacramento Area Skeptics sponsored the event, and there were discussions on various topics, such as the end of times expected in 2012 as written in the Mayan Calendar. About 100 skeptics gathered to protest once again by overdosing on the Coffea cruda, an ingredient used to treat sleeplessness.
However, the results were again in favor of the skeptics, and there were no reported cases of severe symptoms or hospitalization. On the other hand, the founder of Reason4Reason, Jay Diamond, spoke about how homeopathic medicines were produced at the same conference.
The possible failure of 10:23
It's surprising why the 10:23 protests didn't continue. Even if they did, there seems to be little or no news about it. However, one possible cause could be that people did suffer from overdosing. It's not necessary that people consuming the medication would have shown symptoms at the time of consumption.
Doctors would argue that if the protesters were taken for drug-level lab tests and probably followed up for a few days, there might have been surprising results. Since these medicines are so diluted, their effects shall appear at a later period. In addition, the demographics of the people overdosing are essential for any scientific conclusions.
Failed Challenge
In another lethal comedy of an error, the retailers and advocates of the science were invited by skeptic and magician James Randi on his stage show to prove its efficacy. The participants were promised a million dollars as per the name of his show, " One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge."
However, he ended up overdosing as a part of his stage shows. Randi had long been a critic of homeopathy and always rejected its effects, as can be seen on YouTube if you search his name along with the term homeopathy. His shows were overall pretty interesting and gathered quite an audience.
Critics of Homeopathy
There is no lack of people who publicly claim that homeopathy is not efficient at all. Notable scientists and public figures, including Penn Jillette, Simon Singh, and Steven Novella, stand against it. In addition to that, the two notable organizations include Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and the James Randi Educational Foundation.
Both of the said institutions promote education, skepticism, and scientific literacy. However, it is to wonder how much concrete evidence they have against homeopathy and if they can one day prove its inefficacy for good and have it banned. It does not seem like anytime soon.
Is the news cherry-picked?
An April 2022 article on WebMD, the medical encyclopedia, discusses in depth how research on homeopathic procedures and medicines is often cherry-picked. The fact that most of these researches are either not registered or unpublished, and the research outcome is often altered over the course of the trial in over a quarter of the studies raises red flags.
Gerald Gartlehner, MD, one of the founding directors at the Danube University's Department for Evidence-Based Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology even, gave out actual stats saying that about 38% of the homeopathy trials registered in 2002 are still unpublished. That means about this percentage of the total trials is still unsuccessful.
Successful Cases
Some people that we know for sure will advocate homeopathy. For example, the 49-year-old American lifestyle coach Rebecca Rivera confessed she used "kali bichromicum," against migraines. She says that she often knows when a migraine is on the way, and instead of contacting a doctor, she reached out for these meds.
There are millions of people around the world, probably unreported ones as well, who consume these meds regularly an instant remedy to their ailments. At the same time,e are even more people who consume homeopathic meds to better their long-standing symptoms such as arthritis, menstrual irregularities, and infertility.
Advocates of homeopathy
There are several organizations dedicated to the advocacy and regulation of homeopathic medicines. The British Homeopathic Association, for example, has been around since 1902, promoting research and training in the pseudoscience. They are even against the 10:23 campaign and describe it to be dangerous.
Besides organizations, there are celebrities and famous people who support it on a personal level. According to a 2019 article from homeopathyschool.com, Jennifer Aniston, Helena Bonham Carter, David Beckham, Jude Law, and even people from the royal family, including the Queen, Princes Harry, and Charles Meghan Markle support it. This is quite a famous fan following.
Skeptics' extreme beliefs
It was long believed that skeptics thought very lowly of homeopathy. On several occasions, including the 10:23 protests, they voiced out against it on public forums. In January 2010, while covering 10:23 protests in Glasgow, the BBC reported that the 10:23 group believed this medicine unscientific and absurd.
In addition, the 10:23 aimed to have the NHS reduce their annual budget worth £4 million on homeopathic meds. As a response to the protest, the Society of Homeopaths claimed that they didn't expect any reactions in the protestors either unless they were already carrying the remedial symptoms of the medicines they were overdosing on.
The future of 10:23
Even though we haven't seen an episode of the protests very recently, the last known mass demonstration was held in 2021. Even then, the protests weren't as big as the fan following of the pseudoscience. We wonder what shall be the future of the 10:23 protests. Will they restart anytime in the near or distant future?
However, it's evident that the protestors didn't find much content to protest about since it didn't carry on. It could also be because of a possible overdose reaction, but no known adverse effects have been reported against the homeopathy besides the German man and James Randi.
Drug interactions in Homeopathy
The American Association of Homeopathic Pharmacists, on their FAQs page, list down several drug interactions of their medicines with everyday consumables such as alcohol, caffeine, or other drugs. According to the page, it's safe to take this medication with other supplements and medicines. However, it's better to consult a medical practitioner beforehand.
Now, how is that supportive? If a patient is supposed to contact their concerned practitioner beforehand, the medicines are not safe to take along with other prescribed drugs. However, it is known that these are highly diluted medicines and, therefore, will take a lot for a reaction.
Their Interactions with alcohol and caffeine
As far as the interactions of homeopathic medicines with products such as caffeine and alcohol are concerned, the American Association of Homeopathic Pharmacists suggests that it is ill-advised. They discourage having stimulants or strong aromatics while on any homeopathic medication.
It is suggested that an easy rule to follow is to wait at least 15 minutes after having food or a drink or brushing teeth before one can consume their medication. This will reduce the chances of any unwanted interactions. These medicines may even be mixed with water to dilute them further for safer consumption.
Homeopathic medicine affects kidney function
Ajay Pandey, a homeopathic practitioner, has different views on the science contradictory to its supporters. He says that these medicines can badly affect the liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, or even the kidney if overused or abused. Pandey says that these remedies are long-acting, and the patient's health on this sort of medication can deteriorate over time.
He even listed down which types of active ingredients directly impact which organ and how people can avoid possible damage. As an example, he mentions that a certain active ingredient was once used in infant teething tablets which led to several adverse events before the product was discontinued.
Ineffective medicine
The Russian Academy of Sciences considers homeopathy a deadly form of medicine. However, for a federal agency to make a statement like this can be pretty extreme considering the lack of evidence either in favor or against it. The academy is followed all over Russia as the national scientific research department.
Interestingly, their statements are backed entirely by research and studies of the highest quality. It can be said that their opinions must be stronger than the ones made by the skeptics. The Russian government is very much okay with using only conventional medicine.
Homeopathy was almost blocked in the UK
In 2015 homeopathy was almost blocklisted in the UK. This was reported in a BBC news article from the same year when ministers of the country considered banning this pseudoscience for good after looking at the £4 million budget of the NHS, which is quite significant if you see it as a percentage of the total medical budget.
The same article reports that the NHS (National Health Service) does affirm that homeopathy had no solid proof of efficacy. It's pretty strange that even after accepting no evidence of effectiveness, the NHS continues to be okay with homeopathy. Probably they don't have substantial evidence against it either.
Homeopathy can be fatal
It is understood that people consume homeopathic remedies for long-running ailments and relief with minor symptoms. However, can it treat conditions that require instant treatment? According to David M Shaw's research published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, it is highly not recommended in such cases,
He says that it is okay if people consume homeopathic and traditional medicines side by side, although it's not if they consume the first instead of the latter. This is contrary to what we have read before, but a novel school of thought. What we read earlier suggested consequences in cases of such drug interactions.
German trouble
Although discovered and introduced first in Germany, homeopathy once came into trouble in its native land. In 2020, in Germany, some doctors, legislators, and insurers went on to say that this style of treatment should not be covered in insurance, considering the lack of evidence on its efficacy.
Despite all the backlash, Germany and its citizens continue to live with and accept this form of alternative medicine, and many continue to support it. Insurance companies say that the amount spent on homeopathy is a large sum to pay, considering it has little or no active ingredients.
France and Austria
Germany is probably following the footsteps of its European neighbors when it comes to homeopathy. There had been similar backlash and protests in France and Austria as well. In 2018 the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, discontinued homeopathy courses in their curriculum. That simply means that they disregard science and its authenticity completely.
In France, on the other hand, the health minister announced in 2021 that he would phase out insurance reimbursement for homeopathic treatments and remedies. This was following their review of over 1000 studies and research that showed no evidence in favor of this science.
The one that supports it
Besides all the backlash and protests in critique of homeopathy, a few support it. One of those was performed by Dana Ullman, and published in 2021. The research reported four government-funded reviews of clinical research. There was one from Australia, one from England, and two from Switzerland.
In the result of the research, Ullman states that homeopathic patients were half as likely to receive an actual benefit from placebos as they were to receive from actual homeopathic medicine. If these remedies were quack, the difference was bound to be minute. But the major difference just proves it effective.
Most Indians live on homeopathy
India is probably the largest market for such remedies on the planet. According to an article on livemint.com, there were around 86 million people reported to be consulting this pseudoscience. If we consider the global number of 200 million, as discussed above, India is almost half of the total global market.
And this result is only derived from the cases reported in India. We can be sure that the actual number shall be much more significant. If you think this is big, hold on, the total Indian population is about 2 billion people. Researchers should honestly consider that as a starting point for future studies.
Indian backlash on homeopathy
Even though India has a large homeopathy market, we can not just assume that the country will have no people who refute this science. Of course, not. India had its episode of the government rejecting homeopathy in February 2022. Medicaldialgues.in published a report about it soon after.
The district authorities of Jabalpur were reported to have been raiding the clinics of several Ayush and homeopathic practitioners. Their local association said that the officers were claiming these practitioners to be frauds and cheats. Who knew the largest user of homeopathy would see such an event? But we don't see the science ending in India anytime soon either.
Homeopathy has high-end ties
There's a general perception surrounding homeopathy that only well-to-do people shall be on these treatments. And rightly so. Conventional medicine costs much less compared to these remedies. Research published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine concludes the same. They even say that conventional medicine costs less than half of the counterpart costs.
The same research also claims the primary market of this science is women, people aged 30-64, highly educated people, and finally, a high socioeconomic class. On the other hand, we see the practice much in fashion. Therefore, people with money are mostly tied to homeopathic treatments and remedies.
There's no lack of opposing evidence
Even though there is much evidence that you'll find around the success of homeopathy, there's no lack of evidence and proof surrounding its failures either. One such case was reported by the website scientificamerican.com. Their article published in 2017 shall give you jitters. It has all the cases and stories you'd not want to read.
It discusses the cases of severe adverse effects in multiple children around the country caused by giving teething tablets from a particular brand. The article also discusses the justifications from the particular brand, but all in all, it mentions the same "no proof of efficacy."
Allopathy vs. Homeopathy
All shall be well if the treatments provided to the suffering patients are good and effective, no matter what the research and stories have to tell. We know that there have been cases of mishandling and abuse of drugs throughout history, and there will be the same in the future.
It is up to the regulatory authorities to ban any substance or formulation they deem harmful and regulate drugs and active substance ingredients according to best practices. On the other hand, in the case of " remedies being just sugar pills" is concerned, people have constantly been consuming confectionery and having a good time, haven't they.
The future
Homeopathy has been around for long enough for it to survive another good time in the future. However, the governments have been taking action concerning the authenticity of medicines before they can be claimed under insurance, which does sound pretty reasonable.
However, getting them banned is another story altogether; if they haven't been putting any adverse effects on the consumers is a little far-fetched. We wonder what the skeptics' plans shall be since they haven't been around for any 10:23 protests lately. Are they going to plan one anytime soon? Will you be a part of one if it goes down?