The Great DBH Rant

A couple of pro-homeopathy blogs, as well as several homeopathy resource websites which I follow have hailed a publication by Dr Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Laureate which allegedly proves homeopathic remedies are active. The paper in question is here (PDF). Dr Montagnier was credited with co-discovering the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Big name attached to homeopathy again, like Professor Magdalene Ennis. I have already discussed her 2004 publication with regards to the effects of homeopathic dilutions of histamine on basophils previously.

The abstract of the Montagnier et al paper describes a new property of DNA, whereby high aqueous dilutions of some bacterial DNA sequences can induce electromagnetic (EM) waves.

It is not my intention in this article to criticise this particular publication. In fact, I found it quite interesting. I will not attempt to give technical opinions on this paper regarding methodology, since I do not have much background in EM waves. I hope physicists who happen to stumble across this article can give a more balanced opinion on the methodology involved.

However, one point which has to be made is that the paper is published in Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences, a non-peer reviewed journal. The findings of such articles have to be taken with caution.

Another point about the article is that it appears to be a preliminary study. Results were simply reported as either “positive” or “negative” with no attempts at quantification or statistical verification.

The main finding of the paper was that bacterial DNA sequences diluted to between 10^-5M to 10^-18M give off specific EM waves at a different frequency which would be expected of background “noise”. At higher dilutions, nothing above background was recorded.

May I point out that at 10^-18M there is still DNA left? It is by no means homeopathic. In fact the authors acknowledge that at higher dilutions, the EM signals were indistinguishable from background.

The findings of the paper raises interesting questions about the properties of specific DNA sequences, and is certainly an area worth pursuing. However, it is not a paper that bears any relation to homeopathy.

It seems like any paper with the phase high aqueous dilutions written anywhere will pass off as evidence that homeopathy works these days.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, me hearties! Arrrrrrr.

“Nothing that is worth having in this world comes easy”

How great would it be if everything came with the click of a finger? But it doesn’t. The same goes for your health. It is something definitely worth having, so it doesn’t come easy. You need to work at it, somedays harder than others. When things get really bad, you might have to go through painful procedures, agonising pain for family and friends alike. And to cap it all off, sometimes, it just doesn’t work, and people die. Doctors cannot say why a particular procedure did not work, sometimes things are just incurable. He or she has got 30 other patients to see, so he or she moves on. This is where I think alternative medicine has the upper edge and why many patients claim it “works” when we all know they are taking nothing but sugar. It is because the patients “believe”. Consultation sessions in CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) clinics are a lot more personal, a lot more lengthy, and a lot more patient (Hell because they do not have the patient load that real doctors have). That makes the patients genuinely believe that the practitioner cares for them. It’s comforting, it reduces stress, and coupled with that placebo pill, suddenly things appear to be so much more rosy. Almost like a “super placebo” effect (I hope this catches on). Then – check – another statistic that homeopathy can “cure” diseases.

But why are patients turning to CAMs in the first place? Watching a particular episode of Scrubs last night gave me a bang up idea. Conventional medicine is not “magical” anymore. It is simply not amazing anymore. The reason? Anyone can get all the information in bite size chunks on the internet. Everything from symptoms, to diagnosis, and to management of every disease imaginable is on the internet. When a doctor tells you so and so about what you have, you are not surprised anymore, because you already knew. All you wanted is that drug. If you could get it without prescription, you probably wouldn’t even have bothered to go see a doctor in the first place!

The respect and awe that patients have for doctors is gone!

And then there is the blame, when shit hits the fan (pardon my French), you can bet your bottom penny the finger is going to be pointed at doctors, and the media machine will go up in arms about it. But when things go well, no one gives them a pat on the back and admires what they had just done – they just saved a life, for God’s sake, give the guy a hug, or thumbs up! But no, instead, things “should” go well, because otherwise why are they paid to do their jobs?

Back to CAMs. People cannot get a lot of information on the stuff. Afterall there is not much real information on the stuff. Scientists are struggling themselves to find information and evidence of the stuff. So bang, it suddenly becomes mystical, it becomes interesting. Now couple this with the knowledge that your “friend’s wife’s mother’s sister’s husband’s” – high school mate was just cured of his cancer with, say, homeopathy. No surgery, no incision, no painful poison pumped into veins (chemotherapy), no going bald. Just pills, and a few chats. It’s magic! Now couple this further with the news that celebrities like David and Victoria Beckham, Bill Clinton, and even Her Majesty the Queen uses homeopathy. Well if they use it, it must really work! Because these people really know their science and medicine, don’t they? See where I am going with this? We can bitch and bitch all we want about the science and the evidence and the fact that these hocus pocus treatments are really in fact, bull-crap! But in the patients’ minds, is medicine evidence based? I don’t think so.

They need to have the respect and awe back for real doctors! I suggest this. Let’s clear out the internet and keep conventional medicine in the dark for the lay person. Let’s not tell the patients that drug X could have 15 side effects but only tell them – “Take this magic pill, it will make everything go away”. Is that what is required? A massive dumbing down of medicine? Because it seems like the more they know, the more they get diverted to “magic”, i.e., things they don’t know. The general public needs to shape up and start facing facts – Because nothing in life that is worth having comes easy. There is no easy way out when it comes to health and wellbeing. You need to put in the work, you need to keep disease at bay. There is no “magic” pill that will get rid of that lung cancer because you smoke 40 a day. It’s painful chemotherapy, surgery, hair loss, etc etc etc. There is no “magic” pill to rid that diabetes once and for all, you need to work extra hard, to keep on top of things.

Because let’s face it, when something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is not.