Well, maybe, but probably not. Even though milk allergies in infants and very young toddlers are the most common food allergy, they still occur in only about 2.5 percent of the population in the US and other Western groups. For this reason, I was rather perplexed some months back when I encountered a group of eight mothers randomly assembled, three of whom had infants with milk allergies. Two of the mothers had started to eliminate all dairy from their diets, including eggs, in order to reduce the effects of the milk allergy on their infants. Who were breastfeeding.
Continue reading Milk allergy is the most common form of food allergy found in humans, but you don’t have one and neither does your baby →

According to the FluView report for the week ending January 1, influenza activity has picked up over the last few weeks in the United States. This increase in activity is typical of the start of flu season. The number of states reporting regional or widespread influenza activity increased. Although influenza activity can rise and fall during an influenza season, activity in the United States generally peaks in January or later in most years.

CDC

Of concern: Britain is experiencing a bit of a spike in flu cases and flu deaths, and it is thought that the “swine flu” H1N1 version that emerged last season is responsible for that. There is concern that this will spread across the European continent. I have no idea what this may mean for the US, Asia or elsewhere.

Homeopathy involves the acquisition of a substance often chosen because of its harmful nature (but sometimes for other reasons) followed by the dilution of that substance, or an extract of it, in water numerous times until the substance itself is essentially gone, but the memory of the substance is retained by the water. This water, with the memory, is then considered by homeopathic practitioners to be an effective treatment for various conditions.

The basic principle of using a harmful substance to produce a sort of counter-reaction, or a beneficial reaction, is interesting. And, the idea of using some sort of organic memory is also interesting and potentially quite effective, if it can be pulled off. Most of my colleagues in science-based skepticism dismiss homeopathy as inconsequential and ineffective, in part because there are no double blind controlled studies with usable sample sizes, properly selected samples, appropriate statistics and biologically sensible analyses demonstrating effectiveness, and because there is no evidence of water having “memory” or of a substance diluted into non existence having an effect. But I think they may have given up too easily on this idea, and there is a way to make homeopathy work. We just have to change a couple of the parameters.

First, the substance that is used in dilute form needs to be a biologically potent substance, and not just some thing someone thought might work. For instance, if you take silica based crystals such as quartz and grind them up into a powder and ingest the powder in small quantity, there will be either minimal effect or a small effect similar to consuming a dose of fiber supplement. I don’t recommend trying this, because if the crystal contained certain minerals then the substance could be quite poisonous, and even if the powder is 99.9999999 percent silica, silica powder can be harmful (if inhaled). However, from the point of view of how natural systems work, crystal per se should have little effects by itself, especaily if ground up.

On the other hand, organic substances, those that are made up of cells or parts of cells, can have very powerful natural effects. This is because the body contains natural molecules that interact not only with each other, but also with natural molecules of organic origin that are introduced into the body. And, most interesting, it has been demonstrated in many studies that these reactions can literally change, in a natural and organic way, the body’s natural molecules. Furthermore, and this may seem hard to believe but it is really quite wonderful and proved in many studies, but the molecules in the body that are changed can “learn” to assist cells in making more molecules that, in turn, are changed in the same way. I’m oversimplifying a bit, but I think you may have already guessed where I’m going with this: The introduction of certain organic natural materials into the body can result in the body developing a long term memory of those molecules. Studies have shown that this memory, in many cases, lasts a lifetime, or at least, for several decades.

So, we have all the homeopathic elements: Substances that can be very potent, processed so they are in small concentration, introduced into the body, causing a memory reaction not in the water the substance was originally mixed in, but IN THE BODY ITSELF using purely natural and organic bodily processes. This memory will last a life time, or nearly so. In this way, a properly selected natural organic substance can cause a highly desirable re-conformation, in a totally natural and organic way, of the body’s reaction to stresses that originate from the outside.
Continue reading How to make homeopathy work →

The Vaccine-Autism Link has been ruled non-existent by a federal court. Details.

Homeopathy still doesn’t work. Even a little. Very little.

Corexit in Florida water supply?

A health related blog post, Pushing towards acknowledging sex differences in physiology and treatment efficacy by the blogger known as Michelle, has been awarded the PLoS ONE Blog Pick of the Month for August 2010. Here are the details and links to the post and the original OpenAccess article, Differences in Efficacy and Safety of Pharmaceutical Treatments between Men and Women: An Umbrella Review by Gerald Gartlehner, Andrea Chapman, Michaela Strobelberger and Kylie Thaler.

I just thought I’d pass on this letter from Rush Holt to Nancy Pelozi and Steny Hoyer:
Continue reading Congress: Fix this dumb stem cell ruling →