This is not a hoax! Homeopaths have jumped on the Ebola-bandwagon and are recommending we treat this infection with homeopathy.
You don’t believe it? Read for yourself; the following text is taken from a pro-homeopathy website:
Your best bet is to find a homeopath to treat yourself or your patient. With Ebola this might not be so feasible, and if you find there is no other assistance available, continue as described below.
Add a pill or two of the homeopathic remedy found to have the most similar symptoms to a plastic cup filled with water (tap or mineral water). Starting with Crotalus Horridus 30C is probably the best idea. Stir the cup with a plastic spoon until the pills dissolve. With the spoon, place some drops of the remedy on the patient’s tongue.
How often the remedy is taken depends on the severity of symptoms. If they are very severe, give the remedy every half hour until improvement is observed, then repeat it every hour. This can be reduced to once or twice a day, depending on improvement.
If no improvement is observed after 24 hours, go to the next homeopathic remedy on the list above.
What to Do In Case Homeopathic Remedies are Unavailable
…With any epidemic, such as Ebola, bird and swine flu, if you have no other recourse for treatment—no medical assistance available— there is a procedure for making a remedy at home that will keep you alive, although you may have a rough time of it. Vitamins, especially C, will be helpful.
You may think the following procedure—developed by the English homeopath Peter Chappell—is a crazy thing to do. But, if you or a loved one is sick with Ebola with the prospect of having one week to live, and no other help is available, you might consider it. Besides, Einstein said that if an idea didn’t seem crazy, it wasn’t worth anything.
This procedure is based on a form of therapy related to homeopathy called isopathy (curing a disease with the virulent agent of the same disease), which has proven successful for many ailments….
How to Make Your Own Ebola Remedy
What you need:
1. A face mask and gloves
2. Two bottles (50 ml up to 500 ml glass or plastic bottles) with caps
3. Clean water (mineral or tap water)
4. An Ebola sample: some spit or other disease product, such as blood, from a person infected with Ebola, or who is suspected sick with it. Any small quantity will do, even a pinhead.
5. An alcoholic liquid, such as whisky, brandy, rum, etc.
6. Half an hour of your time.
Procedure:
1. Fill the bottle with water, leaving about 20% space at the top.
2. Place the Ebola sample in the water in the bottle.
3. Close the top of the bottle with the cap.
4. Hold the bottle and strike it hard against a solid surface, such as a large book, 40 times.
5. Pour out the contents of the bottle.
6. Refill the bottle with water (the fluid remaining on the inside surface of the bottle will serve as the next Ebola sample).
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 a total of 30 times.
Storage:
1. Pour the bottle solution into another bottle—your stock bottle.
2. Add 10% by volume of the alcoholic liquid (whisky, brandy, etc.) as a preservative.
3. Store in a place away from sunlight and electronic equipment.
Using this stock bottle, you can supply the Ebola remedy to as many people you want. With one drop from the stock bottle as an Ebola sample you can produce another stock bottle to give to someone else. Instead of the original Ebola sample you used above to make the original stock bottle, you use a drop from the first stock bottle. This process can be carried out ad infinitum, supplying a whole city, etc., if needed.
Taking Your Home-Made Ebola Remedy
For prevention:
1. Place a teaspoonful of your Ebola remedy from the stock bottle into a cup filled with water.
2. Stir the water five times with a disposable spoon or stick.
3. Take a sip from the cup.
4. During the epidemic, take a sip once or twice a day, stirring five times before taking the sip.
5. Refill the cup as needed after striking the stock bottle against a hard surface five times.
If you are sick with Ebola:
1. Place a teaspoonful of the Ebola remedy from your stock bottle into a cup filled with water.
2. Stir the water five times with a disposable spoon or stick.
3. Take a sip every 15 minutes, stirring five times each time until you notice improvement, then stop.
4. On improving, you can ease off and take the remedy every hour or so, again stirring five times before taking the remedy each time.
5. Refill the cup as needed after striking the stock bottle against a hard surface five times.
Another website had similar advice:
The following remedies would be considered by a homeopath for any of the viral hemorrhagic fevers that match this symptom picture.
As a preventative if an outbreak happens nearby, Crotalus horridus 30C, one dose daily, until the threat is out of the area is the method many homeopaths familiar with this disease suggest.
If a person is infected, the remedies most commonly used would be the following. One dose every hour, but as the severity of the symptoms decrease, frequency is reduced. If no improvement is seen after 6 doses, a new remedy ought to be considered.
Crotalus horridus 30C – Is to be considered for when there is difficulty swallowing due to spasms and constriction of the throat, dark purplish blood, edema with purplish, mottled skin.
Bothrops 30C – Is the remedy to think of when nervous trembling, difficulty articulating speech, sluggishness, swollen puffy face, black vomiting are present
Lachesis mutus 30C ,– when there’s delirium with trembling and confusion, hemorrhaging in any area, consider this remedy. Often, the person cannot bear tight or constricting clothing or bandages and feels better from heat and worse on the left side.
Mercurius corrosivus 30C, – For copious bleeding, better when lying on the back with the knees bent up, delirium, headache with burning cheeks, photophobia, black swollen lip, metallic, bitter or salt taste in mouth.
Secale cornutum 30c,– For thin, slow, painless oozing dark hemorrhage with offensive odor, cold skin and tingling in the limbs. The individual wants to be uncovered and feels WORSE from motion.
Echinacea 30C – For when there’s sepsis or blood poisoning, fetid smelling discharges and enlarged lymph nodes.
Homeopathy is an ideal medical stratagem for survivalists, homesteaders and anyone wanting to be self-reliant in any situation.
I felt quite sick after reading these texts – sick and frightened. If some homeopaths really believe this nonsense, we should, I think, all be frightened of them.
Terrifying. I wonder if these people are going to claim – or “document” – any cases where this treatment has been effective. That they advocate handling ebola-infected fluids by nonmedical personnel with minimal precautions should be criminal. There is a link to a paper claiming to show how much more effective homeopathy is than allopathy in epidemics – while I don’t believe their statistics on homeopathy (there is only one actual reference given, to an article in the British Medical Journal that I would love to see), I note that with one or two exceptions the “statistics” are from the 1800s, mostly the early 1800s, when scientific medicine, hygiene, etc. was still in its very early infancy. The high rates of mortality for patients treated with “allopathy” can certainly be correlated to that, and undoubtedly present-day statistics would be very, very different.
I work in homeopathy and have never heard or read anything about homeopathy replacing conventional treatments with respect to Ebola. You go round the world trawling for anything you can find from any website. Then you extrapolate with staggering hyperbole to condemn everyone in homeopathy quoting any text you find. You can groom a few gullible types- even the odd naive MP but there are just too many people in homeopathy not acting in the way your spin suggests.
In the same way I could quote from some homeopathic Drs around and blog about how all Drs are into homeopathy and how terrible this is and how come there isnt mass condemnation of these homeopathic Drs?
Maybe this just keeps you from getting bored.
So Edzard just tell us what do you want to see happen to homeopathy? Tell us what legislation you are obviously campaigning for.
I am not campaigning for anything other than good evidence in health care – something homeopathy certainly has not got. and therefore I am going to continue pointing this out where I feel it is necessary. sorry that you object to that.
Grumpycat, why are you outraged at Professor Ernst for bringing this gross misconduct to our attention rather than being so deeply saddened by this gross misconduct that you will do everything you can to put an end to it. You are the one who should be campaigning for international legislation to finally put an end it.
Shooting the messenger makes you and your profession look stupid, uncaring, incompetent, and worst of all, utterly medically negligent.
Awful… just awful.
Have any of them actually tried treating confirmed cases of Ebola using these recommendations? If not, how on earth can they come out with this nonsense?
I haven’t said I object to you pointing anything out and I have no problem with you campaigning for evidence in healthcare and criticising homeopathy whenever you like. I just think that you should make clear the context of this article you have seen on the internet instead of spinning it to be a consenus of worldwide homeopathy.
What about all the other 1000s of homeopathic blogs, websites where there is no mention of Ebola. You write ‘Homeopaths’ as though there is some large active movement of homeopaths spitting into bottles and forcing this on an unsuspecting public. This is not the case as you well know. So why is an experienced scientist like you doing this?
Was the way you did your research? Or are you just bored?
Grumpycat wrote: “I haven’t said I object…”
This is Grumpycat’s second very clear diatribe of objection, ending in “Or are you just bored?”, which is a reinforcement and escalation of the earlier accusation and insult, and a repeat failure to own any professional-level responsibility for solving the terrible problem addressed in this article.
Grumpycat, of course many homeopaths would not recommend the treatment described in this article. In the dire Ebola situation, and other emergency situations, astute homeopaths prescribe the patient to write down the remedies on a small piece of paper, stand a glass of water on the paper for twenty minutes, then drink the infused water — because astute homeopaths have scientifically proved that this is nearly as efficacious as using the remedies directly.
And they refer to this which is a brilliant demonstration of how homeopathic logic works:
C. Richardson-Boedler:
Sicarius (Six-Eyed Crab Spider): A homeopathic treatment for Ebola haemorrhagic fever and disseminated intravascular coagulation?
British Homoeopathic journal, Volume 88, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 24–27
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475491699902436
I found the full article here:
http://www.indiana.edu/~psychag/cam/interview/long_lost_manuscript.pdf
I am not outraged Pete about Edzard’s blogpost. Nor have I ‘shot him down’. I doubt if he is hurt or seeking therapy after my posts.
I just rather politely pointed out that he is writing about ‘homeopaths’ on the basis of one blog post when this ‘how to make your remedy’ procedure is someones new thing not common practise.
I think you did a lot more
I apologise in advance to Prof. Ernst if he should think that I am placing his excellent blog in second position, but could I *please* appeal to all the homeopaths who post here that they might devote their time to filling out this wiki entry first:
rational wiki
Sorry if the link is a re-post but I feel very strongly that it’s time someone added to the content here. Thank you.
Sorry Edzard but I was clearly correct in pointing out that this blog post is not common practice. It was written by a blogger no one has heard of based in Caracus with no google juice. His blogging post is under review at Natural News. I expect some homeopath grassed him up to Natural News before you or Pete did. I don’t criticise you for blogging about it but I just wondered why someone with your research experience didn’t dig a little deeper to get the context right.
This is so obviously batshit crazy that I have no doubt hoemopaths will engage their awesome power of science to prove that it does not work, at which point it will be discarded, as science discards all refuted ideas.
Oh, wait….
I just found this here [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=877505885612521] : “Doctor offers free homeopathy frequencies for Ebola: Those unfamiliar with homeopathy may be shocked to learn its effects are transferred via a number of mediums other than little sugar pills or drops of liquid; as it is a form of ‘information’ medicine (time to brush up on your physics), frequencies have also been used.
Now, physician Bill Gray, reports that potential treatment and prophylactic remedies for ebola have been prepared as electronic frequencies that can be receieved via a mobile phone or over the internet.
He says:
“There are a few homeopathic remedies capable of stimulating the body to enhance its own functioning on every level – immune system, circulatory system, energy, organ function, psyche. If used properly, these eRemedies are nontoxic and may rapidly enhance recovery through improved functioning. eRemedies are MP3 files that play for only 10 sec at a time. Download speed depends on internet speed, so please be patient. Once the file is downloaded, simply click on the Start/Play button. You will hear just white noise as the homeopathic remedy energy is played in order to stimulate the body to heal itself.”
Unbelievably ignorant, irresponsible and reprehensible. But you will not find one homeopath condemning it.
I totally agree, Alan.
I have yet to encounter a homeopath (or any proponent of sCAM) who is sufficiently educated to understand that combining multiple frequencies does NOT produce white noise. Just because the magnitude of the Fourier Transform of white noise includes all/most frequencies across the spectrum of measurement in no way implies that any of the frequencies have a coherent meaningful presence by themselves. White noise is (by basic definition) uncorrelated and stochastic — stochastic means unpredictable. The Fourier Transform produces two output vectors: magnitude and phase — the phase vector is very conveniently ignored by quacks; as is autocorrelation analysis.
I wrote to Dr.* Bill Gray at http://www.billgrayhomeopathy.com/ and asked him if he really was the author of this sound file thing. It will be interesting to see if and how he replies. In the message I left at his site I did propose that the site (http://www.emergencydr.org/home/) was a practical joke by someone out to foo gullible people. If he is indeed the author of this absurdity, he is in serious need of help.
* He does say he has a medical education. I guess his med school forgot to teach chemistry and physics?
Bill Gray MD’s reply this morning was perhaps not surprising but extremely disturbing. He admitted that he indeed was the author of the information and soundfiles.
He noted my concern and suggested I read the page on (what he calls) science to be found on the emergencydr.org site and his book, which could be obtained on Amazon.
I am still pondering on whether I should reply with my unadulterated opinion of him in relation to the profession he officially belongs to and his outrageous produce or should I be diplomatic and courteous?