Homeopaths need to agree on what constitutes an overdose, and if they had an ounce of responsibility they'd be campaigning for better labels.

You'll be shocked - shocked I tell you - to hear that I've noticed a bit of an inconsistency in homeopathic thinking. Well actually there are many, but one that's particularly worth mentioning is the disagreement over what exactly constitutes a dangerous overdose, because even if you believe in homeopathy, this should trouble you. In fact, it should trouble you especially if you believe in homeopathy.

Regular readers will recall that I was part of January's mass homeopathy overdose. Before I took part I realized that one of the criticisms we were likely to face would be "you're not doing it right!", so I spent some time investigating the issue. Unfortunately, my attempts to find out from homeopaths how you would actually overdose on their products resulted in a bewildering array of mutually exclusive answers.

It was almost as if there was no coherent theory of how the stuff worked, and the different homeopaths were each just making things up on the spot.

In any case, I was reminded of my research failure by the umpteenth piece of unsolicited homeopathy advice that landed in my e-mail on Saturday morning:

You should have consulted a homeopath when conducting your overdose. Any lay homeopath could have told you that the best way to produce symptoms using homeopathy is to REPEAT THE DOSE. That is how homepathic remedies are proven, duh! Try this... Arsenicum Album 30C or up higher, try a 200C

Repeat dose 3 times daily until symptoms appear.

Stop them if you don't want the damage to be permanant

but continue if you really want to be a believer in the power of homeopathy.

You should begin to feel a burning from your mouth to your anus, incredibly painful.

(The e-mail was sent to the 10:23 campaign as well, and Michael Marshall has replied directly to our enthusiastic correspondent's concern for our rear ends.)

But before you all rush off in an almost certainly futile attempt to recreate your own burning rings of fire, it's only fair to warn you that this isn't the only advice I've received. Crack homeopath Louise McLean proffered this suggestion:

"Of course homeopaths know that one dose of however many pills taken together in one go, is the equivalent of only one dose, because it is the time frame that counts. So, the skeptics would most certainly have felt if they had repeatedly taken a dose every hour for the rest of the day the effects."

While an anonymous source gave us this tip:

"If you really want to test Homeopathy try a regular dose over 4 months, but I do not recommend it."

And one homeopath commenting on an article I wrote made the following prediction:

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of them sheepishly confess that they did experience some symptoms later, because after taking a homeopathic remedy, especially 30c or above, the effects can be felt for days afterwards."

To try and make some sense of this, I thought I'd better go to some credible experts in the field. The Society of Homeopaths state on their website:

"... it is not possible to take an overdose of homeopathic medicine in the same way as in orthodox medicine (orthodox medicine works on a chemical level). "Homeopathic medicines are not therefore intrinsically dangerous. Nonetheless, they are clearly capable of stimulating the body's reactive forces powerfully and should be treated with respect."

Wait... what?! You can't overdose... well not like medicine at least... it's not dangerous... but it's very powerful and you should treat it with respect. What happens if we don't treat it with respect? I have no idea. I have a horrible feeling they don't either.

Meanwhile, some of those selling homeopathic remedies are apparently oblivious of these anal dangers. "You cannot overdose on homeopathic medicines," states Nutrimart, while BUPA confidently declare: "No, it isn't possible to overdose on homeopathic pills, at least not on those that are highly dilute."

This is dangerous stuff. If some homeopaths are to be believed, BUPA patients across the nation are at risk from some serious bottom burn. Why are homeopaths not lined up outside BUPA clinics demanding the company act now to tackle the great arse fire menace?

Of course it's not surprising that homeopaths have trouble with consistency. As Professor Kent Woods commented during last year's parliamentary evidence check, "the underlying theory [of homeopathy] does not really give rise to many testable hypotheses." In fact the underlying theory isn't even consistent with itself, and even 'fundamental' laws such as 'like cures like' are frequently stretched or ignored by practitioners.

Regardless, there are two obvious points to make about this confusion. Firstly, if homeopaths were in any way responsible professionals, they would be campaigning for information on unsafe doses to be added to homeopathic products. Any real medicine I take gives me a whole leaflet full of advice on what constitutes an overdose and how to deal with the consequences, yet shamefully the labels of many homeopathic remedies are silent on the issue.

Of course this may be because they don't really know. In that case homeopaths should be working as hard as possible to reach a collective, evidence-based consensus on what, if anything, is actually 'an overdose', and what the public should do if they take one. That would be the ethical, responsible thing for the industry to do.

So consider this post an open challenge to homeopaths out there:



How does one overdose on homeopathy?

Why are you not campaigning for clearer information on labels?

Are you as a community mature and capable enough to look at the evidence and reach a consensus?

In the meantime, health authorities are voting with their wallets. NHS Bolton are the latest in a string of trusts to halt the use of homeopathy following the damning verdict of MPs earlier this year on the quack remedies. If homeopaths expect to have any credibility whatsoever, they need to start engaging with questions like those above in a meaningful or constructive way.

I have a feeling they can't.