Most of the time, so-called "alternative medicine" is treated very gently by television news. I don’t know if that’s because they don’t want to tick off their viewers, or the reporters don’t look into it properly, or if they believe in it themselves. But no matter the reason, it’s always refreshing to see a show really tear into something like homeopathy. That’s precisely what the Australian program "Today Tonight" did recently:

The report featured such noted skeptics as Simon Singh, Richard Saunders, and James Randi, and made it very clear that homeopathy is just very expensive nonsense. I’m glad they didn’t make the report "balanced" by giving a lot of time to promoters of homeopathy; that’s not balance any more than giving time to someone who believes in storks delivering babies in a segment about infant health care.

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It’s not hard to describe just how silly homeopathy is — after all, diluting a substance in water until nothing is left is clearly not a great way to base a medicinal practice. Unless you’re trying to cure dehydration. But if describing homeopathy’s silliness is easy, doing it well is another matter; most people don’t have a very good sense of scale when it comes to very big and very small numbers (I guess numbers that dwarf even a trillion weren’t necessary for our ancestors on the plains of Africa, so we never evolved a way to grasp them).

However, Steve DeGroof at MadArtLab (the same guy who does the skeptic web comic Tree Lobsters) has found a way to put homeopathy into perspective: use Felicia Day!

[You really must click through to see the whole thing.]

Well, pictures of her, anyway, and the concept of Felicia’s uniqueness. This is actually a pretty good analogy: you can put Felicia into various categories (like women named Felicia, redheads, guest stars on "House"^*, and so on) and compare that number to how much homeopathy dilutes various solutions.

I think this method really works! I love how he used Marian Call and Adam Savage in the redhead category, too.

Anyway, I hope this gets picked up far and wide by the geek ‘net. The more people who grasp the nonsense of homeopathy, the better. After all, there’s nothing to it.

Homeopathy is very popular in America, Australia, and other countries. Thing is, it doesn’t work. There’s no medicine in it, there’s no science behind it, and tests have shown repeatedly and without question that there’s no medicinal effect in it beyond that of a placebo.

And yet, homeopathic sugar pills are being sold next to real medicine at pharmacies across the planet, including RiteAid, Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens in the US. People take these non-drugs, spending billions — billions — of dollars on what is provably nonsense.

That’s why the 10:23 campaign started, to show that homeopathy doesn’t work. People all over the world are gathering this weekend to raise awareness of this. Homeopathy is not harmless. People are taking these pills instead of real medicine, in many cases making them sicker, and in far too many cases dying because of it.

James Randi made a short video to promote the campaign. If there is a local version in your area, go take a look and show them your support.

Last week, the Canadian TV consumer advocate program "Marketplace" did a piece on homeopathy, and man oh man did it make my skeptic brain do flips of delight. Completely junking any pretense of false balance — where some ludicrous idea gets as much air time as reality — they went after homeopathy with both lobes, and really showed it for the flim flam it is.

If you’re unaware of this practice, homeopathy is the idea that plain old water can cure any ailment. Homeopaths, of course, say there’s more to it than that, but their claims have been shown countless times to be, um, not supported by evidence. At all.

If you’re in Canada you can watch the whole Marketplace episode online, but for the rest of us, it’s on YouTube in two parts. Here’s the first part:

Part 2 can be found here.

The critical thinking site Skeptic North has more details, including some minor complaints about the program. I agree with their analysis, but also want to make sure we all see the big picture here: this is one of those very rare times where a TV show actually exposes an antireality alt-med idea for what it is: nonsense.

If only there were more shows like this. I have a long, long list of topics they could cover.

And remember, according to their own logic:

If homeopathy works, then obviously the less you use it, the stronger it gets. So the best way to apply homeopathy is to not use it at all.

Two very cool skeptical announcements:

FIRST:

The Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism — NECSS, pronounced "NEXUS" or possibly "glaven" — has just opened its registration! This weekend conference is in downtown NYC, and will be a terrific event. The speakers include Jennifer Michael Hecht (who spoke at TAM 8 and was terrific), George Hrab, Genie Scott (I <3 her so much), and many others, including (ahem) me! In fact, I’m the keynote speaker for the conference, which paradoxically makes me proud and humbled.

NECSS will be held April 9 – 10, 2011. There are plenty of other extracurricular events as well, including a trip to the American Museum and Natural History (which I’ll be attending as we tour the space exhibit), a concert by George Hrab, and more. Registration is only $95 for both days, and some discounts are available. So go here to register. I want to see lots of BABloggees there!

SECOND:

My friends at the Center for Inquiry-Vancouver are performing a homeopathic overdose for the Canadian TV network CBC’s show Marketplace, a consumer advocate program. From the online preview it really looks like this will be an actual fair and balanced presentation… in that it shows homeopathy not to work. If so, this will be one of those very rare times when reality actually makes it on TV, and homeopathy is shown for what it is: nonsense. The show airs tonight, January 14, at 8:00 p.m. So, my neighbors to the north, tune in and watch what one of your Canuckian skeptical groups is doing.

Darryl Cunningham — the man who did this devastating comic strip about antivaxxers — has turned his sights on homeopathy. In just a few dozen panels he describes this alt-med nonsense, shows why it’s nonsense, shows why it’s dangerous, and then provides a dramatic and emotional example of just how and why belief in homeopathy can kill.

His terse description of the Penelope Dingle case hits like a punch in the throat. Homeopathy is dangerous, mostly because it lures people away from real medicine. But it’s also dangerous because it promotes magical thinking, which eats away at all of reality.

Oh, how I loves me an alt-med smackdown: at a meeting of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors, Dr. Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman, said:

Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street [in London] there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS [National Health Service].

Ha! I couldn’t have said it better myself. Despite what homeopaths say, homeopathy has been shown beyond any reasonable doubt to have no effect above that of a placebo. That won’t stop homeopaths from still claiming it works; they’ll use anecdotes, they’ll use evidence distorted and twisted into a Möbius strip, or they’ll simply make stuff up.
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