Trying hard not to screw up the quotes this time xD
Roggen Bread said:
Naeras said:
(trying not to miss-quote
Granted, the difference was VERY little. Just high enough and systemic enough for not being a normal random mistake (used 5 different machines in like 20 tests).
Also the photometric effect was different (I hope you know what I mean. English in this kind of field is really not my strong point).
Photometric effect from a compound that's been diluted 10^30 times? No offense, but that makes no sense, even if the survey was thorough.
To your "it takes weeks..."-thingy. You're right. Anti-body is the wrong term. Like I said: (please imagine broad German accent!) I don't english!.
But the swelling is due to the poison being cleaned out by osmosis. This is more like an anaphylactic reaction. And I think the poison from the exterior might help with this (but don't ask me how).
This stuff works, in my experience, with mosquito-stings. They just aren't that itchy anymore and seem to go away faster. And this is not because of cooling, numbing or else. Well, acutally it might be numbing, there's (small amounts of) alcohol in it.
I'm still fairly certain that the itching/swelling is a result of tissue damage, and to some extent ruptured mast cells/histamine, not simply the concentration of whatever chemical the insect injected when they punctured the skin(venom, anti-coagulation factors, etc). Cleaning it
does help, but if osmosis has anything to do with how it works, I can't see any reasons why you shouldn't be able to achieve the same results with simple home-made salt water, as long as you get the concentration right.
And: Here you are. An article about studies concerning homeopathy. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475491603000067
I did not read it at full concentration since I am working on physics right now (bio-chemistry remembers me how much I loooove physics!), but I think this article might be in favor of homeopathy.
Huh, interesting. Thanks for the link, this is the first time I've seen any serious article not outright condemn homeopathy. All other articles I've ever seen on the subject has concluded that, barring the obvious placebo effect, there's no observed effect from, or mechanism behind, homeopathy. The article you linked to reported research potential, though. Not much else, but still, interesting. I merely read the summary, however, as I don't want to pay for the full paper. :V
Then again, that article is almost 10 years old, and I think we both know how insanely the life science fields are advancing. It's quite possible (even probable?) that everything in that article could have been disproved by now.
I guess I should also clarify that I, as a bioscience student, actually think it would be awesome if homeopathy actually worked, because that's a lot of areas to research and a lot of completely new stuff we could learn about both life and the world. Plus, it'd mean potential for cheaper medicines and more effective treatment. However, pretty much everything points towards a great, big
NO as to whether or not homeopathy works: from the lack of a theoretical mechanism, to the overall lack of evidence, and the amount of resistance homeopaths show when researchers ask to let them study the methods in a controlled environment.