Like Water for Lockjaw

The last Quacktion Figure™ gives me a good excuse to talk about a news item that popped up in my inbox the other day. Well, not so much a news item as someone's notion of a "brilliant" treatment for tetanus. You see, I have some alerts set up looking for vaccine preventable diseases. I take a quick glance at most of the stories and either do a quick tweet or simply archive it for background material for possible future posts. Every now and then, however, there will be something that catches my eye. Some combination of words in the headline or brief blurb snags my attention.

That's what happened with one such alert notification on tetanus. While perusing my inbox, what to my wandering eyes should appear but a story titled "Homeopathic Ledum for Tetanus".

Uh oh.

A Brief Look at Homeopathy for the Children

A while back, I wrote about the recall of Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the recall because their labs, during routine testing of the product, found "inconsistent amounts of belladonna," a plant more commonly known as "deadly nightshade" and which, apropos to its common name, is rather poisonous, though it does have some medicinal uses. The FDA had also received reports of adverse events that fit with belladonna toxicity in children who had taken the tablets. Now, keep in mind that, because Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets are homeopathic and sold over the counter, they were not required to go through the typical clinical trial process for safety and effectiveness.

Thinking back on this recall, I began to wonder, what other homeopathic products are out there for children? I decided to start with a look at Hyland's other products to see what they offered for use in kids.

Un-Homeopathic Sleeping Tablets

This past weekend, February 5-6, rationally-minded people all over the world committed homeopathic suicide.  But wait!  How could such an act be rational?  Well, it was part of activities organized by the 10:23 campaign to show people that there really is nothing in homeopathy.  To do this, skeptics gathered and consumed entire bottles of homeopathic pills.

With real medicine, such an action would be inadvisable in the extreme, likely leading to very serious adverse effects, including permanent disability or even death.  In short, a bad idea.  Homeopathy's different, though.  See, homeopathic pills are almost entirely sugar and, if proper procedures of dilution are adhered to, contain zero molecules of the active ingredient.

Well, I took a look at one such homeopathic product that was used this weekend: Calms Forte Sleep Aid.

Thoughts on Homeopathy at Non-Homeopathic Volumes

The other day over at Respectful Insolence, a comment from someone by the name of Tim caught my eye. He posted a rather long list of questions regarding homeopathy and opposition to it. Some of the questions seemed clearly meant to provoke (e.g., "Would you consider yourself a member of the church of modern medicine?"), but there were others that really warranted a more serious response.

After the break, I'll post a handful of the questions that I felt were actually not bad questions to ask, the answers to which may help people think a little bit before deciding whether or not to use a homeopathic treatment.

Recall of Hyland's Teething Tablets

Okay, I know this is totally unrelated to my usual subjects of Age of Autism, vaccines or censorship, but this really raised my ire. You see, I signed up to receive e-mail notices from the FDA on warning letters, recalls and enforcement reports. These satisfy my interest in keeping an eye on what kinds of foods and medical products have issues. This has the added benefit of letting me know when to toss out something that poses a risk to me, in case I miss the announcement on the local news.

Today I received a brief notice that FDA is recalling Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets.