After reading Susan Perry’s MinnPost column about how homeopaths are exploiting the world’s most vulnerable people, I invited her onto my America Weekend show to explain why spreading such pseudo-science and non-medicine to the developing world is harmful.
She talked about groups like Homeopaths Without Borders, who have taught earthquake victims in Haiti to use their ineffective products to “cure” diseases like malaria, typhoid, and urinary infections. She also explained why homeopathic “remedies” don’t work — despite the tens of millions of dollars spent on them — and the danger they present not just in the United States, but worldwide.
One of my favorite stories about homeopathic products is from one of James Randi’s speeches on the subject. He began by consuming a large number of homeopathic sleeping pills. If they had been real medicine, the combined over-dosage would have made him extremely sick, if not dead. But since they’re nothing more than sugar pills, he didn’t even get drowsy.
Listen to our conversation here.