The Reality Check Episode 49

Homeopathy 101 + Harriet Hall Interview + Sex on the Mind Myth

 

Part 1: 

So, what is homeopathy? 

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine, first proposed by a German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796. Homeopathicremedies are prepared by serial dilution with shaking by forceful striking, after each dilution under the assumption that is increases the effect. So, basically they trigger something in our body and it heals us. As homeopathy says "Like cures like". 

Homeopathy's efficacy beyond the placebo effect, and it's unsupported by the collective weight of scientific and clinical evidence. While some individual studies have positive results, systematic reviews of published trails fail to demonstrate efficacy conclusively. People have done higher quality trials, and they tend to report less positive results. A 2010 inquiry into the evidence base for homeopathy conducted by the UK's House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded that homeopathy is no more effective than placebo. 

You shouldn't even practice or explain a phenomenon when you can't even prove that it exists.

Harriet A. Hall

Part 2: 

Interview with Harriet A. Hall! Listen here: The Reality Check Episode 49

So, who is Harriet A. Hall?

harriet A. Hall is a retired family physician, former US Air Force flight surgeon and skeptic who write about alternative medicine and quackery for Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer. 

Hall says she was a "passive skeptic" for quite some time, only readin the literature and attending the various meetings. She met Dr. Wallace Sampson at a Skeptic Toolbox workshop in Oregon. He convinced her to write an article for the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine testing so-called "Vitamin O" products she had seen advertised in the mail. She then began writing articles for Skeptical Inquirer. When she spoke to Michael Shermer at The Amazing Meeting about the book The God Code, he encouraged her to write a review for Skeptic Magazine. She wrote other articles for the publication, and since late 2006 she has had a regular column in it titled the SkepDoc. this is also the name of her website. Dr. Hall received her B.A. and M.D. from the University of Washington. 

Science Myth of the Week: 

So, do men think about sex every 7 seconds. 

The answer is just no. There are no good evidence of it.