[ RadSafe ] Letter: Homeopathy and Hormesis

[John Jacobus]

Jim,
I do think that Steve makes some good points.  Those
who claim a hormetic effect, whatever the agent, need
to be sure that there is difference between beneficial
or no noticeable effect.  

I also suspect that many of the "benefits" seen with
the use of homeopathic treatments are due to a placebo
response.  This also applies to hormesis, whatever the
agent.

--- "Muckerheide, James" <jimm at WPI.EDU> wrote:

> Hi Steve,
> 
> I suspect that you haven't been keeping up with the
> literature on
> dose-responses to low doses of all toxins.  :-)  
> 
> I just sent the attached around today.  One of
> Calabrese's recent journal
> papers ran 207 pages with individual summaries of
> papers just addressing
> immune responses from very many different toxins,
> including some radiation.
> 
> And I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to
> "confuse" hormesis and homeopathy
> if they know ANYTHING about them.  (I wonder how you
> would do 10-20 dilutions
> of radon :-)
> 
> This really seems more like disinformation than just
> stupidity. :-)
> 
> Regards, Jim 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> > Behalf Of Steven Dapra
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 10:23 PM
> > To: radsafe at radlab.nl
> > Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Letter: Homeopathy and
> Hormesis
> > 
> > Feb 7, 2006
> > 
> > Dear Group
> > 
> > Ran across this Letter to the Editor in the latest
> > edition of Skeptical Inquirer.
> > 
> > Skeptical Inquirer - the magazine for science and
> > reason - Vol. 30, No. 1 Jan/Feb 2006 p.68
> > 
> > Homeopathy and Hormesis:
> > 
. . .
> > COMMENT:
> > 
> >          There is some confused and dangerous
> reasoning at work here.  No
> > one is saying that low-dose exposure to every
> toxin (insult) has a
> > hormetic
> > effect (that it is healthful).  Furthermore, no
> one is using hormesis to
> > try and exonerate the chemical industry of
> anything, and I have never
> > heard
> > anyone claim that low doses of these chemical
> industry substances are
> > healthful.  At most, people would say in these
> cases that low-dose
> > exposure
> > is not harmful, but never that it is healthful.
> > 
> >          We who accept the hormetic effect, or
> think there is some merit
> > to
> > the claim of hormesis, need to be careful to make
> a clear distinction
> > between a hormetic (healthful) effect at low
> levels of exposure, and no
> > effect at low levels of exposure.
> > 
> > (end comment)
> > 
. . .
> > 
> > COMMENT:
> > 
> >          No one is saying that stimulatory
> responses are always
> > beneficial.  This needs to be approached on a case
> by case basis.
> > 
> >          Note that Huff refers readers to an
> article or a paper in
> > Environmental Health Perspectives.  I have raised
> objections to EHP papers
> > before on RADSAFE.  (Steve Wing's co-authored
> paper purporting to find a
> > higher death toll at Three Mile Island was
> published in EHP.)  About ten
> > years ago, one of the co-authors of this paper,
> Devra Davis, was active in
> > the drive to attribute breast cancer to chlorine. 
> I heard her speak at an
> > anti-chlorine and anti-radiation seminar in
> Albuquerque in 1994.  I do not
> > know what Davis' present views are on chlorine and
> breast cancer.  (Wing
> > also spoke at this seminar.)  Should anyone have
> questions about this
> > seminar, please contact me by private e-mail. 
> Please do not ask me on
> > RADSAFE.
> > 
> > Steven Dapra
> > sjd at swcp.com
> > 
> > 
> > 
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+++++++++++++++++++
"It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or 
adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical 
staff."
MICHAEL D. GRIFFIN, NASA administrator.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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