How Does Oscillococcinum Treat Flu Symptoms?
Oh wait, can Oscillococcinum really treat flu symptoms?
Have you ever taken Oscillococcinum when you have had the flu?
If so, have you ever thought about how it is supposed to work?
How Does Oscillococcinum Treat Flu Symptoms?
As we consider if Oscillococcinum can or does treat flu symptoms, let’s take a look at its ingredients.
Or rather, its ingredient, as Oscillococcinum has just one active ingredient.
Anas barbariae hepatis et cordis extractum
What’s that?
“Take the carcass of a duck and place 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart in a one liter bottle filled with a solution of pancreatic juice and glucose. When after forty days the liver and heart have disintegrated, dilute the solution to 100 liters. Repeat this dilution another 199 times, shaking in a specific fashion each time. Then take a small pellet of milk sugar and moisten it with the resulting solution. Package the pellets in a box labeled as “Oscillococcinum” and market it to consumers who wish to prevent or treat the flu homeopathically.”
The Curious “Science” of Oscillococcinum
It is a 1% solution of wild duck heart and liver extract that is diluted to the point that none of the original molecules remain.
Now, how could that possibly treat your flu symptoms?
In ‘theory,’ because of the basic homeopathic principle that like cures like!
“Homeopathy was the brain child of Samuel Hahnemann (1775-1843), a German physician who introduced the idea that ‘like cures like.’ A substance that causes symptoms of illness in a healthy person, he maintained, will cure a sick person who suffers from the same symptoms.”
The Curious “Science” of Oscillococcinum
That’s why homeopaths give Ipecacuanha to ‘treat’ folks with nausea and vomiting. They think that if ipecac causes vomiting, then extensively diluted homeopathic doses can cure it.
Like cures like!
How extensively diluted are we talking?
Well, do you know what the 200CK HPUS on the Oscillococcinum label means?
It means that it underwent 200 - 1:100 (C) dilutions using the Korsakovian method (one vial is emptied and reused for each dilutions). And HPUS simply means that it is in the subscription based Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPUS).
That’s extensively diluted!
To begin to understand this, let’s take a look at why they empty and reuse the same vial for each dilution.
After all, why not just use a massive container to dilute their ‘medication?’
Let’s think about it…
What if, for example, we add a drop of the 1% solution of wild duck heart and liver extract to an Olympic size swimming pool? Interestingly, that would just get us to a 5C dilution.
Amazingly, you just get to 12C if you add one drop to the Atlantic Ocean!
To get to a 200C dilution, the container would need to be bigger than the size of the whole universe!
Which again means that there are no wild duck heart and liver molecules left in the little Oscillococcinum pills you are buying.
And that’s by design!
Homeopaths believe in the law of minimum dose and that substances work best when given at the lowest dosages possible.
How do they work?
“Hahnemann was not bothered by the fact that at these dilutions none of the original substance remained; he claimed that the power of the curative solution did not come from the presence of an active ingredient, but from the fact that the original substance had in some mystical way empowered the solution with curative properties. A simple dilution, however, was not enough. The vial had to be struck against a special leather pillow a fixed number of times to be "dynamized," before adding a drop of the solution to a sugar pill.”
Homeopathy-Delusion through Dilution
Some homeopaths believe that with all the shaking they do during the dilutions, the water retains a memory of the original substance! Other homeopaths believe that their remedies simply rebalance your vital force.
Is that what you think is happening? Do you think you have the flu because your vital force needs balancing?
In truth, many people buy these types of homeopathic products because they are sold right next to real medicines in the pharmacy, and they don’t really understand that they are just homeopathic.
“Homeopathy is a chameleon in pharmacies. It has taken the look and shape of genuine medication and will easily fool the casual shopper. Multiple episodes of the consumer advocacy show CBC Marketplace have provided evidence that the average person cannot distinguish homeopathic cold and flu products from medicated ones when presented with a table spread.”
Here Be Homeopathic Chameleons
But why might you feel better after taking it?
The flu is very variable.
Some folks are very sick for weeks, and others have very mild symptoms for a few days.
If it ‘worked,’ you simply had a very mild case of the flu.
Don’t be fooled!
You should especially not be fooled into thinking these types of homeopathic ‘medicines’ can replace vaccines to protect you or your family from the flu or other vaccine preventable diseases.
They can’t.
How does one even know if one is “allergic” to oscillococcinum?
It’s a fantasy construct. Can you do patch testing with it. if it doesn’t exist?