Infant Nearly Killed by Homeopathy

Americans spend about three billion dollars on homeopathy every year. I’ve talked previously about the near total lack of scientific evidence supporting homeopathy, but maybe I was wrong to dismiss it as just a waste of money. Maybe it can be even worse.

I was surprised to read this new case report published in the European Journal of Pediatrics: A young girl almost killed by homeopathy. An overdose of a homeopathic remedy might seem a contradiction in terms, but just because they’re no better than a sugar pill doesn’t mean you can stuff babies full of sugar pills.

Many homeopathic pills are made of xylitol, which can have a laxative effect, and cause diarrhea— which, if untreated in an infant, can turn into severe life-threatening metabolic acidosis, and land her in the ICU. Hence the title: “Too much of too little.”

High-dose homeopathy is also something you might want to keep away from Fido.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Peter Mellor.

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• Wille D, Hauri-Hohl M, Vonbach P, Tomaske M, Padden B, Bernet V. Too much of too little: xylitol, an unusual trigger of a chronic metabolic hyperchloremic acidosis. Eur J Pediatr. 2010 Dec;169(12):1549-51.

• alternative medicine
• complementary medicine
• homeopathy
• infants
• pets
• xylitol