Homeopathic Gripe Water

The next time I was in the pharmacy, I saw several shelves holding homeopathic remedies for all sorts of ailments, including colic. I found the gripe water, noted its ingredients, and headed home for some more research.

The first thing I had to determine was what, exactly, is a homeopathic remedy? According to one homeopathy site, “Homeopathy is a natural therapy that uses nano-doses of specially prepared remedies to stimulate the body to heal itself.” What, though, are “nano-doses,” and how are they made? According to Hahnemann Labs, a leading manufacturer of homeopathic remedies,

First we prepare a one to one hundred dilution of the solution and then we succuss this new dilution vigorously at each step. (Succussion is the forceful pounding of the liquid dilution against a firm but resilient surface.)….

Here at Hahnemann Labs we always prepare the first fifteen potencies in separate vials, which is the Hahnemannian method.

If I am reading this right, they prepare a 1:100 dilution, pound it against a rubber mat, and then repeat the dilution and pounding up to 14 more times. How can such a “nano-dose” possibly be efficacious? According to the FAQ:

[S]ubstances like common salt or charcoal, which have little to no effect on a person, become deep and powerful medicines through the process of dilution and succussion. Likewise, toxic substances like arsenic and mercury, are rendered nontoxic while becoming greatly medicinal. Through dilution and succussion or trituration, we can take any substance—whether it be non-soluble, toxic, or completely inert—and turn it into a profound and safe medicine.

So, again if I am reading this right, something becomes more powerful as medicine as it becomes a smaller component of the end solution, because it is being diluted and pounded vigorously against a rubber mat.

Many of these remedies also proclaimed that they are FDA regulated. What precisely this regulation entails, according to the FDA:

FDA regulates homeopathic drugs in several significantly different ways from other drugs. Manufacturers of homeopathic drugs are deferred from submitting new drug applications to FDA. Their products are exempt from good manufacturing practice requirements related to expiration dating and from finished product testing for identity and strength. Homeopathic drugs in solid oral dosage form must have an imprint that identifies the manufacturer and indicates that the drug is homeopathic. The imprint on conventional products, unless specifically exempt, must identify the active ingredient and dosage strength as well as the manufacturer.

Why would they regulate homeopathic remedies in such a markedly different way from other drugs? Again, from the FDA:

“The reasoning behind [the difference] is that homeopathic products contain little or no active ingredients,” explains Edward Miracco, a consumer safety officer with FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Further, the FDA states that these nano-doses are

prepared by repeatedly diluting the active ingredient by factors of 10. A “6X” preparation (the X is the Roman numeral for 10) is a 1-to-10 dilution repeated six times, leaving the active ingredient as one part per million. Essential to the process of increasing potency while decreasing the actual amount of the active ingredient is vigorous shaking after each dilution.

Some homeopathic remedies are so dilute, no molecules of the healing substance remain. Even with sophisticated technology now available, analytical chemists may find it difficult or impossible to identify any active ingredient. But the homeopathic belief is that the substance has left its imprint or a spirit-like essence that stimulates the body to heal itself.

So, if there are no active ingredients in these remedies, what actually is in them?

For one of the gripe waters, listed as “other ingredients” were purified water and glycerin, which is a humectant used in the cosmetics industry as a moisturizer. According to one cosmetics site, [emphasis mine]:

Glycerin is a neutral, sweet-tasting, colorless, thick liquid which freezes to a gummy paste and which has a high boiling point. Glycerin can be dissolved into water or alcohol, but not oils.

Thus, homeopathic gripe water would appear to be sweet-tasting water, with less than a molecule of each of the other, homeopathic, ingredients. On Monday, I cited a JRSM article that stated, “It now seems that the soothing effect of gripe water derives from its sweet taste.”

If there are any cases of colic that were helped by homeopathic gripe water, and they were not just cases of the colic going away after 12 weeks as it normally does and the parents attributing it to the gripe water, it could be reasonable to assume that it was the sweet-tasting water that was responsible.

And, at around $20 a bottle, homeopathic gripe water seems a bit expensive for a remedy that could arguably be whipped up with a glass of water and a teaspoon of sugar.

[Editor's note: I have not, due to space considerations, exhaustively outlined the theories behind the practice of homeopathy. In my next post, in case I was really not reading it right, I will offer links to homeopathy sites where you can read about it in the practitioners' own words. I will also link to sites critical of these practices, so you can make up your own mind about homeopathy.]

Related Posts:

• Woodward’s Original Gripe Water

Tagged as: health, homeopathy, skeptical parenting

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