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How much Homeopathic medicines would be required (or considered) an overdose?

Every Homeopathic site claims the treatments are safe and have no side effects, it it even possible to overdose?

Richard Stelling
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  • Do homeopaths claim it's possible to overdose on homeopathic medicine? – Andrew Grimm Apr 01 '11 at 02:45
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    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/57997/discussion-on-question-by-rjstelling-is-it-possible-to-overdose-on-homeopathic-m). – Oddthinking May 01 '17 at 12:05
  • The real question: is it an overdose when you take too much, or when you take too little? – Asher May 01 '17 at 15:52

6 Answers6

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That all depends on the homeopathic "medicine." True homeopathic "medicines" are so diluted that they have no active ingredients, and so this would be impossible, assuming that there are no harmful inactive ingredients, and not taken in quantities associated with hyperhydration.

That said, there are some substances that are sold that are said to be homeopathic, and do contain active ingredients. Depending on the substance, it would be possible to over-dose on these. For instance, I know that there are some zinc lozenges that are marketed as homeopathic, and you can overdose on that.

Ustice
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    Also keep in mind that homeopathic medicine isn't regulated in all countries, so there's no guarantee that they even did the dilutions correctly! This is why a lot of us, at least in the US, who participated in the 10:23 events did NOT actually stage an overdose. – Shinrai Feb 25 '11 at 15:13
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Yes, it is entirely possible to overdose on almost anything.

  • liquid (water) homepathic medicine can of course cause water intoxication
  • sugar pills can cause problems with blood sugar I presume, although I do not know in what amounts.
  • liquid (alcohol) we all know this one :)
Sklivvz
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Nanne
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Not every medicine marketed as homeopathy actually is.

For example, in Germany there’s an ointment on the basis of calendula, Calendumed. Despite the fact that it’s marketed as one, this is not a homeopathic treatment: it has an active ingredient in it and while its efficacy in healing wounds has not yet been proved1 the active ingredient is there, and it’s measurable. So you could overdose on it (then again, it’s an ointment so you shouldn’t eat it anyway). More specifically, the original tincture uses a potentiation of C1, which is a dilution of 1:100. Not much; enough to have an effect, certainly enough to overdose on.

Furthermore, if we accept that homeopathy exhibits a placebo effect then we must also accept that it exhibits a nocebo effect. If a person believing in its efficacy deliberately overdoses on homeopathic medicine it’s entirely possible that we could observe (severe) adverse effects. In fact, these adverse effects have been observed in various studies, e.g. Weissenfeld & al., 2010.

1 But there is evidence that it helps with radiation burns so it’s reasonable to suspect that it also works for the advertised indications.

Konrad Rudolph
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    Whoever downvoted this, would they care to explain? I’d really rather *know* about any inaccuracies in my answer and would be happy to correct them than just getting downvoted. – Konrad Rudolph Mar 07 '11 at 21:59
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    Zicam is also marketed at "Homeopathic", but contains real Zinc Gluconate. There have been mixed studies that zinc really has an effect on the common cold or not, but this is the "active ingredient". – Jeffrey Mar 29 '11 at 17:58
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You can certainly get poisoned by the solvant (water, alcohol, sugar, etc.), but for the rest... there is no rest!

Homeopathic medicines do not contain any active ingredient - this is universally accepted by both the science community and the homeopaths. Typical dilutions are 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 followed by 60 zeroes).

Homeopathy is supposed to work through some never seen, semi-magical "memory" in the solvent, which somehow gets "potentiated" through extreme dilution and some "succussion" (magical beating) on a bible (no, really).

So, mmm, no. :-)

Find more about it here: List of topics characterized as pseudoscience (Wikipedia).

Ken Graham
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Sklivvz
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  • Avogadro number is around 10^24. 1 in 10^60 would be 1 in around 10^36 moles ; for water this would be around 10^30 tons, I think. That seems pretty huge to me. Where does this 10^60 number come from? – glmxndr Nov 01 '11 at 12:49
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    the "preferred" solutions (C30) are diluted in 10 parts 60 times (hence the 1^60) factor. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathic_dilutions#Potency_scales – Sklivvz Nov 01 '11 at 13:55
  • Indeed, thanks. Impressive waste of resources to dilute so much. (I believe that you miscounted your pasting of 0's, though, you seem to have written 75 of them where you meant 60.) – glmxndr Nov 01 '11 at 15:12
  • @subtenante which is why "manufacturers" of homeopathetic "medicine" just fill bottles with tapwater and label them whatever they have an order for :) – jwenting Nov 02 '11 at 08:06
  • "Homeopathic medicines do not contain any active ingredient" - for 30C, sure. For 2X, it isn't the case. – Oddthinking May 01 '17 at 10:34
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Most homeopathic remedies are so far diluted that there just is not enough substance left to cause any kind of pharmacological effect. But there are some exceptions, the most well known was probably Zicam, which has been recalled by the FDA because is could destroy the sense of smell due to the contained zinc. One could argue that it is not a "real" homeopathic remedy, but it was marketed as such.

Oddthinking
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Mad Scientist
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It IS possible to overdose on homeopathic pills! Really!

While there are no active ingredients in a homeopathic pills, there are inactive ingredients. The biggest one is Lactose. For those who don't know, Lactose is a form of sugar derived from milk.

I am one of the many that is Lactose intolerant. If I took enough of these pills then I will get very sick.

Here's a link to a seller of homeopathic medicine and what they have to say about the lactose.

If we believe what they say on their web site, then the average person would overdose at about 78 pills. While 78 pills sounds like a lot, this is less than what skeptics take for their homeopathic awareness events, like the 10-23 campaign.

  • I don't know if that would be technically considered overdose. If you're sufficiently sensitive to a specific eccipient you need just one single pill to get sick. Also the "classical" homeopathic preparations are [in] water. – nico Nov 01 '11 at 22:14
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    @nico At the local "health food store", about 90% of the homepathic stuff is in pill form. And if you want to get "technical" then it isn't medicine either. But if I took more than the required dosage I could get sick from unintentional side effects. Call it what you want. –  Nov 01 '11 at 22:19
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    @nico overdose is always personal, as it depends on the effects observed. For a severely lactose intolerant person, a single such pill can make them seriously ill, they've OD'd on lactose. For most people who aren't so intolerant, that number is far higher. Similarly with drugs like morphine, someone addicted to it has a far higher tolerance for it than others. My mother for example when she was morphine addicted in hospital would require doses several times a day that would kill you or me near instantly just to prevent withdrawal symptoms. She was cured of it by reducing the dose over time. – jwenting Nov 02 '11 at 08:11
  • @jwenting: sorry, but **over**dose means that you ingested more than the recommended doses. So if you get sick after getting one pill it is not due to an overdose, it is just an adverse effect at normal dosage (just semantics, but important in this case). – nico Nov 02 '11 at 10:38
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    @David Kessner: I specifically talked about homeopatic preparations, not medicaments. As I said in my other comment, there is a difference between adverse effect at normal dosage and at overdose: the end result can be the same (you get sick) but pharmacologically and legally they are very different things. – nico Nov 02 '11 at 11:58
  • @nico the recommended/normal dose depends on the person in question is what I'm pointing out here. For one person that might be 100mg per dose 5 times a day, for another 10mg per dose once a day. For over the counter medication the manufacturer deliberately chooses that dose very low to prevent adverse effects in almost anyone, the very same medication can be taken with no ill effects by many people at far higher doses as a result and doctors will often prescribe that. Take Naproxen. 440mg per day is the max otc dose here, yet I have a recurring prescription for 2000mg per day. – jwenting Nov 02 '11 at 12:26
  • @jwenting: I think we are saying the same thing. Adverse effects can happen at any dose. Overdose just means "over the raccomended dose", it does not mean that you will have adverse effects, nor getting the raccomentded dose means that you will not have them. :) – nico Nov 02 '11 at 13:21
  • Indeed, but it does mean the recommended dose is different for different persons. For a person with a history of using the substance it may be higher than for someone with a known allergy to it (for whom the overdose will be a lot lower, possibly even anything over 0). – jwenting Nov 02 '11 at 13:50