Heather Henderson Homeopathy Speech

I'm Heather Henderson and I'm about to
take a homeopathic sleep aid

called Calms-Forte.

I'm doing a persuasive speech in my
class and I told the teacher

that I wanted to start off my talk
by swallowing a whole bottle of these.

He said, if I did it first in front
of someone who I trusted,

and showed him that everything was okay,
I'd be allowed to do it also in class.

So I have a box here,

and it's got a lot of bull ingredients,
there's really nothing in them,

I looked it all up, I did my research

So I'm going to open it up here.

It's a little tiny bottle.

Let's take a look.

Oh my gosh, that's a lot of pills.
>> [Cameraperson]: Mhm.

>> Okay, it's a -- 50 tablets. [laughs]

Alright, fine.
[noise of tablets coming out of the bottle]

I'm going to take them.

>> Date?
>> What is the date and time?

>> Okay - Hey Siri, what is today?

Alright, so it's Wednesday, May 31st, 2017.

>> Okay, I'm going to take it.

I don't even have all of the pills
in my hand right now,

this is not even really half the bottle,

but I'm gonna take as many as I can
- these I can.

Ready?
> Okay.

Ah!

>> Show.

>> Ah!

Okay! [burps] Excuse me!

That was 50 tablets of Calms-Forte..

I'm about to head to class right now,
and I'm going to show him the video,

show him the empty bottle,

show him the paper I wrote out,

explaining all the ingredients
that aren't in this

and -my class is four hours long,
so hopefully by the end of class,

he'll see that there's
nothing in this - at all.

>> [C] And right now the time is...
Apple watch, come on!

>>[Apple watch:] It's 5:24
>> [C:] It's 5:24

>> [AW] good evening

Wednesday May 31st 2017

>> Okay, here I go.

Before I begin my speech, I need to take

a little bit of medication,
just to give me some pep.

It's going to get me prepared,
so that I can do a great job.

Thanks for that.

Imagine you have a friend, who is a parent

of an adorable 18 month old baby
who gets a simple ear infection.

Let's call her Hope.

What would most parents do
in this situation?

Many would take their baby
to a pediatrician

who would prescribe antibiotics
that would clear up her ear infection.

But what if you knew that
rather than taking Hope to a doctor,

Your friend was treating her
with something called homeopathy?

An ear infection can be dangerous,
especially for someone as young as Hope.

Side effects can be very painful,
and even lead to death.

In 2015, Hope's parents were charged

with one count each
of involuntary manslaughter

and endangering the welfare of a child.

These parents were against antibiotics

and other chemicals
related to Western medicine.

So they treated Hope's ear infection
with homeopathic remedies.

Little Hope died of a condition
that could have been prevented

with scientifically proven medicine
in the form of amoxicillin.

Hope was sick for three weeks
before her death

and she suffered horribly
and unnecessarily

from a simple ear infection
that lead to meningitis,

which caused an abscess
followed by swelling of the brain.

What's even more horrific

is because Hope was being treated
with only homeopathic remedies,

her illness and death went on
without any treatment to ease her pain.

At one point, Hope was vomiting
and had a fever that reached 103°.

And five days before her death,
Hope started draining fluid from her ear

caused by an abscess that ruptured
through her ear drum.

This is only one anecdotal story
but there are many more like it,

which is why I'm here to demonstrate
that homeopathy is a lie.

I've done extensive research
on homeopathic remedies

because when I was diagnosed with cancer
in 2001,

I was desperate to find alternative ways
to cure my illness.

Fortunately, I also chose to listen
to my doctor's advice

and go through with chemo.

But I was so emotionally vulnerable.

I tried many expensive products

that in the end did nothing
but cure my wallet of cash.

What exactly is homeopathy?

Most people, when they hear the term,
think it is just natural herbal remedies.

Not even close.

To truly appreciate
how awful this idea is,

we need to go all the way back
to the 18th century.

A German physician named
Samuel Hahnemann

began forming the basic principles
of homeopathy in the late 1700's.

He developed what he called
"the law of similars."

That's the idea that diseases can be cured

by extremely small amounts of
the substance that produces

similar symptoms in healthy people
when they take large amounts.

Hahnemann and his earlier followers
conducted "provings"

in which they administered herbs,
mineral and other substances

to healthy people, including themselves,

and kept detailed records
of what they observed.

Later, these records were compiled
into a lengthy reference book

called Materia Medica,

which are used to match a patient's
symptoms with a corresponding drug

And for the record:
just because that book is in Latin

does not make it true.

For example, if you had symptoms
of swelling from a spider bite,

then a homeopath would give you
a diluted amount of remedy

with the venom of a spider in it

to cure the swelling,

because according to Hahnemann,
like cures like.

Sounds crazy?

That's because it is; here's why.

Consider just how diluted
each one of these are.

Here's how it works.

10 to the power of 1 is 10.

10 square is 100.

10 to the third power
has 3 zeros behind it

and it goes on and on and on.

To make a homeopathic remedy,

you take 1 part of the active ingredient
and put it in 10 parts of water.

Then you succuss it.

Succuss means shaking, and homeopaths
do the succussing like this.

They tap on something
as they are shaking the mixture.

Now this is called a 1 solution.

That's far too strong.

Then they take 1 part of that solution
and put it into 10 parts of water,

shake it again
and make a 2 solution:

1 part in 100.

The rule is, the more dilute the remedy is
the stronger it is.

A popular dosage is 30 c.

In homeopath speak, that's 1 part for
million, million, million, million,

million,million, million, million,
million, million.

Let me put that into perspective.

Homeopathic remedies contain
far less medicine

than if you were to put
one drop of active ingredient

in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

If you dilute a solution that much,

how does it even work?

Here's what homeopathic doctors believe.

They believe that water retains memory.

That is to say, they believe water
remembers the effects

of the active ingredient.

What they don't realize is that
if water retains memory,

then it also must remember
all the times that feces and pee

has gotten into it.

Here is what science has to say:

When tested in a lab,
scientists have found

that the homeopathic pills
are primarily sucrose and lactose.

This is what real medical professionals
refer to as sugar pills.

After assessing more than 1800 studies
on homeopathy,

Australia's National Health
and Medical Research Council

was only able to find 225 studies
that were scientifically valid enough

to analyze.

And a systematic review of these studies
revealed

no reasonable evidence to support
any claim that homeopathy is effective

in treating any health condition.

There is no diploma or certificate
from any school or program

recognized as a license to practice
homeopathy in the US.

Individual State laws and licensing boards
regulate the practice of homeopathy

and each States' laws and requirements
for practices are different.

Some States might not have
any definitive laws

on the practice of homeopathy

but might have laws on the practice of
alternative therapies

by non-licensed practitioners.

Sadly, the market for homeopathic
medicines in the United States

is a multi-million dollar industry.

Homeopathic remedies are recognized
and regulated

by the Food and Drug Administration

and are manufactured by
pharmaceutical companies.

Today, all the conventional
prescription drugs

and new over-the-counter drugs

must undergo thorough testing and review
by the FDA for safety and effectiveness

before they can be sold.

This requirement is not applied
to homeopathy

at all.

If you are anything like me,

you must be shocked by how this medication
can be regulated by the FDA,

sold in drugstores and that anyone
would stand by this type of remedy.

Some of you might say:
"Well, what about the placebo effect?

"What's the harm if people think and feel
like they are getting better,

even if there's nothing in it?"

The greatest danger occurs when homeopathy
replaces a conventional treatment,

as it did in another case recorded
in a British medical journal.

A woman had relied on homeopathy
during a trip to Togo, West Africa,

which resulted in a nearly deadly case
of malaria.

This meant she had to endure
two months of intensive care

for multiple organ system failure.

In her case, the placebo effect
offered no protection at all.

In other words, any delay in proving
effective treatment of some diseases

can have dangerous and deadly results.

Some people even choose
not to vaccinate their children

in favor of homeopathic vaccines.

As a result, measles and whooping cough
are making a comeback.

Remember baby Hope,
from the beginning of my talk,

who died from complications
from an ear infection?

She wasn't old enough to have the option
to deny those homeopathic remedies

that caused her death.

That's the harm.

While some people like eating sugar pills
as their immune system does all the work

to cure their 'flues and colds,

others are suffering and dying
unnecessarily.

I'm giving you all this information
to remind you

to think critically, when it comes to
some natural remedies,

if it says it's "homeopathy", remember
there's nothing of value in it,

other than the placebo effect.

Here's what you can do.

First and foremost: don't waste your money
on these scams.

Second: if you see a homeopathic remedy
in a drugstore,

ask the manager why they are selling
medicine with nothing in it.

By the way, CVS, Walgreens and GNC
sell this lie - everyday.

And third: don't just listen to me.

Research the products, their ingredients
and how they are made for yourself.

You watched me eat an entire bottle of
pills during this presentation.

What I swallowed was 50 Calms-Forte
homeopathic sleeping pills.

And by the way, on the bottle, it says:
"There are no side effects."

Really.

See me after class and you will find
that I am still standing.

>> Good, great!
(Applause)