FairDeal Homeopathy promises it won't lie to its customers. They only guarantee that their remedies are "as effective as all other homeopathic remedies."
They also won't promise that their products can help you if you're ill. Although they do note that if you believe in their remedies they might help, because of the placebo effect. But they caution that if you're "actually ill" you shouldn't expect their products to cure you. "Homeopathy of any sort," they note, "is not a medical treatment, neither is it a substitute for evidence-based medicine and proper medical opinion."
On the testimonials page you find comments from "Miss Emily B. Leiver" and "Mr C. Lumsey." At which point it becomes obvious that the entire site is a parody. (Thanks, Terry!)
Update: I just received this email.
Dear Sir,
I just happened across your website entry on FairDeal Homeopathy.
I actually developed the site for the guys at FairDeal, and can assure you
that while the site is very unlike all other homeopathy websites, the firm
itself is anything but a hoax, and does sell homeopathic remedies* (payment
by PayPal only, dispatch to UK only) to anyone who wishes to buy one.
I'm sure the guys will be grateful if you could clarify this in your entry.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any more information, or
if you wish to get information "from the horse's mouth" as it were, you can
contact FairDeal direct on
[email protected]
Best regards,
Richard Lockwood.
*remedy is in no way meant to imply curative properties, guaranteed as
effective as all other homeopthic products
To which I replied:
Thanks for your email.
So let me see if I understand. FairDeal Homeopathy will sell people something. Customers will receive a product in the mail. But FairDeal tells their customers straight up that the product is basically a bottle of water.
Is that an accurate summary?
-Alex
And received this response:
Hi Alex,
Almost. Their remedies are in pill (lactose tablet) form sourced from the UK's biggest supplier of homeopathic products. They are identical to any other homeopathic remedy you can buy; they're just a lot more honest about what they do.
Best regards,
Richard.
So I suppose FairDeal Homeopathy is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it is real, in so far as it will sell people something.
Comments
Actually traditional, herb-based medicine is the "classic" medicine, as it's been tested by generations. Modern western medicine is rather experimental and "alternative" because of its young age and because it's guided by profit first and foremost.
And homeopathy (which has never been show to be effective when tested in a controlled experiment) is NOT for-profit? Those guys work for free?
But guys like Derren Brown and NLP practitioners for ages can show you how combining a subjects' own beliefs with some straightforward language can guide them to do just about anything:
"Here is a magic potion. It is equally as strong as other magic potions, and if you drink it, you will not be attacked by cobras! (if you believe strongly enough)"
I think they are being straightforward, if a little cynical and transparent. As a plus, they avoid being sued for false claims about their product.
"Homeopathic preparations consist of some harmless substance, mixed with water that is then diluted repeatedly until the concentration of the solution is incredibly weak, like .002 ppm (parts per million)."
It can be even weaker than that. Homeopaths believe that the greater the dilution, the stronger the "medicine." A "10X" notation on the bottle means that the mix has been diluted ten times; at that point, there is no detectable amount of the original substance in the potion.
The nomenclature is nR where n is the number of times the dilution is repeated and R is a roman numeral indicating the order of each dilution. Hence, as CMG points out, 10X means dilute the original mixture by 10, then dilute that mixture by 10, now dilute that mixture by 10, and so on ten times. Hence the overall dilution is 10^10.
Of course 10X is paradoxically a very weak remedy because it is such a strong solution. For a really potent homoeopathic cure you should buy dilutions of 100C or above.
Just for fun, imagine you start with 1 millilitre of active ingredient, guess what volume of water is required to turn all of it into a 100C solution?
So never let them tell you they're out of stock!
Although harmless in such solution, the substances themselves are frequently non-harmless in themselves: the very point is that (in non-homeopathic doses) the substance used should cause the same symptom as the homeopathic remedy is designed to treat. Hence the homeo-. It's a good thing they are diluted so much or many homeopathic treatments would be poisons rather than placebos.