Homotoxicology
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This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
"If you are in possession of this revolutionary secret of science,
why not prove it and be hailed as the new Newton?
Of course, we know the answer. You can't do it. You are a fake."
| For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Homotoxicology. |
Homotoxicology is a quack hypothesis for disease concocted by homeopathic crank Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg. According to this idea disease symptoms are responses of the body's attempt to expel "toxins" that have built up in the system. Homotoxicology denies the central tenets of the reality based germ theory of disease and is used primarily around the advocation of homeopathic products.
Reckeweg's corporation Heel, which is still around selling products, is the primary pusher of homotoxicology. They label it as a "sophisticated modern form of homoeopathy"[1] and the "bridge between allopathic and homeopathic medicine."[2]
[edit] Homotoxins
The evil toxins building up in our system according to this framework are called by the vaguely defined term "homotoxin." Homotoxins are pretty much everything. They are defined as "all those substances (chemical/biochemical) and non-material influences (physical, psychical), which can cause ill health in humans."[3] In practice it is used to attribute disease to whatever is the cause du jour, examples include: fast food, unnamed chemicals in our water, evil "allopathic" prescribed medicine, biased media, and witch doctor curses.
While some of what the practitioner of homotoxicology might label a toxin actually can cause illness, it is important to realize that the homotoxicologist is suggesting a very different means of action than established evidence-based science has shown. For example, both a real doctor and a homotoxicologist would agree that tetrodotoxin[4] causes illness, but while the real doctor attributes that to specific actions involving nerve receptors and the protein structure of the toxic molecule, the homotoxicologist attributes the symptoms to a manifestation of the body's attempt to expel the toxin.
[edit] Six phases of disease
| “ | According to homotoxciology all of those processes, syndromes, and manifestations, which we designate as diseases, are the expression thereof that the body is combating poisons and that it wants to neutralize and excrete these poisons. The body either wins or loses the fight thereby. Those processes, which we designate as diseases, are always biological, that is natural teleological processes, which serve poison defense and detoxification. [3] | ” |
Homotoxicology stands against everything we know in modern biology and medicine and boldly proclaims that all disease symptoms are actually specific actions that body is taking to rid itself of evil homotoxins. It defines disease progression in six progressively worse stages[1]:
| Phase | Description |
| Excretion phase | In this phase the body's defensive system is intact and can excrete homotoxins in various ways such as through diarrhoea or rhinitis (a runny nose). |
| Inflammation phase | If excretion is not sufficient, the body has an inflammatory response (such as a fever) in an attempt to neutralise toxins. |
| Deposition phase | If homotoxins are not sufficiently excreted and continue to flow into the body, the toxic products are stored in the extracellular space. This phase often occurs without symptoms. |
| Impregnation phase | Once toxins have invaded the cell and the toxins themselves become part of the connective tissue and matrix. Increasingly severe symptoms are typical of this stage and indicate damage to organ cells. |
| Degeneration | Abundant toxins within the cells destroy large cellular groups within an organ, resulting in organ degeneration. |
| Differentiation | Illnesses in this phase are characterised by the creation of undifferentiated, non-specialised cell forms. Malignant diseases lie at the end of this phase. |
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Homotoxicology." Heel. Heel. 22 Apr 2008 <http://www.heel.com.au/homotoxicology/index.shtml>.
- ↑ "Homotoxicology." Natural Solutions for You. 22 Apr 2008 <http://www.naturalsolutions4you.ca/index_002.htm>.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Biotherapeutic Index, 5th revised English edition. Baden-Baden, Germany: Biologische Heilmittel GmbH, 2000, p 4.
- ↑ "a potent neurotoxin with no known antidote", according to Wikipedia Today
