The curious case of Oscillococcinium and the Montreal Canadiens

Last week CBC marketplace did a fantastic expose on homeopathy.  It was long overdue. I think most people confuse homeopathy with the use of herbs or some other type of naturopathy. My first introduction to homeopathy was when my eldest daughter started teething, some moms that I knew sent emails praising homeopathic teething tablets as a remedy for the pain and discomfort associated with teething.  Now as every new parent knows there is no end to the deluge of advice that parents of babies receive on every aspect of child rearing.  Everyone has their pet theories and methods and some like to pontificate on them more than others.  Teething is one of those things that all children go through and it can be unpleasant for baby and parent alike.  Evey red cheek, cry, snotty nose or bum rash from 6 months to 2 years can be met with "oh she must be teething".  Now I was a new mother and not the complete skeptic that I am now, even still I I did some research onto homeopathy and I had to re-read the wikipedia entry several times before I could wrap my brain around the concept.  Essentially homeopathic products take a substance and dilute it to very low levels (read exponentially large dilutions) in the hopes that a small amount of that substance can cure the ailment.  Now I have worked in labs and have experience with performing serial dilutions.  These were usually done to measure bacterial counts and you get to appreciate just how rapidly you can effectively dilute something until there is no more of the substance (in my case bacteria) left in solution.  The dilutions that homeopaths are performing is beyond anything that I have ever worked with, so extreme in fact that there is likely to be not a single molecule of the original substance left in the product.  The teething tablets as is turns out have some of the least insane dilutions (read: most concentrated) I have seen for homeopathic products.  This is not surprising since homeopaths believe that the more concentrated is less effective than a more dilute product.  There is nothing in nature that operates on this principle so they have concocted an elaborate story to explain their perceived efficacy of the products they sell.  Homeopaths use roman numerals to describe the dilutions X=10 and C=100, so 3X is 3 serial 10-fold dilutions or 1000-fold.  All the ingredients in the teething tablets are present at this dilution:

Calcarea Phosphorica (presumably calcium phosphate) 3X HPUS, Chamomilla (chamomile extract) 3X HPUS, Coffea Cruda (unground coffee beans, presumably to cause sleepiness in the topsy turvy world of homeopathy) 3X HPUS and Belladonna (a plant known as deadly nightshade which is rather toxic but  belladonna sounds really pretty) 3X HPUS.  Now as it turns out the 1000-fold dilution of belladonna is low but not low enough to not poison children leading to the FDA to issue a warning to stop buying the product.  As a curious fact if the homeopaths were making the product for adults they may have used the more common 30C (or 30 serial 100-fold dilutions) which can be expressed like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Now onto Oscillococcinium, which I have got to hand it to the homeopaths they have a flair for names.  Its made by a big Big-Homeo corporation called Boiron based out of France.  Their financials are on their web page and as you can see they are very profitable and they also fund the contemptable Homeopaths Without Boarders (hint: if a health care charity has a Shop Online and Track Order icon at the top of their blog, they probably have a profit motive).  Now Oscillococcinium is a propriety product of Boiron and its ingredients are listed as anas barbarie hepatis et cordis extractum 200C which is literally extract of duck liver and heart at a 200C dilutions.  Now I don't want to write the zeros out because I would need to write 400 of them, yes four hundred, its a staggering dilution. That single duck could supply a near infinite amount of Oscillococcinium tablets! interestingly they also supply a kids Oscillococcinium which according to their website is specially formulated for infants and children yet lists  anas barbarie hepatis et cordis extractum 200C as the same ingredient.  In Canada you can buy 3 doses for $6-13 dollars, based on my brief Internet research, given that they recommend dosage at 6 hour intervals one can see how the cost of a week long flu can add up. 

So as if peddling these placebos at outrageous prices were not enough they require sponsors to market the product.  Which is where the Montreal Canadiens come in, apparently they entered into a formal partnership with the hockey team for their 2010-2011 season. At this I can only shake my head and sigh.  My most generous assessment is that the arrangement is pure business, but the product is so outrageous that it is regrettable that anyone, let alone a respected NHL franchise, would chose to partner with them.