Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that treats patients with drug or herbal preparations that are so diluted that the final solution may not contain detectable amounts of the drugs or herbs.  In fact, homeopathic remedies may be so diluted that they are just water.  Clearly, any benefit obtained from such medicines would likely be due to the placebo effect, which is the belief by the patient that he or she will get better.  This belief sometimes has a therapeutic effect.  Homeopathic remedies may be just water, but they can cause harm by preventing a sick person from seeking competent medical advice and being cured by verified conventional treatments.

Homeopathic remedies are a big business.  The market for homeopathic medicines is estimated to be 300 million euros in France, 200 million euros in Germany, over 26 billion Rupees in India, and $200 million Dollars in the United States.

Homeopathic products do not need to be tested for safety or effectiveness, but they must be labeled with a list of ingredients and the conditions for which they are used.  A 1938 law allows drugs listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States to be sold without the validation that governs standard medications.  In essence, homeopathic products are manufactured and distributed without FDA approval.

Some homeopathic products may actually contain harmful substances.  In June 16, 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to stop using and discard three zinc-containing Zicam intranasal products because the products may cause a permanent loss of sense of smell.[1]  The manufacturer of Zicam, Matrixx Initiatives, agreed to pay $12 million dollars in 2006 to settle 340 law suits by consumers who claimed that Zicam had ruined or destroyed their sense of smell.  FDA Inspectors are also investigating other homeopathic products that have caused allergic reactions from impurities introduced during manufacturing.

Just because a product is popular or heavily marketed, it does not mean that it is safe and effective.  Claims for herbal medicines are a big gray area.  There are many herbal medicines whose ingredients have been proven effective.  The antibacterial properties of garlic and the pain relief from chewing leaves of willow, which contain aspirin, have been known for thousands of years.  However, the claims made for many herbal medicines are not likely to be confirmed through research by pharmaceutical companies because there are no profits to be made from natural products that cannot be patented.  A successful economic model for new drugs requires identifying the active compounds in a natural product and then creating synthetic analogues that can be patented.

[1] FDA Warnings on Three Zicam Intranasal Zinc Products [link]

Hiking in the mountains is a good way to get exercise and enjoy nature.  I recently went on a weekend vacation to Little Switzerland, North Carolina, and from there I traveled south toward Mount Mitchell National Park, and then north toward the city of Blowing Rock.

Little Switzerland is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is very colorful in the autumn when the leaves change colors.  The mountainous terrain provides majestic landscapes and great opportunities for photography, hiking and other outdoor activities.  The picture above was taken at dusk from the backyard of the Little Switzerland Inn where I stayed.  The blue color of the mountains turned to orange in the morning of the next day.  It was fortunate that the drizzle of the previous day cleared up and the sky was perfectly blue for the next two days.

When I got to Mount Mitchell, which is only 25 miles away from Little Switzerland, the trees and the ground were covered with snow from a storm that had blown through the day before.  The difference in altitude is responsible for a large temperature difference between the valleys and the tops of the mountains.  Mount Mitchell is the highest peak in the east coast, and the view from the top is wonderful in all directions.

The next day, I drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway toward Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  Blowing Rock is a community whose population booms in the summertime as Floridians overwhelmed by hot weather flock to seek relief in the cool mountain air.  Blowing Rock has many lodges, restaurants, cultural functions, and outdoor activities.  It is a favorite vacation destination that makes it possible to be close to nature and also many city amenities.

See Pictures of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina

I winced when I read the headline “Drinks on Who?” written in one-inch bold letters in the October 7, 2009 sports section of the Washington Post.  This is the equivalent of saying “Drinks on she?” or “Drinks on I?” instead of the correct “Drinks on her?” or “Drinks on me?”.  It reminded me of the primitive savage expressions like “Me Tarzan, you Jane” of black-and-white TV days, or Tonto saying to the Lone Ranger: “Him say man ride over ridge on horse.”

The nominative and objective case of pronouns is one of the last vestiges of the Germanic origins of English, and it is slowly but surely disappearing.  Soon, the pronouns “who” and “whom” will combine into a caseless “who” in sympathy with “you”.  There is also great confusion about “you and I” vs. “you and me”.  The words of popular songs like “You and me against the world” by Helen Reddy become imprinted in our mind until they finally don’t sound wrong.

In order to use the pronoun cases correctly, it is necessary to understand the structure of the sentences.  As a general rule, pronouns in the subject are in the nominative case, pronouns in the predicate are in the objective case.  Thus, we say “I saw him” or “He saw me”.  We would never think of saying “Me saw he” or “him saw I”, which is the wrong use of both pronouns.  The nominative personal pronouns are: I, you, he, she, we, they.  The corresponding objective forms are: me, you, him, her, us, them.  Notice that “you” is the same in both cases, so we say “I saw you” and “you saw me”.  The pronouns “thou” (nominative) and “thee” (objective) which were a familiar or personal form of the formal “you” have disappeared from modern English, but they are still found in biblical passages and in Shakespearean plays.

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