Discovery Channel, Selling Out

Those who read this blog somewhat frequently know that I am decidedly not a huge fan of the current decision making processes at the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, which frequently host ideas that are patently unscientific and often downright untrue.

They love aliens, the Bible Code, Simcha Jacobovichi’s Biblical literalism, the Talpiot Tomb, and the list goes on. But recently, there has been a somewhat less obvious decent in the standards of these stations.

It happened about a week ago while I was finishing up a paper with Discovery Science on in the background. An add came on for Dr. Frank’s Joint Relief for Dogs and Cats. This is an “All natural” relief for the joint pain in pets, given once daily by spraying in the water bowl.

It’s really just more homeopathic crap, with an ingredient list reading “Equal parts HPUS Byronia Alba 6C, Calcarea Carbonica 30C, Calcarea Phosphorica 6C, Causticum 30C, Mercurius vivus 30C, Rhus toxicodendron 6C, Ruta graveolens 30C, Silicea 6C, Sulphur 6C.”

Note that 6C means deleted one part ingredient to 1000000000000 parts water and 30c means one part ingredient to 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 parts water, which is then of course added to by spraying it in a water bowl. Effectively, any active ingredients are completely missing from the actual formula. In the case of this product, one is simply buying the inactive ingredients, “Distilled Water, Vegetable Glycerin, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate and Natural Flavors.”, you are probably much better off buying Sprite and pouring it in your dog’s water! Although then you miss out on the medical benefits of Vegetable Glycerin and Potassium Sorbate, which might be worth it to save about $19.00.

So what are all the missing homeopathic ingredients actually about? According to the website, the doctor hopes you will give your dog or cat the following:

White Bryonry Vine, which this site, tells us can be an irritant when touched, potentially also leading to convulsions, vomiting, abortion, and death if ingested.

Calcarea Carbonica, which is just a powdered portion of seashells.

Causticum, which I cannot actually tell you about. Dr. Frank claims it is “derived from calcium also”, but an alternative homeopathic site claims it is potassium distilled from burnt lime, potassium bisulfate, and water. One should expect homeopathic “doctors” (read charlatans) to disagree on the outcome of there treatments, since they do nothing, but apparently they cannot even agree on what they put in to their water.

Sulfur, noted as organic sulfur on Dr. Frank’s page.

Rhus Toxicondendron, which Dr. Frank notes comes from poison ivy, but in such a low dose it doesn’t cause outbreaks. Why this isn’t a clue that it has no effect is way beyond me.

Ruta Graveolens, is part of an evergreen, which has been used in cooking as an herb, but which can potentially cause indegestion.

Mercurius Vivus, as Dr. Frank notes, this is mercury, but is so little in amount that it isn’t poisonous.

Calcarea Phosphorica, is yet another preparation of calcium, common to homeopathic quacks.

Silicea, silica prepared by homeopaths from rocks.

So, how will all of these help your pet? Very little. As the good “Doctor” mentions time and again, the poisonous substances actually have no effect because they are in low doses (non-existent). So, why should the less known joint relief aspects of mercury and poison ivy show through when their poisons are so diluted? Well, they don’t.

But here is the bigger question, when homeopathy is so broadly known to be sound and furry signifying nothing, why is a science channel advertising it? For money of course, but at the same time the channel is lending credibility to something that essentially there to take money from unsuspecting individuals who will subsequently draw out their pets’ suffering as they rely on this snake oil.

Soon afterwards, I saw the same channel advertising magnetic earrings meant to alleviate smoking addiction. This magnetic acupuncture mix is nothing more than wishful thinking and a way to make some money.

One would hope that these the Discovery networks would hold to some basic standards of science, but it seems that this is just as much wishful thinking as the magic of magnets.