The description of "Duchy Originals" is as follows: 鈥淒uchy Herbals Detox Tincture is made from extracts of Artichoke and Dandelion, cleansing and purifying herbs to help support the body鈥檚 natural elimination and detoxification processes, and help maintain healthy digestion.聽Duchy Herbals Detox Tincture can be taken as part of a regular detox program.鈥澛�
What鈥檚 wrong with that?聽 To start with, the whole concept of a 鈥渄etox program鈥� is nonsense.聽It鈥檚 not as if the body were a network of pipes and tubes and storage compartments that become clogged with detritus and have to be occasionally cleaned out.聽But never mind the lame theory, where is the evidence for detox?聽What chemicals are being removed and how?聽What testing has been done to see that these herbs are 鈥減urifying?鈥澛燱here are the before and after blood samples?聽The answer of course is nowhere.聽 Not only is Charles scientifically delusional, he is deluding others by implying that health can be improved with a tincture of artichokes and dandelions.聽And what is in those tinctures?聽How many studies have been carried out in terms of dosage or reproducibility?聽 Roughly as many as were carried out for snake oil in the heyday of patent medicines.聽
But at least Dutchy Originals doesn鈥檛 sell homeopathic medicines.聽That isn鈥檛 because Prince Charles doesn鈥檛 believe in them.聽He does.聽As does the whole Royal family.聽Homeopathy is the ultimate 鈥渁lternative鈥� nonsense.聽The idea that molecular shapes can be imprinted on water by shaking and banging into a leather pillow, and that a pharmacological effect becomes more potent with dilution, is totally absurd.聽Such notions defy everything we know about science.聽Of course homeopaths argue that just because the theory makes no sense, we can鈥檛 conclude that homeopathy doesn鈥檛 work.聽They are right about that. We don鈥檛 conclude it doesn鈥檛 work because of the implausibility of the theory, we conclude it doesn鈥檛 work because dozens and dozens of properly controlled studies have shown that homeopathy is no better than a placebo.聽But it could be worse, because it can distract from possibly effective treatments.聽
Two recent cases in Australia attest to this.聽A 45-year-old lady died when she treated her bowel cancer with homeopathy and a nine month old baby died of blood poisoning contracted from severe eczema when her parents treated her with a homeopathic 鈥渞emedy.鈥澛燬till, Prince Charles remains an advocate of homeopathy despite the UK鈥檚 National Health Service concluding after a thorough investigation that the NHS should cease funding homeopathy, that no further clinical trials should be conducted, that explanations for why homeopathy works are scientifically implausible and that evidence shows homeopathy doesn鈥檛 work.聽That鈥檚 pretty conclusive. Yet staggering amounts of money are being spent by people who think magically instead of scientifically.聽So, Prince Charles, stick to something you know about, like preventing ugly office towers from being built next to the Old Bailey.聽
