Does homeopathy work?

[arbitraryarsehole]

Interested in views from people who have had homeopathic treatments please. I'm open minded to alternative medicine but also don't want to waste my money if there is no benefit. Thanks 😊

Yes, it can work. My friend's son was born
with eczema. There followed a childhood of visits to doctors, admissions to hospital, of being wrapped bandages soaked in coal tar(?), creams and lotions and dietary advice. Nothing worked. In desperation she took him to a homeopath when he was a young teen. She had to give all sorts of info about her boy s and had to collect a pill from him a couple of days later and was warned that he would be worse before he was better.
She didn't get.her hopes up as she'd tried so
many things but she was desperate.
They had a terrible night - the eczema erupted and he waS crazy with pain and itching. It wasn't as bad next day or the next. Then it slowly disappeared. He was left with one small patch on his elbow which was never active and has never had an outbreak in the 35 years years since.

Again. This isn't homeopathy.

Presumably whoever created the pill then immediately revealed to the world that they'd created a cure for eczema and sold their formula to one of the big pharmaceutical companies. What an achievement.

I used to think it was bollocks until my child was teething. They had horrific nappy rash too. NOTHING helped it. It was a nightmare. In my desperation, having tried everything else on the market, I tried homeopathic teething granules. From the very first sachet my baby settled. It was nothing short of miraculous. I don't know how it worked but I'm more open minded now.

My mum took us to a homeopath as children. Having read a bit about it as an adult has made me question whether any of it worked - but i wouldnt have questioned it otherwise.
What i DO think is that the homeopath focused primarily on understanding the triggers and treating the person, not the symptoms. For example, a GP would have offered me steriod cream for my eczema whilst the Homeopath focussed on understanding what was triggering it. For my asthma, instead of an inhaler we focused on what was triggering it and how it could be treated without an inhaler (using hot steam to open up my breathing etc). When I had illnesses like bronchitis then of course my mum took me to a normal GP - but i do credit my strong health as an adult to the fact i wasnt forever medicating 'symptoms' as a child. I rarely have eczema now (and when i do i know what triggers it) and never have asthma.
A good GP without time constraints might have taken the same approach - who knows. But for me, a lot of the benefits of 'alternative' medicines are in the approach they take (and can afford to with time etc) rather than just any medication

It works as well as the placebo effect does, which can be pretty effective in some circumstances.

This.

I've given my DD a homeopathic remedy for teething, that judging by the reviews, thousands of other parents have also found success with. . At 10 months old there's no possible way it can be "placebo effect". That doesn't automatically mean that all homeopathy is effective by any means, but to dismiss the entire field as "quackery" as has been said is unreasonable.

@coodawoodashooda
Can I ask what the trauma was and what you used?

If you would rather not say here feel free to send me a pm

I've got a very special jar of water to sell. Bargain price. Any takers?

Yes.

No

Do herbal teas fall under this? I regularly drink some sort of concoction with turmeric among other things and it always makes me feel better of an evening especially when I'm quite tired/anxious. But I think the key is to do your research and not buy £70 tablets from someone online claiming its the cure to everything.

Placebo effect still works on babies and even animals. Probably because of the change in the caregiver if they believe it will work.

It’s water. How would that even work? Really OP, by what mechanism would water work to cure illness (other than dehydration)?

I'd be really interested to know if all the 'no's are from people who have tried it. I know there have been scientific arguments against but its massively closed minded and a bit arrogant of us to think science has everything worked out at this stage and we are not going to learn anything more in the future. When you think what we thought was fact even 50 years ago i think it's important to stay open minded

@avocado44

There's such a thing as being so open minded that your brain falls out

That's called placebo by proxy. You believe in it, and that subconsciously carries over into how you handle the baby (calmer, for instance.) Would be the same with dogs and horses.

I don't believe it but my mum swears by homeopathy. I have seen her cure her chronic bronchitis, spondylitis, thrush, migraines and what not with homeopathy. She keeps pestering me to use it but my brother and I make fun of her love for homeopathy. I did try it once it worked but I still believe it's a mere coincidence.

@Botw1 -

Jesus why would anyone in a first world country which has a freely-available, reasonable educational standard ask this question? Did you just not turn up to science at school?? Genuinely confused.

People who defend homeopathy often confuse alternative medicine with herbal medicine (as evidenced by the poster above who mentioned St John’s Wort.

The whole point of homeopathy is that the original “remedy” is diluted so much that not a single molecule remains. Proponents waffle on about water having “memory”. Clearly that’s all nonsense and I genuinely think less of supposedly intelligent adults who think it works.

You will never get rational answers about homeopathy on Mumsnet, just a horde of dogmatic people who insist it cannot work so have never tried it.

A friend of mine worked in conventional health for years then had a similar experience to @SammyScrounge with one of her children. As a result she retrained as a homeopath (4 year degree plus ongoing CPD) so she has, on occasion, sent treatments for me or the DCs. Like with conventional medicine some has worked and some hasn't but, on the whole, her "hit rate" has been well above what I, as a scientist, expected particularly as we have not been invested in it working but have approached it with open minded curiosity

I also should have said above that conventional medicine is becoming more aware of the brain-body connection, functional disorders, etc so maybe homeopathy plays into something like that . Medicine changes all the time. Many things that were accepted years ago are not now and we have discovered so much new stuff that was never even dreamed of.
I don't know if or how this works but if it helps somebody then let them get on with it

This is ridiculous. Of course it wouldn't because drinking water isn't in any way associated with a placebo effect.

It doesn't work pharmacologically, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.