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 😊

Studies have shown quite conclusively that the 'hit rate' is not above that of a placebo though.
I have tried it btw. It didn't work. Maybe I was too sceptical😅

No, it’s water.

if you had cancer, would you rather be offered chemotherapy or homeopathy?

The one positive of homeopathy is the low risk of side effects as its basically just water. Unless you count the risk of someone foregoing vital conventional medicine for a serious condition.

No. Herbal teas contain herbs, so while I would be cautious about their health benefits, they contain some active ingredients.

The point if homeopathy is that it is diluted to the point of uselessness. Posters on this thread talking about remedies that worked are mostly referring to alternative and complementary therapies.

😂

I was firmly in the No camp but then I was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

In checking the tumour and part of the bowel that was removed nodes were also removed to see if there were any cancer cells were in the nodes. If a single cancer cell was found I would have had to have chemo - luckily none were found.

If one single cancer cell can move and reproduce and cause a fatal tumour why can't a molecule of something in homeopathic medicine have an effect? I am not sure if I am on board with the like cures like aspect of homeopathy but I am open to it.

OP - I hope that you find what you need.

Yes. Used it on my ds for warts. Both had nobidea what it was. Very stubborn finger warts and leg warts as well so not basic easily treated things either.
We use it alot for anxiety/stress/sleeping.

Just to add I am very very pro conventional medicine - I would never suggest that anyone only use alternative medicine - I think conventional and alternative CAN work together - neither should just be dismissed out of hand.

It does not and cannot work
at best it’s well meaning twaddle, at worst a dangerous con

that said, placebo effect can be pretty powerful

Yes, but you need to go to a highly specialised doctor who, after a very through visit, will give you the remedy. It worked on me when I was pregnant, for my daughter when she was teething, it worked in my recurring thrush and for insomnia.

If alternative medicine worked, it would be called medicine.

Warts are absolutely classic for being cured by alternative medicine, as in nearly all cases the immune system finally kicks in and the warts just go. If that happens the week after you pay for homeopathic treatment that's pretty convincing. Also works for the rub a toad on the warts, kill it and bury it under a tree type twaddle!

Ive had hayfever my entire life to the point where i get asthma in spring-autumn. And pet hair allergies.
Tried everything as a child. In the end the doctors had me on daily antihistamines and daily cortison inhaler for 9months/year. When my kids started showing signs of it i looked into it again and found a homeopath who used to work as a gp. Shes fully licensed as a gp, but chose homeopathy over traditional medicine.

We now take her globulis a couple times a year (my kids once in spring when it starts and i usually need 2 doses).
We have 2 cats and a dog in the house now and no more issues!

We only use her now as a doctor. My children have never used antibiotics in their lives. It was prescribed to them a couple times when i went to see a gp, because our homeopath was away. I always waited with it until i could reach her first and she always helped without strong meds.

This is a nice explanation of how homeopathy is said to work.

I'm unconvinced
But SIL is a GP and keeps a homeopathic first aid kit in the house. And did courses funded by the NHS in her early working life (she's just retired)

We have observed it does with cancer.

We have also observed it doesn't with expensive water (homeopathy).

This really isn't rocket science.

The placebo effect works even if you are told it's the placebo effect.

You brain is great. Sugar pills, not so much.

Asking for anecdotes won’t help you. There are placebo effects, people who got better after homeopathy and attribute it to that, but actually would have got better anyway and so on.

That is why we have properly designed scientific studies to establish what works. And those studies show comprehensively that homeopathy does not work any better than a placebo.

However, the placebo effect is a real effect, so if your condition is one that can be improved via a placebo, it might be worth paying for alternative therapy.

Molecules and cells are not the same thing.
Cells multiply in the body, and are much much bigger than single molecules to start with.
A single molecule cannot reproduce itself. Besides which, in homeopathic treatments, there is no molecule left because they have been diluted too much.

No. No. Lived experience is not valid data for whether medicines work. It really isn’t. You actually do need to read research papers on properly designed trials to know if a treatment works. We had lived experience as the sole evidence base for healing treatments for all of human history before the scientific method of enquirer was developed. And that led to people dying horribly and in terrible pain.

It only works as a placebo. It’s just plain water.

To be clear, lived experience of homeopathy is not evidence as you have no way of telling if the effect was a placebo effect, no way of knowing if the person would have got better anyway, and no way of knowing if the one person who was helped by the homeopath is hiding the 1000 people who were not.
That is why you need properly designed trials.

Homeopathic teething powders are... sugar. Babies like sugar, and it helps them with pain. When very tiny babies have blood taken, they are given a little sugar syrup by dropper, because it's proven to soothe them and help them with the pain. That, and the placebo effect does work on them by working on their caregiver. Knock yourself out giving them the powder if you want, and the sugar may well comfort them, but you are in fact just giving them a big old sachet of expensive sugar.

Homeopathy has been conclusively proven to be indistinguishable from placebo in hundreds of tests and studies. The placebo effect is powerful, and flexible, and utterly fascinating, and can have genuinely dramatic effects. And homeopathic remedies are placebos. You can take expensive sugar pills if you must, but don't fool yourself while you do it.

Nope

You mean a bottle of water?