To ask whether or not people here believe in homeopathy?

[DaisyLovesMetronidazole]

I don't at all.

However, I'm not out for a bunfight!

Just curious, as was surprised by the response of a certain group to this question today.

MillyR- It's a dangerous road you're going down. By dismissing any system which is fundamentally dealing with incredibly complex issues, you place yourself under the umbrella of acceptance, or blind faith in another. This is surely the Placebo effect in it's most pronounced form- I believe it so it works. Are you sure homeopathy is not for you?!

sm -- i was responding to somebody else who said if homeopathy was marketed as the sole cure for cancer it wouldn't do very well

well duh

Its pretty interesting that the strength of benefits of the therapy is purely based on placebo effect. Saying something doesnt work and then justifying its widespread, everyday and popular use by its placebo effect is something for me to try to get my head around

It doesn't kill people, and it can make people better. Where's your beef?

It's a question of honesty for me, the placebo effect makes people better - not homeopathy.

It doesn't cause any harm because it doesn't have any effect. It is used alongside medicine because it's the medicine that does all the work - and can potentially cause harm. It basically swans in and does a twirl, takes the credit for any placebo effect, then trots off leaving medicine to do the actual healing bit.

to re-emphasize homoeopathy has no active ingredients,cant get patent for sugar pills. and to date no one gas taken up the homoeopathy prove it works challenge

do you eschew medicine then Gberry?Use homeopathy for birth,labour,dental work?.

Sm you haven't read my posts have you ? that explains a lot.

I don't use homeopathy.

It's a question of honesty. Right. As opposed to making people better. Right.

And yet, you don't seem to have read any research on the impact of honesty on placebo. Seeing as this is so central for you it might be an idea.

chickbean - maybe he grew out of it, maybe he was reacting to something in the house that changed. Eczema isn't cured by magic water though.

My ds had awful eczema - he had a couple of particularly stubborn patches on his face that wouldn't go, every time I stopped using the hydrocortisone it came back so I gave up. Then one day it just got better. If I'd done something specifically in the hope of curing him I'd probably have put it down to that, but I didn't.

of the 259 posts im not recalling your every word,funnily enough

NarkyPuffin- Surely this could also be said of most conventional medical practitioners??

MillyR there are trials for 'alternative medicines', peer reviews etc. Many are also accepted as valid treatments and recommended by conventional doctors. There was little need for the insulting tone used by some. The hospitals in Australia, for instance, never had MSRA when they were cleaned using teatree oil, burns can be treated using Manuka honey, which is showing in trials that it raises white blood cell count, so ideal befor chemo.

But as i said this does not come under homeopathy but some posters insinuated that they could be ridiculed as easily as homeopathy.

"It doesn't cause any harm because it doesn't have any effect. It is used alongside medicine because it's the medicine that does all the work - and can potentially cause harm. It basically swans in and does a twirl, takes the credit for any placebo effect, then trots off leaving medicine to do the actual healing bit."

what is this blither

The point, delightful Gooseberrybushes, is that medicine is a balance between risk and benefit. Homeopathy has no risk and no benefit.

The placebo effect however is worth spending cash on, so rather than putting NHS cash towards water, why not put it towards eg massage, which would combine the placebo effect with proven relaxation benefits, and work alongside 'conventional' medicine.

No, I was referred as a child to the National Homeopathic hospital in London for severe Eczema and it did not work at all

I haven't made 259 posts. Don't bother arguing if you can't be bothered to read. I don't use it: I don't think it has an effect other than placebo. I've said it repeatedly. Stupid to imagine you could read when you obviously can't write.

GB, I am asking for a link because you are refusing to explain how the removal of conventional medicine will prevent self harm (from your earlier link). I fail to see how denying people access to conventional medicine and replacing it with homeopathy prevents self harm. It is well known that people who are denied access to conventional medicine self harm by ingesting household cleaning products instead. That is why therapists work towards harm reduction through replacing ingestion with other forms of temporary harm. Homeopathic treatments are ingested, and so do not break the addiction to ingestion of substances.

Summation:in a nutshell homoeopathy does sweet fa except fleece the gullible and needy

Yes because everything the NHS spends it's money on is worth having. Tamiflu anyone?

Scottishmummy - spot on but additionally it makes the charlatans a few bob.

oh dear god GBerry there were @259+ other posts inc yours.no i dont commit every word of yours to memory. so feel free to call me on fact that of the 259+ posts somewhere in there is you,and a detail i allegedly cant recall

ZJM, I am not dismissing complexity - we cannot remove it. That is why we put democratic systems in place and work towards making those systems as ethical as possible. It is simply impossible to live in a post-industrial society without relying on and working with democratic systems of knowledge and decision making.

"The point, delightful Gooseberrybushes, is that medicine is a balance between risk and benefit. Homeopathy has no risk and no benefit."

what utter rot

There is a benefit: and the examination needs to be on the level of honesty, the need for belief and the impact on placebo.

The risks and benefits of conventional medicine are rarely understood by the patient: and quite often not by the producer, or risks are denied by same. There's gold in them thar pills: a lot more than in homeopathy.

Yes I know there were 259 posts and yet you are arguing with me. So why not read? Why bother if you don't know what you're arguing with? It's just, straw men gone mad. Just making up stuff.

Birds, I agree with your last post. All medicine starts out as alternative medicine, and much of conventional medicine is natural.