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.

I have never been that convinced before on vaccination threads so we'll see...

Oh FFS is this still going on? Homeopathy is just like religion - unless you have a cognitive disorder of some kind you must know deep down that it's total bullshit. THe reason supposedly intelligent people defend this crap so frenziedly is that they are either con artists themselves or don't want to accept that they have been conned and wasted their time and money.

It is very still going on...

God spring why so angry? It can't affect you either way so like religion and any strongly held belief you have to respect the rights of others to think what they like and in the case of ill health find comfort where they can.

My sister is definitely not even remotely smug or anything like that she is an accountant and a typical one at that! It is whatever gets you through. I have been involved in a lot of medical trial and error too in the conventional sense and some of those work and some don't too. Vaccination is very similar in ethos to homeopathy as it involves introducing a tiny amount of the aggressor into the body and allowing it to react.I personally have never used it apart from once which was very interesting as my renal consultant said whatever you have done keep doing it when in fact I had only taken it once! But the condition which they had tried for years to get on top of and we just couldn't resolved with homeopathy. Who knows? But it is not really wise to blanket slate something which many people like .

I will tell my sister though that she is indulging in 'shit' and being rebellious I am sure she will titter at that!

Homeopathic preparations don't even contain a tiny amount though...

I know its all about the imprint innit?

indeed...

I'm inclined to agree with SCGB, however if you think it works then all fine and dandy, it's your money.

lequeen: "intuitive"

The smuggery homeopathy fans may experience (and I've seen none of it, and none expressed here) is nothing compared to the smuggery, superiority and abuse by the virulent and indeed non-virulent anti -homeopaths. Quite why you all get so worked up about it, while ignoring much worse elsewhere, is beyond me.

The only explanation is, as I say, that it's just easy for you. Anything more challenging would be a bit much to chew on.

Jaggy: don't let your prejudice stand in the way. You will struggle to maintain it, after reading that thread.

Vaccination is nothing like homeopathy. One involves an active ingeedient, the other doesn't.

Well obviously its utter shit; wonderfully successful industry making lots of money from the placebo effect. I have no problem with that per se.

What I DO have a problem with is the poor misguided believers who are determinedly taking homeopathic remedies INSTEAD of proven medical treatments, and suffering the consequences of sometimes very serious illness as a result. 2 recent patients immediately spring to mind:

First was a 56 year old grandmother with constant tiredness and abdominal pain and bloating who didn't come to her GP (me) for over a year as she was taking homeopathic treatments. She eventually came (at the beginning of this year); she had ovarian cancer and died very shortly afterwards as it was too widespread by then for any useful treatment.

The second is a little boy who sees me for his absolutely awful eczema. Mum "doesn't like putting chemicals on his skin" and rejects everything that I, and all the specialist eczema nurses have offered. She uses homeopathy, and the poor little 3 year old continues to suffer.

It is based on a similar principle of fighting like with like though.I know there is a huge difference but in non live vaccines the carrier is the only 'active ' ingredient. I can't have live vaccines as I am immunosuppressed so only ever have inactive and I just don't get how that works! I don't really care about teh science tbh after 2 transplants and cancer I am just happy to be alive and able to try anything!

And as those imprints are robust enough to survive being diluted, dissolved into sugar and then preserved across the gut/blood barrier, they're sure to be able to survive being excreted out as urine.

That makes a glass of tap water the most powerful and all-encompassing homeopathic remedy known - after all, it will have incredibly dilute quantities of all homeopathic remedies that have ever been taken.

I'm not sure why people bother buying the pills though.

It is not any more a waste of money than dying your hair blonde and being convinced it looks natural when in fact it looks anything but! But if you like it and feel blonde enjoy!

I suppose dyeing your hair blonde does at least make it look blonde for a bit. There is a tangible effect with proven link to the product. No such thing with any homeopathic non-remedy.

Thats true I am not presenting it as an argument just saying that lots of people do lots to feel better and there is no one size fits all.

Noddy - A vaccine contains some of the ingredient, a homeopathic medicine doesn't. An 'inactive' vaccine still has an active ingredient, it's just that the infective organism has been killed so it can't reproduce or cause disease - the immune system still reacts to the proteins on the outside etc.

I know that coalition I am just not prepared to close the door an anything that people use for their health in any way I have always been doubtful of it and am very much a conventional medicine person but to call things which some people do believe in shit and crap and say you would need to be cognitively deficient to believe it is disrespectful and rather pointless.

I think the point is that many people believe they are buying an active ingredient, not just sugar pills. That seems wrong, no?

Iwant: there are SOOOOOO many anecdotes of patients whose symptoms are not recognised by GPs and casualty departments, and so many stories of failure of eczema treatments.

How many thousands of anecdotes of the failure and damage of conventional medicine and conventional therapies would you like?

Of course, you will say, we're not talking about that here, we're talking about homeopathy.

But I can't believe the amount of emotional energy expended on hating homeopathy when the magnitude of the damage done elsewhere is ignored.

So for those two cases, I could raise you.. how many - a thousand? two thousand? three thousand? ten thousand? And I'd love for you to say here that you condemn the system that created those cases a thousand times as much, or ten thousand times as much.

Bit hard to comprehend I think. That's why people go on the attack over homeopathy.

It's the easy target. And lazy to boot.

Quite right Noddy: good attitude. Homeopathy does have benefits and it has them without side effects. Placebo delivery through conventional medicine carries the risk of side effects.