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.

No, it really is worth it. You must think everybody who uses homeopathy is stupider than you, which is rather self indulgent.

Well ladyintheradiator- i had a cat for 13 years,he was always getting beaten up by other cats, and got abscesses as a result.When he was younger the vet would prescribe Antibiotics,sometimes it would return once the course had finished, and occasionally he would have to lance first..
I started giving him Hypericum instead, and without fail the Abscess would burst almost immediately, and after a clean up with salt water.. Job done!

(Apologies if TMI and you happen to be eating a Cadburys Creme egg )

But a hell of a coincidence given our previous experiences with the vet.

Gooseberry. Yes, I do think people who believe in homeopathy are incredibly stupid and sometimes dangerous. I don't see how that makes me 'self indulgent'

Teething babies are unpredictable ime. One night they'll be screaming the house down the next night they'll be fine. If you believe in homeopathy you will give that the credit when the baby becomes more settled - which they inevitably would anyway. It may seem like a miracle 'cure' if you have seen a few babies rapidly improve after homeopathy but it is nothing more than coincidence.

I once had a palliative care patiemt who used "colour Therapy". It was basically a plank of wood with bits of couloured string strung between nails (like an old string picture), with electrodes clamped on each colour and then onto the patient's arm

I was pretty pissed off but obviously didnt say anything. Homeopathy is the same to me, preying on people.

I'm sure you don't. But it makes you self-indulgent and wrong.

anyway

Jellykat - so, you lanced the boil and cleaned it with salt water and it healed?? My God! The shades have fallen from my eyes! How blind have I been?

This debate is of course utterly pointless because by believing in homeopathy you have already put yourself outwith the bounds of any rational discourse and nothing I or anyone else can do will convince you to go against your beliefs.

homoeopathy kills fewer than pharmaceuticals?No active ingredients to cause contra-indications. hard to get a licence and patent for sugar tablet

bit like saying fresh air kills fewer people that beta blockers
nonsensical and daft comparison

Gooseberry, I have to call you on 'self indulgent'. As a criticism that makes no sense at all. Is it a homeopathic criticism?

Its not self indulgent to be concerned about people being ripped off and preyed upon by peddlers of woo.

If you believe in homeopathy, you are either ignorant of the facts, or willfully refusing to believe in scientific facts. Either way... it's not clever.

GB, I'm not sure what point you are making in your link. Self harm is a serious problem, but what has that got to do with homeopathy.

Are you suggesting that homeopaths tell self harmers that they homeopathic medicine is poisonous so that they start ingesting it as a placebo form of self harm?

It seems expensive - it is cheaper to get them to squeeze icecubes under cold running water.

onlion, yes, I might be reasonably called 'rude' and (unreasonably) called 'wrong' but how on earth is is 'self indulgent' to express an opinon???

Helen, can't find the one I mentioned but there's one here about pain perception amongst agnostics, atheists and catholics when shown a picture of the virgin Mary. Here is one about pain perception and romantic love.

Yup, if you pay money for homeopathy or any other woo remedy, you are stupid. If you try to treat a serious illness or injury in a child (or an animal, for that matter) with homeopathy or woo, you are not just stupid, you are neglectful and cruel.

spero i think you'll find I was also called self indulgent lol

In each glassful of tap water there must be homeopathic quantities of radioactive iodine in it. Radioactive iodine causes thyroid tumours, so a homeopathic remedy of it must prevent and/or cure thyroid tumours as that's how homeopathy works.

So as my mum drinks tap water, that means she couldn't have got tumours in her thyroid gland as the magic homeopathy would have saved her! I wonder why she bothered having that surgery then...

Homeopathy is woo-woo bollocks. It has no basis in fact, there are no sensible theories for how it works, and in proper scientific tests it always comes up as no better than placebo. Long consultations with sympathetic people in white coats are proven to make many people feel better. Homeopathic "remedies" aren't.

Well, it seems there is no homoeopathic "cure" for leukemia....

Homoeopathy has never worked on me personally, but as I've said I've seen it work on babies (and I'd rather not dose babies up with calpol if possible) and some people have assured me it has helped them with catarrh and acne.

Would I use it instead of MMR? No, but I would use it to counter the side effects of MMR, or relieve discomfort caused by chicken pox. My money, my choice.

Vitamin C can help a cold, but it's not going to cure cancer or diabetes.

Homeopaths do tell people that homeopathic remedies are poisonous. They sincerely believe that taking an incorrect remedy can be extremely dangerous.

How can you not understand when you're so much more intelligent than so many people?

Self-indulgent because to believe that you're right, you have to believe that other people are stupid. Or indeed "incredibly stupid". Smug really doesn't cover it.

Maybe they're not stupid and ripped off: maybe they're well aware that placebo is the main (only) impact and well aware that knowledge of placebo has little impact on its effects. Maybe they've tried pharmaceutical drugs and they know that homeopathy has an effect, whether by placebo or well, there isn't much else other than placebo, but that's good enough if it works. Maybe they're pissed off with pharmaceutical products making them drowsy, or fatter, or headachy, or irritable. You have literally no idea: you have prejudice, and to bolster it you pretend that everyone else is stupid.

Is it self indulgent to work to an evidence base then? bloody hell
Death to clinical governance

onlion, well that proves I am at least very self centred as I thought only I had been singled out for that accolade.

I have to go to bed now, but I am comforted by at least one chink of light of reason from the homepathic brigade as Lynnette seems to be conceding that homeopathy is no bloody good for anything that might actually kill you, as opposed to something that would probably have got better by the morning anyway.

And "woo woo bollocks" rears its head: the level of conversation of the presumptive, prejudiced and poor of vocabulary. What a surprise.

Surely that suggests that a boil treated by antibiotics (apart from the ones the vet lanced obviously) is less likely to burst than a boil not treated by antibiotics Jellycat Perhaps fighting the infection cuts pus production?