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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

homeopathy... aibu to say i think of it's a crock of crap?

328 replies

ILetHimKeep20Quid · 17/09/2013 13:34

Was at my brothers for dinner yesterday. My baby has a touch of eczema. As a chronic sufferer myself I roll my eyes whenever people start on the 'oh have you tried this' thing but smile and nod. I have used steroid creams in the past, of various strengths, to deal with outbreaks. I'm well versed in the treatment.

So, the wee touch my ds has isn't concerning me and I'm moisturizing him regularly.

Cue my sil practically gushing over her homeopath (not just a normal one. He's a gp but does this on the side it seems).

I smiled and nodded. Not wanting to get into the whole thing. But she would not give up. So I asked 'what is homeopathy?'

Apparently, get this, water has a memory. What the actual fuck? How can water have a memory?

OP posts:
Lweji · 17/09/2013 13:59

I don't have a problem with homeopathy as for many people, if the placebo effect works, fine. At least they are not filling up with drugs.

Personally, I like to sweat a fever if I can and go to bed if I have a bad cold. It usually gets better the next day.

I just get annoyed at how much it's charged for sugar pills.

KatyTheCleaningLady · 17/09/2013 14:00

If people want to waste their money on hokum, that's their business. But when they discard and discredit empirical scientific research, they contribute to a pernicious mindset that can harm desperate, vulnerable people.

I don't go around picking fights with people and I generally just inwardly roll my eyes and change the subject. But don't ask me to respect your opinion, because I think your opinion is fundamentally stupid, at best.

Scrounger · 17/09/2013 14:00

YANBU, I get this and I find it really annoying. I don't want your unscientific opinion thanks. I still smile and nod though.

curlew · 17/09/2013 14:02
Lweji · 17/09/2013 14:03

Another example of "how it would have worked".

My son had recurrent pain on his heels that went on for months. At some point the paediatrician suggested homeopathy.
I said no. barely managed to laugh in his face, although I was aware he would suggest it

A few weeks later he got better. No treatment, nothing.

If I had agreed to homeopathy it would have been considered a clear case of "success".

Suzieismyname · 17/09/2013 14:04

Yanbu. It's a load of crap and anyone who really believes it works needs a good talking to...

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 17/09/2013 14:06

YANBU.

The scientific explanation is completely wrong. Obviously.

The placebo effect, and the effect lweji describes, are powerful.

Original poster
ILetHimKeep20Quid · 17/09/2013 14:06

I think because she looked so hurt when I said it sounds like nonsense, I'm wondering if I should have just carried on smiling and nodding!

OP posts:
Pennyacrossthehall · 17/09/2013 14:07

I still smile and nod though.

I just can't bring myself to do that anymore. As someone else said, unchallenged it has become an "accepted" form of treatment, which is ridiculous.

MoutardeDeDijon · 17/09/2013 14:08

Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic remedy for flu. It is made with duck offal, and is very popular in France. It is normally supplied in a 200C prepartation - that is, the original substance is diluted 1 part in 100 parts of water, repeated 200 times. Hence, the product has 1 part of offal to 1X10400 parts water. There are 1x1080 atoms in the known universe. In order to have a decent chance of consuming one atom of the original substance, you would need to ingest 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 universes.

YANBU.

Lweji · 17/09/2013 14:10
MaidOfStars · 17/09/2013 14:10

Moutarde Hence the "memory" concept - the maths/chemistry stopped working for them a long time ago!

Scrounger · 17/09/2013 14:12

The worse thing is that NHS money has, think it still is, being spent on homeopathy.

Lweji · 17/09/2013 14:13

But to get the memory, the water with the dilution has to be shaken X times.
Hmm

I do feel sorry for anyone preparing such dilutions, if they really believe it.
All that shaking for nothing.
It looks like the world's most successful prank.

friday16 · 17/09/2013 14:13

A sore arm? Def Leppard for you, my sweet.

cake

MotherofBear · 17/09/2013 14:13

I think it's a bit of a philosophical question actually. If it works because people believe it works (mind over matter etc), then can't it be said that it does work, for some people? Grin

I don't believe it is of any real help, personally, so it would never work for me. But I had a friend who really believed it worked, and she always felt a reduction of her symptoms after taking the drops and/or pills. So I guess it did work for her, to an extent.

Funnily enough, she did still need to see the homeopath on a regular basis, to get more remedies as the illnesses didn't go away. Think it was costing around £90 per month....

SybilRamkin · 17/09/2013 14:17

YANBU! Homeopathy is indeed a crock of shit (albeit extremely expensive, well-diluted duck shit).

However, it allows hypochondriacs and stupid credible people to take a pill and gain comfort from the belief that it's helping them, without them becomming addicted to actual drugs such as painkillers.

GoofyIsACow · 17/09/2013 14:17

It is absolutely not bollocks! After 2 yrs of steroid creams, aqueous creams emolients etc etc etc which all made DS1's exzema worse, crying scratching and screaming with bleeding skin, a teaspoon of fish oil daily and it has gone... Really gone Shock

sicutlilium · 17/09/2013 14:18

Fish oil is not homeopathy.

Lweji · 17/09/2013 14:19

Think it was costing around £90 per month....

That's exactly what worries me.

MoutardeDeDijon · 17/09/2013 14:19

It is strange that the water only has a memory for what the homeopath has added to it, and not all of the other substances with which the water has been in contact.

Lweji · 17/09/2013 14:20

Moutarde,

Because it's shaken into the water! Wink

They must have incredibly clean vials, though. Because any contaminant will also imprint the same water.

CecilyP · 17/09/2013 14:21

I think because she looked so hurt when I said it sounds like nonsense, I'm wondering if I should have just carried on smiling and nodding!

No you shouldn't! The trouble with excema is that it is so visible so you have probably spent your life listening to people's half-baked theories of what would help. There is a time to say 'enough is enough'. Her looking so hurt is nothing compared to what you have had to put up with.

ChunkyPickle · 17/09/2013 14:22

Goofy - that's not homeopathy - the homeopathic remedy would be something along the lines of water, which had had dropped into it, shaken, diluted Xthousand to one in more water, shaken some more (repeat this a few times), and then given to you to drip onto his tongue/dripped onto a sugar pill to take.

it has no actual ingredients, just water.