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

[ILetHimKeep20Quid]

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?

"It 100% utterly unreasonable to try and either propose or debunk a method by which a treatment that doesn't work better than placebo works."

I don't understand that....

"What we need is a control group of believers prepared to treat their children with homeopathic nosodes* for polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, so that we can compare the health outcomes with those who prefer to rely on evidence-based vaccines.
*some of these really exist:www.homeoforce.co.uk/index.asp?function=SEARCH"

That's a good idea. It's always encouraging to see natural selection in action.

curlew I think it means that even rejecting things like water memory is unreasonable, because until something beats a placebo effect, there is no mechanism to be proposed or discussed.

They've been finding recently that sugar is a better healer than they thought (I'm thinking of some extremely expensive Ph3 trials that went kerplunk).

Which is why sugar-free Calpol is stupid. Mary Poppins was right.

And why teething powders work. Most babies would stop crying if you rubbed icing sugar on their gums!

That's the thing... sugar is actually a pain-reliever (your perception of pain, not the mechanism), water hydrates and is an essential for life. They are not bad for you, just no better than water and sugar from Tescos.

You believe what you like, OP. And.......I'll believe what I like

Mitchell and Webb have the best take on it.

Is anyone else concerned that our current Health Secretary and our highly-politicised future king both believe homeopathy works?

Glucose is used in hospitals for babies when they are about to have a painful procedure. Been doing it for years.

Yes,MaidofStars- very.

Nope, absolutely not BU. its a load of rubbish!

Nope, absolutely not BU. its a load of rubbish!

One good thing about homeopathy (and alternative medicine in general) is that they are likely to spend time with the patient, unlike many doctors.

Many people will feel better just because of that.

Or because they want it to work they will report improvement even though the symptoms are the same.

Sugar kills infections up to a point- of course it does, as it dehydrates things and bacteria die of dehydration. that's why sugar is a preservative. And I can quite believe sugar has pain killing qualities, especially in chocolate

It's selling worthless stuff to stupid people.

YANBU.

Is anyone else concerned that our current Health Secretary and our highly-politicised future king both believe homeopathy works?

Yes I am.

There is no peer reviewed studies which show homeopathy works better than placebo. Ergo it's fucking bullshit.

If you believe in the power of water memory woo, you are an idiot. If you admit you like the placebo effect, and time taken by the practitioner to umm and ahh sympathetically about your dodgy knee ( which you don't get at the GP) then fair do's.

If you believe in the power of water memory woo

I'm thinking of marketing a homeopathic cure for the effects of WiFi. It'll be a perfect storm of idiots, but most importantly for my business plan, rich idiots.

YANBU.
Obviously.
Hokum. Just ignore.

And yy to the suar thing btw.

Tim minchin does a fabulous piece about homeopathy water somehow 'remembering' the stuff that's put in it but not 'remembering' all the poo that's been in it. It's great.

And the fact that a condition (like eczema) has not yet responded to conventional treatment is in no way an indication that homeopathy (renamed utter bollocks) is efficacious. Anyone who believes that is an idiot.

friday that is pure genius!

That whole piece was superb filee

You are definitely NBU. They actually include the concept of homeopathy failing blind and double blind trails in school science - that is how accepted it is that it is nothing more than mind over matter.

I wash my kids in oilatum, works a charm.