To be driven mad by how many people are utterly convinced by homeopathy?

[Wannabuyawatch]

I am just completely baffled by how many educated, clued up people I know, including family members and many close friends, that do not question homeopathy in any way. It is complete nonsense that bases its "science" on the memory of water?? You might as well wave your magic wand and say Hocus Pocus. Of course the placebo effect can be a cure in itself but not for children?? Even my brilliant pediatrician tries to give me homeopathy (probably bc she thinks it will calm me down rather than my children!!)
There is a mum at school whose son has horrendous allergies and asthma. She has taken him off all his inhalers as she wants to "cleanse his system" and only gives him homeopathy. Arrrgh. I see the little boy in tears every day in the spring as he can´t sleep and is exhausted due to his breathing.
My MIL insisted on giving their old dog who was in agony and riddled with cancer homeopathy instead of conventional medicine and god, did it suffer, why why??
Don´t know why but it drives me mad…such an irresponsible industry that suckers vulnerable people in and leads some to give homeopathy instead of conventional meds in dangerous situations.

minifingers if your MIL is currently pain-free, I am very pleased for her, as a fellow human being. However, no-one on this thread has denied the existence of the placebo effect, have they?

Also, anecdotal posts about the positive effects of a "healer" (what kind? Psychic, crystal, colour?) are a bit useless for the cause of homeopathy. Homeopathy, subject of this thread, isn't a catch-all for "anything you don't get at your GP". (Partially because the NHS does fund homeopathy but mainly because homeopathy is something rather specific.)

Paulsmenis how compassionate of you...

Paul-do you apply that point of view to everything? Caveat emptor at all times? What about the scammers who tell people they 've won millions and steal their savings? Their own fault -good luck to the fraudsters if the can get away with it.

I was thinking the same
Would you be happy Paul to find out after paying a mortgage for 25 years to find that the bank didn't really know how to arrange mortgages and nothing had been done/paid
You are an adult should you get any protection
What about an operation? Should the surgeon be suitably qualified, I fancy having a bash, will you let me loose operating on you?

Meanwhile, on another thread someone is worried because a reflexologist has just "diagnosed" her with a breast lump, ffs.

the blatant mis-selling of a product which has been definitively proven not to work,

Really? Definitively? Where?

I don't use homeopathy but I would have thought it was pretty hard to prove a negative. In all cases.

Most scams are illegal and fraudulent anyway, so of course they aren't ok. Why would you even bother asking a question like that?

There have always been unscrupulous people who rip people off and there always will be. The same people who currently make outrageous claims about things like homeopathy would still be ripping people off and putting them in danger if the law was changed. There will always be the few who prey on the vulnerable. That doesn't mean they should be left to get on with it. They can be prosecuted now in many cases anyway.

Personally, I would like to see anything like this limited to consenting adults.

Sorry to hear about your mortgage roadwalker, that's a really shit situation.

I am 2 months away from qualifying as a social worker. When I am qualified, if I were to undertake an intervention without telling my service user the full facts, I'd be struck off the register. (Obviously, there are circumstances in which I have to e.g. when a life is at risk.) It would not wash in front of our regulatory body if I said "oh but X could have looked it up on the internet, asked a friend or read a book." So, why the fuck is it ok for homeopaths to practice in this way?!

Yes, abra1d, definitively, by the Cochrane Institute's meta-analysis of all available clinicial trials conducted on homeopathy which concluded that the findings indicated any benefits reported from homeopathy was almost certainly as a result of the placebo effect.

candycoated, can I ask you a question please? As social worker, would you do anything if you knew a parent was putting their child at risk by using homeopathy in the place of conventional medicine for something serious like asthma? Do social workers have those kibnds of powers?

But even then they are saying 'almost certainly' which isn't the same thing.

I don't know, I don't use the stuff ever since I was prescribed something for my son's skin condition, which did nothing and, far from improving his constitution, didn't stop him from developing asthma. But I wouldn't like to say that we know now that it definitely NEVER works and can't work.

That's my simplified phraseology, not the Cochrane Institute's.

Ernst's systematic review, based on the Cochrane database of systematic reviews:

"Conclusions: The findings of currently available Cochrane reviews of studies of MJA 2010; 192: 458–460 homeopathy do not show that homeopathic medicines have effects beyond placebo."

It's evolution. All the believers will get "medicine" that doesn't work and die, leaving the planet for the non stupid people. Result!

Just to clarify, CorusKate, "almost certainly" was me paraphrasing from precisely that sort of science-speak. I have given a fuller (and actually more definitive!) quote above.

"What happened to personal resposibility? We just can't regulate everything because a minority of people may make the wrong choices."

Like recreational drugs, you mean?

We just can't regulate everything because a minority of people may make the wrong choices.

You're right. Theft should be legal because only a minority of people do it.

This will give more information about the subject en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

I had to smile at this.

The list of ingredients seen on remedies may confuse consumers into believing the product actually contains those ingredients.

This thread is worth if for the evolution (assuming that is even a real thing. After all, there is no conclusive proof) of PaulS's stance
We've gone from 'will not be swayed' to 'just a bit of fun' to 'everyone knows there is no actual science behind it' in just a few small pages.

If only every other Woo was so easily swayed by reason and logic and facts...

I made a flippant remark that some humorless gits leapt upon - and people are still getting their knickers in a twist about some alternative medicine.

ah, the old "I was only joking- how could you not to see that" defence"!

If somebody beats you in a game of tennis do you say "I wanted you to win so I wasn't really trying"?

I don't believe any old crap that people tell me. As far as alternative treatments are concerned, I would like to try some for myself before I make up my own mind about them. If they don't work, then I will discount them.

As far as my latest forray is concerned, I will have to see whether it does work (whether that's a placebo effect or not). Although, I had an excellent result with acupuncture for acne as a teenager. That could well have been because the guy suggested a three week diet of certain foods, but if that's what cured it, why isn't this information commonly known?

Martorana, you're assuming that I give a toss about what a strangers on an internet forum think. Since I am inclined towards woo in the first place, we both know this is not the case!