To ask for your views and experiences of homeopathy

[R2G]

Had anyone tried it to treat illness? Any good or bad experiences

I just think, there's a lot of Woo out there, and if you're going to try it, it might be nicer all round to go for one where there's more massage and pampering and lying down than one where they just give you a pill or a tincture or something and the send you on your way. Like others have said, it's the nurturing part which is so helpful. I'm sorry you're suffering at the moment and I hope your symptoms go away. x

“Also had much success with those teetha granules when dd was teething- I don’t Think a 9 month old can experience the placebo effect!”

1. Sugar is known to be an effective pain reliever in babies.
2. It’s not the baby that’s “placeboed”. It’s the parent. Once the parent is more relaxed so is the baby. Same applies to animals.

Glucose is exactly what is given during a lot of baby circumcisions- and the only thing (particularly in some areas of the US), Bert is right in what they're saying.

Not all and I'm not sure how it works in the UK, I was just doing some US based research into this one time for one reason or another

The magic drops work by expelling toxins and bringing them to the surface in the case of eczema, it gets worse before it gets better as all the nasty stuff is coming out.....also when the GP gave me a bath lotion to try it made my case much worse due to the paraffin in it....it was horrendous. Be careful with parrafin based products. Use natural stuff instead. Tgel shampoo is great for scalp problems

Sounds legit

Also “natural stuff” is not always better than other skincare products in fact in some cases they’re worse (e.g. some essential oils have been shown to cause irritation)

The comment upthread
Don't understand the science behind it
There is no science behind it. You are not being given anything. It works on the basis that water has a memory. If water has a memory we are all drinking shit
It works by placebo only
Someone talking to you for an hour may make you feel better. That you have forked out a lot of money helps convince you it works
It is bollocks for gullible people with too much money
And not to be confused with herbalism

It has been conclusively established, beyond any reasonable doubt, that homeopathic pills are placebos. Which is not surprising really, because if water was capable of "having a memory" it would turn molecular physics upside down, and we'd all be truly fucked.

It is also worth remembering that James Randi, the magician and "debunker", has had a $1million bounty posted for decades to be claimed by anybody who can prove mystical or "alternative" effects under laboratory conditions. He has specifically stated that the bounty can be claimed by anyone who can demonstrate that a difference between a magically potentised homeopathic remedy and plain water, in any way, in a lab. The bounty is unclaimed.

The thing about placebos, though, is that they work. Often spectacularly. And a homeopath isn't just giving you placebo pills and creams, they give you a placebo diagnosis, a nice reassuring explanation for what ails you and that it's all fixable, plus more time and sympathetic hand pats than your poor beleaguered GP has the resource for. Is it harmful to peddle placebos if they give relief? I don't know. But don't forget that on top of the world's most expensive sweeties, the homeopath is peddling you a seductive and simplistic explanation of the world and your problems, and encouraging you not to evaluate treatments properly or to consider that most complex problems have depressingly complex solutions. The pills do have one side effect; they make your brain go all soggy.

I can recommend Bad Science by Ben Goldacre as a hilarious and informative resource on the subject.

I forgot to add my Reflexologist balances my whole endocrine system (to ensure all my glands work together and in harmony with each other)
No they don't

Bloody hell I missed that mustbe. What a joke that people believe such woo

Also: yes the placebo effect works on you. It works on doctors. It works on babies. It's been proven to work on dogs.

My son’s eczema seemed to go the ‘wrong way’ round during homeopathy and became the far more serious asthma. He also had undiagnosed coeliac disease at the time, we discovered.

Not a raging success.

@lhw92 not sure if your 'legit' comment is meant to be legit or sarky lol will say you are being legit....anyway it worked for me people have to try things and find out what works for them sometimes alternative is better sometimes traditional
a lot of drugs the nhs provide are not all that great in countries lke australia they are much more progressive in treating Mh for example they treat the individual and give the correct drugs accordingly the uk is way behind and treats general depression and throws generic antidepressants at people and bad counselling

I have had a homeopath I have seen for 7 years now... I will be honest I thought it was utter shit, but I had horrdenous insomnia, and literally nothing helped. I was so tired I collapsed in the road and had to go to A&E in an ambulance with my little children.

So I went as a "well I might as well try everything". And it really helped. Accept this could have been placebo, but my lady is also a therapist, and so I went back to talk about a few things. At the time I also had funding for a tonsilectomy on the NHS as I had tonsilitis 14 times in 15 months. I was really scared to have the op as its meant to be really painful, so I asked her if she could help. I was stuck in an endless cycle of taking anitbiotics that were taking longer and longer to work, to get over it and then 3 weeks later be ill again.

So I let her treat me as again I had to try everything before having that bloody op. Literally 24 hour, the first time and every trace of pus (sorry TMI) on my tonsil was gone. I have had this condition about 60 times in my life - so they were chronically infected. I have taken every know antibiotic as well and nothing clears them up in 24 hours. But it worked. every time I had it (3 more times) I got her to treat and it completely resolved.

Nothing pisses me off more than people who have no experience of something running something down.

I would also add that my dog had a serious illness as a result of a bad reaction to something and he nearly died. Normal vetinary care didnt work at all and I nearly had to have him PTS..... I went to see a holistic vet and in 2 months he ws totally better. Under the normal vets we were treated and treated for 8 months and he got progressivly worse and worse.

So Im not too bothered what other people think. I know what has happended to me and my dog and Im happy with that. So either : 1 it works - which is amazing considering how much cheaper the remedies are than nromal medicines. or 2 : it is placebo effect which is a fucking miracle! Why is it is a placebo arent we investing so much research in this - imagine if you could clear an infection from your body in 24 hours with your mind! Why wouldnt we want to look more into that - imagine how much money it would save?!!!

My husband is a massive major skeptic. But even he begrudingly admits the curing of the dog has been a miracle.

I should also say that I am happy to use antibiotics and vaccinate my children. I also am happy to go to the GP and pharmacist, and I give my children calpol...... so I am not in the slightest "Woo!"..... although I know many who are.... my lady who treats me isnt even slightly woo either. I think it can be dangerous if people are so blinered they wont use anything else, or give up medication for diabetes etc. All I know is for chronic problems that wouldnt shift, for me it has helped, for whatever reason.

I would be really interested to see how placebo can work in animals.... bearing in mind my dog gets his remedies in with his food, so he isnt even aware Ive given him anything.... surely placebo only works if you say "this will make you better" ... genuine interest - not goady

Just remembered that some years ago we stayed in a b&b on a stud farm. The owners had their own racehorses but also stabled other people’s horses there. There was a track thing and you could see them being exercised outside the window. Anyway, I digress. The b&b owner said all the horses were treated with homeopathy and acupuncture and it was hugely successful! Please tell me how on Earth a horse can be affected by the placebo effect??

The magic drops work by expelling toxins and bringing them to the surface in the case of eczema

They really, really don't. Your liver and kidneys deal with any 'toxins'.

Please tell me how on Earth a horse can be affected by the placebo effect??

Two ways.

1. conditioning. You can create an effect in an animal by creating an association. So if they associate being given a tablet/pill/seeing the vet with a treatment that eases their pain, they get conditioned to associate the two, and soon one occurs in response to the other without any actual treatment being needed.
2. the effect is actually on you. You expect the animal to improve. You communicate in a more relaxed tone of voice and body language. You are predisposed to notice signs in the horse which suggest "getting better" to you, and to ignore ones that suggest "not getting better". Most of the time an animal will also get better by themselves anyway, so when this happens, you attribute it to the homeopathy and not the natural course of the condition.

The placebo effect is incredibly powerful. Researchers have found that a doctor's expectations about what they're giving out are hugely powerful, and can actually reverse the effects of a drug - in other words, when a doctor thinks s/he is giving out something which will actually increase pain but is really a painkiller, their patients experience more pain, and when they think they are giving a pain killer but are actually giving an opiate receptor blocker that increases pain, their patients feel better. Think about that.

It's been conclusively shown that two sugar pills reduce pain more than one sugar pill, and salt water injections reduce pain much more than pills of any kind. Why? Because we all know an injection is a much more dramatic intervention than a pill.

So why don't doctors give out placebos (any more)? Because it is not ethical to lie to your patients, or to promise them something you can't deliver. Real treatments also offer benefits stemming from your expectations.

@MadameGazelleIsMyHomegirl Acupuncture is a slightly different topic to homeopathy. The NHS do recognise that acupuncture has its place (although their understanding of why exactly it works is different to the way that Chinese medicine describes it). I listened to a doctor talking about this recently in terms of pain relief and cancer patients in the You, Me and the Big C podcast and that was very interesting.

homeopath, nutritionist,, and reiki master (not grand master...I got carried away in a PP...but doesn't it sound great!) and crystal healer.

M3lon you're my hero

The message from my vascular surgeon relative: water has no ‘memory’ of molecules. It’s utter bullshit designed to capitalise on people’s fears and wants and make people money. I’m astounded when intelligent friends partake.

Placebo effect can be achieved equally by drinking lots of water and thinking well.

There are plenty of studies showing that inserting the acupuncture needles in random places has the same effect as the 'real' accupuncture. Placebo. Probably works better than homeopathy because needles look more serious than taking pills.

Ben Goldacre had, I believe, a very well qualified cat.

Ben Goldacre had, I believe, a very well qualified cat.

Indeed, Henrietta Goldacre (feline, deceased) had the same "professional" membership of a "nutrition institute" as "Dr" Gillian McKeith.

Worked for me when I had a skin condition as a young teenager. Good luck @R2G hope you feel better.

I think friend went to a college in Manchester. It's not cheap - 4 year professional course costing around £10k in total. But it does allow you to be a registered homeopath and fleece the gullible.