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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your views and experiences of homeopathy

197 replies

R2G · 01/05/2019 23:18

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

OP posts:
KatharinaRosalie · 02/05/2019 15:23

I just had to google what a 4 year course of homeopathy teaches.
Apparently one course in syllabus is called First Aid Homeopathy.
??

"He's having a heart attack! Quickly, hand me nothing!"

Prequelle · 02/05/2019 15:25

This person is having a cardiac arrest!
Give me 50 of the magic water stat!

DonkeyHohtay · 02/05/2019 15:26

To be honest, when she started getting sucked into the whole homeopathy thing the friendship started to slip. We are still friends on social media but i don't see her any more - she knows what I think of her career choice.

DonkeyHohtay · 02/05/2019 15:27

there is a Mitchell and Webb sketch of A&E in a homeopathic hospital. It's very funny.

theWarOnPeace · 02/05/2019 15:52

Not homeopathy for me OP, but herbal and traditional remedies have worked for chronic conditions, in my experience. I could go into some detail if you like, re: the herbal stuff, but I don’t have a full list as it was years ago and tailor made at the time by a herbalist. My husband kept calling her the witch doctor, until he saw massive improvement in my symptoms. Diet is a massive part of healing, but even things like acupuncture, regular deep tissue massage, flotation tanks etc have all gone some ways towards dealing with my auto-immune/chronic pain issues. I think that the dismissal of traditional remedies by today’s society is a real shame. They don’t work on everything, but people were more in touch with themselves and with their bodies in ancient times. There are things that work for certain conditions and things that don’t. If I was ever diagnosed with cancer or something equally as scary, I would absolutely turn to modern medicine. I would also compliment that with any other traditional medicine that could make me feel better, and include diet in that category too. Diet may not ‘cure’ huge illnesses, or prevent any illness coming your way, but people’s distain for diet as a way to improve health is something that’s always baffled me. You wouldn’t give a baby McDonalds as it’s first finger food, people whinge about bread and butter and an apple being cruel to a child, but if someone suggests a good clean diet full of antioxidant-rich foods, it’s laughed off as quackery.

I understand your frustrations OP. You can only get so far with modern medicine. Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t a magic bullet for every condition known to man. Chronic illness and pain conditions are very real, and largely misunderstood - even by doctors.

I remember getting a diagnosis years ago, and listening and then asking what treatment there was. The answer, “none really, just day to day management of the condition”. Ok, so you then wonder what does management of the condition look like in real terms? Well.... nothing!

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/05/2019 16:26

You say you've looked into the science but I think you looked into the wrong science. You need to look at psychology.

Placebo effect
White coat effect
Reversion to the mean
Sunken costs
We believe expensive things work more than cheap or free

There are many reason we believe in this bullshit. Many reasons people believe they have been healed by water and sugar pills. They are wrong.

BertrandRussell · 02/05/2019 16:35

“ I think that the dismissal of traditional remedies by today’s society is a real shame”

I don’t dismiss traditional remedies. I dismiss the ones that have been shown not to work.

SoHotADragonRetired · 02/05/2019 16:44

"Traditional remedies" that turn out to be pharmacologically active and to outperform placebo under double-blind clinical conditions become... Medicines. Drugs. Willow bark was a traditional remedy. Now you can buy it as a medicine, in the form of aspirin. Medical research does actually go to great trouble to test these things, and all alternative remedies. When they stay alternative, it's because under lab conditions they turn out not to work.

Antioxidants, btw, have been known for nearly 30 years now not to live up to their theoretical promise. It is certainly a good idea to eat a healthy balanced diet with lots of fruit and veg, but supplementary antioxidants underwent large scale clinical trials... With some fairly disastrous results. At best they do nothing; at worst they were linked with an increase in the rate of cancer and heart disease.

R2G · 02/05/2019 17:52

@thewaronpeace yes I'd be really interested to know more. I'm confused in the difference between herbalist and homeopath. Interested to know what kind of conditions and also where you went for food guidance or did you just eat well

OP posts:
endofthelinefinally · 02/05/2019 18:30

Herbal medicine has nothing to do with homeopathy.
It drives me mad when people conflate the two.

SoHotADragonRetired · 02/05/2019 19:22

Herbal medicine has nothing to do with homeopathy.

They're both "alternative therapies", which is to say, proper double-blind testing has found they don't work.

The main difference is at least homeopathic remedies can't interact with medication or induce any genuine side effects, unlike herbal preparations, which could be absolutely anything.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/05/2019 19:32

They're both "alternative therapies", which is to say, proper double-blind testing has found they don't work.

Bollocks. Homeopathy and water and bullshit. Herbal medicine frequently turns up very effective drugs. Tu Youyou studied TCM and came up with a much more effective and safe anti malarial than existed. Nobel prize and everything.

That doesn't mean some random herbalist with a qualification from Nonsense University will be effective. But dismissing herbal remedies and medicine altogether is foolish. Study and evaluate don't dismiss.

SrSteveOskowski · 02/05/2019 19:39

Listen to Dara O' Briain.

"Horse shit peddler" Grin

ENLLIW · 02/05/2019 19:42

I had homeopathy about 15 years ago for really bad hayfever. It was do bad I felt drunk all the time and wanted to pull my eye balls out and scratch them on sand paper, hayfever tablets never worked . I was extremely sceptical but would try anything. I was amazed the first 10 years I didn't even have to take any hayfever tablets just the odd one now.
Worth a try!

sunshine19781 · 02/05/2019 19:45

I took one homeopathy pill when I was about 9 for mouth ulcers I kept getting. The pill worked like a miracle and have hardly had any since.

SoHotADragonRetired · 02/05/2019 19:49

I'm not dismissing substances which stem from plants at all, MrsTerry. Plants have been the source for many drugs. But that's the point, if they are found to actually work they legally become medicines and are regulated as such, either OTC or prescription. If they are being doled out by a herbalist then the evidence does not support their use for whatever condition it is - it's generally a "traditional association" rather than any sound evidence.

endofthelinefinally · 02/05/2019 19:51

I spent 12 years in clinical research.
Herbal medicine as practiced by qualified people does work. Herbs form the basis of many modern medicine. Digitalis, aspirin, opiates, ergometrine, to name but a few.
Homeopathy is complete made up nonsense.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/05/2019 20:11

But that's the point, if they are found to actually work they legally become medicines and are regulated as such, either OTC or prescription.

But Artemesia worked before it was tested and regulated. For hundreds of years. Poppies and cloves killed pain before you could get them from a pharmacist.

Homeopathy is 100% gold-plated bollocks. So. although a lot of herbalism is nonsense too, they shouldn't be lumped together.

Abra1de · 02/05/2019 20:19

My mother has been told to drink tonic water for its quinine (another tree bark) for neuropathy. Another ‘herbal’ remedy doctors approve of.

endofthelinefinally · 02/05/2019 20:19

You have only got to look at the current debate about cannabinoids to realise that the issues between pharmaceuticals, investment, research and the law are complex, historical and not straightforward.
I was looking after patients with MS in the early 80s who were forced to obtain cannabis illegally to control their symptoms and have some quality if life. We knew it worked.

MissConductUS · 02/05/2019 20:29

You have only got to look at the current debate about cannabinoids to realise that the issues between pharmaceuticals, investment, research and the law are complex, historical and not straightforward.

I was surprised to learn that the UK only just very recently started allowing medical cannabis and that in practical terms, it's really not available yet.

Most states in the US allow medical use (34 out of 50) and there are now ten states that allow adult recreational use, so there's plenty of data from the US to support its use.

WellGoshDarnIt · 02/05/2019 20:30

My favourite part of that Tim Minchin sketch is when he says, "if water has a memory, how come it can't remember all the poo that's been in it?" Grin

greenelephantscarf · 02/05/2019 20:45

herbal medicines are just that - medicines.
with effects and side effects.

homeopathy does not work past the placebo effect (which can be very powerful for some conditions)

experience: my parents 'treated' my childhood asthma with sugar pills as they heard in tabloids scary things about steroids.
result: permanent lung damage.

greathat · 02/05/2019 22:24

I have never seen a finer example of sticking your fingers in your ears and singing nonsense loudly

R2G · 02/05/2019 22:50

@endofthelinefinally is there a register of herbalists or something like that where I could look into it more?

OP posts:
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