Homeopathy vs home remedies

[suspiria777]

After a long time reading on MN and elsewhere, and just general chats to people at work or at weddings or whatever, I've come to the conclusion that a significant proportion of people don't really understand what homeopathy is, and think of it as roughly synonymous with 'natural medicine' or 'home remedies'.

Am i mistaken?

I can't think what else would explain the large proportion of otherwise seemingly sensible people who discuss homeopathy as if it actually has good scientific evidence base. Surely people don't back it if they realise it is just water and woo woo?

What do you think?

I started to read that, @suspiria777 and couldn't continue. Unbelievable.

That domestic abuse article is terrifying. How scary the claim that they can treat MH conditions and use sugar pills for the abuser and the abused
I think homeopathic vets should be banned. If an adult wants to take a placebo fine but it's cruel to deny pets proper treatment

If you want more of a laugh/full body cringe at how bizarre homeopathy can get, this is an amusing/astonishing read about a homeopath using HOT WATER to treat A BURN:
scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/01/18/the-homeopathic-treatment-of-burns-the-u

I just thought homeopathy was pointless but harmless, that's actually dangerous. That homeopath had zero idea of physiology. Awful, especially for the daughter.

I just thought homeopathy was pointless but harmless, that's actually dangerous. That homeopath had zero idea of physiology. Awful, especially for the daughter.
A lot of people have died as a result of electing for homeopathic medicine instead of...well...medicine. Have seen a few cases where parents of dead children (for whom they sought only homoeopathic treatment) have been convicted of manslaughter.

I have some degree of sympathy for those parents because, while they are obviously fucking idiots, if you allow quacks to practice fake medical treatments, some people will be taken in by it.

@coodawoodashooda

I have had enormous success with homeopathy.

Many people have had great success with homeopathy. Great success in the field of parting fools and their money.

Agree - Most people are under the impression that it’s a herbal remedy with some actual active ingredient.

I don’t doubt it seems effective- the placebo effect is very powerful, so powerful that medicine has to be tested against it in double blind trials to prove it is more effective than placebo.

@suspiria777

Yes, it's shocking the NHS ever funded it!

I haven't RTFT but actually it's not shocking.

Placebo effects are very powerful. Up to 80% of the painkilling effect of opiates is thought to be placebo/other psychological effects.

How do you ethically prescribe placebos? Homeopathy.

Except that homeopathy isn't ethical, for many reasons outlined above.

I know many people who say homeopathy has worked for them and my granddaughters’s eczema is about 80% improved since she saw a homeopath.
When I was growing up our family GP was also a homeopath and is one of the leading experts in the world.
I have no experience if it personally but it does seem to help some people.

My son's eczema improved 100% by using medicine.

I agree a lot of people don't seem to understand the difference between homeopathy and herbal/ natural remedies. Possibly not helped because a loud minority of people using the latter are keen to exaggerate, or outright lie about their uses and also seem to be very vocal about homeopathic cures. Normal people using natural remedies in a sensible manner don't tend to be as vocal so they get lumped in with the deranged homeopaths.

[quote suspiria777]Oh my days, just look at this nonsense from a homeopathic "doctor":
hpathy.com/cause-symptoms-treatment/homeopathy-for-domestic-violence-and-abuse/[/quote]
So many things wrong with this article, I don’t know where to start…it almost reads as a parody.

Why are herbal "remedies" always seen as a positive?

If homeopathy works, how come I get more drunk on neat whisky?

@Quarantino

Placebo effects can actually help, though - can have physical effects. There's just this small question of whether it's ethical to lie to patients in order to potentially help them.

Well and it’s not lying to potentially help them, it’s lying to fleece them. To make money from them.

These charlatans run businesses and profit from their gullible customers. They’re not just silly, they’re actually disgusting.

@Helendee

I know many people who say homeopathy has worked for them and my granddaughters’s eczema is about 80% improved since she saw a homeopath. When I was growing up our family GP was also a homeopath and is one of the leading experts in the world. I have no experience if it personally but it does seem to help some people.

Actual doctors who have any truck with homeopathy should be de-registered.

They’re even more disgusting than homeopaths without medical training. They truly know what evidence-based medicine is, and decide to throw it in the bin to line their pockets.

Even if the magic water memory thing were true, how does dripping the magic water onto a sugar pill, which then dries out, pass the memory into the pill?

And as for harmless
whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html

@DewDew83

OchonAgusOchonOh You're forgetting that, while there may well be 1,800 studies demonstrating that homeopathy does not work, if just one finds that it DOES work, at that sort of dilution homeopathy will be extremely powerful and effective.

this is genius

@TestingTestingWonTooFree

You're forgetting that, while there may well be 1,800 studies demonstrating that homeopathy does not work, if just one finds that it DOES work, at that sort of dilution homeopathy will be extremely powerful and effective.

Presumably if water had memory we may as well just drink piss.

you forgot about the sucussing

To be fair the posts on here are pretty dismissive of a hugely established form of medicine that is still common in India, Germany, Italy, Greece, France... and even here actually.

Anyone advertising as a homeopathic doctor MUST have a standard medicine degree on top of homeopathy training.

And 'like for like' doesn't mean something that looks like an ear will treat ear infections. It means treating with a substance that would cause a body reaction similar to your symptoms in a minute dose.

Considering a typical homeopathic remedy costs about £7 for a full course of treatment, I don't know why people get so worked up about it being a danger to society. Especially in those news stories where someone says they turned to it when they were put on end of life care by the NHS and the conclusion is something like "even if they're not forgoing standard treatment, they are still being conned out of their money!"

One of the main homeopathic remedy producers in the UK still accepts payment in POSTAGE STAMPS, ala The Office. Hardly in it for the big bucks

the remedies may be cheap but the consultations aren't

I posted this years ago on this thread

This is reminding me of the Young Earth Creationist threads.

What is really exercising me though is not so much the worried well throwing away their money on sugar pills remembering water which remembered something else; it is the obscene way this garbage is being touted in African countries as a CURE for malaria, HIV, TB and infant diarrhoea www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jun/01/world-health-organisation-homeopathy-hiv
It is criminal, in my opinion, and yet it s being promoted and supported by homeopathic communities in this country.

People find reasons to believe in a lot of stuff that isn't true. And other people are eager to take their money. Put em together and...

A small bottle of hayfever remedy tablets cost £10. Not cheap.