Good homeopath???

[oinkyoink]

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good homeopath? I'm fed up with antibiotics and want to try an alternative. London area

Thanks!!

Really? I'm surprised that there isn't more of a fuss that people are giving out pills with nothing in them and claiming that they will cure illnesses, especially since many of them will actively discourage you from going to a doctor and getting treatment that does have something in it and has been shown to have an actual effect.

What fuss? We're merely pointing out that treating sick children with sugar pills and woo is a Bad Idea.

Round here I suppose it would be Severn Trent. Suppose your best bet is Thames Water.

Turn your tap on, what comes out is the homeopathic cure for everything - it contains as much active ingredient as whatever you're willing to shell out for - and you're already paying for it.

I have to say I am astounded by the pharmacists enthusiastically proposing the homeopathic remedies here in France. I mean, didn't you have to study science to become a pharmacist? But people believe in them and so they make a huge profit.

Poptart- yes, herbs etc will often work, because they actually have active ingredients in them. A lot of 'conventional' medicine is based on natural ingredients.

Homeopathy doesn't have any active ingredients ergo it cannot work, unless by the placebo effect.

Proposing sugar water for bacterial infections is irresponsible to the extreme.

This is why it's a bad idea to put water in whisky - it makes it stronger!

The guy we saw used to be a GP for 30 years so I was fairly reassured he knew what he was doing. Like I said, I never used to believe in it either, but I was at the end of my tether and would have tried anything. The improvement in DS was incredible. I know people talk about the placebo effect, but at the age of four I don't think this applied to DS. Look, I'm not about to get into a huge debate about this nor try to convince others of my views. Everyone has the right to have their own opinion and I was simply telling the OP of my experience.

lol at flisspaps

Why on earth donyou think the placebo effect wouldn't work on a 4 year old? Have you never kissed a bump better or applied a magic plaster? what are they but placebos?

Exactly, seeker.

There is no way a substance that has no active ingredients can cure an illness. Homeopathic remedies are the same as sugar water.

No, don't do that! The water ut of the tap contains atheist memory of all the bad stuff it's ever met. That's probably why people get I'll in he first place, drinking water with the memory of poo in it.

"atheist memory???????"

All the memory, obviously.

Atheist memory is something completely different.

Interestingly, our local hospital employs a homoepath in the GI department. doctors say that there is no scientific evodence that homeopathy works, but obviously our health authority thinks is does.

If homeopathy doesn't work at all why are there so many practising homeopaths?

What a load of bollocks Poptart! Are you suggesting you have defied the laws of physics, and that water cured your kid of whatever he had? Are you that dense?

You gave your child sugar and water, with nothing else in it. If you cured him of anything with that, you're a fucking magician.

"If homeopathy doesn't work at all why are there so many practising homeopaths?"

Because a lot of people are gullible fools. Even sometimes people with scientific training and who should be ashamed of themselves.

I know a lovely one. Will PM you.

Because the placebo effect can be quite strong/ illness gets better on its own and people think it's thanks to the sugar pill and there's lots of money to be made from this as lots of people don't want to stuff themselves with 'chemicals' (i.e. they are ignorant of the fact that natural or not, it's still a chemical).

Yes, a magic plaster works on a 4 year old. You can also give them "special pills" which are sweets that they don't really like. It will save a fortune compared to getting a snakeoil salesman homeopath to sell you a sugar pill.

The health authority which employs a homeopath is using the same placebo effect as the magic plaster. Its just cheaper than employing a doctor.

The important thing to remember is that most illnesses get better on their own. They often seem to get better after the patient consults a complementary therapist because by the time they go to a homeopath or whatever, they have often had whatever it is for quite a long time, so it's on its way out anyway.

And a lot of illnesses are psychosomatic, and are therefore particularly amenable to a kindly listening ear, some time and some TLC.

What I don't get is what happens if the flask used to prepare the homeopathic dilution isn't struck 10 times against a blunt object at each stage in the dilution process ? Does it no longer work ? Are there control studies ?

How dare you suggest that there should be control studies? You are obviously a non- believer. The magic shaking will not work in your presence. Homeopathy cures vague feelings of unease and niggling back pain better than anything else. You just ask my Aunt Elsie.

that would be an interesting trial....

"so, in the control group, we give the placebo, a white sugar pill with no active ingredient, and in the test group, we give a homeopathic remedy, which is...er, a sugar pill with no active ingredient. We won't be on tenterhooks....."

agree that the placebo effect can be very strong and helpfull. but the danger is that you get homeopaths that say 'stop taking the steroid asthma spray because it is the work of the devil interferes with the sugar pills'.
the result can be devastating, i.e. cause permanent lung damage in an asthmatic child or worse.

"but the danger is that you get homeopaths that say 'stop taking the steroid asthma spray because it is the work of the devil interferes with the sugar pills'.
the result can be devastating, i.e. cause permanent lung damage in an asthmatic child or worse."

A good homeopath wouldn't do that. After all it is meant to be complementary medicine not replacement medicine.