Homeapathy.... experiences, views etc?

[glitternanny]

I saw on a programme I watched on TV last night about homeopathy for pregnancy and labour and being very nervous it was something that caught my attention.

I have had very good experiences with homeopathy. Particularly since i've been pregnant, i have been very reluctact to take painkillers and other medicines and have found homeopathic remedies have helped with morning sickness, migraines and headaches.

If you can spare the cash for an appointment, I can see no reason why you wouldn't give it a go.

ginge - but how do you know your morning sickness hasn't just passed? Like it normally does.

The OP wasn't wasn't just asking for people's experience's in a beneficial capacity. She was asking for experiences and views. I have a view and I have stated it as have all the others here. I have also stated my reasons why I believe homeopathy to be harmful. I do not doubt that it has been helpful to many, for whatever reasons, but my original reasons as stated still stand.

With regards to having an open mind, being open-minded about something is a willingness to consider that it may be true: it also means considering the possibility that it may be false. An open-minded person's mind is open to both possibilities. If an idea can be shown to be correct then an open-minded person will alter, or add to, their world-view with this new-found knowledge. If the new idea does not stand up to scrutiny however, it will be rejected.

Having an open-mind does not mean embracing all kinds of weird ideas and uncritically accepting them no matter how bizarre or unsupported by evidence they are. The actual word used to describe a person who will believe in absolutely anything is: credulous. Assessing the evidence and coming to a conclusion is anything but small minded. It has nothing to do with whether or not a practice is standard discipline.

People who peddle homeopathy are either crooks or well-meaning idiots. People who buy it are gullible thickos or self-obsessed hypochondriacs who haven't got anything wrong with them that a kick up the twinkle wouldn't cure anyway.

Nice.

People who buy it are gullible thickos or self-obsessed hypochondriacs or just haven't had very good advice and have been duped by a smooth-talking snake-oil salesman.

People who buy it are gullible thickos or self-obsessed hypochondriacs or haven't asked the key question 'how is it any way possible that this could possibly work when it is at odds with what we know to be true?'

Both Trills and LM have rephrased "gullible thickos" in slightly different ways. Unnecessary repetition.

I was editing the suggestion that people who use homeopathy are gullible thickos because I didn't think the options given covered all of the bases.

They may be guliible thickos, but it is more likely that they are only-averagely-gullible but have been duped.

The repetition was necessary so that I could say "no, not necessarily".

I was trying to make the point that a lack of intellectual curiosity and poor understanding of science doesn't help people to reach sensible conclusions.

Also I always enjoy a good homeopathy thread as it amazes me how people trot out the old 'be open minded' chestnut and think that because they recovered from a cold it was due to magic. Quite frustrating, but kind of entertaining.

You did it again! Both of you! All your rephrasings are synonyms of "gullible thickos". Kudos for the compassion, though.

We could call people who use or promote homeopathy "fantastically intelligent lovely people" or anything you like really but it still doesn't alter the fact that homeopathy doesn't work beyond placebo effect and there are both physical and moral dangers inherent in claims that it does anything more than that (despite being presented with a vast body of evidence to the contrary).

There's no need to be so nasty and insulting though is there? It is perfectly possible to have a debate without being horrible.

There is no debate. This is kind of the point.

I quite agree BT. There's no need for name calling or personal attacks. But I suppose anything that provokes strong reactions is going to get a bit heated!

You clearly have a poor opinion of people in general if you think that "only-averagely-gullible" is synonymous with "gullible thickos" bruxeur.

Hmm, let's see. People who hold dangerous or harmful beliefs despite their being loads of widely-available evidence to the effect that these beliefs are rank bullshit should be patted on the head, should they? I do actually support people's right to believe whatever ridiculous bullshit they choose to believe in (ie that there are gods, or that non-white people are genetically inferior to white people, or that Sunny Delight is a nutritious fluid because it's kept in a fridge, or that Elvis is still allive) - but I also believe that if they post such bullshit on a public forum then everyone else has the right to not just correct them but to point and laugh.

I used homeopathic remedies during labour and life turned out fine for me! Who knows if they made a difference or not but they did us no harm, I wasn't taking homeopathic remedies and ignoring medical advice, I was using them with midwife's guidance. I bought a small kit from an alternative therapy place recommended by my MW. Some of the labour kits are quite pricey and contain a lot more.

eating sugar pills doesn't normally cause harm...

those pricey kits contain a lot more bugger all.

OK, homeopathy is harmful on the grounds that it's a total con and therefore people are spending good money on bullshit - but up to a point, they are spending money to be listened to and sympathised with and paid attention to, when what is wrong with them is either fuck all or something which will clear up on its own. Which is not in itself bad. Where homeopathy is really harmful is when its peddlers advise people to stop taking conventional medication when there's something really wrong with them, or to ignore serious symptoms.

This discussion is reminding me of parts of the wonderful Tim Minchin's beat poem "Storm", during which he recounts his response to a woman extolling the virtues of homeopathy at a dinner party:

"?By definition?, I begin
?Alternative Medicine?, I continue
?Has either not been proved to work,
Or been proved not to work.
You know what they call ?alternative medicine?
That?s been proved to work?
Medicine.?"

...and later...

"Science adjusts it?s beliefs based on what?s observed
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.
If you show me
That, say, homeopathy works,
Then I will change my mind
I?ll spin on a fucking dime
I?ll be embarrassed as hell,
But I will run through the streets yelling
It?s a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
Water has memory!
And while it?s memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite
It somehow forgets all the poo it?s had in it!"

Brilliant
I think that about sums up my feelings on the matter

AH but it's the succussion that makes it remember April No-one hits the water on a horsehair-stuffed leather saddle to make it remember the poo.

It reminds me of News Biscuit's fantastic article; "New Age Terrorists Develop Homeopathic Bomb"....

The world has been placed on a heightened security alert following reports that New Age terrorists have harnessed the power of homeopathy for evil. ?Homeopathic weapons represent a major threat to world peace,? said President Barack Obama, ?they might not cause any actual damage but the placebo effect could be quite devastating.?

The H2O-bomb has been developed by the radical New Age group, The Axis of Aquarius. In a taped message to the world, their leader, Professor Hubert Pennington, said: ?For too long the New Age movement has been dismissed as a bunch of beardy weirdy cranks and charlatans. But now we have weapons-grade homeopathy and we demand to be taken seriously.?

Homeopathic bombs are comprised of 99.9% water but contain the merest trace element of explosive. The solution is then repeatedly diluted so as to leave only the memory of the explosive in the water molecules. According to the laws of homeopathy, the more that the water is diluted, the more powerful the bomb becomes.

?It was only a matter of time before these people got hold of the material that they needed to make these bombs,? said former UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, ?The world is a much more dangerous place with the advent of these Weapons of Mass Dilution.?

?A homeopathic attack could bring entire cities to a standstill,? said BBC Security Correspondent, Frank Gardner, ?Large numbers of people could easily become convinced that they have been killed and hospitals would be unable to cope with the massive influx of the ?walking suggestible?.?

The severity of the situation has already resulted in the New Age terror threat level being raised from ?lilac? to the more worrisome ?purple? aura. Meanwhile, new security measures at airports require that all water bottles be scanned to ensure that they are not being used to smuggle the memory of an explosion on board a plane.

?Homeopathic weapons are the ultimate Smart Bombs,? warned President Obama, ?They are so smart that they only affect the gullible. The only defence is for everyone to remain calm, vigilant and to always wear a magic vibrating crystal.?

"Weapons of mass dilution" - love it! Thanks Mixed, nice giggle to brighten up the morning :)

Trillian - ah yes of course. Stupid me/Tim

Thank you too April. I just listened to Tim Minchin's "Storm". I've never heard that before. Absolutely fantastic...it's given me an asthma attack!