homeopathic medicine

[jomifl]

Since the putative active ingredient in homeopathic medicine is diluted to statistical non -existence the adherents to this kind of therapy have explained that the curative properties reside in the memory of water(yeah right). Any comments?

[cathfromsaron]

jake, what i said was it worked for me (twenty years ago) when i went to a therapist with impacted and infected wisdom teeth, and was terrified of the surgery! ergo i don't think there is 'nothing' in it! and i would support a person's choice to use it if they have tried everything FACT

but i have ALSO agreed that trying to cure HIV or cancer is inethical, although i made the point that many other complementary therapies also help with the side effects of conventional medications and treatments, eg. sleeplessness and consitipation is greatly helped by reflexology! then i was told this was nothing to do with it! FACT!

most comments were then taken out of context and singly undermined by other people who had nothing useful to add!

SO if you read accurately, i am just saying it worked for me but should be used carefully and not for serious illnesses, where a better outcome can be achieved through modern methods!

i think we should also remember that modern medicine cannot cure every ill and that expensive treatments, excessive medication and further discomfort can often be avoided by integrating nutritional and alternative approaches where appropriate!

also poor diet and environment causes many diseases, but we choose to ignore that, and expect the NHS to bail us out at all costs!

AND NO, I WAN'T SAYING THAT I ONLY CARE ABOUT HOMEOPATHS OFFERING HIV TREATMENTS IN THE UK - NOWHERE DID SAY THAT SNEERING COMMENT - BUT IF ITS OUTSIDE THE UK 'WE' CANNOT OUTLAW IT!!!

[LazyGun]

@Cath - I am not sure where you get the idea that homeopathic medicine is cheaper than coventional therapies. A consultation with a homeopath will cost £30-£60, then you have to shell out for the most expensive water or sugar pills there is. No way is it cheaper.

Complementary therapies may aid in conjunction with regular medicine - but you should be wary of making such statements as FACT. There is no reliable clinical evidence to support reflexology, nor any plausible mechanism by which it can work.

I will mention this again, but one persons anecdotal account cannot be counted as evidence - it could be an interesting observation, but nothing more. FACT - no properly conducted clinical trial has ever demonstrated that homeopathy works significantly better than placebo, and the more rigorous the trial, the less useful it is.
FACT - the very notion of homeopathy is implausible in the extreme - the idea that water somehow has a kind of selective memory is just ,well, absurd frankly.
FACT - People can die unnecessarily, not because of the inherent dangers of the homeopathic remedy but because they fail to get proper medical treatment.

[jomifl]

whilst we don't have to understand how a process works for it to actually work, if someone is proposing a mechanism for a process without any proof of it working then a fairly bullet proof explanation of the mechanism is required otherwise it is just a fairy tale. If there is no evidence that homeopathy works and no plausible explaation of how it could then it must come close to not existing.(other than as a business model)

[flip_flop]

Putting FACT after a statement does not necessarilly mean it is a FACT.

FACT.

[jomifl]

^ would you be happy if it was put before?