homeopathic medicine

kalbarri

whilst in india, the first time, i had round worms and my eyes had gone yellow and homeopathic medicine, that a traveller had and gave me, fixed me up (within days). i am wondering if anyone knows of where to get some in chennai or kerala. it would be handy to travel with some for deworming and other things as i am always tempted to make myself a salad now and again and i have read that this is one of the ways one gets worms.

jyotirmoy

Do you know the compound and the dilution? Look around for a SBL outlet.

kalbarri

don't know any of those things. what is SBL?

wonderwomanusa

Worms aren't the only thing you can get from salad; hope you are soaking your greens for 20 minutes in iodine water, to kill the little amoebas and giardia-bugs.

kalbarri

NO...i didn't even know about iodine water till i read about its use on this forum and i never thought about where guiardia came from as i have never had anything to do with it. i am not back in india yet but i will try this iodine water. thanks for the reminder.

karuna

Furthering my reputation as Indiamike's resident alt-med killjoy, kalbarri if the stuff given to you was homeopathic it was not the reason you started feeling better. If it was the reason you started feeling better, it wasn't homeopathic.

Please do not rely on homeopathy for serious illnesses. Only recently Neals Yard were forced to remove their homeopathic malaria "remedy" from the shelves after the media went after them for it. There is simply no way homeopathy can work, and all the robust trials ever done of it show that it doesn't. It sounds like you were pretty ill; please, please don't take chances with your life.

Anyone unconvinced or outraged by my comments, please read "Trick or Treatment" by Dr Simon Singh and Dr Edzard Ernst, and "Suckers" by Rose Shapiro. Homeopathy doesn't work.

ETA: and if you don't have time to read those, read this article by Dr Ben Goldacre who is a) very goodlooking and b) very smart: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...sciencenews.g2

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kalbarri

karuna, have you tried homeopathic cures yourself?
i have seen the documentary that pooh poohs it but i am not very scientifically minded so disproving that it is capable of working by scientific means doesn't do much for me, scientists are still realising that animals communicate with each other!
lots of western medicine gets taken off the shelves too.

karuna

Yes, I have used it myself for a couple of things, one being hayfever (it didn't work). I was very into alternative therapies for a while, until I learned a bit about randomised controlled trials, evidence-based medicine and (particularly) the placebo effect. But in fact using it yourself and having apparently positive effects doesn't prove homeopathy works*. I could also say I've hopped on one leg and it cured my cancer, and no-one will ever understand that unless they try it themselves. Personal experience doesn't make it true.

Confirmation bias, the placebo effect and regression to the mean explain a lot of the "results" of homeopathy.

This really isn't about "science" versus other forms of "knowing". There's no special weird scientific way of thinking going on here; either something is effective, or it isn't. That is, for example if you have a disease, let's say malaria, that can be tested and seen in your blood, if you then take homeopathic remedies and have a blood test, the malaria will still be present in your blood after the homeopathic treatment. This means the homeopathic remedy has not worked in curing you of malaria. How can science be "wrong" about that? It's a yes/no situation, and homeopathy consistently fails such tests.

Mainstream meds that literally have no beneficial effect will never make it onto the market in the first place, they will fail at trial stage. Mainstream meds are removed from circulation because of unwanted side-effects. Homeopathic malaria tablets were removed from sale because they do not do what they claim to do, ie prevent or cure malaria. And the alt-med people selling them were so irresponsible they did not even suggest ways to prevent bites, which is the first line of defence against malaria and which any mainstream doctor would tell you to do.

I used to be into alt med because I disagreed (still do) with animal testing and I was frightened of "powerful" mainstream medicines. There's a lot of stuff "Big Pharma" does that I disagree with. But, understanding how medicines are made and tested, how much we know about human psychology and treatments, I can no longer support things like homeopathy. It doesn't work, no matter which way you slice it.

Not much point debating it as we are coming from opposing views, but I do recommend Trick or Treatment as a clear and unbiased look at which alt-meds really work and which don't.


*in fact it's a logical fallacy. I don't have to have personally tried everything to know if it works or not.


ETA: I forgot that great little anecdote about James Randi swallowing an entire bottle of homeopathic sleeping tablets. No, he didn't feel anything approaching even drowsiness!

amarama

The reason I find no point in debating you is homeopathic drugs are very widly accepted. Here in the USA they have made it onto the shelves of walmart. The reason I believe they are so widely accepted-they work

karuna

That's an assertion given with no evidence to back it up. Much like homeopathy.

ETA: looks like homeopathic remedies are not (yet) FDA regulated. In other words, they don't have to prove they work to be sold in stores.

jyotirmoy

Me & my family has been using Homeopathic medicines for ages and I can vouch for it.
Millions in India survive on Homeopathy and had been doing so for ages.
I also have hordes of German & other European friends who rely on Homeopathy.
Every once in a while papers surface in the scientific world denouncing Homeopathy but it has not eroded its popularity.

PeakXV

I wouldn't be so quick to disqualify/dismiss 'all' homeopathic medicines. I've found a really good quality arnica creme that works 'very fast' on sports injuries, muscular pain, & bruises that costs all of 15rps a tube in India ..... it's hard not to believe in a medicinal product where you can 'visually see' an accelerated, day-to-day physical improvement with it's continued use.

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capt_mahajan

Just two experiences

-my hayfever arising from a deviated nasal septum was fixed by a (now famous, franchises and all) homeopath in Bombay years ago

-my son gets migraines. Went to a top neuro in Apollo Hyderabad, who said he suffers from them too- and recommended our homeopath for treatment. Said he goes to him, too.

jyotirmoy

Dear Bhai Capt I could have posted our medical history and how we found relief. One exapmple is my terrible sinus problems... its gone.

capt_mahajan

Yep. Not saying it is an alternative treatment for everything, mind. Just that a good homeopath can solve some medical problems which may otherwise need strong drugs with the usual side effects, pharma company claims notwithstanding.

For chronic and no-immediate-danger problems, certainly worth a try.