homeopathic medicine

jyotirmoy

I agree with you. Only those who have found relief like me and you dear Capt will agree. Remember the poor population of our country who have survived by this. whether wallmart stocks or disposes is no concern at all.

theyyamdancer

I also believe in homeopathic remedies such as arnica etc. They work where nothing else does.

For sinus problems I resorted years ago to Chinese herbal medecine/acupuncture. It cured the problem completely.

Uncle_Martin

Karuna much for your elegant reasoning and balanced conclusions, but I think you are when you confront believers with such cool rationality. However should there be any believers in homeopathy out there who drink whiskey I had a disgusting habit of avoiding hotel sinks whilst touring Scotland and relieved myself in the headwaters and lochs feeding several well known distilleries, as well as those feeding several which made malts for blending. My urine will have imbued all but extremely old bottles with its subtle influence at this appropriate level of dilution. What effect it will have I shudder to think Whilst touring the Medoc I did the same for several grand and not so grand crus

Comfort yourself by reading Levi-Strauss on the power of the Shaman, I think it is to be found in either Man 1975 or Structural Anthropology 1, it will help to square the apparent circle of intelligent people following what appears to them as rational evidence based reasoning reasoning to come up with a conclusion we could both regard as silly and misconstrued. Evans-Pritchard dealt with similar matters in "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azende" in 1937

Or sing the old Music hall song "My Word, You Do look Queer" 'cos Stanley Holloyay could be quite

The Placebo effect is quite something and needs quite sophisticated analysis to disentangle its effect as Karuna gently points out

theyyamdancer

So you don't believe in homeopathy then, Uncle? Cheers - make mine a Highland Park, please...

jyotirmoy

Counter arguments could have been expressed in a more civil way as Karuna did

Uncle_Martin

Luckily I have only stared at the Orkneys, but my mate Tony's grandad worked at the distillery and ne was a dirty old sod ...

capt_mahajan

Yep. Also with some substance..

grikoo

I tend to agree with Karuna's comments. I think that most substances diluted to that point are incapable of having a biological effect.

Most, but perhaps not all. I am open to the idea that some of them may work, but find it unlikely.

I am otherwise a general supporter of plant based medicine, so don't think I dismiss all alternative medicine outright. But as someone with scientific training (and with a keen interest in plants and their properties), I have a hard time buying into homeopathy.

chAos

I've got scientific training and I do believe in alternative medicines, both plant-based and homeopathic. These are not mutually exclusive.
One obvious thing to learn from science is that there's a whole heck of a lot still to know.

Haylo

Whether or not homeopathic remedies work for migraines and so on, and whether or not they work through the (very real and not to be dismissed) "placebo effect" is not really the issue here.

The issue is, is a homeopathic remedy capable of killing the OPs worms.

Personally, I do not believe that any reputable homeopathic practitioner would claim that any solution so dilute would be "harmful" enough to kill a complex organism.

karuna

Those of you who have had positive effects that appear to come from homeopathy, please do consider this:

- if it is a property of the pills themselves that has cured you, then pretty much everything we know about chemistry and biology is totally and completely untrue. Firstly, homeopathic pills contain no physical trace of the original supposedly active ingredient. This is supposed to be because water "retains the memory" of the active ingredient, through a process unknown to science. What Uncle Martin is trying to say is that if that were true, it should also retain the "memory" of all the thousands of human and animal bladders it has passed through, all the other homeopathic remedy sources it has passed through as well (it will have passed through rocks and metals also used in homeopathic treatments). By the time your pill reaches you, it is indistuinguishable from plain old water. Secondly, homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like"- eg things that make you nauseous cure nausea. There is no basis for this theorybeyond it sounds neat and pleasing to the mind. It also follows the "doctrine of signatures"- things that are "similar looking" to a malady can treat it. For example, squid ink cures menstrual problems because it looks like blood. There is no other evidence that it can, it just looks like it should. I can't think of anything to add to that: it's just bunkum, I'm afraid.

- personal anecdote unfortunately is not a good indicator of true worth. This is why nowadays personal witness testimony from memory is doubted- our minds are very, very unreliable. If you add the very powerful placebo effect and the idea of "regression to the mean" (you will most likely turn to homeopathy at the low point of your illness, meaning the only way was up anyway) you can see that all of us are capable of misinterpreting what we experience. You took pill A and one week later your hayfever cleared up, so you assume the two things are related. That could be a false assumption. For example did you know that the worldwide decrease in pirates runs alongside an increase in global warming? True. Are the two things related? We would have to test the theory. The theory of homeopathy has been tested in such a way. There is no co-relation between the content of homeopathic pills and the experience of feeling better; it works as a placebo.

As awful as it is to say, our "personal experiences" of homeopathy are too much tangled up with what we believe and want to happen to be objective. It's hard to accept that; we like to feel in control of our own healthcare and able to help where conventional medicine sometimes cannot. The placebo effect is very, very powerful and should not be underestimated. But it cannot cure worms, or malaria. If you want to take homeopathic remedies for toothache before consulting your dentist it won't hurt, but don't rely on it.

__________________
Indiamike mod squad's odd bod.
Coexist.

[Indian Mona Lisa by Dinesh; can't find original uploader to credit in full.]

Haylo

It interests me that the homeopathic remedies which seem to have the most success are those that the body "should" be capable of dealing with itself. This leads to me to believe that the act of taking homeopathic remedies triggers the bodies defences in a very powerful way.

So I believe both that it does not have any effect, and that it can be remarkably effective!

PeakXV

It's worth noting that according to Millward Brown, the British are the biggest skeptics while Indians have the biggest faith in it all:



Homeopathy supporters…

In India, alternative treatments are a well-established means of combating illness, with an impressive 94 percent of people saying they have faith in alternative remedies. Homeopathy is integrated into India’s general health care system. Our study shows that one in ten Indian consumers have consulted a homeopath in the last year.

Other strong supporters of homeopathy can be found in Latin America and the Middle East. Around half of the population in Brazil, Chile, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates say they trust homeopathic medicine.

…and cynics

In many countries, particularly in Europe, consumers are less convinced. The British are the greatest sceptics of homeopathy — just 15 percent say they trust homeopathy and only 1 in 10 say that they prefer alternative medicine. Even in Germany, the birth place of homeopathy, just 27 percent of people trust this kind of treatment. Within the EU, the French are the most trusting of homeopathy.


Full Report here

__________________
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

edwardseco

In some of the above comments by various posters there seems to be a confusion between homeopathy and herbal medicines..

capt_mahajan

Agree with karuna's last post, generally, except for a couple of comments

-I, for one, as earlier posted, am not buying into homeopathy. As long as it works and is safe, I couldn't care less what pathy it is.

-The placebo effect should (as should the fact that beginning to take medicines when the only way to go is up*) be common across therapies, to my inexpert way of thinking. Not just restricted to homeopathy or whatever.


*pun unintended, honest.