Homeopathy: a useless non-science?

[costicina]

Disregarded almost unanimously by the scientific world, it has nonethelss a lot of followers    What do you think about it?

[p2u_]

Homeopathy: a useless non-science?

Traditional medicine is not even a science itself, so why should homeopathy be scientifically sound?

I just want to quote one case in point:
My mother was diagnosed with cancer about 25 years ago. Traditional medicine gave her up. She went to one of those alternative doctors who cured her with some weird kind of diet. When she went back to the traditional hospital for mandatory examination, the cancer had gone. You know what they said? They must have mis-diagnosed her. She never had that disease. Go figure...
P.S.: It is not entirely impossible that my mother cured herself by auto-suggestion, but in any case - traditional medicine let her down, while homeopathy gave her hope.

Paul

[costicina]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm deeply puzzled, it's hard for me to form a sound opinion pro or con....

[p2u_]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm deeply puzzled, it's hard for me to form a sound opinion pro or con....

I'd say: stay away from both as long as you possibly can.

Paul

[jesc]

I have no problem when alternative medicine kicks in the moment conventional means fail. As much as possible I want to exhaust the capabilities of established medicine before going into Homeopathy.

What pisses me off is when followers of Homeopathy interfere with conventional medicine when it is still f$%^ing working in the first place.

[pianoplunker]

Disregarded almost unanimously by the scientific world, it has nonethelss a lot of followers    What do you think about it?

Traditional medicines and Homeopathic medicines are both based on what is found in mother nature. There are many plants we dont eat which could have medicinal qualities and we dont even know. I dont think the scientific world discards it but with a little corporate influence. With all the drug ads in the media, I am amazed they have not developed anything for musician improvement.  I guess it would be too difficult to compete with Marijuana - just joking

[j_menz]

Homeopathy basically involves giving the patients water. The solutions are so weak that there is no remaining active ingredients whatsoever.  It should have, and the evidence is that it in fact has, the same effect as placebo.

That said, the placebo effect is not to be sneezed at.

[ajspiano]

You know what they said? They must have mis-diagnosed her. She never had that disease. Go figure...

more likely a failing of an oversized ego and fear of liability than the idea of traditional medicine being non-scientific.

Doctors don't do well to say "I don't have a damn clue why this happened" - and they seem to get in a bit of an egotistical fit when their collective hypotheses turn out to be wrong, especially if someone in the homeopathy field turns out to have had some kind of success..  whether that success is legit or they are just seeing patterns where they want too..

[brianvds]

I have a homeopathic cure for gullibility. You take it twice a day, and you know it has worked when you stop believing it has. :-)

[costicina]

..

Homeopathy basically involves giving the patients water. The solutions are so weak that there is no remaining active ingredients whatsoever.  It should have, and the evidence is that it in fact has, the same effect as placebo.

That said, the placebo effect is not to be sneezed at.

That was and still is my idea so far...But I started to have some doubts seeing that most of my friends/acquaintances (and not at all illiterate) believe firmly in it and actually use it -- of course, not, say, for appendicitis and the like....
Besides, the principle  Similia similibus curantur and the use of plants are appalling to me  

[lostinidlewonder]

The placebo effect does have its benefits, but positive claims from homeopathy often do not run in line with how placebos work thus it is mostly a sham.

James Randy is quite a famous critic of people who believe in "strange" things. In this video he eats all the pills inside a bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills and nothing happens even though the bottle says seek medical attention if you overdose lol.

[j_menz]

Besides, the principle  Similia similibus curantur and the use of plants are appalling to me  

Similia similibus curanturi is a nice sounding latin phrase made up by the guy who invented homeopathy. He used latin to make it sound more ancient/scientific than it is. It's basically high fallutin' BS.

Also, given the concentrations, it's actually the non use of plants.

[costicina]

Ah, the power of rational arguments!!!! I think I'll keep on using allopathic medicine....cum grano salis 

[j_menz]

cum grano salis  

It's how everything should be taken.

[ajspiano]

Ah, the power of rational arguments!!!!

..if only they had the same power as some of the more potent irrational ones.

[jesc]

I don't believe in Homeopathy but I don't agree with the way James Randi investigated Jacques Benveniste's experiment. It would have been much more devastating if the scientific community was left on its own to pick apart Beneviste's paper.

If there was something wrong with Beneviste's experiment many would've quickly published their own papers refuting his work.

[p2u_]

I don't believe in Homeopathy but I don't agree with the way James Randi investigated Jacques Benveniste's experiment. It would have been much more devastating if the scientific community was left on its own to pick apart Beneviste's paper.

If there was something wrong with Beneviste's experiment many would've quickly published their own papers refuting his work.

I don't believe in it either, but the efforts of some representatives of traditional medicine, argueing exclusively towards their own pocket and defending their own right for existence at the expense of some innocent and goodwilling grandmothers in a more than pathetic way are indeed suspicious at times. It sometimes looks more like a religious issue, actually. It cannot be proven scientifically, but don't dare take it away, or hell breaks loose...

Paul

[fftransform]

Homeopathic medicine is a crock of sh*t and anyone who has even a shred of doubt to the effect of such a statement has a brain that would serve more utility as a paperweight than the operating system for a living creature.  It's a stain on humanity that such a question would even be taken seriously or discussed.