Study: Homeopathy not effective in treating anything

[Nye Bevan]

Homeopathy, the medical concept based on the premise that “like cures like” has been around for over 200 years. Practitioners of homeopathy dilute a substance that produces a given symptom with water or alcohol with the counterintuitive belief that diluting a substance will make it stronger. The thing is that it doesn’t work. Like, at all.

A new meta-analysis of over 225 studies conducted by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council provides the most convincing evidence to date disproving the alternative therapy.

“Based on the assessment of the evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy,” the report reads, “NHMRC concludes that there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective… People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness.”

Vox’s Julia Belluz reports: The Australian study found numerous problems with the research on homeopathy. To start, many of the studies were poorly designed: they didn’t include enough participants to have meaningful results, or the researchers failed to limit bias and control for confounding factors. But even the high-quality studies did not find that homeopathy performed better than a placebo or another available treatment for a range of health conditions, including asthma, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, colds, and ulcers. The studies that reported homeopathy had some health benefit were so flawed and poorly designed they were unreliable.

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/11/study_homeopathy_not_effective_in_treating_anything/

[Drahthaardogs]

1. Duh...

Okay, that was self indulgent behavior but very fun.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. of course it doesn't...it can't. there's no "there" there!

[uppityperson]

3. "did not find that homeopathy performed better than a placebo"??

How does a placebo perform better than a placebo?

[backscatter712]

4. If water has a memory...

[progressoid]

5. ...

[Trekologer]

54. I could use a nice homeopathic lager right now

A real strong one, too.

[jmowreader]

72. Please don't laugh...

...but beer diluted 300 times over is one of the "remedies" in the homeopathic formulary.

[Dr. Strange]

6. I've read that homeopathy is effective at reducing...

the bank accounts of gullible people.

[petronius]

7. Exactly! It cures the back pain and discomfort that comes

from sitting unevenly on an overstuffed wallet. It also cures poverty, for people selling the stuff. (But then, they end up with the back pain...)

[hopemountain]

20. but not the pockets of pharmaceuticals

which supposedly only develop medicines they can patent and sell for hundreds of dollars per dose to treat the symptoms and ensure there is no cure?

oh, and have you ever read the side effects and contraindications for pharmaceuticals printed in such teeny print that no one bothers to read them?

and, do not overlook the truth of who is also stripping the pocket books of the poor and middle class: doctors and medical facilities and insurance companies that reap benefits from prescribing medicines & procedures that do more harm than good.

they are all a disgrace and make a mockery of the oath to heal - choosing money over true medicine to make poor people poorer. they strip the middle class of their savings and retirements and sanity with the game of kicking coverage, or acceptance, and deciding which procedures and medications are even allowed for a sick person when they and their family are at their most vulnerable state.

hospitals and doctors may be able to set a bone or transplant a heart and have the technology for expensive machines ~ but ~

no thanks. i'll take the bowl of herbs and an organic bone broth with some sunshine and laughter.

p.s. i'll take 200 years of traditional provings over 3 months of questionable testing of questionable pharmaceuticals compounded with questionable ingredients in substandard environments with minimally trained "technicians".

i figured this kind of anti homeopathy propaganda would emerge following the vaccine controversy.

there are no patents for traditional homeopathic remedies so, there is no money in them - except for perhaps an affordable 3 months of doses for $13. can't make trillions of dollars at that rate, right.

[longship]

26. why big Pharma is hugely into herb supplements.

Thanks to DSHEA, they are totally unregulated. Big Pharma does not have to test for safety or efficacy. They sell them as supplements, as do the quack doctors who recommend them. There's a huge amount of money in AltMed, which is why BigPharma loves it so.

Myself, I would rather have something tested for safety and efficacy, quantified, and regulated so that I know there is a good chance that it works. That way I am not wasting my money on useless stuff like homeopathy or potentially harmful unregulated supplements.

Best regards.

[hopemountain]

27. there are quality, tested

supplements and homeopathic remedies which i purchase and they are not a waste of my money, either.

[HuckleB]

30. No objective entity is testing them.

You're being conned.

[longship]

33. Well, homeopathy is a total waste of money. It's water.

Your supplements are just drugs, and since Congress passed DSHEA, they are without any regulation for effectiveness or safety. Most of them don't do what they claim. For instance, St. John's Wort has been tested and has no effect for moderate depression but some contents do interfere with anti-retro HIV medications.

Taking unregulated medicines is not a road I care to go down.

My regards.

[hopemountain]

36. st johns wart is an herbal supplement

and not a homeopathic remedy which is in the alternative herbal medicine category. there is a difference.

i encourage you to learn the distinction. homeopathy has a 200 + yr history of proven homeopathic remedies backed with meticulous records and methods of provings by samuel hahnemann. 200+ years - not something pharmaceutical companies can claim for any of their patented chemical compounds nurtured more by corporate greed and not persons with a drive and commitment to healing disease.

alternative medicine is the broader category which includes other healing modalities such as herbals, bach flower remedies, chinese herbal medicine, indigenous herbal medicine, shamanic healing, acupuncture, etc.

western medicine has made some progress - but has really declined in efficacy due to greed and arrogance from refusing to acknowledge medicine practiced for thousands of years by indigenous cultures around the globe.

in my opinion, western medicine does not compare to the time tested hahnemann, chinese herbal, and many other efficacious indigenous modalities for treatment. at least they have the integrity to serve by healing - over money.

are you aware that many chemical compounds out released by american pharmacies are not as regulated as the public is led to believe? they are too often summarily given approval with out the time tested and quality assurance purview by the fda more often than you think.

[hobbit709]

39. You are confusing naturopathy with homeopathy.

One sometimes works for some things-i.e. herbs and natural extracts. the other does not.

[longship]

43. I think I said that St. John's Wort is a supplement.

There is no alternative medicine.

There is only medicine, based on science. So-called AltMed is a scam.

[hopemountain]

48. incorrect.

according to you the only medicine is that discovered by white men over the past 300 years, right? from the way pharmaceuticals are ravaging the last few remaining cornucopia's of medicinal plants and healing medicinal cures & modalities used by indigenous shamans, your statement is incorrect.

let me tell you, if you were suffering from some type of dysfunction - bronchial infection or other, and there are no eastern type doctors or pharmacies for hundreds of miles around - good luck to you.

[longship]

55. That is a hopeless straw man.

I never even implied anything of the sort.

And by the way, over the last 300 years humans have revolutionized medicine, like the the germ theory of disease, for instance. Many of the medical modalities that predate that particular discovery became basically null and useless. And it matters very little who made the discovery. It is only important that it changed medicine for the better, and radically. Life expectancy has leaped since then. (Also thanks to indoor plumbing and potable water.)

What is also important is that medicine be regulated so that the modalities used first do no harm. But supplements are nearly totally unregulated, thanks to DSHEA.

There is no eastern or western medicine, or alternative medicine. There is only medicine. Based on science.

[hopemountain]

62. first do no harm?

when one considers the deaths and complications individuals have suffered at the hands of poorly regulated pharmaceuticals with known but not reported side effects and contraindications it is more likely first, harm is done. just look at the courts and try reading the inserts with medications these days - and the requirements for constant monitoring with frequent blood panels.

i do agree - medicine is medicine is medicine - but base my respect and honoring of medicine on healing - not only white man's narrowly and inept definition of science. science is in it's infancy. so much is unknown - there should be some respect for this fact.

[longship]

63. Please! Do not go there.

What is with your racial argument about "white man's" medicine. Does that also mean that is a "white man's" science?

Again, there is no such thing as complimentary or alternative medicine. There is only medicine, based on science which has no color.

Your argument has no basis in fact. And your appeal to some racial straw man is utterly odious.
There is no hope whatsoever in your argument. It is insidious and anti-science.

And concerning those deaths and complications due to poorly regulated pharmaceuticals, at least they are fucking regulated, unlike the utter snake oil of the alternative and complimentary medicine business. Supports the immune system! (Whatever the fuck does that mean? -- DSHEA forbids them from making disease claims, so their ads descend to unscientific marketing gobbledygook.) But it's natural! (So are arsenic, lead, and uranium. But I wouldn't bank on them being helpful treatments.) The word "natural" is nothing more than a marketing term.

AltMed is nothing but a marketing scam. But, What's the Harm? Click through for some horrific cases.

Science based medicine has extended human life expectancy by decades. Alternative medicine has nothing -- zippo, nada -- to show for itself. That is because there is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine, based on science.

The people advocating AltMed are being led down a primrose path.

[hopemountain]

65. well, i have been there

so you cannot tell me not to go there.
i do not go to alt med, by the way. nor do i take things solely because they are touted to be natural.

first, yes, i do have a racial bias about white men in science and their arrogant denigrating attitudes toward women in science. that is an entire category of misogyny & bigotry in and of itself.

second, having faced a catastrophic diagnosis and prognosis in 1985 which i overcame and survived against odds by not following my specialist's pharmaceutical recommendations - but instead working with this doctor for over a year to monitor my status on a weekly basis. "what are you doing? it's amazing" i was asked and though i detailed my activities, diet, and lifestyle changes - the doctor did not notate nor acknowledge one single thing i did to alter my life's trajectory.

[longship]

67. I cannot speak for your personal health situation.

Since I know nothing about it but what you relate here.

But if I am sick with a cold, I stay home and self treat the symptoms. It'll take a week or so. Over the counter medicines do fine to cut down the misery. But colds are rarely fatal. And no matter how you treat them, they last as long as they last. I like Sudafed or Alka Selzer Plus. Both work okay, but one is still miserable. Hot tea with lemon feels good even though I know that there is no cure in it. Sometimes a shot of whiskey in it. But serious illness requires science. Not self-treatment or quackery from AltMed (which is all that it is).

And don't give me your straw man arguments about "white men in science". Those days are thankfully now mostly gone. I was born in the 40's and have been a lifelong science advocate. I am acutely aware of the biases. But science adapts to cultural changes. And those many unsung heroes (and heroines) are now thankfully becoming known. This is sadly after the fact in many cases, but it illustrates that today's science is increasingly no longer a "white man's science". But I encourage everybody to keep on fighting that fight.

The Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson was a great acknowledgement to those unsung heroes and heroines. I hope you watched it. If one cares about science at all, one should repeat similar stories. It is how one makes cultural change, which is something devoutly to be wished.

My regards.

[hopemountain]

68. you've been

patient and acknowledged my posts. and i agree with everything you wrote in this post. in kind of feels as though we have met in the middle. best regards to you, as well.

[longship]

69. Something devoutly to be wished.

Stay well, my friend.

[thesquanderer]

42. You want "something tested for safety and efficacy"?

Good luck...

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/02/fda_inspections_fraud_fabrication_and_scientific_misconduct_are_hidden_from.single.html

[Scootaloo]

34. "it's old, therefore it's right!"

Well. Someone has to keep leech farmers in business, i suppose.

[sir pball]

44. Ah, they're doing fine on the business of the transplant surgeons...

Homeopathy is unqualified quackery, but there's definitely areas where some traditional/alternative therapies are entirely legit..

Long dismissed as quackery, the use of leeches has returned to the medical mainstream over the past 20 years. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons depend on leeches, predominantly Hirudo medicinalis, to drain excess blood and prevent clotting after operations to reattach severed fingers, lips, ears, or other body parts. Surgeons may also turn to leeches after they transplant a flap of skin from one part of the body to another, as in Rambo’s case, or perform other kinds of plastic surgery. Without leeching, blood clots often kill the repaired or transplanted tissue.

Leeches provide other benefits as well. Scientists are working to harvest the bounty of chemicals synthesized by these cousins of the common earthworm. One leech-made molecule, the powerful anticoagulant hirudin, won FDA approval in 1998. Medical researchers are now testing hirudin’s usefulness against angina and heart attacks, and other chemicals from leech saliva are under study.
------------
Surgeons worked out a method for stitching bisected arteries and veins together under a microscope, thus making it possible to reattach severed tissues and to transplant skin flaps. However, many of these operations failed because of a problem called venous congestion, inadequate blood drainage from the reattached or transplanted tissue. It is fairly easy to rejoin severed arteries that carry blood into the finger, says plastic surgeon Jeffrey Friedman of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, but it is difficult to find and reconnect the veins that drain blood from the finger. As a result, even the most skilled and careful surgeon may not be able to link all the veins, and blood will begin to pool within the finger. Unless this buildup is relieved, clots may form and cut off blood flow into the finger, eventually killing it. Swelling and a blue or purple color signal venous congestion. When these symptoms appear, leeches slither to the rescue. (For several graphic examples, visit Leeches USA.)

Serving as a substitute vein, a leech draws off blood before it can coagulate, thus keeping the tissue alive until new veins grow—usually within 5–6 days. Over the years, doctors have unsuccessfully tried a host of seemingly more advanced treatments to achieve the same thing, from blood thinners like heparin to slicing the skin to promote bleeding. “Nothing is as effective as a leech,” says Donald Mackay of Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine who has been prescribing leeches since 1988.

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/archive/tcaw/10/i10/html/10health.html

And the maggots...

[hifiguy]

74. Separating chumps from their money

by way of baffling them with bullshit is an honored 'murkan tradition from P.T. Barnum to Sparklemoose Palin.

[HuckleB]

8. The fact that we have to spend money to show this is an ugly reminder of the era.

Snake oil loves the Internet.

[Ron Obvious]

9. I can't understand why anyone would still believe in this.

Ironically, it might well have outperformed "regular medicine" 200 years ago because doing nothing (which is what Homoeopathy is) was often better than the medicine of that day (leeches, anyone?), but it makes absolutely zero sense today. It CANNOT work.

And yet it's all over the place, particularly in e.g. Germany and the store personnel gets quite shirty if you ask them why they're selling quackery.

[still_one]

28. Because they are desperate, and there are some conditions where there is no treatment

[eridani]

37. Germfany tests herbal remedies for selected active ingredients.

So at least they contain what they are supposed to contain. Consumer Reports has found that most American supplements do NOT contain componets of the herbs on the lables.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/02/what-s-wrong-with-herbal-remedies/index.htm

In fact, the highly processed nature of those herbal remedies is at the heart of the controversy over the testing methods used in the recent analysis. The tests looked for DNA evidence that the products actually contained the herb listed on the label. But, Cohen says, the methods used to turn herbs into pills, tablets, and capsules is so aggressive it leaves very little DNA intact. This makes it unclear if the resulting product never contained any of the supposed active ingredient, or is just so processed that even its DNA is no longer recognizable.

Of course, much of the controversy could be avoided if the Food and Drug Administration subjected dietary supplements to anything close to what it requires for over-the-counter and prescription drugs. But it doesn’t. That lack of oversight not only means that it’s almost impossible to know for certain whether products work or contain what they claim, but if they are doctored up by unscrupulous manufacturers with dangerous ingredients, including prescription drugs.

And that happens far too often. One recent study, financed in part by a grant from Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, found that two-thirds of supplements that the FDA had recalled for containing banned drugs remained easily available and still contained either the same chemical the FDA had detected earlier, or another banned substance with a similar effect. Another study of 150 easy-to-purchase sex enhancement supplements found that 61 percent turned out to contain prescription drugs, experimental drugs, and even untested “designer” drugs.

Spiking supposedly “natural” supplements with prescription drugs is not only misleading, it’s dangerous. The drugs can cause side effects and may interact dangerously with other drugs you take. Consider a man on heart medication who unknowingly takes a supplement laced with the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (Viagra), a cocktail that can trigger a dangerous drop in blood pressure.

[PumpkinAle]

10. Swiss fully support Homeopathy

In late 2011, the Swiss government's report on homeopathic medicine represents the most comprehensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine ever written by a government and was just published in book form in English (Bornhoft and Matthiessen, 2011). This breakthrough report affirmed that homeopathic treatment is both effective and cost-effective and that homeopathic treatment should be reimbursed by Switzerland's national health insurance program.

The Swiss government's inquiry into homeopathy and complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments resulted from the high demand and widespread use of alternatives to conventional medicine in Switzerland, not only from consumers but from physicians as well. Approximately half of the Swiss population have used CAM treatments and value them. Further, about half of Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective. Perhaps most significantly, 85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be a part of their country's health insurance program.

It is therefore not surprising that more than 50 percent of the Swiss population surveyed prefer a hospital that provides CAM treatments rather to one that is limited to conventional medical care.

Beginning in 1998, the government of Switzerland decided to broaden its national health insurance to include certain complementary and alternative medicines, including homeopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, anthroposophic medicine, and neural therapy. This reimbursement was provisional while the Swiss government commissioned an extensive study on these treatments to determine if they were effective and cost-effective. The provisional reimbursement for these alternative treatments ended in 2005, but as a result of this new study, the Swiss government's health insurance program once again began to reimburse for homeopathy and select alternative treatments. In fact, as a result of a national referendum in which more than two-thirds of voters supported the inclusion of homeopathic and select alternative medicines in Switzerland's national health care insurance program, the field of complementary and alternative medicine has become a part of this government's constitution (Dacey, 2009; Rist, Schwabl, 2009).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-_b_1258607.html

[hopemountain]

11. thank you

very informative. at least the swiss do not base healing on how much money it puts in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies/corporation.

[HuckleB]

15. Yes, screw BIG PHARMA!

Of course, there are many problems with Big Pharma, which, by the way, is imbedded in the Swiss economy, big time.

However, selling completely worthless crap is without warrant in any way, shape, or form. It is just as bad or worse than anything Big Pharma pushes. It's time to stand up to Big Supplement, because it's really just BIG SCAM!

[HuckleB]

14. Oh, goodie. The Swiss allow con artists to scam people.

How is that a good thing, again?

[deafskeptic]

24. That's unfortunate that the Swiss support this. n/t

[Peregrine Took]

12. Helped me a lot with interstitial cystitis discomfort.

Cantharsis was the remedy that I found to be successful. I also have one for panic attacks that never fails me.

[HuckleB]

13. You do realize that there is no substance in homeopathy, right?

Magic doesn't happen.

Placebo sometimes does.

[zappaman]

16. Wrong.

Sorry, but when I get a cold, I grind up celery root, mix it with slug slime and chug it as fast as I can.
Within a week my cold is gone!
Nice try though.

[HuckleB]

18. Slugime.inc! I've got the purest slug slime in the world!

Only $99.99 per ounce, but you can get a payment plan as low as $33.33 a month.

Let me know what you need.

[zappaman]

21. I only use organic GMO-free slug slime.

Nice try though.

[HuckleB]

22. The only organic slug slime is from caged slugs!

CAGED SLUGS!

Do you know what that looks like?

Yeah, I don't either.

[Logical]

56. I slaughter a chicken and in about a week my cold is gone also!! nt

[valerief]

17. Homeopathy is like Congress. nt

[HuckleB]

19. If only...

[Binkie The Clown]

23. It has been established that...

going to the doctor and saying "please prescribe a placebo for me." is not effective. Homeopathy provides a way for the patient to self-prescribe a placebo and believe in it enough to make the placebo effect work.

Yes, homeopathy is worthless. Objectively. However, if someone gets relief, via the placebo effect, by using it, are you really doing him a service by convincing him that his successful remedy is worthless, and in doing so, destroying the placebo effect for him? Don't kick someone's crutch out from under him unless you are prepared to support him.

First, do no harm.

I am an atheist. I think belief in god or gods is foolish beyond belief. When a dear friend was on her death bed, talking of going to heaven and meeting her deceased family members, did I explain patiently to her that her whole belief system was a delusion? Or did I allow her the comfort her beliefs brought her in her last few hours on earth?

There is a time for truth, and a time when truth is best left unspoken.

"If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind.” ~ Buddha

[HuckleB]

29. Citations needed.

Also, ethics matter.

Anyone selling homeopathy should be in jail, unless we are no longer adjudicating any type of scam at all.

[Frank Cannon]

31. Actually, placebos can work even if you know they're placebos.

There was a study that got a lot of worldwide press a few years ago:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0015591

Not that I believe in the curative powers of homeopathy, but that is interesting.

[CanSocDem]

45. Of course they can...

...and you would think that would generate some research or at least some interest in the medical industry.

But of course they don't because the industry already knows the power of placebos. It is why they can market essentially useless crap and still achieve some success in the market place. If the consumer is led to believe that the product works, it will work.

In a medical marketplace like the USA, the confluence of science, technology, mass communication and mass advertising, means that you can sell anything as a cure for any condition. You can also flip the logic around by defining the condition and the exclusive rights to the cure.

The greatest scam of all is that good health must be purchased.



.

[Binkie The Clown]

46. Interseting

I didn't know that. I had assumed that the placebo effect depended on the patient being duped into believing the placebo was the real thing. I stand corrected.

[jmowreader]

25. Google the Homeopathic Mass Suicides

People do shit like drinking water glasses full of homeopathic snake venom, and James Randi is known to down entire bottles of homeopathic sleeping pills before going on stage.

It works about as well as you'd expect.

[hopemountain]

66. homeopathy is based on the titration

to minute molecular amts of a substance - not freakin' glasses full of snake venom. where do you get your misinformation from? faux news? oh, let me guess - the american medical association's blog site?

[jmowreader]

71. You apparently missed the point

These guys were, and are, trying to prove homeopathy is as much bullshit as we know it is. To demonstrate it, they get together enough homeopathic remedy to, supposedly, kill an elephant and down it in one gulp. None of them die. None of them are even slightly affected. Most of them have to pee after the "mass suicide," but drinking a quart of water will do that to a person.

[hopemountain]

73. then they are just as ignorant about

what homeopathy is - than people who post this hoaxing as though it is knews to through further aspersions and continue the misinformation. again, look up homeopathy for yourself and then will yourself to remove your ridiculous post.

[jmowreader]

75. The "hoax" is the theory that homeopathy is anything but a placebo

The most popular homeopathic preparation in the US is Oscillococcinum. It's made in France by the Boiron Company and is sold to relieve flu symptoms.

Its active ingredient is "Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum 200CK HPUS 1x10^400 g."

How this is made:

Step 1: Buy one live Muscovy duck (per year!) and kill it. Dress it out and extract the heart and liver. (I assume they then eat the rest of the duck - duck is pretty good and there's nothing wrong with the rest of it.)

Step 2: Mix pancreatic juice and glucose, and pour it into a one-liter bottle. Add 35 grams of duck liver and 15 grams of duck heart. Seal the bottle and stick it on the shelf for 40 full days.

Step 3: Measure out 10 ml of this mixture and pour it into a container. Add water to make 1 liter. Close the container tightly and thump the hell out of it against the tabletop, a process called succussion. This is a 1C dilution.

Step 4: Dump the entire contents of the bottle down the drain, add 1 liter of water, close the container and thump the hell out of it in exactly the same way you did before. You now have a "2C Korsakovian Dilution." Korsakov is revered in homeopathy for his discovery that one percent of the volume of the container would stick to the walls after you dumped it out. This makes creating high dilutions very efficient - imagine having to measure out exactly 10cc of solution three hundred times in one day.

Step 5: Repeat step 4 until you have a 200C Korsakovian dilution.

Step 6: Put one drop of this...water, since that's all that could possibly be in it - the dilution is roughly equivalent to putting a thousandth of a drop of red food coloring in the ocean at the Port of Los Angeles and expecting to find that same food coloring in water at the Port of Shanghai - on a sugar pill, put the pill in a bottle, and sell it to someone for a lot of money.

If you can explain how this could do ANYTHING for you, please do.

[Half-Century Man]

32. We use the term Homeopathy now to describe what we used to call magic potions.

Not saying that there aren't home cures/alternative medicines which are effective. Marijuana pops to mind.
But, if there is a giant display of pill bottles at Walmart with "Homeopathic" prominently displayed on the label. You might as well eat a cricket to get thinner, taller, more attractive, better hair, better teeth (or tooth as the case maybe), less toe crud, less flatulence, a beautiful singing voice, the ability to divide by zero, more friends, less friends, or the resources to never have to shop at Walmart again.

[Scootaloo]

35. No, no, historically "magic potions" had all sorts of fun stuff

Go on, rub nightshade and antimony on your eyes. pretty sure you'll see all kinds of otherworldly things.

But yeah, magic water and freeze-dried lettuce are probably slightly less effective than getting slapped around by Benny Hinn

[rjsquirrel]

38. As if

we even needed more studies.

Listen up, people who never took a science class: when there is no measurable trace of your claimed active agent in a solution, the only explanation for any perceived efficacy is a placebo effect.

Homeopathy was invented by people who didn't understand the germ theory of disease. It's as if people still believed in bloodletting.

[Romeo.lima333]

40. the placebo effect

[ismnotwasm]

41. And water's wet.

I suppose they have to study that's stuff but geez, of course it doesn't do anything

[ScreamingMeemie]

49. Why put so much care into something that someone else believes is good for them?

Last edited Mon Mar 16, 2015, 08:41 AM - Edit history (1)

I simply don't care whether people use homeopathic remedies or not.

These posts are always DU at its worst.

Now, I'm off to take some Kava Kava...

[liberal_at_heart]

50. +1

Some people just have to find a way to feel superior to others. Maybe someday we will have a cure for arrogance.

[Logical]

58. LOL, no some people post the truth about scams to stop the gullible from wasting money! nt

[Logical]

57. Bullshit, ignorance is not a virtue. People need to know they are wasting their money. nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

59. It's petty any way you slice it.

You do your life. Let them do theirs. Find a worthy hobby.

[Logical]

61. Nope! Facts matter. Truth matters. LOL, so GOP voters are OK to believe the BS also? We.....

should not point out their errors?

[closeupready]

64. Crossing you off my party list.

[Warpy]

51. I disagree

It's the hypochondriac's dream, treats everything he thinks ails him.

Unfortunately, even hypochondriacs can get truly sick once in a while and then it does nothing.

[jmowreader]

52. I found another homeopathy-related atrocity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hahnemann_University_Hospital

The teaching hospital of Drexel University School of Medicine, which hopefully does NOT teach homeopathy, is named after "Dr." Samuel Hahnemann, the asshole who invented two things: magic water, and the practice of putting medical school diplomas in Cracker Jack boxes.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

53. Did they try it on mild dehydration?

I find that if I put a tiny drop of homeopathic medicine in a swimming pool amount of water, then drink, say, a quart, I feel much more hydrated.

[LanternWaste]

60. Criticizing it though, certainly cures a need for self-professed cleverness.

Criticizing it though, certainly cures a need for self-professed cleverness.

[Rex]

70. Not true.

It wards off thetans. You have to drink it 30 minutes before you go outside. Doesn't work on a moonless night.