Homeopathy again

I always get myself into these discussions. From a comment thread on FaceBook.

ARGH! They're talking about Homeopathy on The Wright Stuff, and 2 of them are defending it, saying it's helped them or people they know! IT'S FUCKING WATER.

A.K

Homeopathy might not work it's self but the human brain is an amazing thing. If people believe it will work then it might just work for them not because of their 'magic water' but because of their brain is telling them it is. The placebo effect has been scientifically proven in studies to aid patient recovery. I think of it like religion; they can believe whatever they want if it helps them so long as it doesn't hurt anyone and they don't try and make me believe it too. :p

K.O

K - the problem with Homeopathy is that it doesn't JUST play on placebo - it's not that simple. Homeopaths have a bad habit of getting their patients into woolly thinking, getting them round to stopping taking real medication, stopping seeing real doctors and so on. And further, they prey on the gullible, the desperate and the hypochondriachs, taking as much money from these people as they can while feeding them on false hope and magic.

Placebo and Nocebo effects are of course well documented and constantly being studied - but using that as an excuse to say 'oh well, homeopathy doesn't cause harm, so why not let them keep at it?' is a patently absurd way to think. Even not taking into account the individual concerns, there is the sheer cost of homeopathy - which is one of the main reasons I'm so happy they are being kicked out of the NHS, the amount of money spent on this sham could have been better spent elsewhere, and hopefully now will be!

http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html

Me

If they're using it alone then yes, it's pretty stupid but then that's natural selection in action. What's the problem? The world could do with less idiots if you ask me. I don't see any problem with letting someone do whatever they want with a bit of water if they're taking their proper medication at the same time. I didn't realise it was offered on the NHS but then again they offer a lot of other forms of alternative medicines now, I think I even saw a flyer offering aromatherapy in the doctors the other week.

K.O

'Natural selection in action'? Seriously? Desperate people shouldn't be kicked the wayside like that, with such a callous non-thought. Most of the people in the link are CHILDREN, being harmed and or dieing because their parents are the woo-miesters, making conscious choices to stop giving their children the medication they need.

It is not as simple as 'idiots' either - there are plenty of perfectly intelligent people who have simply been blinded by the pseudoscience, their illnesses, their desperation or simply not had the chance to read the real research on the matter.

To just ignore them with 'natural selection' comments is - for wont of a better term - abhorent. Getting Homeopathy off the NHS, getting it removed from acreditted listings, getting the word actually out there that homeopathy is a load of shite, is what needs to be done. Not ignore it and leave the gullible and ignorant to suffer, because, hell, why should we care? It's natural selection, right?

Yes, there are a lot of CAM on the NHS, but this step of getting rid of Homeopathy is hopefulyl the first step in getting the rest removed. Chiropracty is also being examined - and hopefully that will be next.

Me