If you know someone who uses homeopathy should you let them benefit from placebo or let them know it's a scam?

You don't like to see a relative get scammed by the Homeopathy Conmen, but at the same time the placebo effect is a well known phenomenon and you want your relative to feel better (even if it's just through the power of the mind).

This is a real problem, right? What would you do?

[this is a question for people who understand that homeopathy is a placebo at best]

There is no doubt whatsoever that it is a placebo effect, my source will illustrate this to believers and non believers alike.

However placebos do work in a minority of cases, that is a scientific fact, so I would not try to influence anyone who was benefiting from using them for a relatively minor complaint, or they had a problem which was serious enough to warrant urgent conventional treatment.

There was a recent question here from a man who had stomach cancer, and didn't like western medicine and wanted to know if homeopathy could help, come on, please!!

If you don't want to watch all of my clip, consider this fact, the dilution that is considered best for homeopathic use is equivelant to one drop of the 'active' constituent, in all the water on Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G...

You have to weigh up benefit over cost
Is the result worth the money or
Is the cost not worth being ripped off over
It's nice that SOME people have this choice though !
Most of the human race have no medical cover whatsoever!
Enjoy this while it lasts because
Sooner or later globalisation will level the playing feild and most people wont even get medical cover let alone a choice
IN SHORT whatever makes her happy ...
This life aint a rehearsal !
Best wishes

well i once worked at a homoeopathy hospital and the people came in for a variety of ailments from cancer to eczema and by and large everyone went away with something positive from the experience. One member of staff had a severe case of hay fever and had tried absolutely every conventional medicine and nothing worked but after a few weeks taking homoeopathic solutions it was under control, i know it often works, have seen it with my own eyes.

Note to MS4, hers didn't she just had hay fever, period. and was very ill with it.

I would gently raise the issue once, and if they resisted, I'd drop it. It';s their life.

Anything that works IMO is a good thing.

I don't agree that homeopathy is all placebo - I believe that some of it is, but not all of it. We have to accept that these techniques are age old and have worked for millenia, conventional medicine is still new in comparison. Some things that medicine have not helped are being helped by homeopathy, things that aren't psychological but very physical and physical changes have occurred.

If your relative is finding it helps them, by placebo or otherwise, it's a good thing.

Homeopathy is like religion. Those who follow it are firm in their belief

Note to teddy--hay fever goes away as the seasons change, so that "few weeks" of treatment might actually be a seasonal change, no?

Homeopathic medicine is basically water, so it's not going to harm the person, with a few caveats:

1) if your relative is spending significant amounts of money that he/she can't afford on this scam, then it might be time to step in. Convincing someone that this stuff is useless though often takes more time and energy than you might imagine.

2) If your relative is using homeopathy INSTEAD of going to her real doctor when she has serious symptoms, that can be a problem. I tell my patients that they can take whatever homeopathic stuff they want, as long as they also come in for screening tests and take the real medicines they are prescribed.

I'd keep your unwanted opinion to yourself. If they feel better, who cares? Placebo effect rate must be really high since homeopathic medicine is making billions of dollars each year.

Or, if you must, why not tell this person your "facts" about politics and religion too? Maybe this person doesn't think for themself either, and you can just set the completely straight on everything you know.