It is a flawed concept and there is no scientific evidence to back it up. Why do our taxes go towards lining the pockets of the companies that manufacture these things? ZCT: It's called the placebo effect. There are no traceable active ingredients in Homeopathic medicines meaning you're gaining a cure from water.
I'm suggesting that the NHS should use its money for proven drugs. Why not release NHS 'made' homeopathic medicines (tap water). It would be far cheaper and just as effective. Well, you could argue that it keeps the attention-seekers and hypochondriacs who use it out of GPs' surgeries.
On the other hand, tourists are developing malaria and cases of measles/mumps in children are on the increase because these idiots advise against vaccines.
And people with symptoms of serious illness are wasting precious time on this crap before seeking medical help.
I don't see how there can be an over all benefit to the NHS once these things are accounted for.
old cat lady: an anecdote is an unverified, uncontrolled, unblinded trial of sample size=1. They don't come any less scientific than this.
Lisa J: Bill Gray is an infamous homeoquack and liar who claims to have had "personal training with George Vithoulkas (1996 recipient of Nobel Prize for Alternative Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden) of Athens, Greece"
Unsurprisingly Vithoukas is not a Nobel Prize winner, and certainly not in Alt Med because there is no such Nobel Prize.
http://www.billgrayhomeopathy.com/DrGray... Why does the US spend 86 BILLION $ on surgeries and drugs for back pain - none of which has been scientifically nor anecdotally proved to solve this human problem?
I suspect nothing near that amount has been spent in one year on homeopathy or any other alternative medicine in the UK.
The best "scientific" evidence of efficacy is produced by anecdotal evidence. In the case of homeopathy that evidence has been collected over almost a two hundred year period. Aspirin is about the only one and that is made from a natural substance (i.e. one that is found in nature). I don't think your question makes any sense.
When I was a teenager I used to have summer allergies. We purchased some homeopathic tablets, and they took care of the problem.
Are you suggesting that the only companies the NHS should pay are major drug companies? Are you really suggesting that other than drugs there are no other possible ways to ensure good health? Sounds like a pretty narrow outlook. There is no exact science, it's all speculation. Anti-depressants don't help most people but they still dish them out and the pharmacies get huge amounts of money. The NHS also pay for boob jobs, weight loss procedures etc. how do you feel about that? I think homeopathy is a worthy cause and actually helps lots of people. Yawn..... maybe it's natural selection, giving people the choice to use placebos instead of real medicine means that when it comes to serious illnesses any too stupid to face facts will die out. And if any of you disagree next time you have a real life-threatening illness not just an allergy or something then how about you only take your homeopathic remedies and completely refuse proper medicine, if you survive i'll be impressed. People who say alternative medicines cured them of something serious often forget to mention they also took full advantage of proper medicine.
If you're unsure why not look up some double-blind experiments on the subject or do one yourself all it means is that neither the experimenter nor the participants know which is the homeopathic pill and which is a placebo, chances are there will be little difference in the results when you compare them if you've done it correctly.
Also bear in mind for ordinary drugs to be considered conventional medicine and scientific they have to have been proved to work. Alternative medicine is defined as that which hasn't been proved to work or it would be conventional. So by arguing that you should use homeopathy instead of true medicine you are arguing to use what we haven't proved works and is regularly discouraged by those who have proffesional training to know how the body works and what affects it as opposed to using what we know works and has been proved consistently to do so. And for those of you who are saying that it has been used for hundreds of years and long before conventional medicine then you explain to me why life expectancy has sky-rocketed since the introduction of conventional medicines. You need to learn the facts before you go making a complete idiot of your self.
I know that Homeopathy heals more and with less side effects than main stream pill pushing agenda. Pushed on us by the billion dollar drug Companies. The doctors are trained in medical schools who are financed by the big drug company's. WAKE UP !!! I have never thought that the NHS supported homoeopathy. I HAD an under active thyroid, I have medical insurance and because of this I was able have consultations and examinations with every so called experts in this field. I was given conventional treatment which did not help.
I became so weak that I had problems when I tried to walk around my bed to straighten the duvet. I could only manage to walk around the house when I could support myself with the furniture. I became almost housebound. The experts said that they could not help and that I would have to live with this.
Eventually I discovered a homoeopath, who describes himself as a complex homoeopath. I think that in simplistic terms that this means that he mixes several homoeopathic remedies in one tablet. This was nine years ago. I no longer use the conventional treatment and I hardly ever use the homoeopathic remedies. I only do so if I have a trauma and then I know that I will have problems.
How often have you been given conventional medication that has failed to give relief? How many people do you know who have suffered from "side effects鈥? Do you know how much the Companies who produce drugs make from their drugs? AND DO YOU KNOW WHY REGARDLESS OF THE HORRIFIC SIDE EFFECTS THAT THE GOVERNMENT FAVORS THE DRUG COMPANIES. IT IS BECAUSE THEIR PROFITS YIELD ENORMOUS TAXES.
I carry homoeopathic remedies with me. I was once in the house of an old lady who was almost unconscious, she had breathing problems and her face was purple. I gave her Carbo Veg and her breathing became normal. This old lady was deaf and dumb and she had no idea what I was giving her, it was definitely not a placebo effect.
I am not a homeopath, however if my dogs have a problem I use homeopathy. OK, if it is a complicated problem I need advise. Look at the side effects of the medications that the drug companies supply before you criticize homeopathy. Also think about the deadicated people who have studied homeopathy without looking for reward. There are millionaires who supply drugs with "side effects" and the Goverment condones this because of the VAST profits.
Sorry my spell check has died again/ Homeopathy does have side effects if the homeopath doesn't do his job properly or with self-medication.
The way to test a homeopathic remedy is to take an inappropriate one and keep taking it for 2 or 3 months in an inappropriate dilution. You will then start developing the symptoms which it is supposed to cure. Do you care to test it on yourself? If you are perfectly healthy, take Carcinosinum in 9 CH for 3 solid months at the rate of 5 pills 3 times a day. Do you dare? I certainly wouldn't
Before getting into a debate on homeopathy, one should have a lot more information than what the neighbour thinks. And for more substantial documentation, do read the following book:
"Homeopathy - Science or Myth?"
Author: Bill Gray. M.D.
Editor: North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California.
Year: 2000
ISBN: 1-55643-332-8
One comment on the book:
"This book has long been overdue. Dr. Gray has competently spelled out in easily understandable terms the scientific foundation underlying homeopathy".
Good reading!
PS: I quite agree with Lewey that the focus is on the wrong products. Pharmaceutics are the big culprits here, not homeopathics.
Edit: For Callum Z:
No, no and no: Life expectancy has sky-rocketed since Semmelweis and hygiene. He was the one who demonstrated the causal link between diseases and lack of hygiene. Nothing to do with vaccinations nor allopathic remedies which arrived just after. Look more closely at statistics instead of repeating dumb things you heard somewhere. You have a strange question, when the other thing that happens is that your taxes do go to line the pockets of the other drug companies and there inflated prices - for drugs that frequently produce side effects. And how many drugs that have been approved, subsequently get withdrawn because once they are used in practice (as opposed to 'research trials' ) are found to be too dangerous?
Surely the idea is 'health', and what is the best medicine for each patient and their situation. Homeopathy does have a role to play in this, and actually there is a growing amount of 'scientific' evidence to support some of the homeopathic remedies. Homeopathy does not include all the alternative treatments, nor every 'snake oil' product. Actually homeopathy should be correctly views as traditional medicine, as it has existed successfully for much longer. Hi!!, it is quite possible that 40% of people going to their G.P.s and continuing visits to hospitals are not really sick at all, they just need a little understanding, and T.L.C. Just somebody to talk to, and to talk to them.
Alternative therapies can, and do, save the NHS a great deal of money, because a lot are weaned off presciption drugs after a few visits. Moreover they cease to bother the medical services entirely, simply by talking they have heard themslves
talk, and not just had these things going round in their mind.
Do not my friend, dismiss out of hand, somethings that you do not fully understand. Sometimes it is most useful. Probably for the same reason the government wastes our money on foriegn aid and immigrants. 1. Because Prince Charles has given it his approval
2. Although there is an absence of controlled clinical trials, many people claim to derive some benefit from it.
3. As far as pocket-lining is concerned, most h/p remedies are very much cheaper than conventional pharmaceutical drugs, and are almost completely without the side-effects.
That said, it has been shown that a h/p remedy is diluted so many times in its preparation that it is probable that not one molecule of the original extract is left in the stuff given to the patient.
So in theory it certainly shouldn't have any effect - but maybe in those people who respond to it, it is a placebo effect they experience. Because lots of people are very passionate that "it really worked for them". As there is zero scientific plausibility behind an actual physical effect, it has to be a placebo effect.
So basically, it's rubbish, but it makes some people feel better. Though not better than placebo. | 