Forum • Non-Gaming • Social

Homeopathy

  • Page

    of 5 First / Last

    Previous
  • gang_of_bitches 5 Nov 2007 11:36:05 4,916 posts
    Seen 3 days ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    Following on from the Acupuncture thread from the other day Ive got a what would you do question of an alternative medicine nature.

    A friend of mine (well more a friend of a friend) was over yesterday and we were talking about people having babies and how her sister was due to have one. I knew she was really into homeopathy and I've often been tempted to call her up on it, but she's so nice I've always left it. Well now she tells me she's advised her sister to consider all options "ie homeopathy" when considering means of inoculating her kids.

    Was it wrong of me at this point not to sit her down and at least try to explain just how dangerous and mental that is?
  • smoothpete 5 Nov 2007 11:39:24 29,144 posts
    Seen 4 hours ago
    Registered 9 years ago
    Homeopathy is the biggest crock of pseudoscience shit ever. That said, the placebo effect is strong, and the people spend lots of time with homeopathy doctors. So, waste of time if you're cynical.
  • presh 5 Nov 2007 11:39:48 1,221 posts
    Seen 9 hours ago
    Registered 11 years ago
    I wouldn't worry too much - when it comes to inoculations and stuff like that the NHS is good at pointing out the idiocy of homeopathy.
  • jiveguy 5 Nov 2007 11:42:04 761 posts
    Seen 46 minutes ago
    Registered 11 years ago
    Does the placebo effect work if you are a baby with no idea what was in the water someone just put into you (here's a hint for any babies, it was H2O) and why it was done?

    Make them aware of what homoeopathy really is, in that its not dangerous in itself as its just water, but that they should also go with a more medically proven inoculation procedure as well.

    Live: BocoGuy | Steam: jiveguy | Origin: Boco

  • Chopsen 5 Nov 2007 11:43:23 13,727 posts
    Seen 14 minutes ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    Homeopathy is fine as long as they don't try it for anything that matters.

    Non-specific minor things like aches and pains and nonsense like that - yeah why not. Side effects of pure water are minimal.

    When they start pretending they can treat real stuff it's worrysome. There was an expose on Newsnight a while back where they went round various homeopaths who offered homeopathic malaria prophylaxis.

    Thanks for expressing interest in my signature!

  • Chopsen 5 Nov 2007 11:43:56 13,727 posts
    Seen 14 minutes ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    bengalibengali wrote:
    Homeopathy is really not bad. It can help a lot of people. See thats open your mind and see its not bad as you think
    Quite bad if you die from malaria because someone sold you a glass of water and said that'll protect you.

    Thanks for expressing interest in my signature!

  • Retroid Moderator 5 Nov 2007 11:44:20 44,231 posts
    Seen 2 hours ago
    Registered 10 years ago
    smoothpete wrote:
    That said, the placebo effect is strong, and the people spend lots of money with homeopathy doctors.
    Fixed!
  • Khanivor 5 Nov 2007 11:45:34 38,677 posts
    Seen 1 hour ago
    Registered 11 years ago
    If some fuckwit wants to use homeopathy to sort their aches and pains then by all means let them do it. If they consider using it to innoculate their children social services needs a calling.
  • smoothpete 5 Nov 2007 11:54:00 29,144 posts
    Seen 4 hours ago
    Registered 9 years ago
    bengalibengali wrote:
    Khanivor wrote:
    If some fuckwit wants to use homeopathy to sort their aches and pains then by all means let them do it. If they consider using it to innoculate their children social services needs a calling.
    is it really that bad?
    Well, yes. Homeopathy isn't an innoculation. It doesn't have any physical effects, unlike an actual vaccination
  • gang_of_bitches 5 Nov 2007 11:55:35 4,916 posts
    Seen 3 days ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    bengalibengali wrote:
    Khanivor wrote:
    If some fuckwit wants to use homeopathy to sort their aches and pains then by all means let them do it. If they consider using it to innoculate their children social services needs a calling.
    is it really that bad?
    Its pretty damn irresponsible.

    Unless you effectively believe in magic, homeopathy can have no effect beyond that of a placebo. Personally I'd rather have something a tad more reliable for my kids than some Paul Daniels wannabe.
  • smoothpete 5 Nov 2007 11:56:33 29,144 posts
    Seen 4 hours ago
    Registered 9 years ago
    Retroid wrote:
    smoothpete wrote:
    That said, the placebo effect is strong, and the government spends lots of money on homeopathy doctors for people.
    Fixed!
    Refixed

    I don't begrudge it though to be honest, it does seem to make people feel better

    What's that statistic? Something like that if you put a drop of chemical into all the oceans of the world, you still wouldn't have a weak enough solution for a homeopathic remedy
  • Retroid Moderator 5 Nov 2007 12:02:50 44,231 posts
    Seen 2 hours ago
    Registered 10 years ago
    smoothpete wrote:
    Refixed
    Sadly true :/

    Now, y'see, there's the 'alternate' medicine which is just foreign to western medicine, and should be looked into because it's doing something and we need to understand what it is.

    And then there's complete cobblers like homeopathy, crystals, magnets, and allsorts of various other bullshit which simple-minded people who aren't interested in science (and therefore FACT) prefer.

    We need more education and license to practice rather than allowing this sort of crap into medicine.
  • nickthegun 5 Nov 2007 12:03:18 44,408 posts
    Seen 2 minutes ago
    Registered 7 years ago
    The Horizon program was interesting on this. Some guy offered a million dollars to the first person who offered verifiable proof that homeopathy worked. As yet, the money is unclaimed.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/homeopathy.shtml

    I think its, largely, bollocks to be honest, although conversely I do believe in the powah of positive thinking, so if someone believes it enough, they could probably convince influence how they feel to varying extents.

    For example, a couple of girls I know went to an aqua-therapy session. They were raving about how good they felt, how you could see the toxins leaving them and were telling everyone how they should have a session.

    Literally two seconds on google revealed it was a total scam and that the toxins they saw leaving their bodies were the, in hindsight, obvious rust caused by running a current through electrodes in a pool of salty water.

    But, the point is they felt better for it as they beleived it worked. Until I ruined it for them.......

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    AGP.SRPT

  • smoothpete 5 Nov 2007 12:10:57 29,144 posts
    Seen 4 hours ago
    Registered 9 years ago
    In the Dawkins programme, he said he felt it was mainly beneficial for the patients because they went in and had an hour long appointment with their homeopathy doctor, that in itself made them feel much better in general. Which just suggests that all doctors should do that, or rather we need more doctors.
  • Khanivor 5 Nov 2007 12:17:04 38,677 posts
    Seen 1 hour ago
    Registered 11 years ago
    Well the placebo effect is real and is the only way total shite like this has any effect.

    I am going to start a new medicine called guiliblol. I just take your money and slap you upside the head while telling you in a loud and yet soothing voice that you feel better. Should work just as well as homeopathy and all that pish.

    Then, with all the money I make I will open a new homeopathy/crystals/etc centre. The entrance will be at the end of a darkened corridor. Also at the end of the corridor will be a deep pit, the lip of which is shrouded in the inky black. People wandering to my clininc will then unknowingly fall down this pit to their death and the lightening of the idiot load on this planet by approxiamtely one unit of fuckwit.
  • gang_of_bitches 5 Nov 2007 12:34:31 4,916 posts
    Seen 3 days ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    smoothpete wrote:
    In the Dawkins programme, he said he felt it was mainly beneficial for the patients because they went in and had an hour long appointment with their homeopathy doctor, that in itself made them feel much better in general. Which just suggests that all doctors should do that, or rather we need more doctors.
    That's all well and good when you're jsut treating people who are just feeling a little low and I'd like to think the guy (Frenchman I think, can't remember the name) who invented it realised as much. But now you've got all these idiots with ideas above their station who are convinced they're healers more capable of taking on the world's ills than doctors, or pretty much anyone else for that matter.
  • Khanivor 5 Nov 2007 12:38:15 38,677 posts
    Seen 1 hour ago
    Registered 11 years ago
    They should be made to sign a piece of paper, renouncing teh evilz of chemicals and modern medicine for ever, no going back.

    Give it 30 years and the number of irrational people in the world should have dropped by an appreciable amount.
  • Retroid Moderator 5 Nov 2007 13:03:03 44,231 posts
    Seen 2 hours ago
    Registered 10 years ago
    Apt, I think
  • Stormflood 5 Nov 2007 13:50:37 2,263 posts
    Seen 2 years ago
    Registered 7 years ago
    Homeopathy:

    1) Take a substance that would give the patient the same symptoms as the illness they are suffering.
    2) Dilute it in water until less than a molecule per dose is left.
    3) Wait for patient to get better naturally.
    4) ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - SNAKE OIL.

    Funny thing is that going by the 'laws' of homeopathy (water has a memory of the substances it makes contact with) all homeopathic cures can be found in tap or sea water.

    I once heard a great story: Guy goes to homeopath because of a nasty cold. Gets given a tincture(sp?) to cure colds. 7 days later he's right as rain and professes the benefits of homeopathy ;)
  • The_Aardvark 5 Nov 2007 13:53:14 3,063 posts
    Seen 1 year ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    Stormflood wrote:
    Homeopathy:

    4) ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - SNAKE OIL.
    GLOL
  • Lukus 12 Sep 2008 18:26:10 18,695 posts
    Seen 4 minutes ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    I was tempted to create a new thread, but this one seems perfect already. I'm in a similar predicament to the OP. Homeopathy is bullshit. Isn't it.

    I've a (sort of, though not entirely sure of the situation, is this relevent, hmm, I don't know any more, this post is longer than anticipated already, girl) friend who I've been seeing on and off for the last year or so. Recently she's been seeing a homeopath because she feels she wants to try some alternative therapy in order to help her feel better about her life.

    I expressed my feelings about it a few weeks ago, essentially that I think, in general, the whole thing is a crock of crap. This didn't go down well. I'm accused of being too negative, when in actual fact all I've done is approach the subject rationally and scientifically, asking for proof of its effectiveness and what they've actually done for her.

    It turns out the "Doctor" she's been seeing has "prescribed" her with what look like tiny sugar cubes which will "rebalance her". Fucking hell. Today the same practitioner of homeopathy told her not to drink tap water any more and to only drink bottled water. The reason being that tap water "is full of metals that upset your working balance". It was upon hearing this I could bite my tongue no longer as my contempt for this whole spoof science spilled over. Now I'm in the doghouse, basically for not being a complete fucking idiot and for laughing at something she wants to give a fair go. Pah. What makes it worse is the homeopath is a close friend of hers, which would imply the homeopath actually believes what she's doing to be true (or she's simply an awful friend). In many ways I'd prefer if it was just a good old fashioned scam on her part.

    Paintings & Photographs

  • ProfessorLesser 12 Sep 2008 18:32:29 19,007 posts
    Seen 1 year ago
    Registered 9 years ago
    None of that is actually homeopathy, from what I can tell. Homeopathy (same disease) holds that sufferers of a disease can be treated by serial dilutions of the same causative agent that might cause symptoms in a healthy individual. Telling someone to suck sugar cubes and avoid tap water isn't homeopathy.

    But it's equally bull-shit.
  • Lukus 12 Sep 2008 18:35:15 18,695 posts
    Seen 4 minutes ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    So it's even faker then! Holy fuck monkeys.

    Paintings & Photographs

  • Lukus 12 Sep 2008 18:38:42 18,695 posts
    Seen 4 minutes ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    From what I've been told by the person in question, they sound to me like crap shrinks who basically just tell you what you want to hear then feed you a load of crap they've probably made up on the spot about how their remedies will help your particular problem. Positive thinking is all well and good, but come on.

    Paintings & Photographs

  • Chopsen 26 Nov 2009 09:27:04 13,727 posts
    Seen 14 minutes ago
    Registered 8 years ago
    Boots admit they sell homoeopathic treatments knowing it's a load of bollocks

    Not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it's good that they are open about the fact there is no evidence for them. On the other, aren't they just knowingly exploiting their position as a pharmacists and a trusted brand to peddle snake oil to people who don't read the small print?

    Thanks for expressing interest in my signature!

  • kalel 26 Nov 2009 09:31:38 76,450 posts
    Seen 2 hours ago
    Registered 10 years ago
    It’s a bit of a tricky one. There’s not much of a line between this and creams that “halt aging in its tracks” or serums which “halt balding in its tracks” etc and those kind of products are bread and butter for Boots.

    It does feel immoral, but if there’s a demand and they’re honest about it all (which they are apparently) then I think that’s fair.

  • boo 26 Nov 2009 09:34:31 10,773 posts
    Seen 6 hours ago
    Registered 10 years ago
    A fool and his money are easily parted.

    Thus it ever was, and I suspect, always will be.

    Just Another Lego Blog

  • Page

    of 5 First / Last

    Previous
Log in or register to reply