I just saw a car the other night with a bumper sticker that read:
“Choose Health. Choose Homeopathy”
My god, how I hate homeopathy, and especially now that they have these supposed “anthrax treatments” for 60 bucks a pop.
It’s just a vial of frieking water!! It’s just a sugar pill! It’s not medicine! It’s good for nothing! It’s the equivilent of a “magic potion”!
Why hasn’t the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act been revised to allow FDA oversight on this quackery? Even though I’m Canadian, FDA restrictions would still have some effect with the marking in Canada I’m sure…
… but if it stops some gullible morons from popping antibiotics and getting us one step closer to the antibiotic-resistant superplague that will kill us all, I’m all for it.
Oh, and in regards to the article linked: That would seem to support the idea behind homeopathy. Or rather, it would if homeopaths used, you know, medecine in their remedies.
Since the “law of similars” states that one should use substances that cause similar symptoms when brewing potions, the more likely result of the Korean teams work would be that homeopathic remedies would make you worse.
Is there a difference betweem homeopathy and just taking herbs, vitamins and minerals? The reason I ask is because I often take extra vitamins and such when I’m sick with a cold, especially when I’m pregnant and can’t take OTC cold medicines. Seems to help. [sub]I don’t take them to the exclusion of everything else unless I’m pregnant.[/sub]
Also, aren’t many of the drugs on the market derived from plants? What’s the inherent difference between homeopathic treatments and FDA approved drugs? Just curious.
homeopathy has nothing to do with herbs and vitamins (well, some of it may use them) but the basic idea is that you take something (medicine, or whatever) and dilute it in water until only a tiny trace (if any at all) is left. They claim this makes it “more potent”…
quack quack
I’m a bonafide crackpot, so I take a lot of “alternative” medicines. I’m not one to use a lot of homeopathy, but I did find that there was this one combination of “tissue salts” (as my mom calls them) that worked like “Beano”. When I didn’t take them, my home made chili just did a number on me. When I took the tissue salts, no problem. I saw a direct connection there. But, feel free not to believe me. And besides, it’s just flatulence!
The thing I don’t get is - who gives a damn, as long as the people aren’t risking their lives? I understand that it can be frustrating to see someone forgo a more “mainstream” remedy for, say, a heart attack, and instead choose to take homeopathic medicine.
But what about when they use it to cure the common cold, or dandruff, or (in my case) flatulence? Why give a damn if people want to take an “alternative” medicine, and feel they are getting results? How are they hurting you?
A former co-worker was a doctor in Pakistan, and she said that they sometimes used homeopathy for some minor ailments (I forget what exactly, sounded like stuff like colds and dandruff!). And I think she said that they used it on animals. So - :shrug: whatever. I just sometimes don’t understand why people get so riled up about what other people are doing (as long as they aren’t hurting anyone).
Well, see, that’s the kicker–“as long as they aren’t hurting anyone”. All too often these people have kids that don’t get proper medical treatment until it’s too late, because Mommy is treating the kid with the fever of 104, severe headache, and stiff neck with homeopathy or herbs, when the kid really has meningitis and needs serious antibiotics. So after a while the potions don’t work, and the parents bring the kid to the hospital emergency room, and a day or two later the kid dies.
That’s an example of someone administering an ineffective crackpot remedy to to someone else - a child, who has no say in the matter. Certainly doesn’t fit my criteria of “not hurting anyone”, does it?
So - is my taking of “tissue salts” so I can digest my homemade chili “hurting anyone”, or not? Who is it hurting? Should anyone else feel entitled to get on me for it, and be really bothered by it? And if so, why?
If you are taking real homeopathic medicines you are simply taking distilled water. I know that a lot of herbal remedies and nutritional supplements are labeled “homeopathic”, but those labels are fraudulent. Homeopathy has nothing to do with herbs and supplements.
Yosemitebabe, these things do not cure anything. Here’s how alternative medicine works. If you are having a problem, try the quack treatment. Three things might happen. Either you get better, you stay the same, or you get worse. If you get better, the treatment cured you. If you stay the same, the treatment stopped it from getting worse. If you get worse, you need more of the treatment! Alternative medicine is simply unfalsifiable circle-jerking.
Yes, it is true that some traditional remedies might have some basis. But how are you going to tell? How do you know that they work? “I took product X and now I feel better”? How do you know you wouldn’t have gotten better on your own?
And before you say anything, I agree that many mainstream medical treatments are unproven nonsense as well. Nothing attracts desperate irrational magical thinking like life-and-death health decisions.
Whatever. I haven’t really tried them much, and there have been times that I took them (at the insistence of my mom, the Crackpot Queen) and they did nothing. But the “beano” effect was real, as far as I was concerned. I didn’t immediately connect the tissue salts with the “beano effct”, I just noticed that sometimes I’d have a reaction to my chili, sometimes I didn’t. And I finally made the connection that I didn’t have a problem when I’d taken the tissue salts. I only need to convince myself of this. Feel free not to believe me, that’s fine.
And all your lecturing still doesn’t answer my question - my MAIN issue here.
How is my taking tissue salts instead of “Beano” hurting you? Please give me compelling evidence how it’s hurting you. Don’t tell me it’s because I “might” do this, or I “might” convince someone else of something, or I “might” be the End of the Free World As We Know It because I have found that tissue salts work kinda like “Beano”. Just please, tell me how I’m hurting you, right now, for using tissue salts to help me digest my homemade chili.
The thing that immediately pops into my mind is that the $$ that you and people like you spend on this junk fund a group of quacks, allowing them to stay in business, acquire some degree of respectability, and, almost inevitably, suck some poor bastard into trying homeopathy for something more serious than the fallout of your chilli.
As far as hurting me personally, you aren’t. Feel free to try it for anything you like. Try magnets, crystals, and maybe a pyramid or two while you’re at it.
Ah, another “I might” argument. I “might” help the industry in this profound a way.
But since I already said, I have tried it for other things and found that it didn’t work, wouldn’t that counterbalance the “beano” thing? I am not reluctant to share the information that I didn’t find that it worked for other ailments, so wouldn’t my testimony possibly dissuade some people from buying homeopathic medicine?
And also - why shouldn’t I continue to buy something that I feel works for me? (Something as harmless as a “beano” alternative?) Why should I feel responsible if there are people out there who want to abuse homeopathic medicine? If I need to stop buying my homeopathic “beano”, (because someone else “might” use homeopathic medicine irresponsibly) then perhaps everyone who drinks alcohol should stop buying it, because some people might abuse it. And we can’t have that. We all have to stop taking things, because others might hurt themselves, because they might be irresponsible.
Thanks. (Not that I have really tried any of those things.) And while you’re (the collective “you”) are at it, please keep this in mind before you start lecturing people who are minding their own business. As long as they are not hurting anybody. (And taking into account that just because they “might” do something down the road that you don’t like, if they haven’t done it, they haven’t done it.) It’s really irritating to have people try to “save” me from doing something that I have no intention of ever doing.
Here is our situation. I am not French, but living in France. When my daughter arrived here (10 months) we took her to the PMI (Public Health Center) to get a check up, get her shots recorded, obtain a medical record book for her, etc - by the way ALL TOTALLY FREE OF CHARGE- gotta love socialized medicine) and they suggested some homeopathic medicines for her teething, nightwaking and fussiness problems. Until that time, we’d been giving her Advil, but we didn’t want to give it to her too often. We tried the remedies and she started to sleep through the night, seemed to have relief from the tooth pain and was generally less fussy. After a brief time on the homeopathy, we took her off. When the next bout of teething hit, we tried it again, after a few days of waiting it out. Success, again. It worked FOR OUR DAUGHTER, IN OUR SITUATION. I don’t think you could consider me a “loopy-Lou”. Medically speaking, I am very conservative. My parents are both medical doctors and I am quite aware AND able to make a judgement as to which illnesses need to be treated medically and which I can treat at home.
In France, some doctors receive extra medical training in Homeopathy. They also are MD’s and use traditional medicine, too. When my daughter hit her eye on our new chair, we took her to the doctor. He fixed the ouchie and then prescribed a homeopathic remedy, with very specific directions as to the frequency and duration it should be given. We followed this. Her ouchie healed very quickly. Much more quickly than another similar ouchie she’d had in the States when we didn’t use the homeopathic remedy.
This is rambling, but in conclusion, my response to the poster who said that parents MAY give this to their child, and avoid seeking medical treatment, I say: The parent who would do that lacks good judgement, parental skills, and is just as bad as the parent who would give Advil or cough medicine to the their children day after day for teething pain. Anyway, as she is our child, and we know what is best for her, we will continue to use the homeopathy recommended by her Pediatrician. If in the future, he recommends one that we try with no success, we won’t use it. THAT is good parenting.
No, this is NOT another “MIGHT” argument. The bucks you and other like you spend DOES keep homeopaths and other con artists in business. People DO take other quack medicines for ailments more serious than the side effects of chili. I realize that their ignorance, and the consequences of it, does not concern you.
To tell the truth, I simply dislike con-artists, and anyone who can sell distilled water as a cure for colds, flu, or even chili side-effects, is a con man, pure and simple.
I think there is a misunderstanding going on here. I think you are referring to weirded out hippified 60’s-lovin quacks, not medical doctors who also happen to have training in Homeopathy. Did you know that about 80% of pharmacies in France (and many other European countries) carry homeopathic remedies, some of which are prescription only. Oh, and by the way, in France, you need a prescription for Advil, Tylenol and Aspirin! So, I don’t think you could classify then as “quacks” when they take medication so seriously, they require prescriptions for meds that are OTC in the States.
Also, you must have a N.American (USA) influenced opinion on this. Doesn’t Rush Limbaugh do a big number about these meds? I wonder how much stock he holds in more traditional pharmaceutical companies? Hmmmmm…makes you wonder.
Having said that, I think you may have a point, IN THE USA! The homeopathic field there may or may not be influenced by the quack hippy type movement, but in France, homeopathy does NOT have this reputation. It is simply thought of as another tool to cure sick people.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Anahita *
**I think there is a misunderstanding going on here. I think you are referring to weirded out hippified 60’s-lovin quacks, not medical doctors who also happen to have training in Homeopathy. Did you know that about 80% of pharmacies in France (and many other European countries) carry homeopathic remedies, some of which are prescription only. Oh, and by the way, in France, you need a prescription for Advil, Tylenol and Aspirin! So, I don’t think you could classify then as “quacks” when they take medication so seriously, they require prescriptions for meds that are OTC in the States.
Also, you must have a N.American (USA) influenced opinion on this. Doesn’t Rush Limbaugh do a big number about these meds? I wonder how much stock he holds in more traditional pharmaceutical companies? Hmmmmm…makes you wonder.
Having said that, I think you may have a point, IN THE USA! The homeopathic field there may or may not be influenced by the quack hippy type movement, but in France, homeopathy does NOT have this reputation. It is simply thought of as another tool to cure sick people.
VIOLA
Hello Anahita.
Well, maybe there is a misunderstanding but no, I’m not referring to some flako wearing sandals and love beads while prescribing homeopathy. Actually, I don’t think there are very many “hippy types” prescribing homeopathic medicine.
Most medications, either in the US or France, have to go through some degree of scientific (double blind) testing and be proven to be reasonably safe AND to actually help with the diseases they claim to. Homeopathic remedies, IIRC, existed prior to the FDA and thus missed out on being tested.
Hoemopathic medications have NEVER been proven, in a double-blind test, to actually DO anything. The substances used are diluted to the point where they simply aren’t there anymore. When you examine the things, there’s nothing there except distilled water.
As far as Rush Limbaugh goes, I’ve heard him twice on the radio (I’m American but live in Saudi) and didn’t care for the guy. My opinions on homeopathy were formed by examing what the homeopaths CLAIM it does and then checking what it is actually SHOWN to do. As far as the French medical establishment goes, I rarely visit France. I do go in and out of Holland quite frequently and have seen the homeopathic medicines you describe in pharmacies and health stores. I am extremely startled that French medical doctors are prescribing these medications. The only reason I can think of for them to do this is that the homeo meds are used instead of placebos.
I’m not a hater of unconventional medicine, I take vitamin supplements myself. I do believe that unconventional medicines MUST succeed at the same trials as all other drugs before accepting them as a medication. Homeopaths have made several claims of testing their work and showing it to be effective. The experiments were either flawed or non-reproducible and at least one case (in France) was shown to be a massive fraud.
