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Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 25, 2010, 18:58
This Saturday, in 13 towns across the UK, people are going to take mass 'overdoses' of homeopathic pills in Boots in protest at the store's continued sale of these non-medicines

More info here
http://www.1023.org.uk/

and why Boots here
http://www.1023.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-alliance-boots.php
pooley
pooley
501 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 25, 2010, 18:59
Merrick wrote:
This Saturday, in 13 towns across the UK, people are going to take mass 'overdoses' of homeopathic pills in Boots in protest at the store's continued sale of these non-medicines

More info here
http://www.1023.org.uk/

and why Boots here
http://www.1023.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-alliance-boots.php


This is fantastic.

I have long hated these non medicines, and the people that exploit desperation and stupidity in the ill.
Penske666
161 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 26, 2010, 16:34
Maybe Fujitsu could have another strike in front of Boots at the same time lol!
Moon Cat
9577 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 26, 2010, 16:53
I wonder if it will affect their like-for-like sales figures tee hee.
Deepinder Cheema
Deepinder Cheema
1972 posts

Edited Jan 26, 2010, 20:14
Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 26, 2010, 20:13
These remedies seem to work for some people, and even pet animals. If these people want to apply aggressive techniques why don't they have their swallow-in outside NICE or govt offices.
pooley
pooley
501 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 26, 2010, 20:28
Deepinder Cheema wrote:
These remedies seem to work for some people, and even pet animals. If these people want to apply aggressive techniques why don't they have their swallow-in outside NICE or govt offices.


They work for no one - they are a placebo. Worse than that, to work they need for water to have a memory!!! how fucked up is that?
Deepinder Cheema
Deepinder Cheema
1972 posts

Edited Jan 26, 2010, 21:03
Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 26, 2010, 20:53
Perhaps they are on the cusp of placebo or coincidence. I've been told they have worked on Animals. I'm rather relaxed about it.

The woman in my avatar is receiving a medal from JFK for kicking Thialidomide off the shelves. It led to the reason why since 1961 there are exhaustive clinical trials
pooley
pooley
501 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 26, 2010, 21:16
Deepinder Cheema wrote:
Perhaps they are on the cusp of placebo or coincidence. I've been told they have worked on Animals. I'm rather relaxed about it.

The woman in my avatar is receiving a medal from JFK for kicking Thialidomide off the shelves. It led to the reason why since 1961 there are exhaustive clinical trials


Trials on proper medicine. Complementary medicine is horribly under tested. It is checked that it does no harm, but not that it works. Still how could it? It is mainly water - might quench your thirst, but wont cure oure your cancer.

What I really hate about it are the charlatans peddling false hope to ill people and cashing in on misery.
Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Edited Jan 27, 2010, 11:34
Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 27, 2010, 11:33
Deepinder Cheema wrote:
If these people want to apply aggressive techniques why don't they have their swallow-in outside NICE or govt offices.


They're going for Boots as they're the biggest pharmacy in the country, they are trusted to be selling effective medicines (none of us can have the time to check the data on the efficacy of everything our chemists give us), and yet they admit that homeopathic pills are useless.

Deepinder Cheema wrote:
These remedies seem to work for some people


Absolutely they do. As does a vast range of useless remedies, crystals, prayers and whatnot. Pooley is wrong to say

pooley wrote:
They work for no one - they are a placebo.


That misunderstands what placebo is. Placebo means there is no active medicinal value, and yet having it administered makes some people recover.

Check out Ben Goldacre's article on the placebo effect
http://www.badscience.net/2008/03/all-bow-before-the-might-of-the-placebo-effect-it-is-the-coolest-strangest-thing-in-medicine/
Sugar pills work as a placebo. Weirdly, giving two sugar pills has a better effect than giving one, and a saline injection has a better effect than either.

My guess - untested - is that having someone you trust take a bit of time to be nice to you and be soothing is immensely powerful, and the reason homoeopaths get good results is they sit down and be soothing with their patient for an hour or so instead of the 4 minutes you get at a GP's.

Some studies show homeopathy to work, others show it to be harmful, and the vast bulk show it to have no effect at all beyond placebo. It is not medicine in any real sense and should not be sold as such. It's not a matter of it doing no harm - by giving someone something they think is beneficial you delay them seeking real medical attention.

pooley wrote:
Worse than that, to work they need for water to have a memory!!!


Yep. It defies basic chemistry and physics. They get stronger the more diluted the medicine, so that the really strong stuff would need a pill many times larger than the earth if it were to contain a single molecule of the supposedly active ingredient.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVV3QQ3wjC8
nigelswift
8112 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 27, 2010, 12:44
"What I really hate about it are the charlatans peddling false hope to ill people and cashing in on misery."

I guess Boots realised they could be accused of precisely that so to preserve their corporate respectability they decided to admit it.

Of course, they know that desperate people won't believe them and will continue to buy the stuff. So now they are self-confessed profit seekers peddling what they ADMIT is false hope to ill people and cashing in on misery.
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