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Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
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Merrick
Merrick
2148 posts

Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 27, 2010, 19:20
dee wrote:
Pathetic protest imo. Homeopathy can work for some if you get the 'right' remedy.


It works no better than a placebo. That's because it is a placebo. To say it has genuine medicinal properties is to defy not only the results of studies of homeopathic remedies but also our understanding of chemistry and physics.

Sea Cat, I think we need to sift what you say a bit.

The Sea Cat wrote:
I have personal experience of alternative/complimentary medicine


I think it's amazing how, just as in agriculture we have 'conventional' farming meaning a chemically intensive method a few decades old that even now is not how most of the world does it, we also have 'conventional' medicine and everything else is 'alternative'.

As you rightly point out

The Sea Cat wrote:
Aspirin comes form tree bark etc, aboriginal peoples still use herbal medicines etc,


Herbal medicines form the basis - often the direct feedstock - of many pharmaceutical medicines. There is no doubting the efficacy of many of them, it's proven.

There is a contradiction in saying alternative medicine has your full respect and that we need to show the sharks the boot. Many alternative medicines are quackery and should be clearly shown to be such.

The Sea Cat wrote:
if it is a placebo, as the more enlightened cynics suggest, than that is surely a good thing. Another form of healing.


But all quack medicines can have a placebo effect. That is not a good thing; placebo rarely works for serious conditions, and doesn't score very highly on anything. Yet if people are told these things will work they will, in some cases, avoid seeking treatments that are effective. People suffer and die for this. Many homeopaths will happily send you into a malaria zone armed only with a little pot of sugar nibs.

Lumping herbalism, crystal healing, homeopathy, acupuncture and the power of positive thought all in together as 'alternative medicine' doesn't help anyone reach the truth.
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