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Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
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Squid Tempest
Squid Tempest
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Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots
Jan 29, 2010, 21:56
Merrick wrote:
Squid, I don't doubt that homeopathy's worked for your friend.

Squid Tempest wrote:
Apparently for her it really works, and in ways that it is hard to fit in with the placebo effect. real, physical differences.


I think you misunderstand what the placebo effect is. It *does* deliver real, physical differences. It really medically works for some people. Ben Goldacre's excellent article on placebo says there was even a study where people were told they were getting a placebo with no actual medicine in and some of them responded.

http://www.badscience.net/2008/03/all-bow-before-the-might-of-the-placebo-effect-it-is-the-coolest-strangest-thing-in-medicine/

Squid Tempest wrote:
Could it possibly be that there is something going on here that science has yet to suss out?


If it actually worked as actual medicine, tests would show that. WE don't need science to show *how* it works - there is a lot of mystery and much that we don't yet know - but trials do need to show that something *does* work. And the extensive trials of homeopathy show that it does not, beyond placebo.


And another thing. If it was purely a placebo, why didn't conventional medicine provide a placebo effect? For my friend it was the conventional medicine that had no effect, and for whom homeopathic remedies actually worked. Convenient to use the word "placebo" where it backs up the required argument, isn't it?

Can't quite believe I'm defending homeopathy - I can see no conceivable mechanism by which it works. I am only going on the experience of (a very trusted) friend. That friend was very convincing about it though - it turned her health around, in an obvious and quantifiable fashion. Very difficult evidence for me to deny.
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