It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to know that’s not how homeopathy works. First you have to remember the principle that like cures like. So if you have elevated pulse, jittery nerves, and an aggravated intestinal tract, then homeopathic coffee is for you. But if you just need a little pick-me-up in the morning, then what you’re really after is some homeopathic ambien.
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Obligatory XKCD:
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Yes. This.
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The idea that “alternative” treatments should be tolerated because they might help someone, somewhere, sometime, even though in the vast majority of cases they do nothing, strikes me as a homeopathic implementation of medical intervention.
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There’s a third category of treatments, those which have been shown to be somewhat effective but somewhat risky and are available in other countries, but not in the USA due to our highly risk averse FDA approval system.
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Love it. Homeopathically speaking, a donation of one penny should have much more efficacy than a donation of ten grand, amirite?
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Everything about homeopathy gets me, uh, angry. How stupid can someone be to think that less active ingredient (dilution) will make something more effective, and more active ingredient (concentration) will be less effective? Wouldnt administering the “medicine” with a glass of water itself contaminate the dosage? Wouldnt drinking normal tap water be perilous? (Who knows what contaminants seeped in, and being so diluted, fatally magnified their effects?) It shouldn’t even be entertained as a joke, by a single person; yet homeopath is an industry, sustained and supported by millions, with thousands and thousands of “expert” quacks training future quacks.
I once had a friend whose wife would administer, among other things, homeopathic cinnabar (ie, mercury, a neurotoxin) to her infant son daily. IIRC, it was for “preventing allergies.” I was extremely concerned and tried to alert him. (I tried to talk to her, but she had a high-school education and homeopathy was but one facet of an elaborate and irrational belief system.) I dont know which is worse: the wife, who gave him the treatment, or the husband who was so ignorant as to permit the treatment. [Epilogue: I did a little research and cinnabar isnt nearly as toxic as other forms of mercury, plus the “20X” homeopathic dilution – 1 atom of active ingredient per 1020 atoms of filler – probably certainly made it innocuous. But still, why take the chance giving this potion to a child every single day from infancy to adolescence? What other “cures” will such people administer to their children.] I shouldn’t have let it bother me, but there was just something blithely diabolical about her mashing up the sugar pills and putting it in the unknowing child’s breakfast every morning. I mean, the kid didn’t even get a placebo effect!
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Not so much. Placebo effect only affects the subjective symptoms of disease, not the organic cause. And even then only in some of the people some of the time. So, placebo effect for asthma? Some patients feel better, but they are actually still compromised when tested objectively for lung function. Same goes for quack cancer treatments. The use of placebo instead of actual efficacious medication can kill. Placebo is not a replacement for curing disease.
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People like to trot out the placebo effect (psychologically induced benefit) as the reason why otherwise useless treatments should be tolerated. But what about the grief and psychological impact on family and friends of watching someone they love slowly die in front of their eyes, oblivious to the fact that they are killing themselves by avoiding more effective treatments? What about the kids that will not have a parent? The parents whose lives are forever depressed? The job or coworkers that no longer have the benefit of their expertise? There are a lot of negative psychological impacts on others around the person who is seduced into a minimally effective course of treatment, even if they themselves are interested in doing it.
If we watch someone take heroine to avoid dealing with difficult life problems, we don’t support it, even if they say it helps them psychologically. Or if someone drinks themselves into a stupor, because it makes them feel better. Or if someone joins a cult that believes aliens will save them from earthly problems. We try as much as we can to get that person out of their bad frame of mind, and onto a more positive and productive course.
It’s especially hard to do that when there is an “alternative medicine” industry making billions from the gullibility of many people.
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This. I spent the better part of this year buying compromised asthma medication from one particular pharmacy location, and ended up almost dying from acute bronchitis right before Xmas because it didn’t occur to me that my meds might not be working as intended.
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I agree that some commentators take a sneering tone that is not warranted. And I agree that people can benefit both from placebos and from choosing to decline the treatments offered by mainstream medicine. I’d even go so far as to say that a certain skepticism of the medical industry is warranted, particularly in the US where there’s a financial motive for doctors to offer solutions they don’t really have.
But we’re talking about alternatives to medicine, rather than “alternative medicine”. When someone thinks that (for example) the choice between homeopathy and insulin is simply a matter of personal taste, that’s where their friends and family get justifiably pissed off. That’s why alternative therapies attract harsh scrutiny. If a seller of herbal remedies feels victimised by that, then they are dangerously ignorant of the harm their work can potentially do.
Also, in this case we’re talking about crowdfunded alternative treatment. If a placebo costs enough to make you into a beggar, that is categorically indefensible. And that is clearly a direct result of alternative therapies presenting themselves as coequal to conventional treatment. I mean, no one creates a gofundme to go on a spa weekend.
(there are probably people who do, but you see my point)
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This is a good point well made. If we really need to get sugar pills into the hands of desperate people, we could do that for very little money. If someone with a good job wants to spend $30-$50 a month buying small vials of water because they feel better when they do, I’m not going to rain on their parade. But trying to raise $10k or more to get small vials of water? That’s horrendous exploitation.
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Two earlier studies:
Medical Crowdfunding for Scientifically Unsupported or Potentially Dangerous Treatments
So, Chinese Traditional Medicine that the AMA vouches for is still not western enough? That’s like, so far West that a thousand miles more, and the one cure for everything and replacement for water is blood sausage done up just right.
Let us know what the prize is for finding both opposing poles is then. [Robocop scene where he reboots with a handy 10,000V robot gap, followed by some OTC street cart promo vids.]
If we watch someone take heroine to avoid…
I should crack up here to point out that without autocorrect-ing we still have to have split opinions on…right.
What about humming a few low bars in favor of GFM (GoFundMe) grabbing some data or seeing microbiological work pan out before they consider something a treatment worth a grand. [He says, that St. Louis study saying oh, (143) Blacks don’t see plaques that mark Alzheimer’s Disease in (890) Whitey fresh to mind. Dammit, JAMA, just get collateral cell lines.]
No chemo at 16% remission rate but get quantified after sticking to a ketosis cycling pattern? Love all that homeopathic water but track followthrough with CBD dillutions and just bathing in the 0x also? Spare no pulse watches? Citywide clinic tours one can use? The oft skipped organic vegan diet cohort?
Citation Needed.
TCM is a hodge podge of folk remedies thrown together by Mao to make the Chinese think they were getting high quality medicine when they were not.
via
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That’s debatable, I think. But I am completely with you here: no-one should treat their children with homoeopathic “medication”, and parents who do or do allow this need various forms of talking to.
Sadly, every pediatrician I ever visited also offered homeopathica as an option. And respective my ambition of talking to people who use this: I even bought one myself at a point because I was asked to. I simply wasn’t able to talk to the adult asking me to in a calm and convincing way, because I too get angry every time. 
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I would love to think that Chinese Medicine is highly effective but it looks like it’s total BS. Not being a scientist but being a nurse and on occasionally restarting a currently dead body’s heart based on science, I have to question why anyone would think Chinese medicine would work? Mysterious chi lines that ancient people could find but are totally not palpable or able to be picked up with any sensor whatsoever? I’m going with no.
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And for every claim that Big Pharma is suppressing results because they can’t make money on it, Big Placebo makes billions selling stuff with no proven results. (Big Pharma and Big Placebo are frequently the same companies.)
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To build on what others have already said (but always worth it as Dara is so good for the brain):
“Well, science doesn’t know everything”
“Yes, science knows it doesn’t know everything, otherwise it’d stop”
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