Homeopathy

kiwi_bird

I just wanted to start a discussion here. Well, I assume that you know what homeopathy is: if not, shout and I'll tell you. So, I'm in a homeopathic therapy, and it isn't really helping, but it's one of my only chances. So I had a therapy about a year ago, and that didn't help. So The doctor looked at me again and made me do another therapy, which I am in right now. I just wanted to know what you think about homeopathy: that's all.

Apreche

Homeopathy is all fake. It's not one of your only chances. It's not a chance at all. There is no way that homeopathy will help you cure or heal any disease or injury whatsoever. You might get some placebo effect, if you're lucky.

The thinking behind homeopathy is this. You have an ingredient that supposedly helps a disease or symptoms of a disease. Then you take that ingredient and dilute it in water. We don't mean dilute it like salt water or grog. We mean dilute it thousands and thousands of times. They dilute it so much that the odds of there being a single molecule of the original ingredient in one dose of the final dilution is 0. It's just water. They believe that somehow the essence of the original ingredient is passed on to the water, as if by magic.

Wait, it gets crazier than that. The ingredients they dilute aren't really helpful ingredients at all! Even if their crazy ideas about water acquiring properties of things it touches are true, which they aren't, the ingredients they use are essentially a witches brew. A very popular homepoathic "remedy" occinoalcum (sp?) is water, a sugar pill and 0 molecules of duck liver. It supposedly helps with symptoms of flu. I don't know about you, but duck liver doesn't cure flu symptoms, whether you have 0 molecules or a million.

Homeopathy is evil lies and a scam. Don't waste your money on it. Go see a real doctor and get real medicine.

Rym

There has never been a single shred of evidence suggesting even the most remote of effects of homeopathic treatement ever. There is zero chance that it will be effective. The evidence against the effects of homeopathy is overwhelming. No one who practices it is not a charlatan.

My opinion is meaningless. I suggest you listen to the opinion of every credible doctor and researcher on Earth.

http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/homeopathy.html

tuttle88

If homeopathic remedies work then the water you drink has the vibrations of Hitler's pee in it.

navelfluff

They dilute it so much that the odds of there being a single molecule of the original ingredient in one dose of the final dilution is 0. It's just water. They believe that somehow the essence of the original ingredient is passed on to the water, as if by magic.

The nuts claim that the water somehow "remembers" the original molecules. You are often given the "medicine" as a sugar pill. They make the pill by pouring a drop of "potent" water on a clean sugar pill and let it dry. So now you have a sugar pill with no remains of the water that had no remains of the active ingredient that does nothing in the first place. This is just quackery, snake oil.

The only way this has any effect is if you can believe in this nonsense so strongly that you manage to ignore the symptoms of your disease. It will be harder to disbelieve the bill from that voodoo doctor.

The homeopaths and other alternative witch doctors are usually very good at giving the impression of taking your problems seriously. They talk to you in a way that real doctors usually aren't very good at. If you are in a hopeless situation and is scared, that makes you feel better. The quacks also give you false hope because they don't have cures that actually work. It just makes you feel uplifted for a period, while the quacks empty your wallet. The really sad part is that most of the modern quacks actually believe their woo-woo works, and that real doctors are evil.

HMTKSteve

This looks like a good thread for this...

"I'm addicted to placebos. I was going to give them up but it wouldn't make a difference." - Steve Wright

kiwi_bird

I was more or less thinking the same thing. But there is no real medicine. This may be false, but a more or less reliable source claimed that someone who was AIDS positive got negative after the therapy. Now I think I'll stop this shit as soon as possible!

Apreche

It may very well be true that someone who tested positive for HIV took some homeopathic therapy and then tested negative. It isn't probable, but it's possible. However, even if it is true, that doesn't mean the homeopathic therapy cured HIV/AIDS. That is a scientific impossibility because pretty much everyone who has HIV/AIDS drinks water and eats sugar. If it cured them, we'd know. If it is true, then there was some other reason behind it. The most likely explanation is that the tests were botched. Perhaps they also took another therapy that worked?

Anyway, whatever your ailment is, I'm sure there is probably some sort of real medical treatment for it. I'm also sure that that treament is not homeopathic.

Rym

This may be false, but a more or less reliable source claimed that someone who was AIDS positive got negative after the therapy.

This sort of thing happens from time to time, and in every case has been found to have been originally a false positive in the HIV test.

tuttle88

This may be false, but a more or less reliable source claimed that someone who was AIDS positive got negative after the therapy.

This sort of thing happens from time to time, and in every case has been found to have been originally a false positive in the HIV test.

Plus if you consider that there are 6 billion people in the world and no one is exactly the same there is always a chance that that person's body was able to fight off the HIV virus. Probably not but in cases such as cancer people's bodies are capable of amazing things.

Did that make sense? I know what I mean, not sure if I made it clear.

kiwi_bird

Believe me, there was no medicine which helped ;)

Dr. Zibbelcoot PhD

Plus if you consider that there are 6 billion people in the world and no one is exactly the same there is always a chance that that person's body was able to fight off the HIV virus. Probably not but in cases such as cancer people's bodies are capable of amazing things.

Did that make sense? I know what I mean, not sure if I made it clear.

While there are case studies where a person's virus titer dropped to undetectable levels, usually associated with HAART treatment, no one can fight off HIV. After it infects someone it will go latent in a small subset of cells and reactivate after a period of time. This is most common when someone thinks they are cured (virus titers show undetectable amounts of HIV) and they stop taking their medication and then the virus reactivates. About all you can hope for with HIV infection is a false postive or a mutation in the CCR5 gene so your cells won't be infected in the first place.

False positives do happen, and are much more likely than fighting off HIV as I mentioned above, that's why they have you go back for more tests later on.

Apreche

mutation in the CCR5 gene so your cells won't be infected in the first place.

So people with genetic mutations in the CCR5 gene are immune to HIV? Can I get a test to see if I'm immune?

Mamath

While there are case studies where a person's virus titer dropped to undetectable levels, usually associated with HAART treatment, no one can fight off HIV. After it infects someone it will go latent in a small subset of cells and reactivate after a period of time. This is most common when someone thinks they are cured (virus titers show undetectable amounts of HIV) and they stop taking their medication and then the virus reactivates. About all you can hope for with HIV infection is a false positive or a mutation in the CCR5 gene so your cells won't be infected in the first place.

So could this apply to that one woman in Africa I've read about who seems to be impervious to all things HIV? Only I remember reading an article about a prostitute somewhere over there who somehow was having sex all over the place and yet managing to stay HIV-free. There was some interest from various parties trying to find a "cure" for AIDS at the time and I've heard of other similar cases but nothing ever seems to come of any of it beyond that initial interest.

HMTKSteve

There was also a story (a while back) about a gay man who was immune to AIDS/HIV and a certain drug company wanted to patent his genes and use them to make medicine.

Apreche

There was also a story (a while back) about a gay man who was immune to AIDS/HIV and a certain drug company wanted to patent his genes and use them to make medicine.

I think that particular story was debunked. I somewhat remember it.

gomidog

Mum sent this. I thought you would appreciate it.

Victor Frost

I think that was a thing of the day on geeknights at some point...

ninjarabbi

I think that was a thing of the day on geeknights at some point...

It was, or if it wasn't it was posted somewhere else. Either way its relevant and worth a look-see to newer forumites.

Churba

Things have not gotten better - the headline from this week's homeopathy plus - "Radiation Sickness and Poisoning: Guidelines for Homeopathic Prevention and Treatment". I rage'd.

Also, would it be the case that the less trained you are in Homeopathy, the more skilled you are?

ninjarabbi

So do you dilute enriched plutonium, dilute that, and then dilute that and drink it?

And would it be the case that the less you use Homeopathy, the healthier you are...oh wait...

Churba

So do you dilute enriched plutonium, dilute that, and then dilute that and drink it?

Cadmium iodatum (Which I assume has Cadmium supposedly in it), Cadmium sulphuricum(ditto), Phosphorus(Which I'm pretty sure would turn the water into phosphoric acid), Strontium carbonicum(Which supposedly contains strontium Carbonate, which is practically insoluble in water), and Xrays(don't even ask me). I don't even want to fucking know, honestly, these people are just scam artists.

And would it be the case that the less you use Homeopathy, the healthier you are...oh wait...

Now now, don't be so quick to judge. The Benefits of keeping up one's hydration by the regular intake of water have long been known.

ninjarabbi

Xrays

Xray some water and dilute it with more water?

And would it be the case that the less you use Homeopathy, the healthier you are...oh wait...

Now now, don't be so quick to judge. The Benefits of keeping up one's hydration by the regular intake of water have long been known.

Touche