Homeopathy - Legitimate Medicine or Placebo?

Discussion in 'Health Care' started by Uncle Meat, Jul 27, 2011.

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What's your opinion on Homeopathy?

  1. Medicine - it works.

    5 vote(s)
    19.2%
  2. Placebo - it does nothing.

    21 vote(s)
    80.8%
  1. Uncle Meat

    Uncle Meat Banned

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  2. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    It's (*)(*)(*)(*)ing water!
     
  3. ojdude

    ojdude Banned

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    It's crap!
     
  4. Colonel K

    Colonel K Well-Known Member

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    No, it's just distilled water. Not one molecule of crap (or anything else!) :fart:
     
  5. Makedde

    Makedde New Member Past Donor

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    Doctors simply want to keep us drugged up. If something else actually worked, they'd lose money so of course they'll deny that these remedies work - its bad news for them.
     
  6. Samuel Democritus

    Samuel Democritus New Member

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    Who really knows. I have read about people being cured of cancer when they were told that they were being given a new experimental drug, but in reality they were giving them glucose. I think the human mind is much more powerful than we understand. It seems to me that the very act of believing something fervently can make it happen. So if the people using this treatment, truly believe it works and in their mind they think it will cure them, then maybe it does. But I don't think it is because of any interaction caused by the treatment, it's a mind over matter type thing of sorts. Faith is a powerful thing.
     
  7. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's grossly unfair. Most doctors want to make their patients better though I've no doubt some just want to do whatever gets rid of the patients easiest so they can get their money. Homeopathic practitioners are no different though (some of them are qualified doctors after all). Some will have good intentions but some will be in it for the money (whether they personally believe the treatment work or not).
     
  8. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    Why would they lose money? If it was approved as an actual drug then doctors would be the ones who you'd have to go to to be prescribed for it.
     
  9. Samuel Democritus

    Samuel Democritus New Member

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    I think what was intended to be said is that big pharma companies want to keep us drugged up so they can keep making money off of us. Like you said homeopathic doctors would still be making money, you would have to pay for the visit, the treatment, etc. However, if they are treating you in a way that doesn't involve meds being pushed down your throat then big pharma companies will start losing out and we can't have that now can we.
     
  10. LiveUninhibited

    LiveUninhibited Well-Known Member

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    I can't vote because placebos don't do nothing. What people believe is real is real in its consequences, and when stress plays such a huge role in disease the drug doesn't have to have an active ingredient to do something. Real drugs that require prescriptions are really controlled doses of poison. They may do more beyond the placebo effect, but they also often come with side effects. At least you don't have to worry about that with homeopathy. Quackery, but not as dangerous as other forms of quackery.
     
  11. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    You could die from water intoxication due to an overdose.
     
  12. Makedde

    Makedde New Member Past Donor

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    The drug companies that make the drugs don't like alternative medicine. They want to make a fortune and they couldn't make as much if people relied on homeopathy as an alternative treatment.
     
  13. Colonel K

    Colonel K Well-Known Member

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    Homeopathy is bunkum. It cannot work by it's own definition. It is entirely dependent on the placebo effect.

    Not Work safe.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMvMb90hem8"]‪Dara O'Briain with home truths about quackery‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]
     
  14. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    Bull(*)(*)(*)(*). Alternative is alternative because it doesn't work. If it worked a drug company would find a way to concentrate it and sell it.

    Plus do you even know what homeopathy is?

    It's water. That's it. It's water that's said to have a magical memory or something that it used to contain, something which itself has no curative properties. It's based on the concept of like cures like. If you have a rash a rash is itchy and some poison ivy will cure that, but the less poison ivy you have the better it works and it works the best when you have none!
     
  15. suede

    suede Banned

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    If homeopathy doesn't work, would that make it the most successful snake oil medicine industry of all time?
     
  16. Wolverine

    Wolverine New Member Past Donor

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    If it worked, it would be called medicine.

    Plain and simple.
     
  17. Makedde

    Makedde New Member Past Donor

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    How do you explain studies in which some people were given a placebo pill to relieve their pain, and they reported that their pain vanished? Would you prefer they spent more on drugs when the alternative medicine has had an effect?
     
  18. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    The Placebo Effect is well documented by science. Alternative medicine is still bull(*)(*)(*)(*).
     
  19. suede

    suede Banned

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    Wouldn't it?
     
  20. Makedde

    Makedde New Member Past Donor

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    But if it works for some, who are you to tell them otherwise?

    You don't believe that herbs and other natural ingredient can take away pain and help sleep?
     
  21. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    As I said, it's well documented by science and in fact drug testing has to take it into account. That being said, it's not terribly good at fixing things and people tend to rely on selection bias, which is a logical fallacy, when they believe alternative medicine works. They take it 10 times, it works once and then they're telling everyone how great it is and how it always works. This is why science doesn't rely on anecdotal evidence.
     
  22. Makedde

    Makedde New Member Past Donor

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    I'm a big believer in natural remedies because I don't like filling my body with drugs when I don't know what is in them or where they came from. At least with something natural, I know it contains things I could find in my own backyard.

    I'd prefer to make my own medicine than to take a pill, though.
     
  23. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    There are plenty of things in people's backyards that will kill you.
     
  24. Uncle Meat

    Uncle Meat Banned

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    This is a good point.

    'Natural' is just a cunning marketing tool.
     
  25. Makedde

    Makedde New Member Past Donor

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    Not if you use them correctly, and know how to use them.
     

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