Homeopathy is not effective for treating any health condition, Australia’s top body for medical research has concluded, after undertaking an extensive review of existing studies.No doubt that there will be a number of whackaloons who see this as some Big Conspiracy by th' Medical and Pharma Communities t' Hush Up da Troot(tm). There are people in this world who are convinced that they know reality and won't be convinced bu such foolishness as science, reason, or research studies.
Homeopaths believe that illness-causing substances can, in minute doses, treat people who are unwell.
By diluting these substances in water or alcohol, homeopaths claim the resulting mixture retains a “memory” of the original substance that triggers a healing response in the body.
These claims have been widely disproven by multiple studies, but the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has for the first time thoroughly reviewed 225 research papers on homeopathy to come up with its position statement, released on Wednesday.
“Based on the assessment of the evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy, NHMRC concludes that there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective,” the report concluded.
The True Believers in Homeopathy won't pay a whit of attention to this.
I like the way Neil DeGrasse Tyson put it: There is no such thing as alternative medicine, there is just medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland
Studies have proved that placebos often have some effect, and may even have this effect if the patient is aware of the placebo's nature.
ReplyDeleteHomeopathy is essentially a placebo with a surrounding story to increase the psychological effect.
The "homeopathic" products which actually work (there are some) are actually not homeopathic (they have actual ingredients), but being sold as such.
Some homeopathic products are obvious frauds; some are asserted to have a grade of dilution impossible even if all water on eath was used.
Sugar pills would be of equivalent effectiveness and far cheaper...
ReplyDeleteI propose a model for the ultimate School of Homeopathy: the 2 top graduates from each of the 5 top med schools in the land have their names enrolled in the Homeopathic Academy. Then for the next 4 years, every Monday the class list is augmented by randomly adding 990 names from the local phone book, and every Friday 990 names are discarded at random, and 10 names are retained for the next week. At the end of the 4-year course, the final 10 are augmented by a final 9990 randomly selected individuals, and the resulting 10,000 receive degrees.
ReplyDelete