NHS Should Stop Funding Homeopathy, Says Parliamentary Committee

An anonymous reader writes "Homeopathic remedies work no better than placebos, and so should no longer be paid for by the UK National Health Service, a committee of British members of parliament has concluded. In preparing its report, the committee, which scrutinizes the evidence behind government policies, took evidence from scientists and homeopaths, and reviewed numerous reports and scientific investigations into homeopathy. It found no evidence that such treatments work beyond providing a placebo effect." Updated 201025 19:40 GMT by timothy: This recommendation has some people up in arms.

Comments

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[charliemopps11]

This is all you need to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy "The end product is often so diluted that it is indistinguishable from the dilutant (pure water, sugar or alcohol)."

Re:Heomeopathy = Placebo

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. 'Cause WIKIPEDIA is a completely reliable source of knowledge.

That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems appropriate :)

That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E

Re:Heomeopathy = Placebo

[AeiwiMaster]

Actually not, homeopathic medicine is made from the wrong stuff.

When you make a homeopathic sollutins you observe the symbtoms
and chose a chemical component which would give the same symptoms
if it was given in a concentrated form.

You than add this component to pure water, shake it, dilute it, skate it etc.
Where the resulting remedy have the OPPOSITE effect of the original chemical.

If you know a little chemistry you know Le Chaterlier's principle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chatelier's_principle

When you add a chemical to water it will prompts an opposing reaction.
So, water will take on a vibration which is the opposite of the chemicals.
When you add some more water and add some energy by shaking,
then the new water start to vibrate in resonance with the first water.
Then you repeat this process until no trace of the original chemical is present.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chatelier's_principle

Re:Heomeopathy = Placebo

[sumdumass]

IMHO a lot of this is culture. In the past, there were some treatments that worked. These have been adopted by the medical system, regulated, and now most of what's left is the useless but harmless treatments. Beneficial herbs became pharmaceuticals, spinal manipulations that work are incorporated into osteopathic medicine and physical therapy, and even leeches and bloodletting are valid medical procedures.

It doesn't hurt the idea of alternative medicine any when you have political forces railing on the pharmaceutical industry as being dishonest or in it only for profits leading to many others claiming that they only treat-not cure illnesses because that's where the money is. It opens the door for the eternal optimism that the secret cure the pill makers don't want you to know about really works.

Then you have idiots claiming that Native Americans never had cancer or that isolated tribes in Africa never had a recorded case of diabetes before the white man met them. Of course this is ignoring the fact that they had no way of checking those things until the outsiders met them. But hey, if it pushes their point, then what the hell, I guess it's fair.