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Australia Declares Homeopathy Nonsense, Urges Doctors to Inform Patients
jones_supa (887896) writes "Homeopathy is a 200-year-old form of alternative medicine based on the principle that substances that produce symptoms in a healthy person can be used to treat similar symptoms in a sick person. The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia has officially declared that homeopathic remedies are useless for human health. The body today released a guide for doctors (PDF) on how to talk to their patients about the lack of evidence for many such therapies. Doctors will also be told to warn patients of possible interactions between alternative and conventional medicines. On top of that, the council has produced a 300-page draft report that reviews the evidence for homoeopathy in treating 68 clinical conditions. It concludes 'there is no reliable evidence that homoeopathy is effective for treating health conditions'.
Representing the opposite viewpoint, Australian Homeopathic Association spokesman Greg Cope said he was disappointed at the narrow evidence relied on by the NHMRC in its report. 'What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how homeopathy works,' he said. Homeopathy worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness, and research such as a seven-year study conducted in Switzerland was a better measure of its usefulness, he added. There are about 10,000 complementary medicine products sold in Australia but most consumers are unaware they are not evaluated by the domestic medicines safety watchdog before they are allowed on the market."
Representing the opposite viewpoint, Australian Homeopathic Association spokesman Greg Cope said he was disappointed at the narrow evidence relied on by the NHMRC in its report. 'What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how homeopathy works,' he said. Homeopathy worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness, and research such as a seven-year study conducted in Switzerland was a better measure of its usefulness, he added. There are about 10,000 complementary medicine products sold in Australia but most consumers are unaware they are not evaluated by the domestic medicines safety watchdog before they are allowed on the market."
"There are about 10,000 complementary medicine products sold in Australia but most consumers are unaware they are not evaluated by the domestic medicines safety watchdog before they are allowed on the market." Why on Earth would you ever submit a product to the medicines watchdog when it doesn't contain medicine? You might as well ask them to evaluate the effects of Heinz Tomato Soup as a medicinal recipe. It does bring feelings of well-being and contentment, you know.
"Is the Chief Priest an Offlian? Do dragons explode in the wood?"
But won't telling the patient "the facts" diminish the placebo effect?
What would maximize the placebo effect?
Is using the placebo effect always bad practice?
It doesn't work by treating conditions. You're using it wrong. The first thing you need to do is stop expecting it to do anything.
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Homeopathy worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness
If this is true, then why are they marketed to help with specific ailments?
Most people I know who spout this nonsense don't visit the doctor very much, after all "big medicine" is in the pocket of "big pharma," so they wouldn't hear the message anyway.
For those who might listen, one might temper it by saying homeopathy *does* work, but it's thanks to the placebo effect.
Doctors will also be told to warn patients of possible interactions between alternative and conventional medicines.
Obviously not talking about homeopathy anymore. Water won't interact with real medicine.
In Canada the debate is about whether the practitioners have to speak in English to their patients, not about whether the snake oil works or not. However, since it is mainly Chinese using this quackery it doesn't matter all that much...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Says it all...
Curse you, actual scientists, with your "facts" and "data". Where we come from, we don't need no facts.
Courtesy of Mitchell and Webb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0
And is a scam at the same time. I've met homeopaths who were certain that It didn't really work, but have seen a great deal of patients recover from terrible illnesses only because it helped them not give up, or worked very efficiently as a placebo. Where I live, to work as homeopath, you need am university degree in medicine so It's not really that the practitioners don't know what they are doing, and will often send patients to a real doctor when they see imminent danger or can't see results.
By the same logic, Astrology should be banned, as it probably affects human relationships in an even more negative way.
Magic is not real, lucky socks do not cure cancer, and homeopathy is a scam.
So you're meta-complaining?
Replace homeopathy with creationism.
One wonders what the response would be then.
"What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how creationism works," he'd say. "Creationism worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness, and research such as a seven-year study conducted in Switzerland was a better measure of its usefulness," he'd add.
The lipid theory of cardiovascular disease is nonsense. At least homeopathic "remedies" do no harm. Statins do.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Says it all...
Curse you, actual scientists, with your "facts" and "data". Where we come from, we don't need no facts.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. I was recently afflicted by a non-systematic, unnamed condition, and drinking lots of water helped.
Hmm, now that I think about it, I may have been thirsty.
I visited a homeopath once. I had dreadful allergies and was quite desparate. So off I trundled to the homepaths tent in the festival I was attending. There they did some sort of reading and asked a few questions. They opened a huge old book and spent a few moments throughtfully reading through various passages. Then delivered the news that I needed arsenic. Only this poison could help me. They procused a small plastic bag containing small spherical white pills. I complained that I was not keen on taking arsenic in any shape of form. So they explained that they started with a huge vat of water with a little bit of arsenic in it. Took a tiny drop of that water and diluted it further, and once again until only the essense of asenic remained. There wasn't any arsenic in those pills. By this time I was laughing so hard I had completely forgotten about my allergies. I left with a big smile on my face and used the sugar pills in my coffee.
So sorry everyone, homeopathy works.
Yeah...because its Republicans who are into homeopathy, healing crystals and all that mystical unicorn feel-good hippy bullshit.
"substances that produce symptoms in a healthy person can be used to treat similar symptoms in a sick person"
You mean, like a vaccine ???? So vaccinate is a placebo ???
I've seen two episodes of Dr. Oz. In the first, he talked about treating a jellyfish sting. Knowing nothing about jellyfish stings, I assume his advice was legit. The second episode he talked about homeopathic medicine and all of the wonderful treatment options it provided. He didn't laugh when he was saying that. I never watched again -- can't trust anything he says to be valid.
Just keep in mind that Zinc and specifically Zicam is classified as homeopathic and it actually contains zinc which actually prevents viruses from attaching to cell walls in the first place so they can't replicate and actually stops a cold in its tracks. So not all homeopathy is bullshit or contains mostly water or uses snake poison or any of that nonsense. Sometimes it just means they didn't have the budget to get FDA approval.
Surely I can pay for homeopathic medicine by simply rubbing money on the seller?
Mostly random stuff.
But here is an opposing viewpoint from someone without the ability to evaluate truth claims.
"There are about 10,000 complementary medicine products sold in Australia but most consumers are unaware they are not evaluated by the domestic medicines safety watchdog before they are allowed on the market."
This is absolutely backwards thinking. The assumption is that no product should possibly be 'allowed' in the market without costly and time-consuming 'evaluation' and 'approval' by a 'watchdog.' That's just a recipe for guaranteeing the profits of existing market leaders at the expense of the consumer.
People are selling nonsense? Don't buy it. Easy-peazy as they say in Oz.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
It's quackery. That's the point. Tell people what it is they're paying for, what the numbers mean.
all we need is love... da da da da da
STOP. JUST FUCKING STOP!!!! Why do you have to turn every fucking news into a political commentary? Just to troll people? Or just to make yourself feel better? You just made a few people sick regardless of your political affiliations, you asshole.
Here in Netherlands, in general health insurances think 'alternative' therapies are generally cost effective. This is not limited to homeopathic medicins, but also to other threatments.
First of all, it is recognized that normal medicins are not always needed either. About 50% of the medicins are deemed ineffective, because patients would cure anyways. The other aspect is that 'real' doctor consults cost a lot of money.
So, placebo or not, there's a large group of patients that basically just need some attention - someone to talk to; someone to discuss issues (think of relational problems, trauma's, life habits, etc). It is much cheaper to allow this group to find the attention they need in the alternative circuit, than to have them consulting `real` doctors describing them real (but probably just as ineffective) medicins.
homeopathy, healing crystals and all that mystical unicorn feel-good hippy bullshit.
Well, that's one way of describing Christianity. Still awaiting repeatability on water-into-wine.
(TBH the Jesus character was a fairly decent superhero - reminds me of Crash Test Dummies' "Superman Song". But so many of his followers are cunts. What's up with that?)
I did not know that medicine was about believing...
It's called the placebo effect, and it's quite unreasonably effective.
So, I'll start believing that i do not have the flu. Let's see if this works.
It will! That's an effect called regression to the mean.
Firmly believing you don't have the flu will, in all likelihood, cure your flu in two days to two weeks!
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
This is a political topic, whether you want it to be or not. It's politics that allows this sort of crap to persist in the US because people should be allowed to do whatever they want, up to and including completely ripping off their fellow man.
people should be allowed to do whatever they want, up to and including completely ripping off their fellow man.
This kind of bullshit reminds me that you don't need to find a god to be a whacko religious fundamentalist.
Homeopathy is using such small diluted amounts, that interaction should be impossible.
Unless they are referring to interaction with other dubious natural remedies like rhino horn, and tiger balls, etc...
Or a big fat placebo. It's all the same crap!
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Actually, quite the opposite. For homeopathy to work you have to firmly believe that it works.
There, I said it.
Now all I need is Jenny McCarthy and various other parents' groups to start saying the same thing.
We'll kill off homeopathy in no time!
http://buffalobeast.com/twic-1...
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Wouldn't think Ausies would be coy about debunking .. anything. I can just imagine it
Patient: J'a think that homeopathy would help?
Doctor: Nah, 'ts bollocks cobber - don't waste yu money
This is not a political topic, whether you want it to be or not. See? I can play that too. It's an opinion, not a fact.
The term you are looking for is "Faith-based economic policy".
Homeopathy has a legitimate use in medicine, and some doctors are already using it on patients.
It's called the placebo effect :-)
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Anecdotal but, there are 5 members of my immediate family who subscribe to all that bullshit. Three of them are Republicans. Of those three, one most certainly brings a thermos full of homeopathy and wears healing crystals when they go out unicorn hunting.
BULLSHIT.
Vaccines work because the actual chemical agent - bits of inactivated viruses - is actually present in the vaccine. Injecting someone with bits of inactivated virus particles means the actual molecules wind up in the body. The body, having actual virus bits to work with, can react accordingly; in the case of vaccines, it can provoke an immune response. When an actual virus is encountered in the wild, it fails to replicate.
That immune response has nothing to do whatsoever with the notion of hormesis. If you believe otherwise, go to a level 4 biolab and inject yourself with a small dose of ebola. Not homeopathically-small as in "no molecules of the original substance in all the oceans on the planet", I mean small as the 1,700,000 viral particles of attenuated poliovirus present in in every dose of Sabin's oral polio vaccine.
If your hormesis hypothesis is correct, no attentuation is necessary. Live virus is as good as broken virus. Me? I'll watch and see how your hormesis hypothesis turns out from behind a very thick glass wall.
Anecdotal but, there are 5 members of my immediate family who subscribe to all that bullshit. Three of them are Republicans. Of those three, one most certainly brings a thermos full of homeopathy and wears healing crystals when they go out unicorn hunting.
If I get my hands on the asshat who's been poaching my unicorns there'll be hell to pay.
Who will speak for the unicorn farmers?
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Well, they are prone to irrational behaviours, why not that one too?
If it's nonsense (it is), and it makes health claims (it does), and it doesn't work (it doesn't work), just ban the sale and promotion of such products or severely restrict its sale, health insurance coverage, and the people who practice this form of "treatment". Same goes for chiro, accupuncture, and other common forms of quackery.
Wow. A Slashdot summary that shows both sides of something.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Just read some of the comments on this page....
It's more than just those two pieces of advice. It's a placebo as well.
She tried pretty much everything else, I am a happy camper and dont have to deal with the mood swings associated with that health issue !
I spent my youth on homeopathy w/o any major issues, and now that i'm sick, neither homeopathy nor commercial medicine are much help
For most people their youth is generally spent without major health issues. Attributing that to homeopathy is rather unnecessary.
> The term you are looking for is "Faith-based economic policy".
I think this also works if you replace the word economic to get one of the following:
* Faith-based social policy
* Faith-based foreign policy
* Faith-based domestic policy
* Faith-based public policy
* Faith-based science policy
* Faith-based government policy
Or simply remove the word economic and get:
* Faith-based policy
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Somewhere James Randi is really happy.
Actual, it's republicans that forced the NCAM down everyone's throats. So yes, they are.
http://nccam.nih.gov/
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Republicans, just a couple, force the NCAM down the tax payers throats.
After a decade of zero results, they still refuse to stop spending millions funding it.
It's a belief all the way up to the point politician are spending tax payer money on it. At that point it's political.
http://nccam.nih.gov/
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Beer is the mind killer. Beer is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my beer. I will permit it to pass over my lips and through me. And when it has gone past I will drop my trousers and turn the inner eye to the path to show passers by I have not only faced my beer but got shitfaced on the beer.
My wife and I have had health problems that were helped only through the assistance of some alternative medicine practitioners. There was this one nutritionist we went to in Ohio, and her main advantage over the typical MD was that she was willing to investigate to figure out underlying causes. MDs invariably would dismiss us because they were unfamililar with our ailments and were never ever interested in spending more than 15 minutes on a patient. They would NEVER do research. Even specialists weren’t interested. We went around in circles for years, never getting any help, and a lot of the advice they’d give us would directly contradict advice we’d get from other MDs and also from articles we’d read in places like JAMA.
The thing with MDs is that they’re really just normal people who are a bit smarter than average and have advanced clinical degrees. Very few of them want to go into research. Most just want to do basic practice. Just like my PhD in computer science doesn’t make me expert in all of CS or competent to teach all areas, an MD doesn’t make you magically able to treat every illness. And when you get into something super unusual, an MD is unlikely to know about it, even if you manage to find the right kind of specialist. (I’ve noticed, for instance, that most endorcrinologists don’t know a damn thing about thryroid disorders because they all specialize in diabetes.) In my life, I’ve only met a couple of MDs who were super smart and had a mind for research and advanced diagnosis. Most are just people who want to do a regular job and not get sued for malpractice.
So, like so many other people not helped by mainstream medicine, we turned to alternative practitioners. (Some MDs, more DOs and nutritionists. We haven’t gone to any Naturopaths.) Occasionally, one would suggest something homeopathic, and we would just ignore it. But what they did that was useful was run tests that regular MDs wouldn’t think to run. For instance, we found out that we had protozoan infections becase our nutritionist had us submit fecal samples to a lab that does diagnosis by DNA testing. The treatment involved presenting the findings to a DO who wrote us prescriptions for Tinidazole, which is a standard anti-parasitic medicine. So, the irony is that in order to diagnose our condition, we had to go to an alternative practitioner who was interested in actually doing diagnosis and did that by running standard blood and fecal tests and treating problems with standard pharmaceuticals. Who’d have thunk it.
However, there are numerous herbal and natural treatments that work because they’re based on similar chemicals to those found in regular medicine. Here are but a few examples of “alternative treatments” that work:
- Taking 5HTP instead of an SSRI to treat depression (it’s a precursor to serotonin that easily basses through the blood-brain barrier)
- Taking dessicated porcine thyroid gland for sub-clinical hypothyoridism (because it contains all the thyroid hormones)
- Taking dessicated bovine adrenal gland for norepinepherine and cortisol insufficiency (because it contains them)
- Using oil of oregano to treat some kinds of microbial infections (because it’s antimicrobial)
- Taking Goitrogens concentrated from cruciferous vegetables to treat hyperthoridisn
- Using a netipot to clean out the upper respiratory system to help clear/drain infections faster
- Taking low-dose naltrexone to treat fatigue and auto-immune disorders (this treatment is shifting from alternative to mainstream now)
- Eating less grain or eliminating it altogether to improve digestive function
- Identifying food allergies/sensitivities and eliminating those foods to reduce misdirected immune response and tissue inflammation
- Eating a diet high in probiotics and cultured foods
- Supplementing with a variety of amino acids and neurotransmitters to help with mood problems (e.g. theanine, wh
lol, you have clearly had very little exposure to Christianity
For one in tomatoe there is a lot of glutamate and other elements. In homeopathic madicine ? lactose , maybe water, rarely alcohol no matter which.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
No that's oversimplifying it to the point of ridiculousness to the benefit of the snakeoil salesmen, as you would have to be well aware because you could not possibly be so stupid.
Funny how Americans are utterly brutal where money is to be made and will excuse every sort of shady trick that could return a buck. Claim salting? It's fine, those rubes had it coming because they didn't look hard enough.
Is it clearer now?
Prior to a recent FDA updated guidelines for bioavailability some generic may have had the same active ingredient, but id the other part of it are different, it may behave different. Specifically, release the medicine quicker or slower then non generics do.
Here is a good break out of the whole thing:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicin...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So homeopathy is almost the equivalent of a primitive form of vaccination? If they were infecting healthy people with diluted and forms of a disease to build immunity I would reason it would almost qualify.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
While most of homeopathy is decidedly hocus-pocus, there is something to be said for, at the very least, the placebo effect. AKA If you believe you are taking medicine, (even if you aren't) your condition can improve. The goal here is to make people better, not make people smarter.
I know nothing of homeopathy, nor NHMRC nor how this study was conducted and who sponsored it. I do know that pharmaceuticals is a big business and there is a lot of competition. Do the big pharmaceutical companies see homeopathy as competition? Does the traditional medical industry see naturopathic physicians as competition? Probably yes to both of them. But I'm sure it's not just black or white. Just like the evidence based medication that most of the doctors prescribe today, nothing is just black or white. I was never aware that such a thing as numbers needed to treat (NNT) exists. Take statin for example, which a lot of people take, which is evidence based. But were you aware of its NNT - http://www.thennt.com/nnt/stat...? Something might be evidence based, but if you don't have all of the data, your view is skewed. My point is, when ever there is a lot of money involved, nothing is just black or white.
Actually there are a few important differences. According to Christianity, Jesus was more than just human, he worked those wonders personally. Second, he didn't ascribe the healing properties to materials, but to the supernatural. Third, he didn't charge.
" 'What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how homeopathy works,' he said. Homeopathy worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness."
Wait a minute, Homeopath is only good for "overall health and wellness" but can't actually cure named diseases? I thought that was, in fact, the exact opposite of the "science" of homeopathy... I thought the way it worked is that you treated "named conditions" by ingesting a ridiculously diluted amount of a natural substance that causes the same symptoms. (i.e. treat hyperactivity with crazy-diluted caffeine) And that there were vast tomes available that map specific symptoms to specific "remedies". That's kind of the opposite of improving only "overall health and wellness."
I have a daughter who has insomnia. This insomnia is triggered by the thought that she has insomnia.
This is due to a friend she used to have that would come over and then talk about maybe they have insomnia.
So she psychs herself out and can't sleep.
So we have started giving her a sleeping aid. It's not anything effective, but we carefully keep it under the guise of a medical prescription.
We also have her going to a psychologist. So we are taking an actual medical approach. Yes, we will tell her eventually.
Are other two choice are:
Do nothing.
Give her a sleeping, and possible addictive, sleeping aid. Something we will do if all else fails.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Next dismiss the imaginary, un-provable, invisible man in the sky and we can really start to make progress as a species.
Haven't you heard the joke?
What do you call "Alternative Medicine" that's actually supported via good evidence?
Medicine.
There's nothing controversial about the idea that certain herbs and natural substances, diet changes, etc. can treat illness. A doctor that doesn't use all the evidence-based approaches at his disposal is simply a bad doctor. A doctor that does use evidence-supported natural-based remedies as appropriate isn't practicing "alternative medicine", he/she is simply being a better doctor.
The idea of using porcine-derived thyroid hormone isn't "alternative medicine" at all... you can get a prescription for it and have it filled at any pharmacy; the brand name is "Armour Thyroid". I'll certainly take an FDA-approved Rx procine thyroid over some unregulated junk at the local Health Food store.
The most powerful cancer treatment EVAR! Diluted an incredible TEN THOUSAND TIMES - this new revolutionary cure has so little active ingredient, it is not measurable using any modern measurement technique. Never before has any alchemist been able to achieve just high levels of potency.
Just $99.95 + 14.95 shipping and handling!
Vaccines are not medicine, as they are not designed to prevent, treat, or cure any disease. The vaccine itself only prompts your body to manufacture its own response capability. So, receiving a vaccine (you receive a vaccine, you do not "take" it) is not "being medicated against your will."
Besides, you do not have any right at all to put everyone around you and the entire human race in immediate danger just because of your delusional paranoia about vaccines.
Medicine that works is called Medicine. If you have to call it alternative medicine then it's not working.
OK, yes, this is a political topic....about Australia. Immediately turning the discussion to U.S. politics with an inflammatory comment was a wonderful troll move.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
homeopathy is magic water not a sugar pill. close though; they both can work using the placebo effect.
I really think it's some kind of disorder/obsession - People that are obsessed with politics and can't help themselves from steering every discussion into "it's the other [evil] party's fault and I'm going to tell you why right now" This one guy I worked with didn't even care if his little jokes made sense. We were walking through a parking garage once, and we were startled by an SUV driving too fast around a corner. He said "Probably a liberal, Massachusetts plates! *chuckle*". Even the more obvious joke about the political bent of an SUV owner wouldn't be remotely funny. At least not to me, it's just unoriginal. He did have a good sense of humor at times, but a dig on democrats seemed to be his default.
He never said anything hateful, he was just very smug. He rarely went into angry rants about politics, but I would avoid conversation with him, because it would inevitably turn into a political discussion. He wasn't a troll, I think he was just preoccupied with politics, it was always at the forefront of his mind, and everything negative in the world could be attributed to liberal democrats.
(He was a libertarian in 2004, probably still is)
Homeopathy not only does not work, it also kills. An oncologist friend told me of a patient with an early stage cancer who refused medical treatment and instead opted for homeopathic treatment. Predictably, the cancer spread but it was too late for effective medical treatment by the time the patient returned to the doctor.
I didn't say that prevention was bad vs. treatment. I'm just saying that the statement by these clowns directly contradicts what homeopathy is supposedly about. They likely made this ridiculous statement because unsupported woo-woo is what you resort to when actual science says your "medicine" is a steaming pile of B.S.
If you actually read information about homeopathy, it makes no vague wishy-washy claims about "overall health and wellness", it's all about treating specific symptoms. There are very detailed reference works (referred to as "provings") listing which specific "remedies" are to be used for this or that symptom. (In the U.S., remedies listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States are specifically exempted from FDA regulations regarding efficacy.)
In this sense, Homeopathy is very different from "natural remedies" at least in the US. In the US, natural remedies that have not gone through the drug approval process cannot claim to treat specific diseases and must make vague claims about health and wellness. Because of their very specific legal loophole, homeopathy need jump through no such hoops; they can claim to treat all manner of illnesses.
(When this loophole for homeopathy was written back in the '30's, giving homeopathy a free ride was actually a good thing, as water was generally quite a bit healthier than many of the "drugs" available at the time, which made liberal use of all manner of horribly toxic substances.)
Homeopathy may be commonly prescribed by people claiming to practice "holistic medicine", but that is independent from homeopathy itself.
That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E
Let's put a substantial tax on these homeopathic preparations and direct it toward real medical research.
If I get my hands on the asshat who's been poaching my unicorns there'll be hell to pay
It's those guys from the marketing department.
"Third, he didn't charge." - typical drug dealer tactic, free at first and you are paying for it now in all the tax exemptions and privileges given to christians....
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
Homoeopaths are selling malaria vaccinations. E.g. water. I see some potential for harm there
Yes, the concept of "harm" is a tricky one. I refer only to immediate harm, i.e.: "Does taking a homeopathic malaria vaccine (water) make me worse off than I was before?" Probably not.
Does taking statins make me worse off than I was before?. Probably yes.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
They work on the same principle
Homeopathy doesn't work, it's just water. Vaccines work (what's your explanation for where smallpox went to?) and are not just water.
Apart from that you're bang on the money.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
It's their future (and their past thirty years), not mine. Just tossing in a reference to one of the longstanding repeating acts on everybody's favorite radio variety show.
A government research report advises that Duch doctors should make more use of alternative therapies such as acupunture and that health insurances should cover the costs of alternative medicine. (News paper article in Dutch)
http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4516...
Yeah, people following you home from school trying to guilt trip you into signing up with their particular version of the faith, others demanding that you accept that gravity doesn't work because their god pushes down on everything (hilarious, especially when coming from one with a Bachelor in Science)... I had one - with a PhD in Physics, no less - telling me that if I relaxed enough, demons would take over my mind. Same guy also told me that all atheists are commies, and that the only truly moral people are Christians (although he didn't have an answer my responding question which is, "If Christians are only doing good because their god commands them to with threat of eternal punishment if they don't, how does that become any more than an action caused by self-preservation?").
Ultimately, there's no rationality in Christianity: you can't do good deeds for others, you're doing it for the reward of eternal happiness. (Probably find there are 76 virgins waiting for you in the afterlife if you murder some athiests, too.)
Oh yes, I went there bitches.
...why it's not not seen as fraud and treated accordingly. It should be illegal to peddle this crap in the first place.
In Australia? They would have a good laugh as more beer was passed around.
Or do you mean in the inbreeding fields of America? My guess is senators would be calling for war.
Isn't context a great thing?
They actually do harm in the sense that people may opt to choose them over methods that actually have medicinal benefit.
If I get my hands on the asshat who's been poaching my unicorns there'll be hell to pay.
I'm pretty sure that Lord Voldemort, and he's already been done in (spoiler alert).
This is a political topic, whether you want it to be or not. It's politics that allows this sort of crap to persist in the US because people should be allowed to do whatever they want, up to and including completely ripping off their fellow man.
You see, in Australia there are no restrictions on practising or using homoeopathy, however you are no longer permitted to call it any form of medicine or claim it has any medicinal value. We haven't stopped the practice of homoeopathy, we've stopped the practice of homoeopaths lying and claiming that homoeopathy works.
It's still as legal here as any other kooky and ineffective practice like crystal healing, prayer or using a Mac.
This is a political topic in Australia too, but there is nothing to stop people from using homoeopaths as they can do so on the basis of their beliefs, the report just says it doesn't work in reality. This does not matter to the people who believe in Homoeopathy as they've never been dissuaded by evidence and will continue to spend money on cures that have no medical value.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Haven't you heard the joke?
What do you call "Alternative Medicine" that's actually supported via good evidence?
Medicine.
There's nothing controversial about the idea that certain herbs and natural substances, diet changes, etc. can treat illness. A doctor that doesn't use all the evidence-based approaches at his disposal is simply a bad doctor. A doctor that does use evidence-supported natural-based remedies as appropriate isn't practicing "alternative medicine", he/she is simply being a better doctor.
This.
A doctor using non pharmaceutical or therapeutic treatments isn't practising alternative medicine, he's practising medicine. A lot of minor aliments can be cured with a change in lifestyle.
The problem isn't with a doctor recommending a patient eat high vitamin C foods for a vitamin deficiency. The problem is with a quack with no medical knowledge what so ever recommending herbal tea for a symptom they have no idea what the cause of is. They dont test to see what the cause is so they end up working to treat the symptom not the cause and almost never follow up. The worst part is if the alternative medicine treats the symptom but not the cause, the problem is likely to get worse.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ... for those who don't really know what homeopath is, watch "That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E" on youtube.
Medicine.
Only problem is that many MDs I have met are just as muck quacks. They superficially assess the symptoms and prescribe something that only treats the symptom so they can charge the insurance company a rediculous fee and move on to the next patient.
Urticaria, for instance, can be a symptom of a number of serious and less serious underlying causes. Most doctors will merely prescribe an antihistamine. An antihistamine is a good short-term measure to make the patient feel better, but it should also be cause for concern and prompt deeper investigation. Almost never happens.
“Alternative” doesn’t enter into it. “Lazy” is the word we should be using here.
Maybe you need to move, my experiences are the complete opposite.
I've been to see doctors in several countries (Australia, Thailand, Singapore) and all of them were extremely good, asked a lot of questions, sent me away for tests when needed, arranged appointments to discuss test results, follow up consultations and the lot.
The problem a lot of doctors have is that their patients lie out of their arses at them. When a patient does that the doctor cant accurately gauge what's wrong with them.
People love to blame doctors, but 99 times out of 100, bad calls are made because the patient gave bad information.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Let's let TOM speak shall we:
"I'm having great conversations on this site with one of my alias accounts" - by Tom (822) on Monday April 07, 2014 @02:29PM (#46686259) Homepage
FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
BY THE WAY TOM: Using your sockpuppet fake /. registered luser accounts to downmod the 1st time I posted this, trying to *vainly* & effetely "hide it", since it serves in exposing you?
Weak -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
AND
As was said there regarding your post I am replying to?
It also explains your +5 up mod on that post of yours I replied to there exposing you in this...!
(Easy to get using YOUR sockpuppets, admittedly, to mod up your other registered account posts too, isn't it? Yes, it is -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... )
It's going to be reposted again, anyhow - have fun blowing your modpoints, which you'll run DRY of, & then I'll just post it again... lol (I always, win).
APK
P.S.=> Tom *tried* to libel me & failed after I destroyed him in a technical debate on hosts files... result?
Tom ended up "eating his words" here http://slashdot.org/comments.p... spiced with "the bitter taste of SELF-defeat" + HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH
... apk
I watched Tim Minchin's Storm after a long time before going to sleep and as I wake up, there's this article on homeopathy, that must be THE PROOF! Just don't ask "Of what?"
Troll 2.0 Fear my asocial networking!
For Arker (91948); real medicine is always a trade off between desired effects and side effects. Usually the side effects are far outweighed by the therapeutic outcome of the medicine. As a pharmacist, I learned in school way back in the late 1970's that most of what homeopathy offered was nothing more than the placebo effect and high product margins for those selling these products. Today, large retail pharmacies including CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Etc. are still selling these "cures". It's not because they work, it's because of the high profit margins and the fact that people will still buy them. Back in the 1980's, the pharmacy I worked in sold acophidy bags. These were bags of "medical herbs" which when worn around the neck were touted to ward off colds and flu. Well, these things smelled so bad that no one would want to come around those who wore them, so, there may have been some validity in their claims. Alas, these and so many other "cures" were just snake oil cures. When homeopathic medicine conducts and publishes double-blind studies proving their safety and effectiveness, I will look at them in a new light. Until then, they are just another form of SNAKE OIL!!!
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
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