So why do we not just get better automatically when we get ill? Well, a lot of the time people do just get better, and that is clearly due to this unseen homeopathy . Unfortunately, the the near-infinite medical potency of tapwater is such that it creates a lot of “therapeutic noise”. The body simply doesn’t know which of the healing voices to listen to. So it’s probably the therapeutic intervention of giving someone a sugar pill, and saying, “this will cure your arthritis” attunes the body to listen out for the healing memory of the homeopathic molecules–in the water they drink to swallow it!

So far from disproving homeopathy, the placebo effect confirms it. If we could only train our bodies to listen better to the homeopathic cures flooding our veins, then we could shut down the NHS. Thames Water might want to jack up the water rates a bit though.

17.11.05 – Letter to Time Out
Re: The Bitterest Pill

Dear Sir,
We object very strongly to the highly opinionated article by the allegedly infamous quack-buster Ben Goldacre (The Bitterest Pill, p.24) in Time Out (November 16 – 23). Goldacre used this opportunity to talk about placebo and cited homeopathy as a prime candidate. He must be ignorant of the fact that over 20 rigorous and scientific trials have demonstrated that homeopathy has an effect over and above placebo and this includes large-scale trials on farm animals, which presumably are not susceptible to the idea of placebo.

In his dismissive conclusion, he asserts our therapy is served with, “extra lies, expense, reassurance and paternalism”. What complete rubbish! The Society of Homeopaths has over 1200 Registered Members, none of whom would recognise themselves in this stupid remark and nor would their patients.

The Society was pleased to see, however, that despite Goldacre’s views, that homeopathy was placed firmly in the ‘acceptable’ therapies in the same issue (Alternative Health Special, p.146).

Yours sincerely

Melanie Oxley
Communications Manager

www.panexa.com/

Placebin- does exactly what it says on the tin.

Support your Local Homeopath-
a joint message from Thames Water and British Sugar

Homeopathy-
for when doing nothing is good enough

Colonic Irrigation-
just going through the motions

Craniosacral Therapy-
scratching heads and tickling bums

Alternative Medicine-
more quacks than your local pond

Chiropractic-
Back. Crack. Quack.

Bob

However the notion that a vague statement that “like cures like” should be a framework for developing medical treatment is a weak theory with no explanatory power. At the time it was as bad as any other theory around but nowdays it is showing its age. Just to prempt the inevitable, yes occasionally “like cures like”, and sometimes “opposite cures opposite”. But both statements are facile, prone to being twisted post-hoc to fit an argument and neither is a sound basis for treating an illness. Convential medicine is not developed from the idea that “opposite cures opposite” (allopathy) despite what the homeopaths might have us believe. They are not even competing. Homeopathy is one weak theory based on metaphorical reasoning whereas convential medicine is a whole hoarde of theories all building on each other and based on centuries of experimental knowledge (and more importantly the more recent one).

Either a treatment works or it doesn’t. If some (non-potentised) homeopathic treatment works it is probably because the ingredient has an active compound. In this instance “like cures like” is supported but also several more specific theories within the body of knowledge that underlies convential medicine to do with the pharmacological effect of the compound. But if our current scientific knowledge cannot explain how it works homeopathy cannot offer an explanation either. It has no explanatory or predictive power. So in what way is homeopathy a theory with any useful purpose?

There is an awkward middle ground with nasty chronic diseases like cancer, for which the the may be no genuine “mind over body” effect on actual survival rates, but the ability to live with the disease in a better frame of mind is valuable.

It is dangerously easy for conventional medics to give unnecessary ground to the woos by saying that they at least evoke a useful placebo response, but we should keep our critical guard up and employ some objectivity in assessing the power of that response.

Conversely, if the SCAMmers were not just in it for the money and the public credibility and really wanted to help medicine, they would properly embrace attempts to tease out the relative merits of the placebo power of their favourite therapy.

Translated….

“Whether or not the little bottle of water cures your cancer, we still make bundles of cash”

Unfortunately, nowadays, even some homeopaths can not tell the difference between a homeopathic remedy (one that can produce similar symptoms) and a potentised remedy (one that is diluted) and so your ignorance is excused.

But since he says he couldn’t give a sh!te about the facts, so don’t bother to correct him, I suppose it’s a waste of time posting this.

Fair enough, IT Bloke, stay misinformed. We should coco.

Says it all for me really.

Acupuncture – I am going to stick all these pins into you. I’ve no idea whether this will work or not. Side effects include pain and bleeding. What do you think?

Crystals – Sit next to this crystal and meditate for a bit. I’ll be outside having a coffee. Side effects may include drowsiness. What do you think?

etc etc

Would alternative medicine work at all if grumpy old doctors like Ben had to dish it out?

www.badscience.net/?p=188