Is Homeopathic medicine a fraud?

Boots: 'we sell homeopathic remedies because they sell, not because they work'

"There is certainly a consumer demand for these products," he said. "I have no evidence to suggest they are efficacious.

"If you prescribe a drug to patients that you know has no efficacy, on a basis which is essentially dishonest with a patient, I personally feel that is unethical," Dr James Thallon, medical director at the NHS West Kent primary care trust told MPs.

full article
www.telegraph.co.uk... e-they-work.html

Hope this helps anyone who is sick and thinking of this as an alternative.

[edit on 26-11-2009 by genius/idoit]

I use onions for my breathing problems, and although not a cure, it is a remedy.

i am sure there are all sorts of remedies out there, but the people live in ignorance, as there must be lots of disinfo as people just want to sell to make money.

reply to post by genius/idoit





Your link didn't work...I use lots of alternative meds....Thet do work...Most pharmacy meds come from natural remedies/plants etc...But they can't patent natural remedies...their goal is to get rich, not help people...

Using the actual herbs, root, leaves etc of plants is far more effective than the homeopathic dilute scam. Of course you need some form of knowledge on how to prepare it from nature safely.
Of course there is also the placebo effect we may go some way to explaining the success of homeopathic remedies.

sorry I can't fix the link but it takes you to the main page and look for the title

Boots: 'we sell homeopathic remedies because they sell, not because they work'

sorry it's the best I can do

Most homeopathic medicine is a load of crap, eating dirt and twigs will not cure you of disease. As an example I tried onions in the recent Onions will cure or prevent the flu thread. Onions did not help me get better and everyone in my family ended up being sick.

Originally posted by pazcat
Using the actual herbs, root, leaves etc of plants is far more effective than the homeopathic dilute scam. Of course you need some form of knowledge on how to prepare it from nature safely.
Of course there is also the placebo effect we may go some way to explaining the success of homeopathic remedies.

Strip off a piece of willow bark and you get the same effects as aspirin because that's where aspirin comes from. Pharm meds are pretty much based on natures cure but they're synthesis. That is where the problem is.
The Pharm companies methods of synthesizing the compound and then having to modify the synthesis to be able to bond to the fillers and buffers.
Then there is what happens when they combine their compounds, sorta like vinigar and backing soda, they're fine seperately but don't mix well together.
Nature puts its own buffers in with its medicines which is a perfect balance on its healing properties whereas we will take the most prevelant compound out, synthesis it and add our own buffers to it, not realizing that sometimes it is those small trace elements and compounds that make all the difference between natural and man-made.
Another possible analogy is the chocolate chip cookie, do you prefer them made with butter or Crisco? They are both chocolate chip cookies but I get more of a satisfaction from the cookies made with butter.

[edit on 26-11-2009 by geo1066]

Homeopathic medicine as i understand it:
Take X that supposedly causes the same symptom patient is suffering from, dilute it so that there is not a single molecule of this X in a dose, and the more you dilute - the stronger the effect is.
Yes, this should work. Not.
So homeopathy is expensive placebo,as noted by pazcat. The positive is that it is as harmless as weak alcohol or as sugar. And it allows a lot of people make a lot of money.

Originally posted by genius/idoit

Boots: 'we sell homeopathic remedies because they sell, not because they work'

"There is certainly a consumer demand for these products," he said. "I have no evidence to suggest they are efficacious.

"If you prescribe a drug to patients that you know has no efficacy, on a basis which is essentially dishonest with a patient, I personally feel that is unethical," Dr James Thallon, medical director at the NHS West Kent primary care trust told MPs.

full article
www.telegraph.co.uk... e-they-work.html

Hope this helps anyone who is sick and thinking of this as an alternative.

[edit on 26-11-2009 by genius/idoit]

The article on Wiki is completely biased. I'm a pharmacist (doctor of pharmacy degree) and I've studied homeoapthy, too. It's not a fraud. Not only did it work beautifully in saving people in epidemics (including the 1918 epidemic) but it works in healing chronic disease, too.

There are thousands of studies showing success in homeoapthy....you just have to look beyond wikipedia.

Also, on a personal note:

My chronic disease was cured by homeoapthy. I couldn't get relief from pharmaceutical medications. I tried homeopathy, and it worked. I truly owe my life to it.

Reply to ZeroKnowledge:

While I certainly do not know enough about homeopathic remedies to comment fully on the subject, I do know enough to know that your summary is completely misrepresentative.

The idea of homeopathy is that exposure to tiny amounts of something OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME will promote a healthy immune system. In short - its not the concentration of the substance that matters but the time period of the exposure.

For example - to combat symptoms of a cold - you would take something like eachincea at small doses for a period of years and hopefully build your immune system so that when you got exposed to the cold virus - you would already have a strong immune system.

Tired of Control Freaks

Just to finish my thought

To the poster who tried to use onions to treat flu symptoms - you used the onions the wrong way.

Homeopathic medicine would advise you to eat generous portions of onions and garlic in your diet at all times to stimulate your immune system so that the symptoms of the flu would be ameliorated when you did get it.

Tired of Control Freaks

reply to post by TiredofControlFreaks


Ok. Yes, long term exposure sounds fine. But let us play a numbers game.
We take 1 gram of Carbon and want to make 30C homeopathic remedy of it. In 12 grams of Carbon we have 6.022*10exp 23 molecules. 1 gram is 1/12th of it. We will not be picky, let us wrongfully assume that there is 1*10 exp23 molecules in gram of carbon (there is naturally twice less). If we would like to produce relatively potent 30C homeopathic dilution, it means that we would dilute it by 1*10 exp(-60). This means that in one bottle out of three there will be one Carbon molecule. What happens in 200C - i would not even discuss.
So body will get used to water. Or alcohol. Or sugar.
Not carbon.
And we talk about C from periodic table, vast majority of Homeopathic remedies have much much much higher molar weight so there will be one molecule in 1 of 100s doses.
Sorry, do not buy "water memory", "energy vibes" and other stuff.

HOMEOPATHIC Medicine is legitimate IMO. It, like many modalities, depends on whose executing it. In the wrong hands, its useless. The principles of VACCINATION are the same: use a little bit of a Med to STIMULATE the Nervous System to produce the bodys protective mechanism.
I use the principles regularly.