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Anybody try homeopathic remedies?

J

JettDash

Junior Member
Because that's the dumbest shit I've ever heard of in my life.

They take a substance that is supposed to cause the symptoms to be cured. Then they dilute it with water so much that, depending on the preparation, it is extremely unlikely that there is even a single molecule in the final product. The more dilute, the stronger it is supposed to be.

This is the single most ridiculous scam I have ever heard in my life. They literally sell people pure water as if it medicine. Shit should be illegal.

Anyway, I bring this up because a friend asked me about it earlier. I set her straight without being mean. Or at least tried to.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
This thread is not what I thought it would be. Good on you OP. That shit is a scam and can get people seriously hurt if taken too far.
 
Z

Zepp Twofist

Member
What I never got was if water can remember vibrations of everything it's been in contact with, wouldn't all water be a homeopathic remedy for pretty much every single thing?
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Water cures everything tho ;)

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a pro-water homeopathic school. Just water. Apply water to everything. And you're sorted. Could do baptisms and all kinds of activities!
 
E

ErMerGerd

Neo Member
Man, when I was younger I had some pretty ambiguous health problems. My mom took me to see this lady who would squeeze your finger muscle, and count while she did it, until the muscle would 'tighten.' Whatever number the muscle tightened on would be how many drops of things like ginseng and (many others) you would take. 'Because the body knows'

My health problems were anxiety related. Needless to say... I was completely cured!!

....
 
S

skullmuffins

Banned
My family doctor* has apparently recommended homeopathic allergy medicine and a colloidal silver throat spray for my parents. I'm not a fan and I've told my parents he (or people in his practice) are pushing bullshit.

*I haven't had health insurance or visited a doctor in many years, but this is the guy I went to as a teen.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
skullmuffins said:
My family doctor* has apparently recommended homeopathic allergy medicine and a colloidal silver throat spray for my parents. I'm not a fan and I've told my parents he (or people in his practice) are pushing bullshit.

*I haven't had health insurance or visited a doctor in many years, but this is the guy I went to as a teen.
Click to expand...

I think it might depend on the symptoms. In the end some of the homeopathic stuff, even if natural, are also just "chemicals".
 
A

aaaaa0

Member
skullmuffins said:
My family doctor* has apparently recommended homeopathic allergy medicine and a colloidal silver throat spray for my parents. I'm not a fan and I've told my parents he (or people in his practice) are pushing bullshit.

*I haven't had health insurance or visited a doctor in many years, but this is the guy I went to as a teen.
Click to expand...

Does he have an actual medical degree and a license, or is he a "doctor"?
 
J

JettDash

Junior Member
If there are actual doctors prescribing homeopathic remedies, they should have their licences stripped for gross incompetence. Unless maybe they intend it as a placebo.
 
H

Holden

Member
Shit is insane. French people love this shit.

The pharmacy right down my street displays "homeopathie" on it. Shit blows my mind but nobody gives a fuck.
 
kittoo

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
My gf and her whole family is into it. Drives me nuts. Her mother had a fever once and couldn't even speak, yet they kept taking these shitty ass pills which don't do anything. It's crazy!
 
S

skullmuffins

Banned
aaaaa0 said:
Does he have an actual medical degree and a license, or is he a "doctor"?
Click to expand...
He's a real MD. He's pretty religious, though, and I already lost respect for him for asking about my/my families church attendance habits and for displaying pamphlets promoting the misleading anti-abortion line that abortion causes breast cancer.
 
Alx

Alx

Member
Holden said:
Shit is insane. French people love this shit.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was about to mention it. It's quite common over here, it's even a recommended treatment for cattle (!) to get the "organic food" label.
I refuse to support it out of principle, but I've had medically trained relatives defending it by saying "yeah it shouldn't work, but statistically it gives better results than placebo, so whatever...". I never checked if it was true or not though, but I wouldn't be surprised it had become some kind of cultural superstition, like fan death in Korea.
 
K

Kaffeemann

Banned
Is homeopathy a thing in the US and Canada?
It's pretty big in Germany and some other european countries which is just embarrassing.
 
J

JettDash

Junior Member
Alx said:
Yeah I was about to mention it. It's quite common over here, it's even a required treatment for animals to get the "organic food" label.
I refuse to support it out of principle, but I've had medically trained relatives defending it by saying "yeah it shouldn't work, but apparently statistically it gives better results than placebo, so whatever...". I never checked if it was true or not though, but I wouldn't be surprised it's become some kind of cultural superstition, like death fan in Korea.
Click to expand...

I would bet my life that homeopathy gives exactly the same results as a placebo since they are the same thing (sugar pills with no active ingredient).

Kaffeemann said:
Is homeopathy a thing in the US and Canada?
It's pretty big in Germany and some other european countries which is just embarrassing.
Click to expand...

Not really, I don't think. I've never seen that shit at a drug store or anything though I'm sure there are con artists online happy to take your money.
 
G

Greddleok

Member
My doctor recommended it for my anxiety when I was a teenager. I took it without thinking twice - my doctor recommended it!

It didn't help.

Alx said:
"yeah it shouldn't work, but statistically it gives better results than placebo, so whatever...".
Click to expand...

It doesn't. Any time it has, (i.e. those studies funded by homeopathy promoters) it's never been reproducible.
 
spons

spons

Gold Member
There's an anthroposophical doctor at my doctor's office. You guys do realize eurythmy is the cure to most problems related to the spirit and soul, right?
 
S

skullmuffins

Banned
JettDash said:
Not really, I don't think. I've never seen that shit at a drug store or anything though I'm sure there are con artists online happy to take your money.
Click to expand...
There are definitely homeopathic remedies available in the US. Hyland's baby teething tablets were in the news earlier this year because they were recalled due to non-homeopathic levels of belladonna... as in, it actually contained active levels of the substance and was poisoning babies.
 
A

aaaaa0

Member
Kaffeemann said:
Is homeopathy a thing in the US and Canada?
It's pretty big in Germany and some other european countries which is just embarrassing.
Click to expand...

What's embarrassing is that the USA has a formal government endorsed homeopathic pharmacopeia. It was snuck into the FDA regulations by a senator in 1938.

https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/NewsEvents/UCM443487.pdf

Since homeopathic medicine is basically just water, it is non-toxic, so it's never been pulled by the government.

The FTC has ruled they can't make claims as to efficacy without scientific evidence though.
 
Alx

Alx

Member
JettDash said:
I would bet my life that homeopathy gives exactly the same results as a placebo since they are the same thing (sugar pills with no active ingredient).
Click to expand...

I'd be ready to accept that the specific ingestion method could provide a stronger placebo effect since it makes you feel like you're handling serious stuff (don't take too much or you'll die ! Don't touch the pills or you'll ruin them !), just like shamanic gestures and mystic chants would. But no way the molecules (or lack thereof) have any practical effect.
Which makes me scoff even more at using it on cattle.
 
D

DerekOfTheDykes

Member
I was worried we'd have to lay knowledge down on OP in this thread, but all is well

Stay away from homeopathy, kids, and likewise for any of the billion different exotic sounding "traditional" eastern medicinal practices that have no basis in science
 
Freshmaker

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
skullmuffins said:
My family doctor* has apparently recommended homeopathic allergy medicine and a colloidal silver throat spray for my parents. I'm not a fan and I've told my parents he (or people in his practice) are pushing bullshit.

*I haven't had health insurance or visited a doctor in many years, but this is the guy I went to as a teen.
Click to expand...

If it's an actual colloidal silver solution and not some nonsense about hitting pure water with a glass rod, then that would work vs a sore throat. It works ok as a topical antibiotic (so long as you don't drink it til you turn blue).
 
U

Unbounded

Member
Zepp Twofist said:
What I never got was if water can remember vibrations of everything it's been in contact with, wouldn't all water be a homeopathic remedy for pretty much every single thing?
Click to expand...

If water could "remember vibrations" of all the shit that has ever been in it I'm pretty sure all of us would have died off ages ago.

But yeah.
 
S

SolidusDave

Member
What gets me is that there is a whole industry set up for this shit. Relatively big companies like Heel in Germany.
Industrialized snake oil. One of my PhD colleagues went to work for them and all I can do is shaking my head at him. They design tests to basically test the placebo effect and when compared with other products they scrape the bottom of the barrel to focus e.g. on positive remarks by the patient (because all the products will have no different effect on the illness progression).

They even sell products for pets -.-



And all the ignorant people are eating their bs up. Especially the hippie left loves the based-on-plant-components sales pitch. Even better if it's something evil pharma would not use because they want to hide that it's working!!!111

Not to mention that the main reason for using plant stuff for homeopathy is that they don't have to follow all the guidelines for actual medications.
- anything from a plant that's known to be safe to consume for humans is automatically ok to sell
- plus of course they just sell water and sugar tablets so it's not a drug that requires safety tests and studies showing it working beyond a placebo effect.


In principle I would say let people have their placebo effect but it's just too much anti-science. Luckily only harmful for a few people with severe illnesses and doesn't have the tiger penis aspect of Chinese medicine...
 
L

lord pie

Member
I used to use 'Rescue Remedy' for my bad anxiety issues when I was young.

People insisted it worked amazingly but it never really did anything for me, and I took *a lot*. It was even recommended for babies as it was natural. It had an odd, unpleasant taste that I assumed was the flower extracts it said it contained.

Only much later on I found out it was homeopathic. They sell this stuff alongside genuine medication, it's infuriating. Not labeled in any clear way.

Oh and that odd taste? The 'preservative' for the water. It was basically ~1/3rd whiskey.

great for babies!


:mad:
 
S

skullmuffins

Banned
ramparter said:
I'm glad it's not illegal, I have tried them and it have helped me. You don't like it? Ignore it.
Click to expand...
This is a nice line, except people will ignore or neglect real medicine in favor of pursuing homeopathic remedies. You say they "helped" you, but scientifically they don't do better than placebo. At the very least, taking someone's money in exchange for a false cure that we know doesn't work is incredibly unethical.
 
M

MrCow

Member
My father has an alternative medicine office, including homeopathic treatments. So as a kid to teenager i was often treated for a variety of illnesses with the sugar pills. They don't work.

The only thing that works for me from the variety of skills that my father has learned and is offering in his office is chiropractics/osteopathy. You can really feel the cause of the pain (in my example back pain) getting realigned and afterwards an instant reduction in pain, and most of the time it's only the muscles that hurt a while after.
 
A

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
The funniest part is that people who do rage about the "Billion dollar health multinationals", like Boiron is excused for having "just" 600m revenue.
 
A

Aquavelvaman

Banned
I know it's probably bullshit but I screwed up my back a few months ago and I couldn't even lie down in bed without being in tons of pain for about a week. Then I got acupuncture and I felt better basically instantly. It was nuts. Have been 100% fine since.

I guess that's not homeopathy but it's in the same realm
 
F

Fudgepuppy

Banned
I don't know if I remember this wrong, but aren't there "homeopathic" ingredients that turned out to have good qualities, that were implemented into real medicine? Like certain plants, roots and stuff?

I'm completely against homeopathic medicine, but I think it's important to have in mind that homeopathic essentially means that there's no evidence of it working. If it turned out tomorrow that having certain kinds of stones in your pockets cured cancer and that there was evidence of it, it would've not been homeopathic anymore.
 
S

skullmuffins

Banned
Fudgepuppy said:
I don't know if I remember this wrong, but aren't there "homeopathic" ingredients that turned out to have good qualities, that were implemented into real medicine? Like certain plants, roots and stuff?

I'm completely against homeopathic medicine, but I think it's important to have in mind that homeopathic essentially means that there's no evidence of it working. If it turned out tomorrow that having certain kinds of stones in your pockets cured cancer and that there was evidence of it, it would've not been homeopathic anymore.
Click to expand...
The fundamental idea of homeopathy is "like cures like". As in, you find some substance that "causes" an illness, say, diarrhea, you dilute it to to an insane degree where you're not likely to have even one molecule of the original substance in the dilution, and somehow that will cure the original affliction.

It's 100% bullshit.

Don't conflate homeopathy with other alternative medicines that may use herbs and supplements (those probably don't work either, but at least they're not based on a nonsense claim.)
 
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