Apology: "Homeopathy is not witchcraft, it is nonsense on stilts"

[Guest sibon]

 

Except that they aren't getting better and it doesn't work. Nobody has ever wished themselves better, ever.

 

?

 

It doesn't work and, more importantly, there is no reason why it should work. It is quackery, pure and simple.

[pattricia]

Here is Ben Goldacre talking about the placebo effect on the NHS site. It is certainly a real but poorly understood effect, but it doesn't mean to say that we should be financing it.

 

Much of the "benefit" of a homeopathy consultation may be that the average time spent with the patient is 45 mins or so rather than the 8 mins average you will get with your GP. Sometimes a nice chat with somebody is all that's needed. But even if this is true then those resources spent on homeopathy consultations would be better spent getting the average GP consultation times up for everybody.

 

I agree with you entirely. They even found that patients in hospital got better quicker if the nurses actually put their arm around them, or held their hand. Its called "human contact".

[discodown]

Yes but those things can also make people better, unlike homoeopathy.

But people believe homoeopathy makes them better and arguably they display signs of improving.

 

(i'm just playing devils advocate - fairly badly - to be honest. I don't actually think it should be on the nhs)

[milquetoast1]

Some people want homeopathic remedies and it's their taxes etc which fund the NHS in the first place.

Some people want free eye tests, and free dental care. I seem to remember that we used to get it. Some serious diseases can be identified early by these checks. Don't you think that people that want them should have them, at least before the funding of placebos?

 

Shouldn't prostrate cancer screening, or indeed any medical checkup, maybe a full body scan, be available to people just because they want it and pay taxes? Or is it best to let medical experts determine how best to allocate the limited resources of the NHS?

[milquetoast1]

I've just watched the Ben Goldacre video about the placebo effect again, and it relly is very good. It's less than 5 mins long as well, so recommended.

 

The google video that Evei posted earlier is a debate titled Does Homeopathy Work, and it also features Ben Goldacre. It looks interesting, but it lasts an hour and a half, so I'll watch it later.

[MAMALOCHA!]

reminds me of 51st state

[Guest]

I've just watched the Ben Goldacre video about the placebo effect again, and it relly is very good. It's less than 5 mins long as well, so recommended. ...

Ben Goldacre on homoeopathy.

[Guest sibon]

.

 

 

A lot of the people who use homeopathy and who want to continue to have it available on the NHS, do not care that there is no conclusive proof that it works.

 

 

I've pondered this post for the best part of an hour now. I really can't decide if you are serious, or trolling.

 

Surely, you can't believe that the taxpayer should fork out for such a discredited, unproven type of "medicine".

 

I'd have thought that proof that it works would be a pre-requisite for approving any kind of treatment.

[Bozo]

With a government putting the likes of David Tredinnick and Nadine Dorries on the health select committee homeopathy may be the least of our problems.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/26/conservatives-health-select-committee

[Vague_Boy]

I don't mind homeopathy as long as it involves two blondes (twins).

 

(I'm just watching.)