Comments on: 09-01-14

By: German Bonilla

German Bonilla — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:48:02 +0000

On the evidence side. Which says homeopathy does not work. We’re on the same side, right?

By: German Bonilla

German Bonilla — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:43:09 +0000

So I guess you consider “not bagus” a remedy where you drink a mixture of several (there are over 80 known chemicals in green tea, plus many more unknown), mostly unknown “natural” chemical compounds whose effect over human health at different dosages and combinations are poorly understood. Of course if you put so many things into your system, you’re surely going to have SOME kind of effect!

But on the same reasoning, you should take soil infusions to have the same effect. I understand there are over a million different species of bacteria in a single gram, and at least half of them produce secondary metabolites, so you’re surely having an effect as well.

(on second thought, I might patent this and get rich selling this idea to stupid new-age neo hippies)

By: vera

vera — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:25:16 +0000

Brian, it seems you have bought into the pharmaceutical industry’s propaganda hook, line and sinker. You claim that ‘almost ALL’ forms of alternative therapies are useless. Have you never looked at the statistics of what percentage of pharmaceutical drugs are of plant origin? It is the vast majority, with only a small number being truly man-made in origin.

While many plant based chemicals are later synthesized artificially, most of them remain nature identical, with the only difference being in the medical dosage being strictly controlled, as compared with the variability of a biological/herbal dosage.
This does not mean that the herbal remedy won’t work, but it may have a more variable effect on some patients. So dismissing TCM/herbal remedies as bogus is basically shooting down your own belief in allopathic/pharmaceutical drugs.

And I will say that I am not defending all forms of alternative therapies. I have serious doubts as to the efficacy of homeopathy, but lumping all alternative treatments into one basket is incredibly unscientific of you, especially considering you have based this observation on one summer’s study. I hate to think how little time each alternative treatment you assessed actually received before it was dismissed as ‘bogus’.

By: Toby

Toby — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:30:17 +0000

The placebo effect can also happen in children and in animals. Often those who are treating the afflicted child or animal will often spend more time with them, talk to them more, feed/water them more regularly which can all contribute to the healing process. Also, how do you know that it was indeed the homeopathic remedy that cured the ailment? It could be a number of things. That is the main reason for using trials to determine whether it is the remedy itself that produces a cure and not the placebo effect.

By: Lapin Jaune

Lapin Jaune — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:29:36 +0000

I was a skeptic
I tried classical homeopathy
I am a skeptic no more
It works better than anything else
Stop it with YOUR pseudoscience
Try it and you’ll see

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:35:34 +0000

Homeopathy as a healing practice is difficult. So is conventional medicine. And there will always be charlatans in every type of medicine.

The physics behind homeopathy is also difficult:

http://www.homeopathyoz.org/downloads/Roy-StructureOfWater.pdf

However, at one point people thought the world was flat and that the sun rotated around the earth. Because that was how it appeared, and there was no evidence to oppose it. For the same reason people thought that it would be impossible that a metal could be compressed in such a way that it would explode and destroy a city, or that volumes of information could be sent thousands of miles in a few seconds through fibres smaller than a human hair. But the evidence emerged, and these things became accepted.

So, which side do you want to be on?

By: curriejean

curriejean — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Frauds are so sexy!

By: Duncan

Duncan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:56:19 +0000

Excellent article and full of sense. The key to all this is the research and how the research is carried out. Faulty tests and cherry picking evidence are easy ways to get the results people want. Like all ‘psychics’ and claimers of paranormal powers, under a clinical, scientific test, they have nothing and cannot prove anything. Homeopaths are, at best, misguided and at worst charlatans. I point you to an excellent website: http://www.badscience.net/ run by Ben Goldacre. He has also written an excellent book, Bad Science. Keep up the good work.

By: George

George — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:45:08 +0000

Many years ago I knew a girl, in her twenties, suffering from a moderate acme. She went to homeopaths and they gave her a “medicine”. They told her that her organism will “react” to this medicine with a new and severe outburst of acme. When her body will be “cleaned up” from “toxins” she will be cured. But, as they also told her, they did not know how long this outburst would last. And this really happened. She got a red face for many years which she used to cover with a veil to protect it from the sun and from the curious eyes of her friends.
Back then I was a physics student and I could not understand how a “medicine” with an “active substance” of zero concentration could ever cause any effect.
But now, I think, I know what happened. The girl was in love with one of the “doctors”. They are usually charming charismatic people. So she decided (subconsciously?) to be affected from the “medicine” for a really long time in order to pay to him frequent visits. I would not be surprised if I learned that they are now a happily married couple.

By: George

George — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:58:27 +0000

I knew a girl in her twenties suffered from a moderate acme. She went to homeopaths and they gave her a “medicine”. They told her that her organism will “react to this medicine with a worst outburst of acme. When her body will be cleaned up from “toxins” she will be cured. But, as they told her, they did know how long it would last. And this happened. She got a really red face which she covered with a veil to protect it from the sun and from the eyes of her friends.
Back then I was a physics student and was really surprised. I could not understand how a “medicine” with an active substance of zero concentration could cause any effect.
But know I know what happened. The girl was in love with one of the “doctors”. They are usually charming charismatic people. So she decided (subconsciously?) to be affected from the “medicine” for a really long time in order to pay to him frequent visits. I would not be suprised if I learned that they are know a happily married couple.

By: Brad Cole

Brad Cole — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:49:25 +0000

Fair enough. Not

By: moil4gold49

moil4gold49 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:16:33 +0000

Margarita #1:

“Soooooo tired of reading about the placebo effects…arrogant to say it doesn’t work when so many people, including myself, have seen the effects”

I am getting soooo tired of cognitive dissonance.

Your case wasn’t Placebo Effect. It was healing/remission. Happens all the time.

YOU are the arrogant one. People who have “seen the effects” of aromatherapy/homeopathy have performed a “lab study” with n=1, and used an unskilled observer. But despite your pitifully narrow body of evidence, you arrogantly think your study is more valid than massive research studies and the vast majority of medical establishment.

Humans have all kinds of faulty observations. That’s why scientific study, double blind testing, and reproducibility of studies is so critical to modern science. It is designed to reduce the impact of human error, wishful thinking, and bias. I’ll side with the scientific method over the “Margarita method” every time, and that’s hardly arrogant – it’s just sensible.

By: Appalled

Appalled — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:24:02 +0000

Re: Gisela

Is anyone else amused that someone thinks the best way to counter 200 year old hoax is with a 2,000 year old one?

Enjoy your dreamworld, you deluded creature.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:46:15 +0000

re Margarita and Gisela: If these responses are typical of the individuals the online magazine attracts, perhaps Skeptic could rename itself “Flake.”

By: Gisela

Gisela — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:14:13 +0000

I liked the article of Dr.Hall. Don’t you know that homeopathy is occult. The occult medicine ( homeopathy, holistic) comes from Satan. Off course it will help for a time. The dark side wants you to stay, That’s why one believe in homeopathy and holistic if it helps. If one of you is a christian then you know what I mean.

All the holistic medicine is the further on bondage to the antichrist. People do not believe in Satan because they do not believe in Jesus Christ God’s begotten Son. There is darkness and light in our world. Darkness Satan and Light Jesus Christ.

The holistic ( homeopathy) medicine is giving you the wrong direction.It is more healthy to turn back to God through His Son Jesus Christ to become eternal life.

You may believe it or not!

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:06:12 +0000

As a medical student at a traditional allopathic medical school, I spent the summer between my first and second years at an alternative school so as to be educated about any potentially therapeutic alternatives that might be beneficial to my future practice. I can now say without bias that nearly ALL alternative medicine is bogus. Perhaps homeopathy is the most egregiously false, but other forms such as traditional Chinese medicine and accupuncture have equally disappointing clinical evidence. Margarita, unfortunately your son’s homeopathic treatment is in fact a placebo effect. Atopic dermatitis can come and go over one’s lifetime. Because traditional medicine has few effective treatments for atopic allergies, alternative med quacks have been exploiting desperate patients for years.

By: Don Johnson

Don Johnson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:14:07 +0000

Wow! I once hear somebody says homeopathy doesn’t work. He took real medicine and got better.

My story is clearly more right than yours, because I know my guy and I don’t know your guy.

By: Margarita

Margarita — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:02:58 +0000

Soooooo tired of reading about the placebo effects of homeopathy… So arrogant to say it doesn’t work when so many people, including myself, have seen the effects. When a child with atopic dermatitis is condemned to treatment of cortisone and, in three months, all the symptoms disappear with homeopathy, is that also placebo effect? He was 2 years old at a time and he’s going on 10 at the moment without the symptoms ever recurring… The conclusion: the homeopathic treatment worked!