This is a guest post by British doctor DeeTee. See more by DeeTee here.
Sometimes I really wonder what planet the homeopaths live on. Recently the World Health Organisation responded to the concerns about the use of homeopathy in the developing world for serious diseases such as AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and infant diarrhoea, all of which are diseases with a massive morbidity and mortality, and all of which can be treated with effective conventional medical therapies. I have pointed out this silliness previously.
Well it seems the Society of Homeopaths are so upset at the bad press garnered by the WHO statement that they have attempted an exercise in damage limitation. In a move that is reminiscent of the failed attempts of the British Chiropractic Association to provide a "plethora of evidence to back up their claims of evidence for chiropractic, the SoH have responded by publishing the evidence in support of homeopathy in the developing world.
This "evidence" consists of a paltry number of unreplicated studies of dubious quality looking at the use of homeopathy for infant diarrhoea in Nicaragua. Other bloggers such as Andy Lewis (le canard noir) have deconstructed this twaddle better than I could. But what intrigued me most about the SoH statement was what it didn't say.
Does it provide any evidence for the use of homeopathy for malaria, or tuberculosis, or HIV infection? Nope, not a single word. You would imagine that the Society of Homeopaths should be able to summon at a moments notice a long list of studies demonstrating the effectiveness of homeopathy for any condition you care to mention. But not even the best cherry-picking brains in the SoH could come up with a study, not even a poor one, to justify the use of their silly nostrums for these serious diseases.
I think the conclusions are clear. Homeopathy is nothing but pseudoscientific gobbledegook and has no place in the management of real illness.
This is a guest post by British doctor DeeTee.
http://layscience.net/trackback/630
I met a homeopath yesterday, who was a surprisingly nice intelligent woman (most homeopaths I've met aren't). I asked her a few questions about the science behind it and she said she wasn't sure. Hopefully, I've planted a seed of doubt in her head:
She tried to explain it to me as "a bit like mathematics - how you have a really small number and then you times it by itself and you get a really large number"
So I says: "Do you mean negative numbers?"
And she said "Yeah, exactly"
So naturally, I replied "So you take out the thing from normal water that you're using to cure the symptoms?"
"No, you increase the potency"
"Yeah but surely in ordinary mineral water [she uses Volvic] you'll get billions of molecules from the water's memory, some of which would probably be counter productive to the molecules that you've put in the water?"
And she said "Yeah, actually, I hadn't thought of it like that..."
:-)
Why does Dr DeeTee find homeopaths so threatening?
@LuneBalloon:
because they are telling people with life threatening diseases that instead of seeking proper medical treatment they should take homeopathic 'treatments' which are known not to work.
In these cases the homeopath is effectively 'euthanising' (murdering?) the patient.
"Why does Dr DeeTee find homeopaths so threatening?"
Also they travel to Africa to exploit the poor, ill and uneducated as part of their drive towards self-aggrandisement.
[Martin] Three comments deleted: I will not tolerate continuous abuse directed at a guest writer or commenter. If you have any actual arguments to make, make them in a civil manner.
Cock-a-doodle cuckoo ...
I also think that the use of homeopathy has increased in the developing countries ,because due to low per capita income the people are not able to afford the expensive moder medicine treatments hence the scope has increased as homeopathy is economical then allopathy.for more refer to psoriasis homeopathy
I also think that the use of homeopathy has increased in the developing countries ,because due to low per capita income the people are not able to afford the expensive moder medicine treatments hence the scope has increased as homeopathy is economical then allopathy.for more refer to psoriasis homeopathy
I, for one, think that homeopaths should be encouraged to send their remedies to Africa, provided they do so pro bono, give them out to whoever asks for them regardless of their condition or health and that the homeopaths donate their remedies in 10,000 ton lots.
Africa needs all the pure water it can get.
i think homeopathy shold be encourage by medical networks all around the world. there are many revolutionary treatment like psoriasis homeopathy, sinusitis, and even the horrified Swine Influenza...