9th September 2004, 6:42 PM
Okay then, allow me to explain exactly what homeopathy is.
Homeopathic medicine, as normally defined, is actually water with ridiculous dilutions of certain medicines. The belief is that the water holds some sort of "memory" of whatever was diluted in it, so the water itself is able to somehow maintain properties, or at least trigger the same "healing" response the actual medicine that was originally diluted into it had. It involves "the law of similars", a completely unproven concept.
Allow me to point something out. The scientific community does NOT support homeopathy at ALL. If you are seeing a doctor who supports it, GET A NEW DOCTOR!
As you may have noticed reading above, the very concept of this medicine is foolish. It violates everything known about how atomic particles operate. Water molecules do NOT have a system for maintaining memory, at all. If they did, it would completely rewrite the very foundations of physics. This isn't a bad thing of course, but there is no evidence that it is the case.
Also, do some logical thinking. Aside from the medicine, what else is in that solution? Likely bits of dirt, dust, bacteria, and whatever else may have drifted in there.
Allow me to point you to a page that does a lot better job pointing out the flaws than I. This page is supported by "The Amazing Randi", no not the comedian/magician who shares the name, he's the skeptic's skeptic, who offers a 1 million dollar prize to anyone who can prove any pseudoscience he has listed as such. This fellow is pretty respected, though he can be somewhat rude, by the scientific community. As such, if this guy supports the following site, you can assume this particular site isn't made by a quack themselves.
Here's Randi's page: http://www.randi.org/
Here's the Quackwatch page: http://www.quackwatch.org/
Here's a particular link regarding Homeopathy itself, and WHY it's harmful in the end, even though it's just water.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRela...homeo.html
Note that there aren't "two sides" in this. In life a LOT of things are one-sided when the evidence totally piles up on one side. Don't listen to Fox News telling you there's "two sides to every story", because a lot of the time in science, there isn't :D.
This points out how it's SO diluted, that there is generally one bit of the healing element per KNOWN UNIVERSE, or even higher. With dilutions so ridiculously high, it's easy to see that buying a vial of this stuff is a huge gamble that you will even GET a particle of the healing bit IN your sample.
Now, as to the Atkins Diet.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRela...s/lcd.html
(I think it's cute that that low carb diet can be acroed to lcd :D, note I just think it's funny, not that it's evidence of anything :D.)
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/
Holistic Jerry, Holistic...
As to that, "all natural" is a meaningless buzz word. Snake venom is all natural. Oil is 100% organic. A big sack of sugar is "fat free". These words mean nothing.
Treating the cause is what actual doctors do anyway! The big "conspiracy against alternative medicine" with the whole argument that "the big money hospitals" are interested in keeping you alive but sick so you keep coming in, is just that, a conspiracy theory. Doctors, in general, are people who WANT to see you healthy. Just walk into any overrun hospital full of injured patients and you'll easily see doctors have more than enough to deal with without making sure MORE people become ill. Radiotherapy is really a method that works.
Okay, one other thing. If you believe that any of these methods worked on you, it's all psychology. I am NOT calling you stupid, in fact smart people can be especially vulnerable because they overthink this stuff into validation. It's just that these methods are NOT proven via the scientific method, and ALL medicine MUST be tested by that standard! As of yet, homeopathy and the rest shows a success rate no greater than is allowed by chance. If you got better, it's almost certain it would have happened anyway.
One important thing. YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS IRRELEVENT! This is the most offensive thing most not familiar with the scientific method hear, but it's true. Your personal experience, unless it was your experience doing a fun double-blind test with a very massive range of tested people, has no bearing on the truth of something.
Please, PLEASE read everything I posted there and really REALLY think about what you have been experiencing with alternative medicine! This is important! I really don't want to see people getting scammed by this stuff! PLEASE take what I say seriously and don't just respond with anger!
Homeopathic medicine, as normally defined, is actually water with ridiculous dilutions of certain medicines. The belief is that the water holds some sort of "memory" of whatever was diluted in it, so the water itself is able to somehow maintain properties, or at least trigger the same "healing" response the actual medicine that was originally diluted into it had. It involves "the law of similars", a completely unproven concept.
Quote:Proponents call homeopathy's defining principle the "Law of Similars." ("Like cures like.") This holds that substances that cause healthy people to get symptoms can cure diseases that have these symptoms. This idea is a form of "sympathetic magic" similar to the primitive idea that eating the heart of a lion will make a person brave.
Allow me to point something out. The scientific community does NOT support homeopathy at ALL. If you are seeing a doctor who supports it, GET A NEW DOCTOR!
As you may have noticed reading above, the very concept of this medicine is foolish. It violates everything known about how atomic particles operate. Water molecules do NOT have a system for maintaining memory, at all. If they did, it would completely rewrite the very foundations of physics. This isn't a bad thing of course, but there is no evidence that it is the case.
Also, do some logical thinking. Aside from the medicine, what else is in that solution? Likely bits of dirt, dust, bacteria, and whatever else may have drifted in there.
Allow me to point you to a page that does a lot better job pointing out the flaws than I. This page is supported by "The Amazing Randi", no not the comedian/magician who shares the name, he's the skeptic's skeptic, who offers a 1 million dollar prize to anyone who can prove any pseudoscience he has listed as such. This fellow is pretty respected, though he can be somewhat rude, by the scientific community. As such, if this guy supports the following site, you can assume this particular site isn't made by a quack themselves.
Here's Randi's page: http://www.randi.org/
Here's the Quackwatch page: http://www.quackwatch.org/
Here's a particular link regarding Homeopathy itself, and WHY it's harmful in the end, even though it's just water.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRela...homeo.html
Note that there aren't "two sides" in this. In life a LOT of things are one-sided when the evidence totally piles up on one side. Don't listen to Fox News telling you there's "two sides to every story", because a lot of the time in science, there isn't :D.
Quote:Homeopathic products are made from minerals, botanical substances, and several other sources. If the original substance is soluble, one part is diluted with either nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and shaken vigorously (succussed); if insoluble, it is finely ground and pulverized in similar proportions with powdered lactose (milk sugar). One part of the diluted medicine is then further diluted, and the process is repeated until the desired concentration is reached. Dilutions of 1 to 10 are designated by the Roman numeral X (1X = 1/10, 3X = 1/1,000, 6X = 1/1,000,000). Similarly, dilutions of 1 to 100 are designated by the Roman numeral C (1C = 1/100, 3C = 1/1,000,000, and so on). Most remedies today range from 6X to 30X, but products of 30C or more are marketed.
This points out how it's SO diluted, that there is generally one bit of the healing element per KNOWN UNIVERSE, or even higher. With dilutions so ridiculously high, it's easy to see that buying a vial of this stuff is a huge gamble that you will even GET a particle of the healing bit IN your sample.
Now, as to the Atkins Diet.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRela...s/lcd.html
(I think it's cute that that low carb diet can be acroed to lcd :D, note I just think it's funny, not that it's evidence of anything :D.)
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/
Holistic Jerry, Holistic...
As to that, "all natural" is a meaningless buzz word. Snake venom is all natural. Oil is 100% organic. A big sack of sugar is "fat free". These words mean nothing.
Treating the cause is what actual doctors do anyway! The big "conspiracy against alternative medicine" with the whole argument that "the big money hospitals" are interested in keeping you alive but sick so you keep coming in, is just that, a conspiracy theory. Doctors, in general, are people who WANT to see you healthy. Just walk into any overrun hospital full of injured patients and you'll easily see doctors have more than enough to deal with without making sure MORE people become ill. Radiotherapy is really a method that works.
Okay, one other thing. If you believe that any of these methods worked on you, it's all psychology. I am NOT calling you stupid, in fact smart people can be especially vulnerable because they overthink this stuff into validation. It's just that these methods are NOT proven via the scientific method, and ALL medicine MUST be tested by that standard! As of yet, homeopathy and the rest shows a success rate no greater than is allowed by chance. If you got better, it's almost certain it would have happened anyway.
One important thing. YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS IRRELEVENT! This is the most offensive thing most not familiar with the scientific method hear, but it's true. Your personal experience, unless it was your experience doing a fun double-blind test with a very massive range of tested people, has no bearing on the truth of something.
Please, PLEASE read everything I posted there and really REALLY think about what you have been experiencing with alternative medicine! This is important! I really don't want to see people getting scammed by this stuff! PLEASE take what I say seriously and don't just respond with anger!
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)