Homeopaths vs. Ebola virus hemorrhagic fever

Of course, it’s not long before Adams dives into rank conspiracy theories about big pharma wanting this patient to develop Ebola drugs and thereby make massive profits

They’ll invest in research and develop drugs that will successfully treat Ebola and ultimately make a profit?

OMG! The horror, the horror!

I should perhaps point out that the digs at Homeopaths Without Borders and other individual homeopaths only began after some of them started wittering on, on Twitter, about treating Ebola with homeopathy.

Naturally, a few of us have suggested that if they’re so confident in the efficacy of their remedies then they should consider flying out to Africa to deal with the current epidemic but, thus far, we’ve had no takers…

The Survivalist Guide to Homeopathy

Right, it’s amazing if you survive using homeopathy.

This is a golden opportunity for the homeopaths to demonstrate the efficacy of their nostrums to us nasty sceptics. I wonder why they aren’t rushing in there to help.

I just thought up a new verb for what Mikey does**:
he *conspirafabulates*, i.e. he confabulates conspiracies.
At the drop of a hat. All day long.

** no, not THAT- we already have MANY verbs for that.

“…ought _to_ cheer anyone up.”

Can we have an edit button, please?

fusilier
James 2:24

@ScienceMom

My concern arose from the fact that they know this physician is a patient, which means they’ve probably started showing symptoms. If they’re already bleeding, I hope they do a damn good job cleaning the plane and every area that person passes through. Lots of bleach.

I recall the incident in The Hot Zone where a patient coughed blood right into a doctor’s face, as well as leaving fluids all over the waiting room. Very scary disease.

“A man’s got to know his limitations”. Homeopaths don’t know theirs. Homeopaths without Borders? More like Quacks without Qualms.

If those bozos actually get to lay their mitts on someone with ebola, I predict no better survival rate than no treatment at all. And also some misguidedly infected quacks.

I followed more of the link, and possibly you did the same. But http://www.indiana.edu/~psychag/cam/ contains some sort of weird CAM game. SMH…

“gross blood in the stool” There are times when medical and vernacular language coincide.

@13 ” If they’re already bleeding, I hope they do a damn good job cleaning the plane and every area that person passes through. Lots of bleach.”

they have a self-contained transport pod (like the “Bubble Boy’s pod), so the inside of any transport stays uncontaminated.

The main problem seems to be the customs for burial are propagating the virus – and the “you only go to the hospital to die” idea that keeps ill people at home where they infect the rest of the family.

@Tsu Dho Nimh

they have a self-contained transport pod (like the “Bubble Boy’s pod), so the inside of any transport stays uncontaminated.

That’s good. Still makes me very nervous, though. Need to take a lot of care to make sure there are no breaks in the protective barriers. And still a good idea to wipe areas down with bleach.

Certainly education about how the virus is spread and how traditional burial customs could be modified to reduce the risk would be good. I worry, though, about people going into a hospital that is not prepared to receive them properly. Don’t want someone hemorrhaging all over the waiting room, where there are other patients/visitors.

LW,

“gross blood in the stool” There are times when medical and vernacular language coincide.

To be pedantic, and having dealt with more stool samples than I care to remember, melena refers to black, tarry stools (the mel- part is from the Greek for ‘black’ as in melanin), from bleeding further up the GI tract (the digestive system partially digests the blood.

Frank, visible red blood in the stools, from bleeding further down the GI tract, is called hematochezia. Depending on transit time, the presence of one or the other gives an idea of where in the GI tract the bleeding is occurring.

I would imagine ebola gives rise to both melena and hematochezia, making Orac’s description even more apt.

Sectumsempra
Wingardium Leviosa

Also from Harry Potter.

obviously mike adams is a complete tool, but seriously you can’t infer that because quacks don’t want to go over and try to cure ebola, that this disproves homeopathy. if you were the manufacturer of hazmat suits would you go try to prove how good your product was by hanging out with ebola pts? they’re an easy target, and I actually don’t think they are saying they would treat or cure ebola. I also think homeopathy is ridiculous, and its place is only for those who have no other option. I wouldn’t deny someone a little placebo effect though, without capitalizing on it of course…
anyways we don’t know that the infected providers had the proper equipment to protect themselves…I think it is shameful the panic going around about this disease solely because the US is taking care of their own..

I could easily have waxed poetic about the difference between melena and hematochezia

If you’re taking requests, a sonnet would be nice.

Now it’s fixed.
I KNEW Narad was magic.

Sicarus (Six-Eyed Crab Spider): A homeopathic treatment for Ebola haemorrhagic fever and disseminated intravascular coagulation?

You’re sure it’s a British journal? I would have thought German – the most important thing for the very end of the sentence. And such a lot of weight that “?” is carrying…

…but seriously you can’t infer that because quacks don’t want to go over and try to cure ebola, that this disproves homeopathy.

@ Spirochete, great ‘nym by the way having had one a few times. But on topic, I don’t think that is quite what was being inferred, rather it’s interesting to note that the homeopaths themselves don’t even have faith in their nostrums to travel to such a horrible outbreak scenario. They stay where it’s “safe” and then toot their horns triumphantly about the assistance they provided. They’re low-hanging fruit and we already know their majik water doesn’t work.

and I actually don’t think they are saying they would treat or cure ebola.

Well yes they did actually. One actually being an M.D. if you read the full post.

if you were the manufacturer of hazmat suits would you go try to prove how good your product was by hanging out with ebola pts?

Actually, in a way that’s what they kind of have to do to make sure their products will stand up under field conditions.

anyways we don’t know that the infected providers had the proper equipment to protect themselves…

No we don’t or several other possibilities but they are all independent of whether homeopaths should be making bold claims about their Ebola “cures”.

What really makes these terrible is that these ‘remedies’, even at full strength, would not cause Ebola-like symptoms when taken as directed.

Snake venom is digested when swallowed with no ill effect. It must be injected to cause problems.

That settles it.

Noted scientist, infectious diseases specialist and epidemiologist, Donald Trump, doesn’t think the two Americans who have been diagnosed with Ebola virus, should be brought to Emory Hospital for treatment:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/495182739310936064

P.S. “Melena” is not Donald Trump’s current wife; her name is Melania Knauss Trump.

lilady – the vitamin C site is an amazing toxic blend of god-awful site design and brain-bleeding idiocy. I guess if you can’t get evidence on your side, aim for shocking your reader into stupidity?

@ Putang…You are either a troll or a fool. We have 578 confirmed cases of measles in the United States, YTD…most of them associated with travel to the Philippines, where ~ 40,000 cases have been reported, causing hundreds of deaths.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm6330md.pdf

Tapetum: I “depend” on The Vitamin C Council to provide a wealth of material for infectious diseases, alternative “cancer cures”…and cures for every other disorder known to man.

Karl Withakay: Oh, that’s cheating. I’m sure those are all from Harry Potter.

Narad: Oh, I thought it was just me.

I don’t think Mike Adams is that far in front of the homeopathy. He has been advocating Chinese herbal remedies, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, zinc and selenium.

http://www.naturalnews.com/046260_Ebola_natural_cures_medicinal_herbs.html

Whoops, that last comment was from me, except Scienceblogs software had other ideas.

Those trolls have attracted me to their comments.

So the nimrods want some kind of veto power over which diseases a hospital should be allowed to treat? Clearly the hospital staff are happy to look after their sick colleagues, and whose else business it it?

Orac,

I think a general surgeon knows what melena is. I was just boiling it down for the audience.

Of course I know you know; I was expanding on what you wrote, for the audience. Some commenters here enjoy delving into the precise meaning and origins of words, as I do, and I thought they might find a bit of scatological etymology interesting. No criticism was intended, and I apologize for any offense caused.

Homeopathy saved my life. Discounting something without truly knowing what you are talking about is not true science. Homeopaths were able to pretty much cure most all of their patients of the 1919 flu epidemic, where regular medicine could not. I wish my grandmother had homepathy then, but she probably caught it in the hospital where my mother was born and died there. My cat had severe diabetes which was being cured in three years with homeopathy, whereas when I looked online about giving insulin, I just saw people having trouble adjusting their dose properly and just getting worse and worse untill they died.

@Marthw
You know homeopathy is just water, don’t you?

Homeopaths were able to pretty much cure most all of their patients of the 1919 flu epidemic

*KOFF* Perhaps the “effectiveness” of homeopathy was responsible for the increased virulence of waves 2 and 3.

P.S. And the autofill is gone again.

I’m a member of “Things antivaxxers say” on Facebook.
One of the damn fool antivaxxers claimed she’d cured herself of Ebola.
Yes, she actually said that.

HOMÖOPATHIE eine irre medizinische GLAUBENSLEHRE

Aufklärung und Bildung im Gegensatz zu den Grundlagen der Homöopathie

Die Betreuung, Erziehung und die Schul- und Universitätsbildung von Kindern und Jugendlichen hat zum Ziel, diesen nicht nur eine berufliche Ausbildung, sondern auch eine Bildung im klassischen Sinne der Aufklärung angedeihen zu lassen. Das beginnt schon im Kindergarten. Hier können bereits emotionale und intellektuelle Anlagen gefördert oder unterdrückt werden, die für die Entwicklung der Persönlichkeit einerseits und für die berufliche Zukunft andrerseits bedeutend sind. Allen Kindern sollte ermöglicht werden, später als Erwachsene mündig, selbstbestimmt und verantwortungsbewusst leben zu können.

Wirklich verantwortungsbewusst kann aber nur dann gehandelt werden, wenn die Folgen von Entscheidungen mit hinreichender Gewissheit abzusehen sind. Diese hinreichende Gewissheit setzt ein naturwissenschaftliches Basiswissen, Skepsis und Verständnis für mündige Erwachsene voraus. Daher gibt es keine Bildung und Ausbildung ohne Naturwissenschaft bzw. naturwissenschaftliches Grundwissen.

Das Gegenteil wäre der Fall, wenn eine bloße Betreuung und Verwahrung der Kinder im Kindergarten und nachfolgenden Bildungseinrichtungen gefragt ist. Auch könnten Kindern und Jugendlichen lediglich bestimmte Verhaltensweisen und/oder Fertigkeiten angelernt werden, um sich später zu bewähren und selbständig leben zu können. Dazu wird in aller Regel nur eine entsprechend qualifizierte Ausbildung oder ein Anlernen notwendig sein, um eben beschäftigt werden zu können. Das ist jedoch nicht „Bildung“ im klassischen Sinn. Bildung und Ausbildung sind nicht das gleiche. Sie sollten einander ergänzen.

Die Kriterien, Ansichten und Lebensphilosophien, mit denen die Welt erklärt werden kann, können sehr unterschiedlich sein. Die selektive Wahrnehmung und die Eigenheit unseres Gehirns, aufeinanderfolgende Ereignisse zwingend nur als Verknüpfung von Ursache und Wirkung anzusehen, erlauben es jedem eine private bzw. subjektive „Logik“ zu entwickeln. Diese Logik ist nur scheinbar aber praktisch vorteilhaft. So kann man sich die Welt auch mit den verschiedensten magischen, esoterischen und abergläubischen Vorstellungen „subjektiv“ erklären und hinter den Dingen Zusammenhänge sehen, mit denen man mehr oder weniger erfolgreich sein Leben bestreiten und auf die Zukunft schließen kann. Der Mondkalender und das Tageshoroskop sind so verführerische simple und daher besonders einleuchtende Regeln, um ohne weiteres Nachdenken entscheiden zu können. Besonders attraktiv sind anscheinend einfache, klare, alles erklärende „Grundsätze“, die jeder versteht und die nicht so kompliziert und unverständlich wie Wissenschaft sind. Auch Religionen, besonders fundamentalistische, geben ein Weltbild mehr oder weniger zwingend vor. Wenn man darüber ernsthaft nachdenkt, sind Konflikte mit den Erkenntnissen der Naturwissenschaften unausweichlich und auch nicht wirklich auflösbar. Rational aufgelöst werden diese Konflikte nicht, sie werden nur teilweise oder überhaupt nicht wahrgenommen. Eine naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnis wird einfach zur beliebigen und persönlichen Meinung erklärt, die man teilen kann oder auch nicht.

In der Vergangenheit, in vorwissenschaftlicher Zeit, war es auch gar nicht anders möglich, als sich die Welt irgendwie beseelt und zweckgerichtet vorzustellen. Die Tücke des Objekts war existenziell ernst zu nehmen. Alles schien beseelt zu sein und das Unerklärliche wurde „sinnvoll“ durch zahlreiche gute und böse Geister und zuletzt durch den unerforschlichen Ratschluss eines Gottes. Es immer noch so zu sehen und sich so zu verhalten, als ob es keine Entwicklung, keinen gesicherten naturwissenschaftlichen Wissenszuwachs gäbe und auch heute noch fest an unmögliche, magische Zusammenhänge zu glauben, bedeutet unseren heutigen Wissensstand zu ignorieren, zu negieren und zu verkennen. Anstelle einer wissenschaftlich gesicherten Kausalität auf dem Fundament der Naturwissenschaften wird das magische Wirken von Geistern und dergleichen mehr angenommen. Diese alleskönnenden guten oder bösen Geister von ehedem werden hinter modernen Begriffen versteckt. Man spricht jetzt von Energien, Kraftfeldern, Quanten, Blockaden usw.

Wer heute noch die „Theorie“ vertritt, die Erde sei eine Scheibe, wird mehrheitlich als Narr angesehen, aber wer heute noch nach der antiken 4-Säfte-Lehre therapeutische Maßnahmen setzt, hat keine derartige Ächtung zu befürchten, obwohl die 4-Säfte-Lehre als Erklärungsmodell genauso überholt ist wie die Theorie, dass die Erde eine Scheibe wäre.

Homöopathie ein versteinertes Relikt überholter vorwissenschaftlicher Vorstellungen

Niemand kann zur Annahme eines rationalen Verständnisses gezwungen werden. Praktisch lässt sich das an der ausufernden esoterischen Szene und vor allem auch in der alternativen, komplementären und ganzheitlichen Medizin- und Heilszene, an Wunderheilern und dubiosen Heilpraktikern beobachten. Hier herrschen immer noch und schon wieder unwissenschaftliche Überzeugungen und Erklärungen vor, die heute im Lichte der Naturwissenschaft einfach als magisch zu bezeichnen sind. Die Homöopathie ist das Paradebeispiel einer solchen Irrlehre. Sie steht mit ihren magischen Vorstellungen im Gegensatz zu allen gesicherten medizinischen Erkenntnissen und wird trotzdem im modernen Medizinbetrieb allgemein akzeptiert. Sie ist keine abstruse Randerscheinung, sondern fixer Bestandteil im medizinischem Alltag und der Ausbildung bis in die Universität hinein. Man könnte fast meinen, dass sich Aberglaube und Esoterik vorzugsweise in die Medizin zurückgezogen haben und von dort aus sich anschicken, die Errungenschaften der Aufklärung und der Naturwissenschaften rückgängig zu machen. In den Naturwissenschaften wie z.B. in Chemie und Physik sind überholte Vorstellungen aus der Alchemie oder das Perpetuum mobile längst passee aber nicht mehr in der Medizin. Hier ist das Mittelalter wieder eingezogen. Die Folgen reichen über das Gebiet der Medizin hinaus.

Auf nach unseren heutigen Kenntnissen unzweifelhaft magischen Vorstellungen fußen die Homöopathie und viele andere Verfahren und Mittel der alternativen, komplementären und ganzheitlichen Medizin. Hier boomt moderne Pseudowissenschaft und mit ihr das Kauderwelsch aus verfälschten und verdrehten Begriffen, die aus Wissenschaft und Forschung zum „Eindruckschinden“ entlehnt werden. So wird eine Wirkung erklärt, die gar nicht vorhanden ist und puren magischen Phantasien wird ein moderner wissenschaftlich scheinender Hochglanz aufpoliert. Die Existenz von Feen, Elfen, Schutzengeln etc. erscheint vielen plausibel. Der Glaube an Symbolisches, wie die Erschaffung der Welt buchstäblich in 7 Tagen, erfreut sich steigender Beliebtheit. Das Markenzeichen und die Attraktivität von Scheinmedizin und Pseudowissenschaft ist, dass hier alles einfacher, verständlicher, biologischer und natürlicher ist. Um Anerkennung bemüht, wird jedoch Wissenschaftlichkeit und Bestätigung durch angeblich positive Studienergebnisse behauptet.

Homöopathie verweigert sich allen gesicherten medizinischen Erkenntnissen

Auch nach mehr als 200 Jahren existieren keinerlei einwandfreie und stichhaltige Beweise für eine spezifische Wirksamkeit. Sowohl die historischen Vorstellungen als auch die gegenwärtigen Erklärungen zur Wirkung der Homöopathie stehen in fundamentalen Widerspruch zu allen gesicherten naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen. Die Lehre des Herrn Hahnemann ist eine für die Medizin unfruchtbare Theorie, eine Irrlehre. Es gibt daher keinerlei Erkenntnisse, die mit Hilfe der Homöopathie gefunden wurden. Alles, was wir heute über „Leben“, „Gesundheit“ und „Krankheit“ im weitesten Sinne wissen, wurde mit Hilfe der Naturwissenschaften erforscht und aufgeklärt. Der Beitrag der Homöopathie zur Entwicklung der Medizin ist null.

Das Credo der Homöopathie „similia similibus curentur“ („Ähnliches werde durch Ähnliches geheilt“) ist ganz in der Tradition der magischen Signaturenlehre. Nach dieser Signaturenlehre zeigt uns die Natur durch Ähnlichkeiten die z.B. heilende Wirkung einer Pflanze, eines Steines oder eines Tierorgans an. Dass hier die angesprochenen Ähnlichkeiten absolut willkürliche Annahmen aus menschlicher Sicht und menschlicher Erwartungen sind, bedarf hoffentlich keiner weiteren Erläuterung und liegt auf der Hand. Die Signaturenlehre ist nichts weiter als eine esoterische Pseudowissenschaft, die durch nichts belegt werden kann und allen Erkenntnissen widerspricht.

Das homöopathische Potenzieren hat seinen Ursprung in der magischen alchemistischen Vorstellung, dass in den Ausgangsmaterialien ein geistartiges Wirkprinzip, eine Heilkraft ähnlich der immateriellen Lebenskraft , der „Vis vitalis“, existiert, die durch bestimmte Prozeduren wie etwa dem wiederholten Verdünnen mit nachfolgendem Schütteln herausgeholt werden kann und muss, um so in reiner immaterieller Form noch besser Heilung zu bewirken. All das ist, wie wir heute wissen, esoterischer vernunftferner Nonsens. Im Klartext: Es gibt keine kausale Wirksamkeit der Homöopathie. Alle Nachprüfungen ergeben immer wieder, dass es egal ist, welche Mittel welcher Hochpotenz gegen welche Krankheit auch immer wie oft eingenommen werden. Homöopathie wirkt nicht mehr und nicht weniger als ein Placebo. Und die Wirkung eines Placebos bzw. der Homöopathie beruht lediglich auf der Erwartungshaltung, dem Image und dem Brimborium rund um die Verschreibung. Es wirkt der persönliche Glaube an die Homöopathie, der durch die allgemein verbreitete Ansicht induziert wurde. Die Hoffnung auf Heilung war immer schon stärker als jede Vernunft und zu allen Zeiten daher eine hervorragende Geschäftsbasis für alle Ärzte und Wunderheiler, die in gutem ehrlichen Glauben einerseits selbst daran glaubten bis hin zu den Scharlatanen, denen bewusst war, dass ihre Therapie und ihre Mittel nicht wirken.

Harmlose Homöopathie – gefährliche Magie?

Entgegen landläufiger Meinung ist Homöopathie keine grundsätzlich harmlose medizinische Modeerscheinung. Homöopathie beruht auf veralteten, transrealen Vorstellungen, die religiösen Dogmen gleichen. Ihr die gleiche Kausalität, den gleichen Stellenwert wie den sonst gültigen medizinischen Erkenntnissen zuzuerkennen ist fatal über die Medizin hinaus.

So birgt die Anwendung der Homöopathie mannigfache indirekte Gefahren. Der unbedingte vernunftferne Glaube an die nebenwirkungsfreie Wirkung der Homöopathie und die geschürte Angst vor konventioneller Medizin und Medikamenten, verführt oft genug, notwendige Behandlungen mit entsprechenden Folgen zu unterlassen. Die Angst vor konventioneller moderner Medizin wird subtil ausgenützt und ist ein wichtiger Faktor für die Scheinwirkung. Warum sollte man sich konventionell medizinisch behandeln lassen, wenn es doch eine angeblich bestens wirksame und sanfte Alternative gibt? Durch dieses irrationale Verhalten müssen immer wieder Kinder unnötigerweise Schmerzen und Leid erdulden. Sie können sich dagegen nicht wehren, und nicht selten kommt es zu bleibenden Schäden. Davon erfährt man nichts. In die Medien kommen nur diesbezügliche tödliche Zwischenfälle.

Mütter wollen für ihre Kinder das Beste und viele greifen deshalb nach Homöopathika, weil es von überall her heißt, diese Mittel seien sanft und ohne Nebenwirkungen. So werden alle Wehwehchen und Krankheiten der Kinder mit Globuli behandelt. Das stört interessanterweise Homöopathieanhänger nicht, aber der konventionellen Medizin wird gerade von ihnen gerne der Vorwurf gemacht, sie behandle zu viel.

Es ist unglaublich, was Mütter, die von der Homöopathie überzeugt sind, glauben behandeln zu müssen. Kinder haben offenbar wie Uhrwerke zu funktionieren und dem entsprechend wird der Tagesablauf mit der Einnahme von Globuli strukturiert. Sie sehen zur Freude der Homöopathieindustrie „Krankheiten“ und „Störungen“, die kein verantwortungsbewusster konventioneller Mediziner als behandlungswürdige Krankheit ansehen würde. Diese Behandlungssucht ist zwar gut gemeint, kommt aber einer Medikamentierwut gleich. Die Folge ist, dass die Kinder geradezu zum Pillenschlucken trainiert werden. Sie lernen, dass es nichts gibt, was einfach wieder vergeht und keiner besonderen Beachtung oder Behandlung bedarf. Die Wirksamkeit eines magischen Rituals wird sich und den Kindern antrainiert.

Homöopathie ist ein Betrug an hilfesuchenden Patienten

Die aber ohne jeden Zweifel auftretenden und beobachtbaren Wirkungen der Homöopathie vermag die moderne Medizin sehr wohl zu erklären. Es mögen hier die Stichworte Placebowirkung, Erwartungshaltung, Zufall, Selbstheilung, falsche Diagnosen und das Auf und Ab chronischer Erkrankungen genügen. Darüber gibt es mehr als genug Studien und Belege und es gibt darüber in seriösen Kreisen keine Diskussion. Diskussionen kommen durch die Verfechter der Homöopathie auf, die immer wieder Studien nach Wunschergebnissen abklopfen, die negativen Studien außer Acht lassen und ständig neue wissenschaftliche Studien trotz negativer Sachlage verlangen. Aber die Homöopathie ist nicht scientabel, wie im Buch die Homöopathie-Lüge (Christian Weymayr, Nicole Heißmann) ausgeführt wird. Homöopathie ist genauso unwissenschaftlich wie Handlesen und Kartenlegen und daher auch nicht naturwissenschaftlich beweisbar und erforschbar.

Homöopathie wirkt nicht ursächlich kraft chemisch physikalischer Eigenschaften. Den Hochpotenzen kommt keine Wirkung zu. Es wirkt das heilige Hahnemannsche Brimborium, das die Homöopathen mit ihren Gläubigen zelebrieren. Wenn ein Medizinmann ein verrenktes Knie mit einem Affenknochen beschwört, gibt es auch nichts zu beforschen.

An der Wirkungslosigkeit unter Berücksichtigung der Placebowirkung etc. ändert auch die gesetzliche Zulassung homöopathischer Behandlungen und Mittel nichts. Die Homöopathie ist per Gesetz davon befreit, ihre Wirksamkeit gleich anderen Medikamenten und Verfahren nachzuweisen. Im Weltbild der Homöopathie hat der Placeboeffekt logischerweise keinen Platz. Wenn die Homöopathie den Placeboeffekt in allen seinen Facetten anerkennt, dann widerlegt sie sich selbst.

Homöopathie ist ein Verrat an den Grundlagen unserer aufgeklärten Zivilisation

Mit der keineswegs mehr stillen Integration der Homöopathie in die moderne Medizin wird abergläubisches Gedankengut für durchaus real gehalten. Die Folgen gehen über den Bereich der Medizin hinaus. Die fundamentalen Gegensätze zwischen Naturwissenschaft und magisch-mystischen Annahmen bereiten kein Kopfzerbrechen mehr. Transreale Vorstellungen ziehen sogar in die Universitäten ein und geistern durch Medizin, Veterinärmedizin, Biologie, Bodenkultur und Pharmazie. Mittlerweile gibt es eine Studenteninitiative für Homöopathie auf der Medizin-Uni Wien. Ein Medizinprofessor in Graz richtete das Erdmagnetfeld mit Plastikchip schlaffördernd aus und im „Interuniversitären Kolleg für Graz / Schloss Seggau“ wurden unter Mitarbeit des Departments Pharmazie der Universität in Graz Kaulquappen homöopathisch kuriert. In Salzburg wird ein ganzes Landesspital durch eine an der Decke im Eingangsbereich montierte Aluminiumskulptur von allen erdachten Erdstrahlen geschützt. Ein Umweltmediziner fabriziert Studien über die krebsauslösende Wirkung von Handystrahlen. Pech war nur, dass die als ursächlich ausgeforschten Funkmasten nachweislich nie in Betrieb waren. Fazit der famosen Studie: Wenn aber gefunkt worden wäre, dann hätte es so sein müssen. In zahlreichen Spitälern fließt Granderwasser. Aber auch bei den Benediktinern in Admont fließt Granderwasser. Der Erfinder erklärte vor Gericht, dass ihm die Technik von Jesus im Traum vermittelt wurde. Der alpenländische Paradigmenwechsel „Vom Weihwasser zum Granderwasser“ lässt grüßen. Leider haben diese Sensationen das Nobelpreiskomitee noch nicht beeindruckt.

Quer durch die Lande erfreuen sich Wunderwasserquellen steigender Beliebtheit. Wunderquellen werden wieder entdeckt. Kraftplätze werden ausgependelt. Straßenkreuzungen werden mit Energiesteinen entstört. Die Liste an Skurrilitäten und absurden Anwendungen ist unerschöpflich. In Traunstein im Freistaat Bayern sollte mit Billigung höchster staatlicher Stellen eine eigene Hochschule für die vernunftferne Homöopathie eingerichtet werden. Das begleitende Medienorchester ergeht sich in Beifallshymnen. Der Lehrbetrieb wurde nicht aufgenommen. Dies ist den kritischen Stimmen vor allem aus den Reihen der GWUP zu verdanken. Behördlicherseits war alles entsprechend vorbereitet und abgesegnet. Aber Deutschland wird seinem historischen Ruf gerecht, es immer besonders gründlich zu machen, sicher noch gerecht werden. Voraussetzung für solche Sensationen ist der Verlust kritischen Denkens gepaart mit der Salonfähigkeit transrealer und vernunftferner Phantasien. Man kann es sich aussuchen, ob überlegte Regie oder Tollheit diesen Hype vorantreiben.

Homöopathie – eine moderne Gesundheitsreligion

Die Homöopathie kann aber nur so lange wirken, als der Glaube daran verbreitet ist. Daher sind Werbung und Imagepflege für Homöopathie mehr als unbedingt notwendig. Homöopathie greift dazu geschickt verbreitete Vorurteile und Ängste auf und verspricht Erlösung von allen Übeln der Medizin, ja der Zivilisation überhaupt. Nur wer glaubt wird selig, pardon gesund! Zuerst wird das berühmte Bauchgefühl gegen konventionelle Medizin aktiviert und dann mit Homöopathie beruhigt. Nach wie vor zieht der Begriff Schulmedizin, der mit unpraktischer weltfremder Wissenschaft und kalter Technik assoziiert wird.

Die Mantras der Homöopathiereligion, die unaufhörlich beschworen werden, sind die Begriffe „biologisch“ und „natürlich“ neben „sanft“ und „nebenwirkungsfrei“. Das positive Bild der Homöopathie wird nicht durch Tierversuche, Chemie und Technik beeinträchtigt. Selbstverständlich wird die Homöopathie im Gegensatz zu konventioneller Medizin und Pharmazie als humane „non-Profit-Medizin“ angesehen. Das alles ist selbstverständlich ganzheitlich. Aber ganzheitlich ist lediglich das Fehlen jeder Ratio in der Homöopathie

Und weil es ein Glaube ist, wird das Marketing entsprechend gestaltet. Besonders Schwangere und Kinder betreuende Mütter zählen zur Zielgruppe und werden umworben. Für diese Zwecke ist ein Kindergarten ein besonders geeigneter Ort um Anhängerinnen zu rekrutieren. Die werdenden Mütter sind von vielen Sorgen und Ängsten erfüllt. Das sind genau die psychologischen Umstände, die notwendig sind, um den Glauben an die Wirksamkeit zu induzieren und Skepsis und Nachdenken für immer auszuschalten.

In aller Regel kommen die Kinder heute gesund zur Welt und wachsen gesund heran. Trotzdem, Schwangerschaft und Geburt sind einschneidende und außergewöhnliche Ereignisse, die umfangreiche körperliche und seelische Belastungen nach sich ziehen können, auch dann wenn es nicht zu besonderen Komplikationen kommt. Dieser im Vergleich zu früheren Zeiten weitgehende „normale“ Verlauf wird aber nicht der modernen medizinischen Fürsorge (Schwangerenbetreuung, Geburtshilfe, Neonatologie, Kinderheilkunde etc.) zugeschrieben sondern der ebenfalls allgegenwärtigen begleitenden homöopathischen Betreuung. Logisch, dass unter diesen Umständen alles und auch die Magie des Hahnemann wirkt. Eine echte kausale objektive Wirksamkeit ist für die subjektive Heilungsempfindung nicht notwendig. Der Gedanke an Hahnemann genügt wie der heilende Blick von Braco.

Gerade im Vorschulbereich können den Kindern Werte und Tugenden vermittelt werden. Auch Glauben wird den Kindern als Tugend vermittelt. Homöopathie wird in vielen Bildungseinrichtungen als eine bessere Medizin vermittelt. Ihre Anwendung ist grundsätzlich eine Tugend. Das ist der Anfang eines Glaubens, der dann an Hochschulen für Homöopathie seine Priester und Priesterinnen mit einem scheinintellektuellen akademischen Grad weiht.

Politiker und Politikerinnen waschen sich in Unschuld

Die Politiker und Politikerinnen halten sich zurück. Werden sie mit den magisch abstrusen Inhalten der Homöopathie konfrontiert, dann hüten sie sich wie auch die überwiegende Mehrheit der Journalisten und Journalistinnen vor einer klaren Stellungnahme. Eine Diskussion über die Inhalte und Vorstellungen der Homöopathie meiden sie wie der Teufel das Weihwasser. Nichts wäre gefährlicher und negativer für das politische Vorankommen als ein eindeutiges Engagement in einer Frage, die eigentlich nicht nur die Medizin betrifft sondern auch eine Weltanschauung berührt. Am einfachsten entgeht man diesem Dilemma, wenn man erklärt, dass man darüber nur eine persönliche Meinung hat, die selbstverständlich nicht relevant ist, weil sie persönlich ist. Dann kommt der eigentliche taktische Befreiungssprung. Man verweist auf die geltende Gesetzeslage. Die Konfrontation wird damit auf die „Beamtenschaft“, die für die Einhaltung der Gesetze zuständig ist, übertragen und schon haben sich Politiker und Politikerinnen ihrer Verantwortung entledigt und waschen ihre Hände in Unschuld wie einst Pontius Pilatus. Als Waschbecken dienen dann Paragraphen Gesetze, Vorschriften, Anweisungen und dergl. mehr in Bund und Ländern. Hier endet dann die Diskussion im Paragraphendschungel und im Wildwuchs der Zuständigkeiten. Selbstverständlich werden die Behörden bzw. die Beamten alles daran setzen nachzuweisen, dass alles paragraphengerecht und nur paragraphengerecht umgesetzt wird. Eine Diskussion über die Wirksamkeit der Homöopathie ist damit schon beendet, ehe diese begonnen hat. Es steht ja auch nichts drinnen in den Paragraphen über in Wissenschaft, Naturwissenschaft oder Medizin zulässige Inhalte oder Heillehren. Die Diskussion geht ins Leere und genau das wollen die Politiker und Politikerinnen. Sie wollen lediglich Mehrheiten erreichen. Zu viele Wähler und vor allem Wählerinnen schwören auf die Homöopathie und mit Wählerstimmen sollte man es sich nicht verscherzen. Ob die Homöopathie überhaupt wirkt, ist völlig nebensächlich. Angedacht und umgesetzt wird nur, was in der Wahlzelle wirkt.

Das Schweigen der konventionellen Medizin

Der Medizinethik fehlt der Begriff einer unwirksamen Therapie oder eines unwirksamen Mittels. Für Ärzte gilt die Therapiefreiheit. Sie dürfen, mit Einschränkungen natürlich, wenn Patienten dies ausdrücklich wünschen, auch mit erwiesen unwirksamen Methoden behandeln. Kein Wunder ist, dass unter solchen Bedingungen das Geschäft mit Wundermitteln blüht.

Unübersehbar prangt – sprichwörtlich – in jeder zweiten Ordination das Schild „Homöopathie. Scharlatan kann aber nur sein, wer über keine Berufsberechtigung verfügt. In Deutschland ist das Spektrum der „Homöopathen“ durch die Heilpraktiker noch bunter.

Kritische Stimmen aus dem niedergelassenen ärztlichen Bereich gibt es nur wenige. Lediglich aus dem Kreis der wissenschaftlich forschenden Medizin, von Pharmakologen, Biochemikern, Biologen etc. kommt fundierte Kritik ohne Wenn und Aber. Wenn medizinische Allgemeinplätze in die Medien kommen, dann sind sie mit Homöopathie garniert.

Apotheke quo vadis?

Noch trauriger sieht die Situation in den Apotheken aus. Wozu überhaupt noch ein Pharmaziestudium, das sich an Naturwissenschaft orientiert, gut ist, ist nicht mehr erkennbar. Wer sich heute in Apotheken umsieht, wird feststellen, dass ohne Homöopathie nichts mehr geht. Für die Wirkung – genauer die Placebowirkung – der Homöopathie ist die Apotheke von größter Bedeutung. Die noch wissenschaftlich ausgebildeten Apotheker und Apothekerinnen sind der sichtbare Beleg, dass bei der Homöopathie alles mit rechten Dingen zugeht. Es muss etwas dran sein, wenn in allen Apotheken Homöopathie angeboten wird und in einschlägigen Ratgeberpostillen der Gesundheits- u. Wellnessbranche die Homöopathie quasi als Erlösung von allem angepriesen wird. Aber damit sind die Möglichkeiten für Aberglauben in der Apotheke nicht erschöpft. Dr. Bachs Blütentropfen und Schüsslers Salze, ebenso vernunftfern wie Hasenpfoten, stören das Bild einer modernen rationalen Pharmazie nicht, um es einmal pointiert auszurücken. Wo sind die Zeiten, als über die Zulässigkeit von Kosmetik in Apotheken im sogenannten Nebensortiment debattiert wurde?

Ergänzt wird dieses umfassende Marketing durch z.B. die Österreichische Apothekerkammer, wenn diese als Sponsor bei Homöopathieaktionen auftritt. Zahlreiche Ärzte erteilen „gute“ homöopathische Ratschläge in den Medien. Es ist naiv anzunehmen, dass hier nur Reklame für die eigene Ordination gemacht wird und hier gezieltes Sponsoring oder Entschädigung durch Homöopathieproduzenten keinen Platz hätten. Ärztliche Berufsvereinigungen bieten Diplome in Homöopathie an. Damit wird Seriosität und unabhängige Information vorgegaukelt. Dem ist aber nicht so.

Alles zertifiziert!

Berufsvereinigungen sind keine Einrichtungen für den Patientenschutz sondern Interessenvertretungen von Ärzten, Apothekern etc. Ein Zauberwort, mit dem das ahnungslose Publikum verschüttelt wird, lautet „zertifiziert“. Niemand ahnt, dass praktisch jeder noch so unsinnige Kurs und jede noch so abstruse Ausbildung und auch die vernunftferne Homöopathie zertifizierbar sind. Zertifizieren hat nichts mit den Inhalten und der Sinnhaftigkeit einer Ausbildung zu tun. Das Internet ist voll von zertifizierten Ausbildungen zertifizierter Institute und Akademien. Es gibt nichts an verqueren Methoden, Mitteln, Diagnosegeräten und auch Ausbildungen, die nicht zertifiziert werden können. Selbstverständlich ist die Herstellung von Globuli in allen Phasen bis ins Fläschchen zertifiziert. In Punkto Zertifizierung unterscheiden sich Apotheker, Homöopathieärzte, Astrologen und Energetiker nicht, sehr wohl aber vom schwarzafrikanischen Medizinmann. Seine Künste sind noch nicht zertifiziert. Das kann aber noch kommen. Angeblich wird jetzt den Chinesen von dt. Ärzten die TCM erklärt. Diese Magie wurde hierzulande „wissenschaftlich“ veredelt und wird nun reexportiert. Nach Indien ist Homöopathie seinerzeit jedenfalls sehr erfolgreich exportiert worden. Warum sollen dt. Universitäten Medizinmänner in Afrika nicht betreuen und deren Heilkunde zertifizieren?

Vielleicht entsinnen wir uns wieder der traditionellen bayrisch-österreichischen Heilkost. Beuschel (Lungenhaschee) gegen Asthma, Hirn mit Ei gegen Lernschwäche, geselchtes Herz gegen Infarkt, Kalbszunge gegen Stottern und Stiergoggerl (Hoden) gegen Impotenz. Geräuchertes Kuheuter wird in der Steiermark als Osterspeise geweiht und gegessen. Schmeckt – ich verbürge mich dafür – wie feine Käswurst. Gemäß Symbolismus und altem Wissen könnte es durchaus auch den Milchfluss steigern. Vielleicht gibt es das alles demnächst in ihrer Apotheke auf Rezept als Instantsuppe mit ausgependelten Bachblüten gewürzt. Wenn es zu wenig wirkt, könnte als Ergänzung die Verordnung eines TCM- Mediziners bestehend aus gerösteten Regenwürmern in Schneckenschleim an Nashornraspel ganzheitlich weiterhelfen. Auch diese Mittel lassen sich zertifiziert wie auch Homöopathika herstellen.

Just now, the Scienceblogs website has for some reason decided to fill in the Name field with “NZ Sceptic”, and not satisfied with that, has also filled in the Email field with NZ Sceptic’s e-mail address. What? I am not NZ Sceptic and I don’t really need to read his or her identification details.

By coincidence, I was reading a programmer’s story recently of a bug that manifested in a fashion very similar to this: users getting presented with values that were relevant to what some other user was doing. The culprit was a variable that should have been declared local but, lacking the “var” keyword, it was instead declared global. What that means is that the server would make a note to itself during a transaction – “oh, this guy is User A, who wants to be notified if we have any news relevant to pork belly futures” – but it would be using THE SAME NOTE for every user who showed up, and frequently “remembering” data about one user when the transaction was actually with a different user. Might be a similar problem at work here.

Marthw: One doctor in Italy prescribed alcohol to all his patients and didn’t lose a single one. Yet, somehow, doctors now don’t prefer to pickle their patients. And for Bog’s sake, get your cat a better owner.

All: you guys should read the list of treatments for the 1919 flu sometimes. It ranges from the ineffective (homeopathy) to the usual anti-biotics, to garlic hung around the neck. Although on second thought, the garlic would keep people from getting infected, since no one would want to get close.

And just because I’m morbidly curious, anyone got a translator for that verbal dirreahea the Dutch gentleman dropped on us?

Science Mom: they were treating the flu as a bacterial disease, which is why I assumed it was treated with anti-bacterials. My bad. Also, my bad for the misunderstanding; I speak neither German or Dutch, though I can usually guess individual words.
Dr. E Berndt: Million pardons.

Might be a similar problem at work here.

It wasn’t called Must Call Somebody Else for no reason.

Homeopathy born when other science branches yet to born. But even today most science branches are in its infancy stages. People generally having tendency to criticize all most unknown topics. All required to think how homeopathy is wonderfull in the process of cure. Truth can not be killed by any tactics. Find homeopathy in its real form when you are sick. Contribute positively in bringing out its real core. Let human kind benifit largely.

Homeopathy a classical method of treating illness of many kind. It is a desciplined study. People who have taken proper treatments under good homeopath knows the real value and power of this system. Erratic comments of some people without knowledge is unscientific. There is history of effecprevention in out breaks of epidemics.Threr is much need to understand and explore nature. It is a hidden tresure. Among one is homeopathy. A vast medical study of its own kind, heals most of disease process ,provides natural cure. Feel free, laeve prejudice alone, experiance homeopathic treatment with a good homeopath, then only comment.

I still don’t “get it”. If Dr. E. Berndt read Orac’s post and saw all the replies are in English, why did he post his comment in German?

Most Germans I know and I have met in Germany are quite fluent in English.

Renate,

Some words might look, or sound a bit simular, but they have a different meaning.

Numbers are very similar, but with significant differences. I still remember the look I got in a bar in Amsterdam when I accidentally ordered “zwei bieren” (German) instead of “twee bieren” (Dutch). I didn’t make that mistake again.

Nagesh: “Erratic comments of some people without knowledge is unscientific.”

Ironic comment from someone who just used “argument from blatant assertion.”

If you want us to believe that homeopathy is scientific, you need to bring in some actual scientific evidence that it works for a non-self-limiting disease like syphilis or rabies.

@ Dorit Reiss:

Interestingly enough, Sayer Ji is now also listed as a contributor to Fearless Parent. There’s also something about a ‘venture’ with them and/or Louise Kuo Habakus.

I was at my parents for Sunday lunch (I brought the meat) and they were watching Sky News. At one point they had an item about a doctor going off pop at “Big Pharma” for not making an Ebola vaccine.

@lilady
It is a difference to read or to write in english.
Be sure, that my post is not easy to translate. The meanings and the associations are quite complicated .
Even it is more easy to write something directly in english but then it tends to be too simple.
I hope there are some peaple who are able to read it. If You have questions, let me know.

And you’re unlikely to protect yourself from any bad virus just by eating lots of soybeans.

This was even worse than the time I tried hanging sausage to dry on the porch and it beamed a message to every wasp in the vicinity.

P.S. Autofill’s still broken. Is it really that difficult to fix a cookie?

@Narad,

I haven’t tried a soy sausage, but I found a fairly decent recipe for vegetarian burgers using mashed black beans and quinoa with some flour to make it about the right texture. It didn’t taste much like beef, but with enough seasoning it tasted fairly good and had the right texture for hamburgers. My son ate four of them!

I see William S Burroughs was in the movie for your second link.

For skeptics of homeopathy, please read:

http://www.homeopathyforflu.com/dewey.pdf

This happened just a 100 years ago. Then also, the science based medicine was killing people.

@Lurker: there’s a group calling themselves Acupuncturists without Borders, too.

(I can’t imagine anything more useless in a war-torn, drought-stricken country with an epidemic raging than someone showing up to align my qi).

Off the top of my head (and before I read further for hints)
:
Sectumsempra: Potter (a curse)
Riddikulus: Potter (repels boggarts)
Wingardium Leviosa: Potter (levitates objects)
Lumos Maxima: Potter (summons light)
Specialis Revelio: Potter (reveals enchantment)
Protego Maxima: Potter (protection spell)
Expelliarmus: Potter (disarms)
Locomotor Mortis: Potter (paralysis curse) (poor Neville)

(Although Croatus Horribilis does sound like something a Parseltongue would throw at you, he’d probably be carrying a live one in his pocket.)

Iqbal: 100 years ago, there were no effective remedies for flu. Did you note my post above about the Italian doctor who prescribed wine for all his patients?

I haven’t tried a soy sausage, but I found a fairly decent recipe for vegetarian burgers using mashed black beans and quinoa with some flour to make it about the right texture.

I was really just singling out Brother Ron’s; the cooking of soybeans is something that should be limited to industrial settings as far as I’m concerned.

But there are plenty of good recipes for veggie burgers. If I’m going to be mashing beans and forming them into patties, though, my inclination is to go straight for falafel.

The ignorance displayed in this thread is more frightening to me than Ebola!

By all means please enlighten us oh certified homeopath

You are a complete and utter moron that knows nothing about homeopathy and the miracles it can perform… Anyone that had a clue about what its capabable of wouldn’t be so inane when discussing it… I’m sick of Big Pharma hacks (that are killing people daily with their dispicable drugs daily) always chiming in about homeopathy…. I’ll bet homeopathy could cure ebola better than pharmaceuticals… My daughter had whooping cough and the only thing that could get rid of the lingering effects of it was homeopathy… the doctors had nothing for her. I’ve seen homeopathy do miracles and that’s better than any clinical trial…performed by self-serving Big Pharma companies….

Maybe it’s time to start asking the supporters of homeopathy to defend the assertion that like cures like. It’s such a flagrantly idiotic idea, at least as a generalization, that it should be hard to defend. What is the cure for trauma from an automobile accident? A burn? Poisoning? Apparently only human ailments of unknown cause (prior to the year 1800, remember) are subject to this rule.

We might also remind people that the fundamentals of organic chemistry didn’t even begin to emerge until the early 1800s, and the core finding of tetravalent carbon and its ability to link up with other carbons is from the late 1850s (just looked it up on Wikipedia).

And no, I don’t actually expect people who have a strong vested interest in homeopathy to give it up just because we reason with them. On the other hand, reminding people who got through high school chemistry that homeopathy denies not just Avogadro’s number, but every other part of chemistry may catch a few of the otherwise uninterested. Then we should start pointing out the importance of high school chemistry to the politicians who feel some need to defend alternative medicine.

By the way, there is an emerging story about how the two Americans were treated with a monoclonal antibody cocktail that has only been tried in animal studies previously. According to the story (you can find it on CNN online), it worked pretty well to get the two patients less sick, and capable of being transported. The monoclonal antibody (previously called the hybridoma) was only invented in the 1970s, so this suggests how far we have come in short order.

@nmx

[citation needed] for your assertions, or we can assume that you are pulling stuff out of thin air, like the usual trolls.

You are a complete and utter moron that knows nothing about homeopathy and the miracles it can perform… Anyone that had a clue about what its capabable [sic] of wouldn’t be so inane when discussing it…[.] I’ve seen homeopathy do miracles and that’s better than any clinical trial…

“Miracles” aren’t within the general scope of clinical trials, as I understand them. Could you constrain the general landscape? For example, could a homeopathic nostrum (if misused) in a sufficient dilution cause or allow me to levitate? If not, then why?

In fact, if one takes an even longer view, it seems clear that (1) homeopathy, like gold, runs in boom-and-bust cycles and (2) levitation has been a more steady investment over time.

So, NMX, do you have a financial investment in this racket? Have you shorted homeopathy on the futures market?

If there is any homeopathic company that is willing to sponsor me I will travel to one of the countries where there is Ebola to administer the medicine and monitor progress. Somehow my gut feeling tells me there is method in what they say. [email protected]

Julian Frost – thank you so much for the path to the things anti-vaxxers say. sums up homeopathy quite nicely.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/1800440_745118708891474_6597030030612262344_n.png

Sorry

TV is up to date. But homeopathy is not mentioned here.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/04/study-growing-guinea-outbreak-caused-new-ebola-strain

NMX

I’ll bet homeopathy could cure ebola better than pharmaceuticals

Before accepting your wager, what are your terms and what are the stakes? For terms,
– what are you classifying as homeopathy and pharmaceuticals for the purposes of this wager?
– how will we determine what constitutes a cure?
– how will we determine which produces a better cure?

Always up for a wager,
Mephistopheles O’Brien

I think we should be sending as many homeopaths, chiropractors and other quacks to treat an ebola outbreak as we can fit into a plane. It’s their time to shine.

I can’t read German, but I must say that I like this line:

“Homöopathie – eine moderne Gesundheitsreligion”

Well, I do speak a few words of German: ‘gesund’ is ‘healthy’ in German, and ‘-heit’ is a suffix to convert adjectives to nouns describing a state of being, much like the English ‘-ness’. So ‘gesundheit’ just means ‘healthiness’. It’s a wish for good health after a sneeze.

So ‘Gesundheitsreligion’ is basically a religion of healthiness… though using ‘wellness’ would probably get more of the implications across in English for this line.

And ‘glaubenslehre’ in the title… glaubens is ‘faith’, lehre is ‘teaching’, so glaubenslehre is doctrine or dogma. Yeah… we’re seeing some of that belief system from the homeopathy supporters here.

@cancerkiller – I will give you two dollars….now reveal your secret….

I am so glad that you hate homeopathy.. I feel this is a form of natural selection.. The really stupid people will die off, from things like ebola, while those who use it, will survive… It worked during all previous epidemics in the USA IF YOU ACTUALLY DID ANY RESEARCH.. But that is against the credo of bigots and arrogant people not interesting in either science or truth, only in ego boosting…

It’s worth remembering that the reason homeopathy seemed like a miracle cure in the 19th century is simply because pre-scientific medicine was actually worse than doing nothing.

Greg,

I am so glad that you hate homeopathy.

I don’t hate homeopathy, I just think it’s based on nonsensical principles, not demonstrated to work, and an utter fraud. Other than that, it’s OK. If you’ve got evidence to support the underlying principles of homeopathy, please share.

PGP – I have to believe it’s a different Greg.

I leave to everybody to estimate how much the greatest discovery in more than 2 million years of humankind on the planet should be paid for.

Is this a markdown from the previous asking price of $2.25 trillion?

^ “not to fix”

DW:4, actually. We did have one that wasn’t a troll.

Narad: Cancerkiller sort of comes off like a supervillian. Or is it just me?

@ PGP:

I didn’t count the other new one because he wasn’t a troll.

At any rate, today is Saturday and I generally rejoice because I have something interesting to do that involves day trips, art, cuisine, conversation, alcohol etc.
BUT being aware of my duties to sceptic-kind, I first do my rounds and report on what seems worst:
today, Dan O. announces that he, being un-impressed with our own Prof Reiss’ explanation of association by temporal contiguity, is personally seeking stories by parents ( and others) who observed vaccine injury and regression themselves. They will be interrogated by this canny journalist and will not remain anonymous. All of this will be publicly available via AoA. So the world can see.

Like Kennedy, he doesn’t get the obvious: sample size is important, observers can be biased, large numbers tell you incredible things, statistical analysis is not the enemy, tarting up old ideas doesn’t make them any more attractive, eyewitnesses mis-remember, gossip is an unlikely source of scientific advance… I could go on but won’t.

Also, it appears that TMR is undergoing an overhaul of sorts wherein most of the tales of w… I mean *posts* are by the new set of TMs, although today’s is by a veteran.

Sounds more like the time warp to me. But it’s got to include a step that’s like squishing a bug on the sidewalk

everybody can be his own Jesus

I’m curious to know what this means. (“Everybody can suffer and die for his own sins”? “Everybody can ascend bodily to heaven”? “Everybody can predict his own betrayal”? What?)

@ann 165 – or maybe the set up for a Jewish mother joke.

Bucktooth: How do you know LW’s gender and financial status? For that matter, why would you assume Karl Withakay is actually a woman?

Never mind, you’re a conspiracy theorist.

@LW —

Isn’t perfect sinlessness already the natural state to which everybody — or everybody Christian, at least — can consider him- or herself born, though?

I thought you got that one for letting Jesus be your own Jesus. (Buncha heretics on this here internet.) But maybe I’m confused..

.

Certainly.

Wasn’t that redeemed?

everybody can be his own Jesus

I’m curious to know what this means.

It struck me as insipidly obvious from a Madhyamaka standpoint, but I suppose immanent is better than transcendent if you’re going to half-ass it.

Except that this guy is likely genuinely mentally ill.

An usual alt-med canard from Bucktooth:

through symptom only treatment

This is a very strange criticism to aim at mainstream medicine if you are going to be touting homeopathy as an alternative.
Isn’t homeopathy based on treating symptoms by a strong dilution of something giving similar symptoms, according to the “like cure like” rule?

Also, there are plenty of cases where treating the symptoms is a very efficient approach: the human body has some great self-healing capabilities, it just need time to do it. Alleviating symptoms reduces the patient’s discomfort and give the patient’s body time to patch itself.

@174 —

Again, certainly. That’s what I meant by “everybody Christian.”

(“Natural state” is what shouldn’t be there; I meant that:– as I understand it — people born in the Christian Era already have the option of starting life in a perfectly sinless state, whereas BCE people did not. And it’d just be throwing that away to take yourself rather than Jesus as your own Jesus. Ergo, if Cancerkiller meant something sensible, it can’t have been that, I feel.

But that’s kind of a big “if,” as Narad observes.)

_________________

/ignorant off-topic confusion

Hilariously enough, our friend Lawrence manages to comment at Dan’s post ( and is joined by Rebecca **@ Jake’s place- re AJW- where he maintains that they are NOT the same person and asks Jake an intriguing question about his own family connections, turning his 6 degrees back on him).
Take a bow, Mr MacN ( IIRC)

Risibly as well, I asked someone who hasn’t a degree in science but who has always worked in business about their new “study”- I described it in detail, being very cautious not to either start laughing or to represent it as truly ridiculous. Therefore, it presented it as neutrally as I could ( which was quite a chore, let me tell you) to someone who only studied science in secondary school.
Then I asked if he thought it worthwhile- would we learn from it?- he thought that they were fishing for people who agreed with them in advance.”setting the stage” as it were.

If your entire *raison d’etre* is’ vaccine damage’ your readers are most likely already steeped in this belief and influenced by stories presented there that assist them in their elaboration of their own original tales.

** they possibly let these two shills in because they may believe that they are a certain journalist from London.

@Denise – as it has been pointed out before that Jake’s family has direct ties to Pesticide interests (which even Jake posits as a “cause of autism), based on that alone, using his usual Standards, Jake himself is hopelessly compromised and obviously his continued railing against “Mercury in Vaccines” is merely a distraction or “dodge” to protect his own family’s interests.

Again, what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander.

Hilariously enough, our friend Lawrence manages to comment at Dan’s post ( and is joined by Rebecca **@ Jake’s place- re AJW- where he maintains that they are NOT the same person

I’d really like to see Nancy Hokkanen try this level of shіtbaggery over at Popehat.

And, believe it or not, Lawrence continues @ AoA with John.
Hats off to Lawrence!

@ Narad:

I’d enjoy seeing her attempt her tomfoolery *here* or even better, @ PZ’s place.

I’d enjoy seeing her attempt her tomfoolery *here* or even better, @ PZ’s place.

Eh, I file PZ in the same category as Philip Glass. I found her immediately trying to connect a suicide to dental fillings profoundly offensive. Even the meager follow-up by the commentariat seems to have a glimmer that this was misplaced.

Dammit, I got stuck in moderation for using Narad’s word “sh!tbaggery” for Hokkanen’s activities. Hokkanen has been active on this blog, posting under another ‘nym (a great review of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new book on Thimerosal):

http://blog.ucsusa.org/new-vaccine-misinformation-book-gets-the-science-wrong-619#comment-1533964422

Eh, I file PZ in the same category as Philip Glass.

Oscar Wilde would have envied that.

The person or a group of persons not understanding homeopathy are talking all this rubbish. There is no pseudoscientific in this. The thing not comprehensible for blockheads can’t be classed as pseudoscientific. Germans had always been creators. Homeopathy has its German origin. It’s results are spectacular. Where allopathy ends, homeopathy starts giving its initial results. When allopathy reaches its ends, homeopathy starts its work.

@Jitender Kumar Gaur,

Please see my comment #90 above. If you have high quality data to show that there is any basis for the underlying principles of homeopathy, please share. Likewise, if you have any high quality data to show that a homeopathic remedy at a dilution of 12C or higher has any clinically significant benefit over a placebo for a condition that isn’t self limiting, please share. Also please describe what is “not comprehensible for blockheads” and explain it for us. Thanks in advance.

Germans had always been creators.

Sure, just look at Heinrich Harrer.

Well, you know what I mean.

Also, I would people to know I believe in many methods of healing….not just homeopathy.

If you were building a house, would you pick up a screwdriver to pound a nail. Would you pick up a hammer
to tap in place a mirror ? No.

I believe in allopathic meds…(particularly the antibiotics),
herbs, chiropractic, acupuncture, vitamins, greens, healing
foods, homeopathy, essential oils, the Bach remedies, etc.

If you pick the right remedy, you can cure or at least –slow
down the death process.

The problem is….when the doctors in the US at at least 90%
allopathic, then they have a “trained” patient from birth to death and the patient is trained to think they have to take
a pill daily….or even the rest of their lives.

Even homeopathy was difficult for me to understand in the beginning because I had an allopathic mindset.

But if you are in the KNOW, then you are aware that more
Drs and nurses are learning alternative methods into their
allopathic practice. NOT so much the other way around.

Please keep in mind, through the centuries, people always pushed science, even if it was incorrect science.
And they called many concepts bogus, when they simply didn’t understand.

Remember what my jr high math teacher said….-7 is just as
powerful as +7.

Einstein contended that every thing has a frequency.
Whether it be a table, chair, person or disease.

No, he didn’t, at least not in the sense you’re trying to make this.

So lets say, this Ebola disease is very unique and has just
a high a frequency as the Aids virus…..Its at 100M potency
(frequency) so you would need to select the CORRECT plant
and dilute it to 100M. It would negate the disease.

You seem to be confusing concentration, frequency, and phase.

What is the frequency of a disease of your choice? How is this measured?

If you’re assuming that a disease has a waveform, the way to nullify that waveform would be to generate a wave with the same amplitude but opposite phase. How does serial dilution of a substance do this and how do you know? Please be specific.

Einstein contended that every thing has a frequency.
Whether it be a table, chair, person or disease.

Please refer us to a letter or lecture or publication in which Einstein made this ludicrous claim. In the absence of a source, I’ll be forced into the uncharitable position of thinking of you as a fabulist or bullsh1t artist. Thanks in advance.

Remember what my jr high math teacher said….-7 is just as powerful as +7.
Remember what the Dormouse said! Feed your head!

Remember what my jr high math teacher said….-7 is just as powerful as +7.

Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that homeopathic ‘remedies’ are a solid 0.

whoever has written this blog mentioning that basic laws of homoeopathy are pseudotheories, is just a completely foolish rather a moron.
Homoeopathy does wonders not only in flue caes but in n no of other pahologies n law of similars n law of potentisation whcich states that the more u dilute the medicine the more potent it becomes.
yes after dilutions beyond 200 medicine doesnt content single molecule. but it has the energy of that molecule, the impression of that molecule which acts n cures the disease
a moron person like you shoul; give a thought to nanotechnology which explains hoe homoeopthy works in spite of diluting the actual substance.
Homoeopathy is in accordence with modern research n the fastest ever actin pathy provided the right medicine is prescribed by the doctor.
Had the allopathy been the successfull science thousands of patients wouldnt have died with H1N1 IN SPITE OF TAKING ALLOPATHY.

Good evening, as I see a lot of people here not knowing anything about allopatic medicine and homeopathy, but are absolutely against homeopathy, I highly recommend all of you to reeducate yourself before posting your socalled “opinions”.
Homeopathy and the 1918 Flu (spanish flu which killed between 50 and 80 million humans)
Lets start here:
WW I was the first time that USA military personnel were ordered to receive vaccinations. There was and is a strong suspicion that mandated vaccinations used on troops actually created the initial infections for this pandemic. It`s recorded that many died after being vaccinated, while most who did not receive vaccinations survived.
Those factors did not affect or alter what homeopaths managed to put together during this pandemic. Understanding symptoms which have been closely scrutinized and categorized are the determining factors for administering classic homeopathic remedies, including the follow up remedies for complete recovery as symptoms change.
Undisclosed to the public at large, despite the strange and unusually virulent flu strain resulting in the “White Plague”, the cure rate of homeopathy during the 1918 so called Spanish Flu has been reported as 98%.
Read more here:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18885.cfm
or google also Margret Thyler e.g.
Dont be brainwashed please, as the truth is the strongest tool of mankind.
Dont be a sheeple to repeat, what the system wants you to believe.
Like in 1918 homeopathy will be the only cure for Ebola, check it out before you say NO and will die for sure! As this is the goal of “Ebola”, killing million of humans. I even doubt that this Virus is really the Ebola Virus and not the one, which was created by the netherland “scientist” Ron Fouchier. Google him please!
All the best and be open minded

Dear Dr Mugdha Patil,

thank you for your try to explain the majority of this blog, what are the basic of homeopathy. Ignore comments and insults like that from ChrisP, my deepest apology in behave of him. I study Homeopathy also in India and in Russia and TCM in China. My deepest respect to your indian knowledges and homeopatic hospitals. Keep your great work and dont put to much effort in brainwashed and on top very unpolitely I say people, as a real humanbeeing would never act like CrisP.

To give some more information to this blog here:
1.
Do you know how many homeopathic hospitals exist in Europe, do you? I bet NOT:
Here is the Royal London Hospital:
http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/ourservices/ourhospitals/rlhim/Pages/Home.aspx
or just do your homework and google homeopathic hospitals
2.
If homeopathic remedies dont work, please explain me, WHY they are only can be sold by law in farmacies??? If they are only water or result =0, why are farmacies selling them, loosing their face selling next to allopatic remedies somehing, which they “know” has no effect? Do you think they are stupid, not knowing it may be??? OR switch on your brain….
3.
Why not selling it like thousands of socalled suplements in the supermarket or other stores? Think about it.
4.
Why there is nearly a media-war against homeopathy? Ok, if you believe in massmedia, stop reading further, as you are still manipulated, got deceived.
5.
If vaccination is a proper medical response to diseases, explain me, WHY 50 -80 million vaccinated humans died from the spanish flu? Google the danger of vaccinations

Get yourself reeducated, dont repeat the massmedia and to ChrisP and others, thats NOT the way, we should communicate.
All the best

TO:
brewandferment

August 21, 2014
ooookayyy…a conspiracy nutcase. Please explain the physical processes, in your own words, of preparing a homeopathic substance and how you would verify that it is present in the finished product.

Dont know what homeopathy has to do with conspiracy? But ok, I can give you also some explaination on that, shaking my head here!
. Allow me to re-educate you…to remind you of the original meaning of the word,”conspiracy”.
A conspiracy is the same thing as a deception.
A conspiracy is simply a deception being orchestrated by more than one person.
So looks to me like you are a victim of them.

And we have to study years medicine and “alternative medicine), which is already a study e.g. in the university of Graz. (sure, you didnt know that!)
Quote:
Please explain the physical processes

May be, if you dont mind, educate yourself, I am NOT your teacher, as you are NOT my student. I will only show the way and take it from there please. Seems that you want everything on a silvertablet, but you have to work on yourself. If you want physical processes, GOOGLE and find the sources yourself. Sure, that is work, that takes a lot of time, reading a lot of books, buttttttt…that is up to you,if you really want to know the answer of your question.
All the best

To Narad:

hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I am wrong? I dont know where are you located. In Europe you can buy them only in farmacies. And the next time please be more accurate and tell your sources.
Thanks and all the best

To Narad:

Boiron is a french company, selling some homeopathic remedies. I guess you refer on
http://www.boironusa.com/homeopathic-medicines/
No way that we would use them, as the most remedies of them are a mixture, means not really homeopathic remedies at all, supplements.
Anyway I checked that out and I saw that you can buy Boirons products in USA over the shelter. When I see Walmart ……………yes, because they are not in our terms homeopathic remedies.
All the best

No way that we would use them, as the most remedies of them are a mixture

ORLY?

Oh, dear oh dear, it sure looks like Helios will ship anywhere.

to Narad.
and ufff, we dont talk about internet suppliers…………………..yes, yes
helios.co.uk will ship to anywhere
thats NOT the topic at all

Wilding: “May be, if you dont mind, educate yourself, I am NOT your teacher, as you are NOT my student. I will only show the way and take it from there please. Seems that you want everything on a silvertablet, but you have to work on yourself. If you want physical processes, GOOGLE and find the sources yourself”

It doesn’t work that way. If you make a claim then you must provide the evidence to support that claim. Telling someone to Google it is an incredibly lazy way to get out of producing something you know does not exist.

If you want to be taken seriously you will provide actual PubMed indexed studies showing homeopathy works for non-self-limiting diseases. For instance, Andre Saine claims that homeopathy works better for rabies than the standard modern vaccine. If that is so, then provide the animal studies proving that homeopathy works better.

“1.
Do you know how many homeopathic hospitals exist in Europe, do you? I bet NOT:”

How many were left in the USA after the Flexner Report?

“2.
If homeopathic remedies dont work, please explain me, WHY they are only can be sold by law in farmacies???”

Because homeopaths, like Royal Copeland, become politicians.

“If vaccination is a proper medical response to diseases, explain me, WHY 50 -80 million vaccinated humans died from the spanish flu? Google the danger of vaccinations”

There was no influenza vaccine before the 1940s. No one was vaccinated against any influenza in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

I suggest you work on your knowledge of history and medicine. I would suggest you read The Great Influenza by John Barry.

Dr.Ilona Wilding #1 (when questioned as to sources of bullsh1t):
May be, if you dont mind, educate yourself, I am NOT your teacher, as you are NOT my student. I will only show the way and take it from there please. Seems that you want everything on a silvertablet, but you have to work on yourself.

Dr Ilona Wilding #2 (when shown to be a liar):
And the next time please be more accurate and tell your sources.

Perhaps there is more than one Dr Ilona Wilding commenting here.

and again….yes, there is a law…google it…………………

“It”? For all of Europe? Listen, toots, you’re the one running around with a “Dr.” tacked onto your name, and you don’t even know the fυcking law? That’s not exactly something that inspires confidence from someone purporting to engage in the practice of medicine.

In Europe you can buy them only in farmacies.
I guess this is some special definition of “Europe” which does not include England.

New definition of “Europe”- a place where they use euros.

whoops name input fail

@Dr.Ilona Wilding,
Did you realize that Evian, a brand of water from the French alps, spelled backwards is “naive”? Does that have any significance here?

Dr.Ilona Wilding, that is exactly the way I communicate. It is called “telling the truth”.

As for the rest of your posts, really an appeal to popularity is not a worthwhile argument. Just because a pharmacy sells something, does not mean it works. Most pharmacies sell beauty aids for example.

As far as why only pharmacies get to sell homeopathic remedies in Europe…..(which I’m assuming is correct; I dont’ really know).

My first instinct would be that it’s for the same reason the FDA is barred from regulating anything that the homeopaths decide to officially call “homeopathic”: because as medicine started to be regulated and also started to actually *work*, homeopaths realized they needed to protect their interests, and lobbied legislators and so forth to see that they got protection that would prevent them from being regulated like drugs (which have the unfortunate detail of needing to actually prove they do something useful) and also ensure they’d have a controlled, protected stream to their customers. In other words, they did precisely what Big Pharma wanted to do, but could quite manage before regulations kicked.

I do not see this as any sort of endorsement of the discipline. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Most pharmacies sell beauty aids for example.

Strangely enough, the supermarkets in my area don’t sell “thousands of socalled suplements.” Nor do the bookstores sell broccoli.

Should note that the Ilona Wilding who claims in one place to be a “Doctor of Law” uses the same e-address as the Ilona Wilding identified by Narad who claims to be “Medica de Medicina Alternativa e Psicóterapia”.

The e-address is actually in the name of Wilding’s colleague in the practice, Alexandra Lazuk, who is a holocaust-denying sh1tweasel and Illuminati conspiracist.

large parts of Ilona Wilding’s essay on “The Role of Ethical Education for Economists and Businessmen” turn out to be repeated verbatim from news reports, but without attribution

Oh dear.

Only if she succussed them on a leather Bible. Otherwise the magic would not happen.

One might wonder whether this is misleading:

Team Royal Lda with offices in Portugal and Russia and in the next future also in China is under the management of an austrian and a portuguese lawyer.

It would be straight-up hilarious if this actually connects to Fort Lauderdale. Anyway, one just can’t pay for this kind of crazy (PDF):

118) MSL DIAMOND TRADE Ltd. (Director: ECKARD SCHMIDT) GANGSTER
www[.]msl-diamondtrade[.]com…. ECKARD SCHMIDT carries out this fraud with aid of his 3 partners, BARBARA FISCHER (AA-GROUP), VOLKMAR LEWERENZ & ILONA WILDING (www[.]teamroyal[.]org)

I really must thank “Dr.” Wilding for popping by.

Fixed link. Apparently, it’s leaving off the Hotel Tango Tango Poup-poup that causes the weird site self-reference.

Hey, s wood:

Watch how long they stay in
confinement. It will be for a LONG time.

Would you like to lay a wager on that one? I’m going with by next Saturday for Brantly.

I win.

I remember when I was learning about homeopathy.
It was at first a difficult thing to grasp because we were taught
the allopathic way.
I embrace both medicines because they both work….however
if you will trust me, I will tell you that a homeopathic remedy is not as limited as an allopathic med. Seriously.
But…here’s something to try to get you introduced to homeopathy. Its cheap and effective and I’ve used it for over 3 yrs. now. Its called Sambuccol. Its comes in a purple/white/black box and available at Walgreens. Buy it now…before you get the flu, so that you will have it. Be sure and take it as soon as possible. Make sure the box is MARKED “homeopathic near the bottom of the box as they do make an herbal in a similar box.
Now when you get the flu, and use Sambuccol several times during the day….come back to this web site and publish your results.
And when you guys can can crawl…before you walk, I will teach you how it actually works in even a way blockheads can understand.

Sherry: “Now when you get the flu, and use Sambuccol several times during the day….come back to this web site and publish your results.”

Actually I was thinking of getting the vaccine to prevent the flu.

“And when you guys can can crawl…before you walk, I will teach you how it actually works in even a way blockheads can understand.”

Certainly. I am most interested in Andre Saine’s contention that homeopathy works better for rabies than the modern vaccine. Can you provide the randomly controlled tests on rodents to prove Saine right?

I’d suggest giving the people who have Ebola a dose of the Crotalus Horridus

Why are you telling us here, when you should be dispensing your helpful advice to extremely sick people and their families? I’m sure they want to know.

I will teach you how it actually works in even a way blockheads can understand.”

But it doesn’t actually work. It’s water and sugar pills that have no active ingredients. There is no scientifically plausible way homeopathy could possibly work, and numerous studies confirm that it doesn’t. I do find it amusing that you accuse people who are familiar with the scientific evidence of being blockheads when you have clearly fooled yourself into believing a placebo is having some real effect.

“Dr.” Harris, please show us how “well researched” homeopathy is by providing links to those animal studies showing homeopathy works better for rabies than the modern vaccines.

I embrace both medicines because they both work

Sherry, your evidence that homeopathy is more effective at treating non-self-limiting illnesses or injuries than are placebos would be…what, exactly?

Be as specific as possible.

Do elderberries cause influenza or flu-like symptoms?

By the idiosyncratic definition of ’cause” homeopathy adopts, perhaps. They’ve got that whole concept of ‘proving’, remember. Apparentlyat some point some healthy homeopath ate an elderberriy, and thought “Gee, how wouldI decribe how I feel? I’ll pick ‘Flu-like'”.

As far as i can tell, that’s really all it would take.

Elderberry has some antiviral effect.

So a homeopathic preparation of elderberries (must…not…channell…John…Cleese!) should have the affect of increasing the virulence of viral infections.

Have you read Is homeopathy a quack – Homeopathic dilutions. This is well researched scientific which has not received even one negative comment including people like you.

Why no, I have not read “Is homeopathy a quack – Homeopathic dilutions”, but only because there is no trace of such a publication or website anywhere on the Internets. I cannot find your “well researched scientific”. If no-one else can find it either, this would explain the absence of “negative comment including people like us”.

“Dr.” Harris, at # 272, UN, October 3, 2014, instructs:

Go back to high school, educate yourself ere you criticise others

Gee, it was in high-school chemistry (A+, both courses) that I learned Avogadro’s Number, and its meaning. I also learned how unlikely it is to be able to dissolve a gram-mole (Avogadro’s Number of molecules) of an arbitrary “active ingredient” into a liter of water or other water-miscible solvent. Most techniques for making this possible deactivate or even destroy the “active ingredient”. This means that the homeopath is starting well behind the Avogadro ‘curve’ from the very beginning even with a fully saturated starting solution. In other words, it was high-school chemistry, where I learned that homeopathy’s basic concept of ‘potentiation’ actually is a pile of nonsense.
It was in high-school biology that I learned how the other basic concept of homeopathy, ‘like cures like’, is just as much nonsense as ‘potentiation’ is.
Perhaps you can find a high school that still teaches chemistry and biology. If you do, perhaps you should go back, take these classes, and pay attention this time.

By the way, thank you for the portion of your write up that is in Italics. Was searching for the homeopathic remedies for ebola and found all of them in one place on your blog. Thank you once again!

FDA APPROVES HOMEOPATHIC EBOLA CURE

Stanly, the FDA doesn’t “approve” HPUS (heh) entries. Benneth’s site is so crufty that about the most signal I can extract from this is a recommendation for “Crot-h.”

Stanly Silveira, from the link you provided…

“If you suspect you have Ebola consult a homeopathic physician at once”

Can you explain how you would confirm the diagnosis, what your recommended treatment (and state it’s proven real-world efficacy against Ebola in particular) would be if it was indeed confirmed to be Ebola, and how would you have protected yourself, your staff and your other patients from possible exposure to Ebola?

Thank you.

If ‘like cures like’ is such nonsense, why would they use explosive to put off oil well fires?
If ‘potentiation’ is bull crap, how is it that so many people died because of the splitting of atoms at Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Well, since you brought these up…

(From Wikipedia) “In fighting a fire at a wellhead, typically high explosives, such as dynamite, are used to create a shockwave that pushes the burning fuel and local atmospheric oxygen away from the well. (This is a similar principle to blowing out a candle.) The flame is removed and the fuel can continue to spill out without catching on fire.”

So, please explain how blowing a candle is like fighting fire with fire?

And I’ll answer your second question in technical detail if you can show to me that a 30C dilusion of uranium will detonate with greater force than if undiluded.

In 291, obvious typos are hopefully obvious.

If ‘like cures like’ is such nonsense, why would they use explosive to put off oil well fires?

That would explain why the local fire department has been putting out fires in burning houses by tossing in one match. After all,if a lit match can start a fire burning, an unlit one tossed in should put it out under the general principle of “like cures like”.

If ‘potentiation’ is bull crap, how is it that so many people died because of the splitting of atoms at Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Frankly, I just gained a new appreciation for the hazards inherent in being a homeopath. That would explain all the radiation shielding used when succussing! I can’t imagine how anyone lives past 10C – the gamma rays alone would kill you. My hat is off to the profession for taking such extraordinary risks through the last 200 years – it puts Marie Curie to shame.

Oh, wait, are you not actually saying that the process of creating a homeopathic remedy causes atomic fission? You’re only creating a rather lame and totally inaccurate analogy? Never mind.

@dr steve, i sense a homeopathy & quackery pushing woo meister, or is it poe’s law?

Prior to 1930 ALL Physicians in the U.S. practiced Homeopathy

Since the AMA explicitly refused membership to homeopaths from 1845, and worked tirelessly to suppress homeopathy with the 1904 Council on Medical Education and the 1910 Flexner Report, i am led to the melancholy but unavoidable conclusion that Dr Steve is spouting horsesh1t.

So off to my shelf I went and pulled my copy of the 1899 Merck’s Manual

So, I’m calling flat out liar!

Background: Engineer, cursed with allergies with most drugs, who successfully uses homeopathy based on the physics theory of resonance (when modern medicine is useless, you don’t give up and die)

Scientific Method: To prove a hypothesis, you must both PROVE the hypothesis and DISPROVED whatever would show your hypothesis to be false. It isn’t enough to just prove your point. You also have to prove that prevalent points that disagree with you are false.

Evidence: Modern medicine has failed to treat my hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Homeopathy has succeeded. However, the Law of Large Numbers from Statistics precludes me from generalizing these results.

Turn instead to the 1918 flue pandemic. In the USA, regular hospitals has approximately an 80% death rate. Homeopathic hospitals, more common at that time, had approximately a 20% death rate.

After the pandemic, regular doctors form the American Medical Association (AMA), then lobby congress to grant them a monopoly in health care by controlling licensing for doctors. This puts homeopaths and their hospitals out of business. (If homeopaths were quacks, why would regular doctors fight so hard to remove them as competitors?)

At any rate, the scientific method is met (proof that modern doctor’s methods failed and proof that homeopaths methods succeeded) as was the Law of Large Numbers (millions of instances, well above the 30 required for generalization). Each doctor or homeopath got to tailor treatment to the particular patient, so no individual treatment was forced, but rather the basic concept of medicine espoused by each group was tested. As pure a test of the conceptual frameworks as you can get.

Conclusion: Scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of homeopathy, but no one knows for two reasons: 1) the AMA effectively destroyed homeopathy in this country, limiting fact-based experience and data collection in this country; and 2) the AMA and the pharmaceutical companies contributed to the FDA developing a method of approving treatment methods that: a) only financially reward “new” treatments, thus makes it cost prohibitive and impossible for a company to recoup the expense of getting an existing treatment approved, as no patent protection can be gained; and b) require that only ONE treatment be tested, which is biased towards the concept of a single drug (traditional medicine) and automatically puts homeopathy at a disadvantage (more complex considerations are taken into affect to choose the right remedy among several possible alternatives). In other words, the FDA requirements for health claims prohibit homeopathy from being practiced correctly to achieve the desired health of the patient. The deck is stacked against homeopathy by the very nature of the test.

By the way, the USA is the only country to use this particular “scientific method” to approve medications. Japan, for instance, requires that a treatment proves it is BETTER than the most common current treatment (not just better than a placebo), so has a higher standard than the USA. Of course, since it isn’t the “scientific method,” drugs approved in Japan are not approved for use in the USA, even though they have passed a higher standard.

Which goes to show you, the standard you set for “success” exactly defines what will “look” successful. The good old AMA, along with the FDA and pharmaceutical companies have made sure that homeopathy will always fail it’s tests rigged to work for their concept of medicine, that no one can ever make a claim that vitamins and minerals are good for you (although doctors will tell you deficiencies cause disease, apparently there is no benefit to healthy levels of vitamins and minerals), and that great drugs from Japan will never see the light of day in the USA.

It didn’t take ObamaCare to marry medicine to politics. By the 1920’s, the lobbying system and the AMA already has their first “victory” to control the health care of the American people.

Oh, yes, if I break my leg, I will take Arnica and Hypericum for swelling and infection. I will then go to the hospital to have my leg set and cast. Like other surgeries I have had, the doctors will be astounded at how clear the surgical field stays with the reduction in swelling and blood, making their jobs easier and more accurate. Afterwards, I will take symphytum to help knit the bones together more quickly, both Arnica and Bellis to minimize the normal types of swelling that impede healing, and based on my symptoms, perhaps another remedy as needed. Two weeks later, my doctor will be predictably astounded at the speed of my recovery and my lack of need for pain medication. I will smile and thank them for their excellent work. Not surprisingly, the cast will come off early and I will be back to normal safely and earlier than normal. Life is good when you take the best that each profession has to offer. 🙂

It is based on resonance theory on physics

I speak Physics. Please tell me of this “resonance theory”.

“Turn instead to the 1918 flue pandemic. In the USA, regular hospitals has approximately an 80% death rate. Homeopathic hospitals, more common at that time, had approximately a 20% death rate.”

Is there actual evidence we can turn to that shows this was the case, as opposed to unsupported claims on pro-homeopathy websites?

“(If homeopaths were quacks, why would regular doctors fight so hard to remove them as competitors?)”

The same major reasons that physicians have always fought against quackery – it harms people, either directly or indirectly through not seeking effective care in a timely manner. Having a soup of quacks mixed in with evidence-based providers diminishes the overall reputation of health care. And as with other professions and businesses, when people buy inferior products and services they spend less on quality ones, so the quality providers have an economic motive too.

Too bad that’s the only motive you’ll allow yourself to see.

As for being allergic to “most drugs”, I call bullsh*t. It’s like what the claim made by posters opposed to artificial sweeteners in a current thread on another site – that any such sweeteners cause “throat burning” and so are “poison”.
It’s amazing what people can talk themselves into.

Ms. Milton: “It is based on resonance theory on physics.”

So what are the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of Nat Mur and Nux Vomica?

Dr. Steve,

http://www.corbettreport.com/meet-william-rockefeller-snake-oil-salesman/

In Hindu mythology there is a Narad who is supposed to be a messenger but is mainly known to be a trouble maker.

@mann

Yawn, another pathetic “challenge” from a true believer.

Tell us then, how does homeopathy reconcile itself with physics and chemistry, because the whole of homeopathy violates basic tenets of these sciences.

Second of all, have you heard of Avogardro’s number? Because it seems by your fact-free rant, you haven’t.

@ Sunil Mittal:

OUR Narad doesn’t function merely as a messenger: he has his own wisdom to dispense to those who have the capacity to understand him.
Troublemaker? Be serious.

All hail Narad!

MANN, please provide the PubMed indexed animal study showing that SULPHUR 30C works to cure rabies. I ask because Andre Saine claims that homeopathy works better for rabies than the modern vaccine.

About that challenge:

It would require going out, spending money and assiduously sticking to a protocol ( taking the woo for a week):
people who spend time,money and effort at something are MOTIVATED to find some value in their actions and may attribute any positive outcome – like feeling alright- to the formula/ woo which they have invested in.
OTHERWISE they might feel mighty stupid for having wasted time, money and effort on magic water..

There might be some face-saving as well – like those who follow altie protocols for extended time periods.

Troublemaker? Be serious.

I’m well aware of, ah, Sunil’s allusion. I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t aware of mine, though, although the author almost certainly was also aware of Sunil’s, if you get my drift.

“No, never! I didn’t love you in the sixteenth century and I don’t love you now!”

Oh, phlegm! That was supposed to be thiolry, and it was supposed to have been struck out.
That not withstanding…
Warum, pourquoi and why immer 30C? Why niemals 29C or 31C? Were I ol’ Sam, ida been gettin’ some prime number mileage.

When conventional/pharmaceutical/allopathic medicine fails, why is it so difficult for those conventionally trained practitioners to allow others to make suggestions? It is a sign of a great person to be open-minded. I have seen homeopathy have amazing results, and would rather be treated homeopathically and have a chance of surviving, than to be treated conventionally and almost surely die.

When conventional/pharmaceutical/allopathic medicine fails, why is it so difficult for those conventionally trained practitioners to allow others to make suggestions?

It is completely true that there are some times when science-based medicine simply does not have a solution for a given problem.

In such a situation, the idea that a solution has ANY realistic chance of coming from some self-deluded nitwit who has proven themselves gullible enough to swallow the codswallop that is homeopathy is absolute and utter malarkey.

I have seen homeopathy have amazing results

If there is ANY condition for which homeopathy RELIABLY produces results that are even FAVORABLE, John, then for God’s sake set up a study so that it can be documented. You’ll make worldwide news.

Of course, that only applies if the homeopathic treatment produces results RELIABLY. If what you mean by “I’ve seen homeopathy have amazing results” is “I’ve got some anecdotes”, save the trouble. Anecdotes are of extremely limited value; you may THINK that you know why someone had “amazing results” but the fact is that you don’t. A sports fan may have “seen” his rituals have amazing effects on his team’s performance – but do you think he’s ACTUALLY responsible for the team’s victories, even in part?

[I] would rather be treated homeopathically and have a chance of surviving, than to be treated conventionally and almost surely die.

Yes, and I’d like Santa Claus to give me a big pile of presents and a stocking full of candy. The question is, is it REALISTIC to think such a thing is going to happen? NO. It is not realistic to think a jolly elf is going to come and give me presents from nowhere. Neither is it realistic to think that a doctor-wannabe will succeed where actual real doctors fail.

Top to bottom nonsensical declamations of someone who doesn’t know much. SEE this: http://goo.gl/dUrds8

@Reverend Boone,

What evidence besides your own anecdote do you have for the effectiveness of any homeopathic remedy? Can you point to rigorous, double blinded, randomized, placebo controlled studies of significant size that show that any homeopathic remedy has a significant clinical benefit?

How can someone tell the difference between any two remedies at a potency of more than 12C, or between those and either distilled water or a sugar pill, as appropriate?

Do you have any evidence to show that the underlying principles of homeopathy are anything other than sympathetic magic and wishful thinking?

Suppose I were to try your challenge – what would it prove?

For what it’s worth, I have never taken a homeopathic remedy and have not come down with the flu in at least 7 years I can think of.

Thanks.

Reverend, I’ve read a lot of trials where people tried homeopathy and it did absolutely nothing for them. It’s not a good idea to just pick the anecdotes you find most appealing and draw conclusions from that. Anecdotally, I have turned to the influenza vaccine at the onset of flu season and have not been ridden with flu ever in my life. The gal who sits across from my at work does basically nothing for the flu, apart from handwashing, and she’s never had it either. So your anecdote isn’t very useful to me. If I wanted to believe in homeopathy, I might choose to accept it and toss out all the others, but I’d prefer the truth to self-justification, personally.

To each their own, though.

Ahh, VED. Tell us all again how ““Homeopathy does not work on placebo effect” but instead because there are “‘Codes which control reality (reality codes)” and “homeopathy more or less visualises human body as a software entity”.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2014/08/14/beware-of-fraudulent-ebola-supplements/

Because that one never gets old…

“Homeopaths cure people but they cannot show any evidence that they cure people so take their word for it.”

JGC, you are missing Corey’s point that homeopathy “is not meant to be understood like many things in life”. When you ask for “evidence” that it “works”, you immediately demonstrate that you are thinking in the wrong paradigm. There are other ways of knowledge, dude, by which homeopaths know that their patients are better.

@Corey:

Your comment would be easier to understand if you didn’t indulge in homeopathic punctuation.

@Corey – I am extremely concerned for your welfare. Are you feeling OK? Do you have a headache, blurred vision, or nausea? Is it possible you’ve suffered a head injury?

I ask because I find it impossible to believe that someone in the 21st century would say some of the things you’ve said if they were in full possession of their faculties.

I mean, you can’t possibly mean that you’d let someone treat you with something that neither s/he nor you understood and for which the question of evidence wasn’t even a valid question. What’s more, what keeps them (or you) from neglecting some critical yet non-obvious factor like the phase of the moon or your shoe size or your feelings about your mother and instead of getting a cure for Ebola you get turned into a newt? You say that’s never happened, but how can you know that if homeopathy’s not meant to be understood?

Best to leave those things that Man was not Meant to Know alone! That way lies angry mobs with torches and pitchforks.

Kumar C: “However since Homeopathy workssWITHOUT molecular presence something else could be at work.”

Prove that it works, period. Provide the animal studies showing that homeopathy works better than the modern vaccine for rabies.

Known causes could be the transfer of DISLOCATIONS in the atom from one substance to another which could cause Dislocations TO GET IMPRINTED without any molcular presence.

Please provide data that this occurs, and if it does, that it has any significance whatsoever in the physical or chemical properties of the substance.

However within the limited field of our knowledge we do not mostly really undersatnd things

That certainly seems to be the case for many people who advocate for homeopathy.

” Known causes could be the transfer of DISLOCATIONS in the atom from one substance to another which could cause Dislocations TO GET IMPRINTED without any molcular presence.”

Since homeopathy has NOT been shown to work, either through molecular DISLOCATIONS or ANY OTHER MEANS WHATSOEVER, it is FRUITLESS to engage in such SPECULATIONS in the absence of EVIDENCE.

Yeah, it seems these homeopathy apologists forget that in order to explain homeopathy works, they must first provide actual verifiable evidence that it does works.

They have yet show it works for any non-self-limiting condition.

One of Hahnemann’s “miasms” was syphilis, but will they provide proof that it cures that bacterial infection better than antibiotics? No.

Then Andre Saine claims homeopathy works better for rabies than the modern vaccine, but do they show any animal studies showing it cures rabies? No.

Known causes could be the transfer of DISLOCATIONS in the atom from one substance to another which could cause Dislocations TO GET IMPRINTED without any molcular presence.

This would be the homeopathic subluxation theory, right?

Known causes could be the transfer of DISLOCATIONS in the atom from one substance to another

It would be nice to have a source for this phenomenon of single-atom dislocations, but I will not hold my breath.

What i am thinking is you are taking homeopathy very lightly. I have been experimenting and treating myself with homeopathic medicines and i know they work. I am having ibs with gallbladdet pain for a while and my intestine once was bleeding my stools were black i ate arsenic album 30c and my stools started to get normal but when i left it after 2 days it started to come back and i continued it for a month with a higherdose and now that problem is solved what do you say about this…

Nik: “What i am thinking is you are taking homeopathy very lightly”

Sorry, but tummy aches, funky stools and hemorrhoids are not Ebola. Most of us get that, and it usually resolves in a few days.

So, if you want us to not take it lightly then you will provide the verifiable evidence that it works for non-self limiting viruses like rabies. Just provide the PubMed indexed studies on animals that prove Andre Saine’s contention that homeopathy works better on rabies than the modern vaccine.

what do you say about this…

This Yale has completely run out of fvcks to give.

Was their first album titled “Funky Stools”?

I like the concept of “a higher dose of nothing”. At least it is hard to over-dose.

One of the claims made by homeopathy supporters is that there are no side effects. This is why. You can overdose as much as your wallet will allow and still not get ill.

Umm, “homooeopathically”?

Is that what altie vets use on cows?

How would homeopathic poison work, assuming that the homeopathic laws are true? Like cures like. How is something that poisons you curing anything?

So to make a homeopathic poison you take something that makes you feel really healthy, vibrant and robust at normal doses and dilute it?

Can I get the recipe for that. I mean if you could sell that at full strength one could make a fortune.

Good point. The LD50 of water for humans is only something like six liters and while I couldn’t find a human LD50 for glucose, there is one for rats, so I suppose all homeopathic preparations are toxic.

Hi, does anyone know if Ebola produces high fever over 38,5°C or only low fever.
That is important for knowing how it can spread.

@Stephan – since we know exactly how it spreads, yours is an unusual question, to say the least.

I was hoping for oscillations between diseased and cured states, preferably at a low enough frequency that we could measure the oscillations and determine what the relative difference between the two frequencies was. 🙂

Prove homeopathy works. Let all homeopaths travel to ebola infested countries and not return till all patiënts are cured and proven ebola free.

@Sunil,

When are you planning to set up your homeopathic Ebola clinic in Africa and which country?

On the reality front, most people are very bad at estimating probabilities of unlikely but dangerous events.

So, I liked the graphics in this article.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/23/358349882/an-answer-for-americans-who-ask-whats-my-risk-of-catching-ebola?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20141026&utm_campaign=mostemailed&utm_term=nprnews

Ha! If homeopathy is a sure cure for Ebola, how come Dr. Kumar (of Kumar’s Homeopathy and Mental Health Clinic) doesn’t mention it? It seem to be good for virtually everything else, including:

“Neurofibromatosis, Neurofibroma, Tremor, Trembling, Chorea, Epilepsy, Fits, Seizers, Neuralgia, Epilepsy, Paralysis, Multiple sclerosis, Myasthenia gravis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Writer’s cramp, Tics, Huntington’s Chorea, Stammering, Speech problems, Migraine, Headache, Brain Tumor, Brain Cancer, Post Traumatic syndrome…Thyroid Diseases:…
Immunity Problems: Sarcoidosis, Cystic fibrosis, SLE, Allergy, Weak Immunity… Acidity, Gastritis, Ulcer, Ulcerative Colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome / IBS, Duodenal Ulcer, Esophageal Reflux, Oesophagitis, Colitis, Piles, Hemorrhoid, Jaundice, Liver Cirrhosis, Gall Bladder Stone…Cardiac and Blood Disorders: Angina, Hypertension, Palpitation, Anemia, Thallasemia, Leukemia, Blood Cancer, CML, Leukemia, Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma..
Respiratory Disorders: Asthma, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Bronchiectesis, Sarcoidosis, Cystic Fibrosis (Dr. Kumar also lists sarcoidosis and cystic fibrosis as immune disorders)…
Eye Disorders: Cataract, Blindness, Hemiopia, Diplopia, Double Vision, Hypermetropia, Myopia, Color Blindness…
Child Disease: Delayed Dentition or Teething problem, Slow Walking, Slow Learning, Bed wetting, Mental retardation, Developmental disorders, Nail biting, Temper tantrum, Thumb Sucking,..
Female Diseases: Menstrual irregularity, Amenorrhea, Menorrhagia, Metrorrhagia, Dysmenorrhoea, Leucorrhoea, PCOD / Polycystic Ovary Disease, Fibroid, Frigidity, Orgasm (!), Nymphomania, Libido, Pregnancy, Infertility, Ovulation Problem, Cervical cancer, White Discharge, Candidacies, Breast Tumor, Breast cancer, Milk problems / Agalactemia, Premenstrual Syndrome, Menopausal syndrome…
Male Sexual Diseases: Prostate Hypertrophy / BPH, Impotence, Erectile Dysfunction, Sexual weakness, Premature Ejaculation…
Skin Diseases: Pimples, SLE / Systemic Lupus Erythmatosus, Psoriasis, Eczema, Lichen Planus, Warts, Corns, Scar Marks, Chicken Pox, Nails, Fungal Problem, Acne, Acne Rosacea, Skin Allergy, Drug allergy, Pigmentation, Cloasma, Pigmentation… Hair Fall, Hair Graying, Dandruff, Hair growth, Baldness, Alopecia…
ENT: Aphthous, Sinusitis, Nasal Polyp, DNS, Post nasal drip, Deafness, Tinnitus, Giddiness (wheeee!!!!)…
Joint and Bone: Cervical Spondylitis, Cervical Pain, Arthritis, Joint Pain, Backache, Knee pain, Rheumatoid arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Sciatica, Gout, Ankylosing spondylitis, Lordosis, Kyphosis, Scoliosis..
Infectious Diseases: Typhoid, Dengue, Chickengunia, Filaria, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Influenza (but not Ebola, hah!)…
Kidney and Urinary Problems: Kidney Stone, Hydronephrosis, Kidney Failure, Nocturnal Enuresis, Bed wetting, Urinary Tract Infection / UTI, Urinary Incontinence, Calculus, Stone…
Weight Management: Obesity, Weight loss, Weight Gain
Miscellaneous: Cyst, Tumor, Diabetes, Lipoma, Cancer, Hepatitis, AIDS, Hodgkin’s disease, Hypertension, Hypotension, Height Growth, Personality Development, Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Leukemia, Thallasemia…
De addiction: Drug Addiction: Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Drug Withdrawal, Smocking withdrawal, Tobacco Chewing…

…and the list goes on. But no Ebola.

Still, I would waste no time in paying a visit to Dr. Kumar’s Homeopathy and Mental Health Clinic, the next time you are in New Delhi, especially if you experience Smocking, Giddiness and Orgasm.

http://psychicsolutionsindia.com

@squirrelelite

I am not interested in saving anyone but myself and am willing to try everything to survive.

@Chris/ @Mephistopheles O’Brien

“That Homoeopathy is not mere faith or imagination,
is proved by its curing the diseases of infants and of
patients in delirium, as well as of the inferior animals.
The writer is personally aquainted with many intelligent
farmers who employ none other than Homeopathic medicines in the treatment of their sick animals.” – Dr. E.H. Ruddock – Stepping Stone to Homeopathy – 1870.

“It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take some of the rigidity out of it.”
― Mark Twain

It is rigid dogma that destroys truth; and, please notice, my emphasis is not on the dogma, but on the rigidity. When men say of any question, “This is all there is to be known or said of the subject; investigation ends here,” that is death. It may be that the mischief comes not from the thinker but for the use made of his thinking by late-comers. Aristotle, for example, gave us out scientific technique … yet his logical propositions, his instruction in sound reasoning which was bequeathed to Europe, are valid only within the limited framework of formal logic, and, as used in Europe, they stultified the minds of whole generations of mediaeval Schoolmen. Aristotle invented science, but destroyed philosophy.
— Alfred North Whitehead

@Sunil Mittal – So if there’s proof of homeopathy, could you please tell us:
– how would someone distinguish between two different 30C homeopathic remedies and a physically identical placebo, without having the labels to look at?
– what is the evidence that the underlying principles of homeopathy are more than wishful thinking?
– where are the high quality, randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled studies that show that homeopathy has any significant clinical benefit for any disease? In particular, please show where it has been shown to be effective against Ebola or, as Chris has asked, rabies?

Or are you going to pull out Bartlett’s again?

Sunil Mitral, those quotes are not evidence. Let me be more clear:

Provide PubMed indexed studies by reputable qualified researchers who are not homeopaths to answer my question. Make sure they are less than fifty years old, not from 1870!

@Sunil Mittal (393),

Thanks for the quotes.

I especially like the one from Mark Twain. Perhaps you should apply it to your evidence in support of homeopathy and see how well it holds up.

I find it strange that proponents of homeopathy always claim that those who don’t believe in it as either closed minded or ignorant. Some years ago I approached homeopathy with an open (though skeptical) mind, read a great deal about it, used remedies and even experimented with making remedies and nosodes myself. Nothing in my experience led me to even suspect that homeopathy does anything at all.

It’s not surprising that clinical trials find little evidence that homeopathy is anything more than a placebo, and that a systematic review and metaanalysis (found in a list of ‘positive’ studies provided by a homeopath) concluded:

Studies of high methodological quality were more likely to be negative than the lower quality studies.

When it comes to the claim that animals respond to homeopathy, so it must be true, I usually refer the claimant to the Veterinary Voodoo Society, and in particular the letters to their journal, both pro and anti homeopathy, which I always enjoy perusing. The letters from vets who reported total failure of homeopathy to prevent parvovirus and to treat canine distemper are distressing to read, and leave me in no doubt that those who believe homeopathy works are fooling themselves.

Aristotle invented science, but destroyed philosophy.
— Alfred North Whitehead

I suspect that Whitehead was praising Aristotle; Sunil Mittal seems to read it differently.

Eau deer. Speaking of philosophy, and the works of L.R. Milgrom:

at
http://www.badscience.net/2000/01/journal-club-conspicuous-by-its-absence-the-memory-of-water-macro-entanglement-and-the-possibility-of-homeopathy/

Acknowledgements

I thank Bill Scott, Kate Chatfield and Professor Harald Walach for introducing me to the consolations of philosophy.

doug,

Speaking of philosophy, and the works of L.R. Milgrom:

Good grief. I just love the way some people invent outlandish explanations for imaginary phenomena, whether it’s water memory, macroscopic quantum entanglement or gut dysbiosis. Let’s not waste time figuring out if something works, let’s jump straight to how it works.

OT

My RI webpage is currently displaying an add in (almost correct) French about “le traitement à la Mer Morte”, “le (sic) merveille de la nature”
(Dead Sea treatment, Nature’s wonder)

The add invites me to ask their physician about it. Why couldn’t I ask mine?

Ask and you shall receive (alternatively : “Watch out what you wish for”)
“The good news is that a small international team of experienced and heroic homeopaths have arrived in West Africa, and are currently on the ground working hard to examine patients, work out the “genus epidemicus,” and initiate clinical trials.”
http://www.donotlink.com/framed?571422

I don’t know what to think about that.
On one hand, you can’t say any longer that homeopaths don’t have the courage to put their theory to the test.
+ at least they are working in cooperation with teams using standard treatment.
+ the teams on site could use more people ; when they aren’t strictly working on homeopathic treatment they can be of some help if only for managing symptoms while they are waiting for it to have an effect (yeah, we could lament that it would be better if they worked full time on non homeopathic affairs, but it’s not nothing either)

On the other hand, doesn’t looking for a treatment that work for a lot of people contradict the individualisation principle ? (not that I am complaining ; and it seems like there are different opinions among homeopath on that subject)
+ the clinical trials will have to be quite rigorous if you want to prove that the homeopathic part of the treatment made a difference.

@Helianthus, I agree about Mark Twain.

I wonder if the Dead Sea Treatment referred to this:
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/10/27/second-annual-dead-sea-rave-draws-international-djs/

If nothing else, it ought to cure you of lassitude!

Thanks for the link, Krebiozen.

I haven’t read as much of Mark Twain as I would like, but I downloaded that one.

Supportive care for Ebola patients includes lots of hydration — I suppose homeopathy can serve a useful purpose there.