Homeopathic remedies contaminated with REAL medicine get recalled A batch of homeopathic remedies have been recalled in the US after it was discovered that they contained real medicine. Terra-Medica is voluntarily recalling 56 lots of homeopathic drug products in liquid, tablet, capsule, ointment, and suppository forms after it was discovered the alternative treatments potentially contained …
simply because your body will cure itself of many illnesses given a bit of time anyway. The other thing that a homeopathic practitioner will do is to spend much more than the NHS 10 minute GP appointment with the patient, a bit of sympathy goes a long way to making people feel better.
OK: not really homeopathy working, but probably explains why some people think that it does.
That and reducing stress seems to have real effects in allowing your body to react correctly. Increased stress shuts things down we might need (but does it's job in emergencies, such as getting adrenaline, being sick, but surviving a stressful situation).
The placebo effect in effect. Also, note epigenetics : http://youtu.be/kp1bZEUgqVI
I did read the other day - and I suspect it was not a robust science based article - that in some cases patients take antibiotics when the actual problem is viral. Then when a day or two later they come out in a viral-induced rash they assume they have had an allergic reaction to the pills.
I wonder if in these cases -and this is just my totally unjustified thoughts - they then stop taking the antibiotics, and so further the possibility of antibiotic resistance.
That said - any possibility of allergic reaction is very serious, and total batch recall, followed by a severe bollocking for the guilty parties is an appropriate action.
Leave it to homeopaths that the one time their snake oil contains biologically active compounds, the results are worse than useless.
I don't know what the heck they think they were doing, but STOP MESSING AROUND WITH ANTIBIOTICS. We have precious little time left before many will no longer be effective - releasing useless amounts into the bodies of gullible people will only shorten that time.
Too right mate, I'm praying mine goes the same way as the lady up the road that coughed her last in the doctor's surgery after treating bronchitis-> pneumonia with "magic tea"' ...only in her 40s.... seemed a decent type...
The MIL gives us all food-poisoning every 2 weeks or so from a terminal fear of dish-washing liquid...doctor thought the wife had "had hepatitis" judging purely from the damage to her liver,
so, nothing personal, you understand :)
Read good ole Ben's blog (and his book) for a fascinating (worrying) look at the drug industry.
I could go on a rant, but I did that earlier this week after a "med student" in the campus coffee shop who was trying to convince me that "manual manipulation is an art not a science, but is still medicine".
Having said that, the side effects of the pharmaceutical industry provided goods, opens the door to all sorts of crazy woo (as Prof. Brian says).
It is sad that the line between barmy, entertaining and deadly serious is sometimes so thin...
P.
Hopefully it's a mistake, not in understanding of the student, but in language "a skill not just science"? A "practical learned response, not head knowledge"?
As "art not science" leads to no benefit over the emotional one... which is massage, no?
But then again, I always hope for the better in people...
Heh heh. One wonders that there are any atoms of penicillin in the "medication" at all.
Gotta love the "alternate medicine" crowd. I had a boss who suffered years of agony with a bad hip joint that he was having "treated" with something called "crystal therapy". These days that would probably mean he was tweaking around the pain, but he explained it involved getting close to the "healthy vibrations" of quartz crystals. I asked him if vibrating quartz was so healthy to be next to, how come he'd gotten sick in the first place when he always wore a digital watch with a quartz-controlled oscillator in it strapped to his wrist?
A Chinese colleague was extolling the virtues of reflexology to me last week. This loony theory has it that there is a place on the sole of the right foot for every location in the body, and by manipulating the foot one can "cure anything". I asked him where on the right foot corresponded to the right foot (I have recently become subject to gout attacks so this wasn't idle questioning) and he got mad.
And because no Credulous Saucer Loon story is complete without a dowser:
A family member "explained" dowsing to me recently by citing electric fields in the water. I was about to ask about why underground water wouldn't just conduct these electric fields to ground when the dowser went on to say "Obvious really, hydroelectric plants get electricity from water don't they?"
This was a classic "so many things wrong" moment that I was unable to do more than stand mute in awe of the reasoning.
Dowsing
Could it be that the water make a feint low frequency rumble which resonates the rib-cage?
Ever been too close to the bass bins at a concert and have the feeling your lungs vibrate?
Why does Tarzan beat his chest?
Although missing out the machinery in a hydroelectric plant, which converts the potential energy of water up hill to rotating magnets was amusing - akin to being frightened by the WiFi signal, but not the microwave oven, car alarm remote, cordless phone, etc.
I've actually tried it, and managed to find water.
(Don't know if I could do it 'on order' though. Probably be too stressed out)
It's not electricity, though.
(or at least not just electricity)
It probably has more to do with magnetism and that cables or underground streams affects the local geomagnetic field.
More likely, you can find water pretty much anywhere you decide to drill ... assuming that plants already grow there.
To say nothing of fossil aquifers in miscellaneous deserts, world-wide ...
Funny how this kind of article always brings out the scientifically disinclined.
Hey, anon F! tard...
(I used my name. What are you afraid of?)
I have no idea what you're raving about...
I was mentioning finding water, and you're complaining about stress?
As I understand it, running water such as an underground stream will subtly distort the geomagnetic field, much the same way a conductor in a magnetic field will.
The same with metals.
And it's NOT about water that's so deep you have to drill for it. If it's deeper than you can dig in a inute or two with a shovel, I wouldn't even bother looking for it. (I'm a lazy bugger... )
How this interacts with the dowsing rods, though, I have no idea, and until I do, I'm not going to make a fool of myself on TV.
"Hey, anon F! tard..."
Nice, I can see you are rational.
"...and you're complaining about stress?"
Err, you complained about stress stopping dowsing working.
"..this is for 'supernatural' or paranormal abilities"
No it's not it's for all kinds of baloney. They would readily accept a dowser and have done before.
"...there isn't a reputable scientist in the world willing to touch dowsing with an Imperial pole(much less a dowsing rod) because he'll be instantly ridiculed and lose all standing in the community."
Scientists regularly explore ridiculous and outlandish theories all the time. No scientist would be ridiculed for creating a paper exploring dowsing. In fact the results, if proven, would be wildly published and make a name for themselves.
"Yeah, right... That would look good on a test."
You decide the terms of the test for JREF. they will then make sure that there is no ambiguity or possibility for using conjuring tricks but outside of that the test is defined by you.
"All I'm certain of is that the man who taught me the stuff all those years ago used to drive a hydraulic digger, and he never damaged a single cable throughout his career"
Apart from all the ones he didn't mention (probably when he was too stressed)
"Then there's the possibility that it was a fluke that I managed to find water that time."
Bingo, rational thought at last.
(for Trygve Henriksen )
Well, I'm an opinionated blowhard and so quite often shown to be full of spit, but I look upon those times as learning experiences, so if you can show this to be a genuine effect that can be performed reliably to order more than 50% of the time I'll recant my views here and loudly.
But a question occurs: instead of just putting a fat, middle aged English ex-pat in his place, why not apply to the JREF and try and win a million dollars *as well* as putting me in my place? If I could dowse to order I know which I'd be doing, because, you know, when *can't* you use a million dollars?
You design the test in conjunction with JREF volunteers, you tell them what you can do and if you can do it in a blind test better than 50% of the time you are quids in. You don't even need to explain how it happens.
Dowsers were always Randi's favourite people to deal with. He said that he never met a single one that was just conning him. They all genuinely believed they could find whatever it was they could dowse, and were all genuinely confused when the preliminary tests showed no better-than-pure-chance success.
Frankly, I wouldn't want to do a JREF test.
First of all, this is for 'supernatural' or paranormal abilities.
Dowsing has nothing to do with the mumbo-jumbo crowd.
If it IS in fact based on geomagnetism, then it's a natural phenomena, and we just need to figure out exactly how it works. Unfortunately, there isn't a reputable scientist in the world willing to touch dowsing with an Imperial pole(much less a dowsing rod) because he'll be instantly ridiculed and lose all standing in the community.
(I'm no scientist, and frankly have no idea where to start, even if I had time to do it. Which I don't. )
Then there's the possibility that it was a fluke that I managed to find water that time.
Or maybe the dirt is the wrong type for dowsing to work, maybe a piece of quartz or a granite boulder triggers a 'false' positive.
Yeah, right... That would look good on a test.
All I'm certain of is that the man who taught me the stuff all those years ago used to drive a hydraulic digger, and he never damaged a single cable throughout his career. He even avoided old german phone cables from WWII and slightly more recent NATO cabling, neither of which are on the official maps.
For a person so sure HE knew what was best for OTHER people...he certainly had no clue about his own self.
Another poster-child for alternative medicine...or maybe not.
http://gawker.com/5849543/harvard-cancer-expert-steve-jobs-probably-doomed-himself-with-alternative-medicine/all
" Sadly, the desperate act the most desperate, and grasp out at anything."
Indeed.
My cousin started going to see one, and he and his parents said it was really working. He died a month later, aged 22, after being milked by these bastards for lots of cash.
In the Netherlands (and Germany too I believe) there's a lot less fuss about this. Because there are plenty of natural health shops and woo sellers, but homeopath is a protected title. It is legally a medical specialty, so you can't call yourself a surgeon, a cardiologist or a homeopath without actually possessing a MD.
Now I'm not a fan of woo, or legitimising quackery. My dad's a GP, and as far as I'm aware most of the time you get better through a combination of rest, drinking and eating. A small amount of the time it will require an intervention. So visiting a homeopath who will be able to refer you if something does require further testing, and has had a proper education is quite valuable.
It's also a good use of those with a MD who aren't up to practise. Not intended as a criticism, a MD is a very intellectually challenging qualification, the medical profession attracts those who want to heal and help, but you can't really test how well someone copes with losing patients until they do. So some will not be good because they become too detached, and some will break because they can't detach enough. So having a place for doctors who generally like having patients who are not really sick is a good idea, especially as on the odd times when they are genuinely ill then they can actually spot it.
I would also trust far more to the ethics of a MD than an evangelist for homeopathic remedies.
The other thing that annoys me about defenders of homeopathy is when you bring up the money, they defend it by pointing out the pharma industry profits. Yet big pharma can still manage to get me medications for most things at the cost of 1-3 cents a pill for generic paracetamol and antihistamines. Maybe 10-20 cents a pill for vitamins and minerals, gets cheaper each year, Yet homeopathic sugar pills go up in cost each year.
Worst scam for it I heard was my old landlady in the UK. After spending nearly three thousand quid on treatments over six months, her homeopath "discovered" that her tenant was also getting homeopathic treatments, and so convinced my landlady that these where interfering with her treatment. Thus all the medications had to be repurchased, and the tenant had to transfer the to homeopath to "synchronise" the treatments. Glad to see my rent money was going to a noble cause.
Both the Health Minister ( Jeremy Hunt, might be rhyming slang ) and the clueless Shadow Health Minister ( some anonymous token woman, flown in to miraculously win Liverpool for Labour ) BOTH believe Homeopathy.
It's time (real) doctors spoke out and had them both sacked.
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