I did not delve into homeopathy into any sort of depth, only scratched the surface in examining a single product-line. I cannot possibly present all of its current theories, nor present arguments against them in the span of a few posts. In the interest of not telling anyone what to think, here are some links to all sides of this debate.
Many people swear by homeopathy and claim it works like magic. For a more in-depth look at its practice try these links:
- The site I quoted in my last post, Hahnemann Labs, has a page that explains much of the manufacturing process. They also have an extensive FAQ that might help illuminate what they are doing.
- ABC Homeopathy has an introduction to homeopathics, which succinctly states some of the information I used this week.
Then, there are others, people who agree that homeopathy works like magic, except that there is no such thing as magic. These critics believe homeopathy is at best magical thinking, and at worst, dangerous to its practitioners who forego modern medicine and delay treatment by turning to homeopathy first.
- The most prominent critic is Dr Stephen Barrett, who maintains the website Quackwatch. He calls homeopathy the Ultimate Fake.
- The UK Skeptics took on homeopathy, and examined many of the studies aimed at determining its efficacy. They concluded that, “Homeopathy is best described as a belief system rather than a system of medicine.”
Finally, there are these sites, which can be considered neutral.
- I linked to the FDA discussion of homeopathy in my previous post. The article is entitled “Homeopathy: Real Medicine or Empty Promises?” and treats both sides of the debate fairly.
- Finally, the National Institutes of Health published a report entitled “Questions and Answers About Homeopathy.”
Use these links, as always, to decide for yourself.
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The jury is still out on whether homeopathy works and for which conditions that it does work for. Further research with properly conducted trials should help solve this dilemma. I think both homeopaths and critics need to be involved in the trials so there is no controversy if it is a success or failure.
Blake, since you are familiar with Skepchick, you may also be familiar with The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. The main force behind it is Dr. Steven Novella who about a year ago participated in a debate entitled Homeopathy – Quackery Or A Key To The Future of Medicine?
sponsored by the National Center for Homeopathy. I invite you and your readers to check it out at http://nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org/media/press_release_view.jsp?id=4.
I am on the side of Good Science and regard homeopathy as a superstition, much like pretending wine is blood or not walking under ladders.
How can you not be skeptical about a ‘medicine’ that bases it’s treatments on dog excrement and bits of the Berlin Wall?
See http://punkpsychologist.blogspot.com
http://dcscience.net/
http://www.badscience.net/
Lack of evidence is the least of homeopathy’s problems. If it works then magic is real, no two ways about it. Fundamental rules of chemistry and physics would have to be re-written. Something gets stronger as it is more diluted? The water “remembers” the “essence” of the substances dissolved in it, even though it is now diluted beyond the point where it is statistically likely that a single molecule of the substance remains in the vial? You say that bridge is in Brooklyn? Orac writes about this topic and another one that you’ll undoubtedly run across soon if you haven’t already, vaccination, on a regular basis.
As far as colic goes, some pediatricians think it is due to acid reflux. FWIW Our daughter certainly got better once she was on a stomach acid blocker, and every time we skipped a day or two she got colicky again. As a side note, she was initially put on Acephex which apparently needs to be compounded by the pharmacy in an alcohol base to remain stable. You might imagine that alcohol doesn’t feel very good on the acid damaged mucosa of the esophagus. Her colic was much better, but she really fought taking the medication and it put her off bottle feeding altogether since mixing it into milk was the only way we could get her to take it at all. Prilosec was no problem. She sucked that down straight from the syringe. Plus it’s only once a day instead of twice a day. She’s now two and still takes any oral medication like a champ. Since the cause of colic isn’t really known, and it is even likely that there are more than one cause of the same symptoms (infants don’t exactly have a wide repertoire of behaviors to exhibit), YMMV.
My understanding of the studies I’ve read is that homeopathy works in the same sense that placebos work. In other words, with some sorts of ailments, a strong belief that a medicine is going to work causes alleviation or partial alleviation of the problem.
The only time I have ever used homeopathy is when my kids and I were about to go whale watching. The seas were very choppy, but we’d paid for the ticket a couple of weeks ago, so we still wanted to go on the outing. My two older daughters and I all took Dramamine, but my smallest child was too young to take it. A friend of mine was giving all of her kids a homeopathic remedy that they use every time. I was fairly sure that it wouldn’t be efficacious against nausea, but I also was sure it was harmless, so after we all took our Dramamine, I gave the homeopathic remedy to my daughter and told her firmly, this will keep you from being sea sick.
Sure enough, lots of people on the boat got sick, but nobody in our family did. I don’t know for sure that we would’ve without the Dramamine and placebo (anecdotal evidence, after all), but I was very happy we didn’t get sick!
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