Re: Homeopathic overdose protest in Boots | Forum

pooley Jan 29, 2010 10:07:14

Replying to Deepinder Cheema

Deepinder Cheema wrote:

Squid Tempest wrote:

I'm going to stick my head above the parapet here.

I never trusted homeopathic medecine due to the scientific arguments already mentioned here. However, I have a very good (and intelligent) friend who suffers from a very serious condition (I won't go into details here as it is another's health I'm talking about). For some years now homeopathic remedies have provided her with the only relief she has been able to get - conventional medecine did nothing for her. Apparently for her it really works, and in ways that it is hard to fit in with the placebo effect. real, physical differences.

I was as cynical as the rest of you until this. Now I'm really not so sure. Could it possibly be that there is something going on here that science has yet to suss out?

Well this is the point. I can understand the rationalist's argument completely, but I quiver on the cusp just like Pascal lest there is a phenomena acting that science has not yet discovered. I hedge my bets because animals have been known to be cured. In fact I remembered my mother rescued Snoopy in 1970, our dog from the pound from being put down. She cured his distemper using homeopathy, no placebo effect there; and then there is the anomalous and mysterious nature of the water molecule.

Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (as Chris Brookmyre would say)

If you believe in this rubbish, no amount of proof will lift the wool from your eyes - good luck with it if you get heart disease, cancer, or ANYTHING that wont go away on its own!

Squid Tempest Jan 29, 2010 10:54:00

Replying to pooley

pooley wrote:

good luck with it if you get heart disease, cancer, or ANYTHING that wont go away on its own!

So...say you have incurable cancer. No conventional medical treatment is working. Would you not try alternatives, just in case? Despite my scepticism, I suspect I would be tempted...after all, what have you got to lose except some cash? And as they say, you can't take it with you...

Mind you, I can't help but agree that in all likelyhood you would be lining the pockets of quacks and charlatans.

Then again, you may be one of the lucky ones who find a successful treatment outside the mainstream, like the friend I mentioned in my first post.

handofdave Jan 29, 2010 11:51:12

Replying to pooley

Cancer can get you no matter how much money you have. You could have a private army of the best doctors on the planet and it wouldn't make a difference. And the treatment is harsh... many people who have to undergo it again and again will simply give themselves up to it rather than put themselves thru another round of chemo.

So sometimes, 'legit' western medicine is almost as much a crapshoot as any alt-medicine. I don't blame the desperate for choosing unproven methods when the arsenal of approved ones fail.