Yet another study has been done to show that homeopathy doesn’t work.
After assessing more than 1,800 studies on homeopathy, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council was only able to find 225 that were rigorous enough to analyze. And a systematic review of these studies revealed “no good quality evidence to support the claim that homeopathy is effective in treating health conditions.”
The verdict is in — actually, it’s been in for over a century. It doesn’t work. It can’t work. It’s been shown over and over again to not work. It ought to just be done with.
But it isn’t. I can still walk down to my local grocery store, and there next to the real over-the-counter medicines that actually relieve pain, clear up congestion, make my nose stop running, and reduce fevers, there are little bottles of homeopathic pisswater that claim to do those things, but don’t, and would still cost me $7 if I were stupid enough to buy them.
I take that back. Pisswater would have more substance to it than these things, and cost less.
Only $7 buck? Most of the homeopathic shit at my grocery store is in the $10-$20 range.
The other interesting thing is that they are all labeled as being homeopathic, probably because they are required to be, but almost invariably the word is in a barely legible small font tucked into a corner or hidden in similar text. Almost as if they didn’t want people to know it was homeopathic…
Oh, and something I’ve been curious about. I wonder how many companies actually bother to go through the dilution process? I mean, a “properly” diluted homeopathic solution is physically indistinguishable from plain ol’ water (most because it is plain ol’ water), so there’s no way that I know of to “test” the final product. It would be rich if these companies weren’t even going through the motions and were just straight up bottling distilled water, and would show their true motives in peddling that shit.
Ah, well, if you dilute the properly rigorous studies in a sea of new age crap, homeopathy can be shown to work much better.
I would like to see a “homeopathic” products tested for active pharmaceuticals. Why? Because so-called “herbal” and “natural” remedies have sometimes been shown to contain refined pharmaceuticals that do not naturally occur in any of the listed source ingredients.
This leads to the question: if you’re doing a scientific study of homeopathic “medicines”, what do you do for a “control”?
Water that hasn’t been diluted and shaken. Also known as a placebo.
I’ve seen homeopathy potentially work once, but I bet homeopaths would call it fake.
At the dog boarding place (we don’t use it any more), one of the staff swore up and down that something they had worked wonders on thunderstorm anxiety in dogs. She said to ignore the directions, don’t give them a drop, give them a good squirt. Looked at the box, saw the “30C” and was all “yeah, right”. Then I took a closer look at the ingredients: 20% alcohol. Told her “you know vodka would be cheaper, right?”
I remember hearing about this homeopathy meta-study from Australia, so I checked the date on the article. It’s from last year fyi.
I really must start marketing my homeopathic whisky – drink as much as you like – guaranteed no hangovers.
Whole Foods has a whole fucking aisle labeled “Homeopathy”.
And speaking of WF, when I visited my cousing, he had some “organic” laundry degergent from there. Took 3 washes to take out the smell of some bathtowels that had been stored wet. The “detergent” produced no suds, it only made the water a bit cloudy white.
I can get water from my local river, downstream from the sewage plant and get homeopathic everything water.
After all, you name it, it’s been flushed, either in urine or as a drug – even radioisotopes.
If it wasn’t for that amoeba infamous for “eating brains”…
I tried some homeopathic LSD once.
I still can’t tell if I am stuck in a hallucination of bullshit reality or actual bullshit reality. That stuff was so strong.
Donald Trump for president? See what I mean? That shot was SOOOoooooo STRONG I apparently haven’t come down yet.
@andyo #10:
Pfft. Some days my bladder will do that for free.
Perhaps I should lay off dick’s homeopathic whisky.
But you have to be 21 to buy it.
Wegmans sells that crap and when I contacted HQ they basically said “The FDA says we can sell it, sorry you don’t like it.” Does anybody know of a good way to start a public pressure campaign to get them to remove it from their shelves?
When Dutchpre-schooler was Dutchbaby, I looked for some teething relief at the local natural foods grocer. The lady showed me the homeopathic stuff, great because baby can’t overdose! I said no thanks, as I was looking for something other than sugar pills and for something that would work. She left me alone after that, with a sad shake of her head. In the end, I did end up using water: on a washcloth and stuck in the freezer so baby could chew on the frozen cloth.
The UK has a minister for health who has supported homeopathy – as well as being a forced-birther.
@17
Pretty sure Prince Charles is all about that shit too