… as equivalent to medical products …
https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CFI-v-Walmart.pdf
Silly Walmart, most of the willfully ignorant shop for their snake oil at much more upscale stores.
It’s not just willful ignorance that’s the problem. Because homeopathic remedies are shelved with the legitimate ones, it’s entirely possible to buy them by accident.
I bought homeopathic earwax drops by mistake once. I was in a hurry, and I grabbed the first package I saw on the shelf. When I got home and looked at the package directions, I realized that I had made a mistake and wasted my money. But I write about health for a living. I know what homeopathic means. How many consumers don’t?
I’m a pharmacist for far too many years. I’m not making judgements on homeopathic meds. Many work very well with better effect than the “science approved” big dose meds which also have come with big side effects.
I know how low the doses are but I’ve studied some on these and I’m not discounting their use.
There aren’t studies on homeopathic meds because there isn’t any money involved by big pharma. Heaven forbid the cheap med is better than the expensive one.
Only thing I do know anecdotally is that many people swear by their favorite remedies and I can’t refute their experience.
It might be placebo effect but that is a huge factor in any med effect.
I’ve had positive results from many homeopathic remedies, and several allopathic remedies that didn’t help at all. Depending on the ailment I may actually reach for homeopathy first.
It’s called “placebo effect”. The theory behind Homeopathy is bunk. and the dosages are so low that it is no difference from taking water.
Just because somebody thought that a substance causes similar symptoms as an illness doesn’t mean that there is any connection between the two. Diluting something does not make it stronger, unless physics has changed.
Period, end of story.
There is absolutely zero validity to homeopathy. It’s made up by people who want to sell water to the gullible as if it were medicine. The markup on homeopathic “medicine” makes Whole Foods’ “Asparagus Water” look like a deal.
Arguing that “homeopathy” is a legitimate theory of medicine is the same as arguing that a Flat-Earth or the geocentric “hypothesis” are legitimate theories of cosmology.
The thing is, the placebo effect is real. That is what we really need to tap into. Mind over matter is possibly creating a biologic response. Homeopathy is laughable for sure, but we can create our own placebos, for free.
Some people are making plenty money selling water in the form of homeopathic meds.
If there was a combination of sense and money in it, big pharma would be all in too.
The placebo effect doesn’t require placebos.
The beneficial effect you get from a drug with real therapeutic effects is a combination of the drug’s specific effect and the placebo effect. This is why new drugs are tested against placebos if it’s ethically possible. Often, both the new drug and the placebo will produce improvements in symptoms – that’s the placebo effect. If the new drug has a specific activity that goes beyond the placebo effect, it will work better than the placebo. But notice that the placebo effect happens with both products.
“homeopathic” means the same as “biodegradable”. All synonyms for “does not work”.
What do you think of the zero molecules in aqueous solution dosages?
- The placebo effect is incredibly real and studies are being done on it at such no name places as Harvard.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
For certain things like pain, it’s being thought that trying a placebo first can be a great idea.
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Many homeopathic remedies do work and when they show that they are possible, many are also tested. It’s how we can get some of our prescription meds when they take the specific factor that seems to do the job and sift it out. For folks who can’t afford prescriptions or who don’t react well to them, sometimes the natural source isn’t as harsh on the body.
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I always recommend that folks use google to check out anything they want to try, then keep their reading limited to reputable sources like Mayo or Harvard, etc. Don’t pick “Aunt Matilda’s Homeopathic Cure Alls.” For a non-advertisement magazine, Nutrition Action is awesome. It’s small, easily readable, and stays abreast of many of the studies out there letting readers know what seems to work, what doesn’t, and what’s still in the testing phases (which are most things TBH). It also goes deeper into media stories. It’s good for the lay reader and my med school lad reads it regularly to stay up on current things.
Saying all homeopathic substances don’t work is a myth. Saying all homeopathic remedies work is a myth. It doesn’t take long to truly do one’s homework and if something is still in the testing phase, make your own judgment for your own body as to whether you want to try it or not. Most of us can’t wait until there are “final” answers.
I end up eliminating most I research, but milk thistle for my liver - only bought from a reputable source of which there aren’t many - research that too, Consumer Labs is a terrific source but one has to pay for it - and ginger to see if it will mimic statins since my body didn’t react well to them are two I’m opting to try. The ginger will be measurable pro/con in Sept. I’ll try more statins if it didn’t work. The milk thistle I’ll likely never know for sure about, but I already know my bilirubin tested slightly high every single time I had my blood tested before I started taking it and has been perfectly in the normal range never venturing high after. I’m keeping it and I doubt it’s the placebo effect for that one.
YMMV
I’ll also add that my med school lad had a course on homeopathic remedies at med school. They were certainly never taught that all of them are bad. They discussed some of the current studies about promising ones.
Milk thistle may have physiological effects, milk thistle diluted to zero does not.
Right: it’s the “the more it’s diluted, the more it works” part that seems particularly egregious.
I’m curious – what are homeopathic earwax drops? My Nurse Practitioner recommends using olive oil or saline water to loosen earwax before I come to her for removal with warm water squirted in the ear. Are these not homeopathic? Is the problem that it’s sold as earwax drops but doesn’t contain something else “mediciney”?
I thought homeopathic had a specific meaning. Of course there are often effective home remedies and store items that are not “mediciney,” but that doesn’t make them homeopathic.
Homeopathic does have a specific meaning. You might want to look at this NIH webpage for an explanation: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/homeopathy
This document from the Center for Science in the Public Interest – the publishers of Nutrition Action – might also be of interest. https://cspinet.org/resource/cspi-comments-fda-re-risk-based-enforcement-approach-homeopathic-drugs They do NOT endorse homeopathy. In fact, they have expressed concerns about its safety and support for FDA’s proposed tighter regulation of homeopathic products.
Which is why it’s incredibly important to use a reputable supplier. When I read Consumer Labs report on it only two samples they tested had in them what the bottles claimed. If I recall correctly, some had none.
@Marian I’m in full agreement with that article. I use it in school to teach about various remedies. Everyone needs to do their research intelligently. When I’m full time for Bio I often have kids read Nutrition Action. Out of all the things I’ve researched I only continually use two - though I suppose technically those two are supplements, not homeopathic remedies.
Of homeopathic remedies, I have found Cold Eeze to be reliable at shortening a duration of colds if taken early - as has Nutrition Action. Med school lad says his peers use it too.
They aren’t 100% bad as some on this thread were implying. They also aren’t 100% real - or even 50/50 - but dismissing them (or supplements) out of hand can be as wrong as gushing over them because someone at Dollar General swears by X when making small talk.
Cold Eeze is marketed as homeopathic but it doesn’t conform to the philosophy of homeopathy. It isn’t highly dilute. It has quite a lot of zinc in it. So it’s not surprising that it might actually do something.
I’m not sure how the company gets away with marketing this product as homeopathic.
Herbal, folk, traditional, etc. remedies are not homeopathic.
Diluting to zero while banging the liquid container on a hard surface, and claiming the water has a memory of molecules diluted out, and can cure your disease - that is just nutcase stuff.