Some thoughts for today concerning homeopathy, the following quote being taken from Mark’s Daily Apple:
My final thought on homeopathy is this.I can’t accept it [homeopathy] as a medical practice given what is currently known. I leave room for the effectiveness of a few substances when given in a non-traditional formula (actually present in the solution). Furthermore, I respect the humanistic elements of homeopathy practice and wish conventional medicine would learn a thing or two in this department. I understand why people might be interested in its therapies and experience suggested relief from the idea of a gentle treatment that gets them thinking about the power and essential balance of their bodies. The truth of its impact, however, lies outside the bounds of medical science.
I love Mark’s Daily Apple, as I’ve been experimenting with the Paleo diet for about a year now and find the information there invaluable. There’s no “but” either. I just thought that it would be interesting to do some more research for myself concerning the efficacy of homeopathy, since it lies outside my realm of understanding and, with such unorthodox theories such as the law of similars, my curiosity was piqued.
For a brief overview of homeopathy this
video is short and very informative. Go ahead and have a looksie.
Done? Well then you’re probably full of questions, much like I am. So I did a Google search and found this:
Most rigorous clinical trials and systematic analyses of the research on homeopathy have concluded that there is little evidence to support homeopathy as an effective treatment for any specific condition.
Well that’s all fine and good, but I need to see for myself. I decided to look at pubmed to see if I could find any research documenting the effects of homeopathy. I was specifically looking for some studies with control groups, and was disappointed when I found mostly observational studies, the links being below.
CONCLUSION:
Patients who seek homeopathic treatment are likely to improve considerably. These effects persist for as long as 8 years.
Disease severity and quality of life demonstrated marked and sustained improvements following homeopathic treatment period. Our findings indicate that homeopathic medical therapy may play a beneficial role in the long-term care of patients with chronic diseases.
As you can see, the research is not totally geared towards proving homeopathy is better than conventional care, but rather that it is effective. In fact
this article shows that there was little difference in the outcomes of conventional vs. homeopathic care for children with atopic eczema. What I’m getting from this research so far, rather than seeing a reason to kick homeopathy to the curb as “pseudoscience,” is the fact that
something is working. In some cases it may not be
better than conventional care, but something is working, and I am not totally convinced that it is just people being treated nicely. If that were the case people seeing therapists would be finding themselves healing their atopic eczema as well. No, I think something else is happening.
So when
Randi the super skeptic backs out of a wager with George Vithoulkas, a relatively famous man himself, over a million dollar bet concerning the effectiveness of homeopathy, it’s interesting enough to me to warrant further research. And of course that’s what I plan to do. Night!
The Koonie Boonies 