Australia Declares Homeopathy Nonsense, Urges Doctors to Inform Patients 408
jones_supa (887896) writes "Homeopathy is a 200-year-old form of alternative medicine based on the principle that substances that produce symptoms in a healthy person can be used to treat similar symptoms in a sick person. The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia has officially declared that homeopathic remedies are useless for human health. The body today released a guide for doctors (PDF) on how to talk to their patients about the lack of evidence for many such therapies. Doctors will also be told to warn patients of possible interactions between alternative and conventional medicines. On top of that, the council has produced a 300-page draft report that reviews the evidence for homoeopathy in treating 68 clinical conditions. It concludes 'there is no reliable evidence that homoeopathy is effective for treating health conditions'.
Representing the opposite viewpoint, Australian Homeopathic Association spokesman Greg Cope said he was disappointed at the narrow evidence relied on by the NHMRC in its report. 'What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how homeopathy works,' he said. Homeopathy worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness, and research such as a seven-year study conducted in Switzerland was a better measure of its usefulness, he added. There are about 10,000 complementary medicine products sold in Australia but most consumers are unaware they are not evaluated by the domestic medicines safety watchdog before they are allowed on the market."
Representing the opposite viewpoint, Australian Homeopathic Association spokesman Greg Cope said he was disappointed at the narrow evidence relied on by the NHMRC in its report. 'What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how homeopathy works,' he said. Homeopathy worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness, and research such as a seven-year study conducted in Switzerland was a better measure of its usefulness, he added. There are about 10,000 complementary medicine products sold in Australia but most consumers are unaware they are not evaluated by the domestic medicines safety watchdog before they are allowed on the market."
Homeopathy doesn't work that way (Score:5, Funny)
It doesn't work by treating conditions. You're using it wrong. The first thing you need to do is stop expecting it to do anything.
Re:diminished placebo effect (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like they need a homeopathic beer (Score:5, Funny)
Courtesy of Mitchell and Webb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0 [youtube.com]
Re:s/homeopathy/creationism/g (Score:4, Funny)
Replace homeopathy with creationism.
One wonders what the response would be then.
"What they have looked at is systematic trials for named conditions when that is not how creationism works," he'd say. "Creationism worked on the principle of improving a person's overall health and wellness, and research such as a seven-year study conducted in Switzerland was a better measure of its usefulness," he'd add.
Re:Homeopathy doesn't work that way (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"What they have looked at is systematic trials. (Score:5, Funny)
Says it all...
Curse you, actual scientists, with your "facts" and "data". Where we come from, we don't need no facts.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. I was recently afflicted by a non-systematic, unnamed condition, and drinking lots of water helped.
Hmm, now that I think about it, I may have been thirsty.
Re:diminished placebo effect (Score:5, Funny)
Research has shown that you can maximize the placebo effect by charging more money.
My experiences (Score:5, Funny)
I visited a homeopath once. I had dreadful allergies and was quite desparate. So off I trundled to the homepaths tent in the festival I was attending. There they did some sort of reading and asked a few questions. They opened a huge old book and spent a few moments throughtfully reading through various passages. Then delivered the news that I needed arsenic. Only this poison could help me. They procused a small plastic bag containing small spherical white pills. I complained that I was not keen on taking arsenic in any shape of form. So they explained that they started with a huge vat of water with a little bit of arsenic in it. Took a tiny drop of that water and diluted it further, and once again until only the essense of asenic remained. There wasn't any arsenic in those pills. By this time I was laughing so hard I had completely forgotten about my allergies. I left with a big smile on my face and used the sugar pills in my coffee.
So sorry everyone, homeopathy works.
Re:If this were the US.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah...because its Republicans who are into homeopathy, healing crystals and all that mystical unicorn feel-good hippy bullshit.
Well, if it works (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The spokesman for the AHA said... (Score:4, Funny)
Substituting one god for another isn't going to effect your well-being to any great extent. Substituting homeopathy for medicine will.
Rumor is that abandoning Islam is reason for a death sentence.
Re: diminished placebo effect (Score:5, Funny)
I use meta-placebo effect instead of medicines.
I know that the placebo effect exists and is effective, so believing something can heal me will indeed heal me.
Therefore, I juste have to believe that just believing that believing will heal me will heal me, and it heals me.
Re:Homeopathy doesn't work that way (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not going to work... (Score:3, Funny)
Homeopathy is applied psychology and pretty effective as such. Saying it's crap means you don't understand a iota of it.
You're saying that homeopathy can't work because there are no substances in the bottle. I'm saying it's precisely because there aren't any substances (except a small amount of alcohol) while still being expensive, that it is sometimes effective without damaging side effects.
Twisting a geek quote (Score:5, Funny)