Reply to: Homoeopathy on the NHS

[minestrone]

There is a fantastic book written by a doctor who was held in a Japanese POW camp in the war. It's a true story detailing when he was made prison doctor by the Japanese, even though he had no medicines etc. All he had was water....but he didn't tell the other POW's that. It's truly amazing what he was able to do.

The name of the book escapes me...I'll dig it out and pass it on. I highly recommend it - it is a fascinating read.

I'm told the local homeopathy hospital actually has a very good success rate for certain conditions for these reasons,.

[PM-Junkie]

Assuming the water is clean, or that he had a means of purefying it (sieving and boiling) he would be able to offer a lot of help in terms of treating wounds and most bowel infections. Of course, by manipulating the placebo effect he would be able to help even more people.

It was the placebo effect...that is the point of the book.

[Mich the Tester]

There is a fantastic book written by a doctor who was held in a Japanese POW camp in the war. It's a true story detailing when he was made prison doctor by the Japanese, even though he had no medicines etc. All he had was water....but he didn't tell the other POW's that. It's truly amazing what he was able to do.

Assuming the water is clean, or that he had a means of purefying it (sieving and boiling) he would be able to offer a lot of help in terms of treating wounds and most bowel infections. Of course, by manipulating the placebo effect he would be able to help even more people.

[PM-Junkie]

Funny thing with the placebo effect. A group of people were given morphine or a morphine placebo. They were then given a drug that stops the action of morphine - they didn't know what the drug was for. A significant number of peole who'd had the morphine placebo, reported that the pain returned.

So it looks like the placebo effect could be caused by the body releasing its own morphine like substances - endorphins.

There is a fantastic book written by a doctor who was held in a Japanese POW camp in the war. It's a true story detailing when he was made prison doctor by the Japanese, even though he had no medicines etc. All he had was water....but he didn't tell the other POW's that. It's truly amazing what he was able to do.

The name of the book escapes me...I'll dig it out and pass it on. I highly recommend it - it is a fascinating read.

[NotAllThere]

Funny thing with the placebo effect. A group of people were given morphine or a morphine placebo. They were then given a drug that stops the action of morphine - they didn't know what the drug was for. A significant number of peole who'd had the morphine placebo, reported that the pain returned.

So it looks like the placebo effect could be caused by the body releasing its own morphine like substances - endorphins.

[FSM with Cheddar]

Make sure you claim that your ingredients doesn't contain any chemicals.

[sasguru]

Brilliant! I sense a plan B emerging here. Maybe I’ll do ‘fair trade fair deal’ homeopathy, guaranteeing that ‘none of our ingredients have originated from exploited third world workers’ and sell it at 9,99 a bottle.

And if you admit you're relying on the placebo effect, you can just provide regular water. Provided the punters don't know, the placebo effect will still work.

[NotAllThere]

Ah, the Body Shop paradigm.

[Mich the Tester]

The only honest homeopathy company is found here: Fair Deal Homeopathy.

Brilliant! I sense a plan B emerging here. Maybe I’ll do ‘fair trade fair deal’ homeopathy, guaranteeing that ‘none of our ingredients have originated from exploited third world workers’ and sell it at 9,99 a bottle.

[NotAllThere]

Don't know how things are in the UK, but you go into an pharmacy in Germany, France or Switzerland, and you'll have a wide range of homeopathic remedies available. The pharmacies love to sell them, as, being made of water, the profit margin is huge.

Homeopathy is unscientific. Since its rules were laid down a hundred or so years ago, there had been no development, no modification. In fact, any modification is strenuously resisted. Homeopathic hospitals were used in the first world war to treat wounded soldiers. Many died as a direct result. It is evil and profit driven, relying on people's superstitions and fear. ( Just like those nasty Pharma companies ).

The only honest homeopathy company is found here: Fair Deal Homeopathy.

[sasguru]

Naivety beyond belief.

I guess the scandals of drug companies releasing drugs after assessing that the profit from releasing a drug would outweigh the cost of law suits and bad publicity as a result....or withholding details of side effects....or illegal practice in clinical trials, are all figments of peoples' imagination???

I was working for a certain German pharmaceutical company when one such scandal hit (no prizes for guessing which), so I know what I am talking about. If you seriously think pharmaceutical companies are ethical (without being forced to be), you sir are talking out of your backside.

Think on this. There is no market incentive for curing something. There is huge market incentive for developing a drug that alleviates symptoms, but that have to be taken over a long period - especially if you have to take another drug that alleviates the side effects of taking that drug.

Pharma companies are neither more nor less ethical than any other industry.
The difference is that they are strictly regulated with respect to release of new drugs.
Naive? I don't think so. I have worked in clinical trials for most of my past contracting career i.e. many years in the major pharma companies (at the sharp end of analysing clinical trial data at a senior level ) so I think I know of what I speak.
There has been a gradual improvement of regulation and best practice over the years - and yes there were some sharp practices caused by market pressure. As regulatory and oversight systems have improved, the capability to get away with it has been grqdually squeezed out of the system.
Point is, on balance, I believe the pharma industry has done more good than bad.
Without the pharma industry, our life expectancy would be down by about 10-20 years.

May I also say PM your comments on pharma and global warming betray a typical "PM" inability to understand the science behind it all. Now wonder most projects fail in this country ;-)

[Zippy]

A bit like contracting then.

If you're not part of the solution, there's good money in prolonging the problem

(from one of those anti-motivational posters)

[Mich the Tester]

Agreed...the money is in the drug not in the cure.

A bit like contracting then.

[stingman123]

Think on this. There is no market incentive for curing something. There is huge market incentive for developing a drug that alleviates symptoms, but that have to be taken over a long period - especially if you have to take another drug that alleviates the side effects of taking that drug.

Agreed...the money is in the drug not in the cure.
Especially when you can get tables for almost everything

I saw a commercial the other day that said, "Do you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning?"
Oh tulip they got that one! I got that! I'm sick, I need that pill! (CR)

[FSM with Cheddar]

New Scientist doesn't deserve to have the word "Scientist" in it's title at the moment.

At best, they should put the word pseudo in front of it. But I think a better title would be New Misleader.

They have been deliberately releasing misleading and headline grabbing articles, which bare little relevance to the scientific facts.