homeopathy?????

[Michaelangelica]

4 Belfast homeopathy results

MADELEINE Ennis, a pharmacologist at Queen's University, Belfast, was the scourge of homeopathy. She railed against its claims that a chemical remedy could be diluted to the point where a sample was unlikely to contain a single molecule of anything but water, and yet still have a healing effect. Until, that is, she set out to prove once and for all that homeopathy was bunkum.

In her most recent paper, Ennis describes how her team looked at the effects of ultra-dilute solutions of histamine on human white blood cells involved in inflammation. These "basophils" release histamine when the cells are under attack. Once released, the histamine stops them releasing any more. The study, replicated in four different labs, found that homeopathic solutions - so dilute that they probably didn't contain a single histamine molecule - worked just like histamine. Ennis might not be happy with the homeopaths' claims, but she admits that an effect cannot be ruled out.

So how could it happen? Homeopaths prepare their remedies by dissolving things like charcoal, deadly nightshade or spider venom in ethanol, and then diluting this "mother tincture" in water again and again. No matter what the level of dilution, homeopaths claim, the original remedy leaves some kind of imprint on the water molecules. Thus, however dilute the solution becomes, it is still imbued with the properties of the remedy.

You can understand why Ennis remains sceptical. And it remains true that no homeopathic remedy has ever been shown to work in a large randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial. But the Belfast study (Inflammation Research, vol 53, p 181) suggests that something is going on. "We are," Ennis says in her paper, "unable to explain our findings and are reporting them to encourage others to investigate this phenomenon."
If the results turn out to be real, she says, the implications are profound: we may have to rewrite physics and chemistry.

13 things that do not make sense - space - 19 March 2005 - New Scientist Space

[Ahmabeliever]

The thing I like best about homeopathy was that it was thoroughly tested on strange humans before being used for the treatment of animals.

I think there is an unknown something in this. Something else important to consider, not all homeopaths are created equal, some may indeed be in it for the money and completely full of s***, others are doing their best in their way to try and help, much like science.

An extreme dilution could be likened to an innoculation, only taken to the extreme...

The compounds could be catalysts for signalling brain activity that creates production of a wide range of things.

Mock it, yes you may, study it, why not?

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Originally Posted by sanctus

I always have been a skeptic of homeopathy and said it only works through placebo effect. But lately a frind of my girlfriend who is "help-veterinary" (sorry no idea of what it is in english) told me that they use homeopathy on animals and that it works, but animals can't have placebo effect.
What do you think is this a proof of homeopathy working?

Additional support comes from the fact that animals and infants also benefit form homeopathic treatment and it is unlikely that they will react psychologically to a medicine they often do not know they are being given

Infants: Homeopathic remedies and treatments are successfully used by parents for common infant ailments such as colic, teething pain and some infections.

Animals: There are many veterinarians using homeopathic medicines to treat domestic pets such as cats, dogs and birds, as well as barnyard animals like goats, horses and cows. Is it possible to have a placebo effect with animals?

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Originally Posted by Qfwfq

I certainly think the stuff such as "magnetic memory of water" and the like is plain BS but I have heard that some products may have preventive effects by mildly stimulating the immune system. I also heard about a guy I haven't seen for years, that always had terrible allergy trouble, other friends of mine say he finally cured it with a homeopathic product. That of course has a lot to do with the immune system.

I do however continue to find it wrong that producers these so called alternative meds are allowed to fill the general public up with crap and false advertising and that it has even been creeping into medical faculties. There is big money behind it.

Homeopathyallows avoiding diseases before they start. Medicines remove the biological tendency to develop the disease.

Homeopathy strengthens the immune system bybuilding resistance to sickness.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Originally Posted by Qfwfq

I do however continue to find it wrong that producers these so called alternative meds are allowed to fill the general public up with crap and false advertising and that it has even been creeping into medical faculties. There is big money behind it.

General Public demands alternative medicines. That's why they are there.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Originally Posted by Ahmabeliever

The thing I like best about homeopathy was that it was thoroughly tested on strange humans before being used for the treatment of animals.

I think there is an unknown something in this. Something else important to consider, not all homeopaths are created equal, some may indeed be in it for the money and completely full of s***, others are doing their best in their way to try and help, much like science.

An extreme dilution could be likened to an innoculation, only taken to the extreme...

The compounds could be catalysts for signalling brain activity that creates production of a wide range of things.

Mock it, yes you may, study it, why not?

Homeopathy always tests its medicine on healthy human beings before thier use on animals.

Conventional medicine mostly (not always) tests its medicines on animals (rats) before thier use on humans.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Dr. Nancy Malik

Is it possible to have a placebo effect with animals? [/FONT]

Anything is possible.

The animal who is sick is likely to get extra care and attention

Doing nothing is probably the best cure for many minor complaints.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Anything is possible.

The animal who is sick is likely to get extra care and attention

Doing nothing is probably the best cure for many minor complaints.

If anyting is possible, then why not efficacy of homeopathy?

If doing nothing has cure something, this is equally true for allopathy also. So can we say we have a placebo effect in allopathy?

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Dr. Nancy Malik

If anyting is possible, then why not efficacy of homeopathy?

It was possible. This possibility was then tested. Repeatedly. It turned out not to work. Over and over and over again it failed, and did no better than placebo. Time to move on.

All of your posts in this thread are nothing more than personal assertions which are not only unfounded, but directly counter to all evidence available.

[Michaelangelica]

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