10 Apr 2014 Homeopathy is no better than a placebo,says new Australian study
Homeopathic medicines are as effective as placebos at treating illnesses, an Australian scientific body has claimed in a new study.
Doctors have reportedly welcomed the findings, and hope that the study will prevent patients being persuaded to use homeopathic vaccinations instead of orthodox medicines, with the former leaving people prone to life-threatening diseases including TB, it has been reported.
Proponents of the form of alternative therapy claim that it stimulates the body to heal itself, and is based on the principle of ‘like cures like’.
“A substance taken in small amounts will cure the same symptoms it causes if it was taken in large amounts,” according to the British Homeopathic Association (BHA).
The medicines are made by heavily diluting substances and succession – or vigorous shaking, the BHA explains.
However, a working committee of medical experts at Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) analysed how effective alternative medicine are n treating illnesses and conditions, and concluded that “there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective,” Guardian Australia reported.
Among the 68 ailments that homeopathic remedies failed to treat were: asthma, arthritis, sleep disturbances, cold and flu, chronic fatigue syndrome, eczema, cholera, burns, malaria and heroin addiction.
To make their findings, researchers also took into account submissions from homeopathy interest groups and the public, but they “did not alter the conclusions” of the NHMRC, in some cases due to the poor quality of the studies submitted.
The researchers concluded that alternative treatments were either no more effective than a placebo, or that there was no reliable evidence to suggest it was.
“No good-quality, well-designed studies with enough participants for a meaningful result reported either that homeopathy caused greater health improvements than a substance with no effect on the health condition (placebo), or that homeopathy caused health improvements equal to those of another treatment,” read the report’s summary.
It also urged health workers to inform their patients that “not all evidence is of equal value,” and said people should be wary of anecdotal evidence in favour of homeopathic medicine.
“It is not possible to tell whether a health treatment is effective or not simply by considering individuals’ experiences or healthcare practitioners’ beliefs,” the report reads.
“Obviously we understand the placebo effect. We know that many people have illnesses that are short lived by its very nature and their bodies will cure them, so it’s very easy for people to fall in the trap that because they did ‘A’, ‘B’ follows,” Professor John Dwyer, an immunologist and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, told Guardian Australia.
He added that is was unethical to “fool people” and said that homeopathic remedies should be “put away” once and for all, the newspaper reported…..
The Independent: Read the full article
The Economist explains
Why homeopathy is nonsense
– See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains#sthash.gPC8OoSH.dpuf
The Economist explains: Why homeopathy is nonsense
Visit any health shop and you are likely to see them: packages of homeopathic remedies claiming to cure whatever ails you, from coughs and fever to insomnia and asthma. Flip the package of medicine, however, and you may be confused by the listed ingredients. Some claim to contain crushed bees, stinging nettles and even arsenic, as well as sugars such as lactose and sucrose. Americans spend some $3 billion a year on homeopathic medicines. What are they thinking?
The history of homeopathy—literally, “similar suffering”—dates to the late 18th century. Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor, was unimpressed by contemporary medicine, with good reason. Doctors used leeches to let blood and hot plasters to bring on blisters, which were then drained. In 1790 Hahnemann developed a fever that transformed his career.
After swallowing powder from the bark of a cinchona tree, he saw his temperature rise. Cinchona bark contains quinine, which was already known to treat malaria. Hahnemann considered the facts: cinchona seemed to give him a fever; fever is a symptom of malaria; and cinchona treats malaria. He then made an acrobatic leap of logic: medicines bring on the same symptoms in healthy people as they cure in sick ones. Find a substance that induces an illness and it might treat that illness in another….
The Economist: Read the full article
VISIT any health shop and you are likely to see them: packages of homeopathic remedies claiming to cure whatever ails you, from coughs and fever to insomnia and asthma. Flip the package of medicine, however, and you may be confused by the listed ingredients. Some claim to contain crushed bees, stinging nettles and even arsenic, as well as sugars such as lactose and sucrose. Americans spend some $3 billion a year on homeopathic medicines. What are they thinking?
The history of homeopathy—literally, “similar suffering”—dates to the late 18th century. Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor, was unimpressed by contemporary medicine, with good reason. Doctors used leeches to let blood and hot plasters to bring on blisters, which were then drained. In 1790 Hahnemann developed a fever that transformed his career. After swallowing powder from the bark of a cinchona tree, he saw his temperature rise. Cinchona bark contains quinine, which was already known to treat malaria. Hahnemann considered the facts: cinchona seemed to give him a fever; fever is a symptom of malaria; and cinchona treats malaria. He then made an acrobatic leap of logic: medicines bring on the same symptoms in healthy people as they cure in sick ones. Find a substance that induces an illness and it might treat that illness in another.
– See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains#sthash.gPC8OoSH.dpuf
VISIT any health shop and you are likely to see them: packages of homeopathic remedies claiming to cure whatever ails you, from coughs and fever to insomnia and asthma. Flip the package of medicine, however, and you may be confused by the listed ingredients. Some claim to contain crushed bees, stinging nettles and even arsenic, as well as sugars such as lactose and sucrose. Americans spend some $3 billion a year on homeopathic medicines. What are they thinking?
The history of homeopathy—literally, “similar suffering”—dates to the late 18th century. Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor, was unimpressed by contemporary medicine, with good reason. Doctors used leeches to let blood and hot plasters to bring on blisters, which were then drained. In 1790 Hahnemann developed a fever that transformed his career. After swallowing powder from the bark of a cinchona tree, he saw his temperature rise. Cinchona bark contains quinine, which was already known to treat malaria. Hahnemann considered the facts: cinchona seemed to give him a fever; fever is a symptom of malaria; and cinchona treats malaria. He then made an acrobatic leap of logic: medicines bring on the same symptoms in healthy people as they cure in sick ones. Find a substance that induces an illness and it might treat that illness in another.
– See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains#sthash.gPC8OoSH.dpuf
VISIT any health shop and you are likely to see them: packages of homeopathic remedies claiming to cure whatever ails you, from coughs and fever to insomnia and asthma. Flip the package of medicine, however, and you may be confused by the listed ingredients. Some claim to contain crushed bees, stinging nettles and even arsenic, as well as sugars such as lactose and sucrose. Americans spend some $3 billion a year on homeopathic medicines. What are they thinking?
The history of homeopathy—literally, “similar suffering”—dates to the late 18th century. Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor, was unimpressed by contemporary medicine, with good reason. Doctors used leeches to let blood and hot plasters to bring on blisters, which were then drained. In 1790 Hahnemann developed a fever that transformed his career. After swallowing powder from the bark of a cinchona tree, he saw his temperature rise. Cinchona bark contains quinine, which was already known to treat malaria. Hahnemann considered the facts: cinchona seemed to give him a fever; fever is a symptom of malaria; and cinchona treats malaria. He then made an acrobatic leap of logic: medicines bring on the same symptoms in healthy people as they cure in sick ones. Find a substance that induces an illness and it might treat that illness in another.
– See more at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains#sthash.gPC8OoSH.dpuf