Hat Tip: Humanist in Canada
So this is incredibly good news, medical practitioners are calling for the UK government to stop funding homeopathic remedies saying that they have "no place in the modern health service" which I couldn't agree with more. The suggestion to cut them from funding comes from the fact that the British National Health Service is being forced to make £20 billion worth of budget cuts in the next few years. So proven ineffectual sugar pills and water bottles that cost just as much as real medicine are naturally the first thing to go.
Unfortunately homeopathy has some support from within their government, which I hope doesn't affect the outcome of the ban. Homeopathy supporters were supposedly protesting the ban this past tuesday.
If you have a look down at the comments section on the Telegraph website, some homeopathy supporters are on the brink of claiming that this ban is all a big conspiracy and that the pharmaceutical companies are trying to eliminate the competition. This notion, even if true wouldn't change the fact that homeopathy is a steaming pile of crap that has no effect except the placebo.
If they manage to ban Homeopathy, or at least make them put the "placebo" label on the bottles/tablets, it will be a huge victory for real medicine.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the props! :)
ReplyDeleteSomeone at work this week was talking about her sister is in school to be a homeopath. I wondered how much it much cost to teach people to pour some water into a bottle.
I'll pop my hand up and say that I have used homeopathy all my life. I use it for things like bruises and blood noses. To be honest I don't care if it's placebo or not when I can sit around for a good 20 minutes with blood pouring out of my nose or take some pleasant tasting pills and have it stop in five minutes.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand....
Anyone using it to treat cancer should have their heads examined and anyone who uses it to treat their kids cancer should lose the right to make such decisions.
No prob Freddy!
ReplyDeleteSteven, the problem I have with homeopathy, is that after countless trials, every single double-blind trial with control substances done by credible sources, has come back saying that homeopathic remedies have no significant effect over that of the control substances (which literally are just water and sugar pills). On top of that, the principles of homeopathy violate everything we know about the relevant areas of physics, chemistry and biology.
I also find homeopathy to be a laugh. But am just interested to know what you regard as a credible source? Creationists claim "credible sources" all the time.
ReplyDeleteIn this instance I find that it sounds like a potential cop out if ever "convincing evidence" or a successful double-blind trial were to surface regarding something you doubt could ever happen.
e.g. "Oh...nah their sources aren't credible"
A credible source would be one where the information came through official channels, peer reviewed etc. The result would also have to be repeatable. Creationists have never had a credible source ever, no matter how much they want to claim it.
ReplyDelete