Homeopathy Awareness Week 2014: Skincare
Homeopathy, like sympathetic magic, operates upon the premise that “like affects like”. Its proposed mechanisms have been described as “physically impossible“, and the best available evidence from trials was found to be “compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects”. These are just some of the things that homeopaths may avoid mentioning when promoting “awareness” of homeopathy. Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopathy for Cows
Mastitis in dairy cattle is potentially fatal. Treatment involves long-acting antibiotics (although antibiotics alone are not enough). Some homeopaths, though, believe that magic water (or sugar pills that have come into contact with magic water) can be used to treat mastitis. Homeopathy involves taking the purported ‘active ingredient’, diluting it (usually to the point where not a single molecule of the ‘active ingredient’ remains), and banging the container on, for example, a special wooden striking board covered in leather on one side and stuffed with horsehair (this is what the inventor of homeopathy used). Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopathic Anecdote On The One Show
I enjoyed parts of this evening’s One Show on BBC One. I enjoyed the explanation of the magical thinking (like cures like) and diluting ‘active’ ingredients out of existence that form the basis for homeopathy. I especially enjoyed the Doctor pointing out – in response to Monty Don’s argument that ‘it doesn’t matter how homeopathy might work’ – that homeopathy simply doesn’t work. There was one thing that really bugged me though – an anecdote offered by one of the presenters, Alex Jones. Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopathy for Radiation Sickness Slammed by Experts
This is how homeopathy should be reported on by the media. The article opens with criticism of an alternative medicines business for “spruiking homeopathic ‘remedies’ for radiation sickness in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the nuclear disaster in Japan“: Read the rest of this entry »
You Couldn’t Make It Up: Paper Remedies
Let’s face it, homeopathy is ludicrous… Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopathic St John’s Wort
Homeopathy is based on the law of similars – the idea that like cures like. This has been described by some as ‘sympathetic magic’. There is a Wikipedia entry on magical thinking that includes a reference to Sir James Fraser’s division of magical thinking into “contagious” and “homeopathic” magic. Homeopathic remedies also tend to be highly diluted. Read the rest of this entry »
Evidence: Government Policy and Homeopathy
The Science and Technology Select Committee’s report [PDF] on homeopathy and the accompanying press release are rather critical of some of the individuals and groups referred to in the report. Here is just a sample of the targets for criticism: Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopathic Confusion
There are likely to be many reasons why consumers choose to buy homeopathic remedies. The marketing of homeopathy as “natural and gentle” probably helps. I suspect that ignorance and confusion also play a part. Read the rest of this entry »
Homeopathy Awareness Week: Bloggers versus Journalists
It’s Homeopathy Awareness Week. I’m not sure we can really trust the mainstream media to be fully aware of the nature of homeopathy. Perhaps we can trust bloggers though? Let’s see: the Daily Mail, having produced (predictably enough) an article headlined ‘Homeopathy works!’, is taken to task by a blogger in this, the beginning of Homeopathy Awareness Week (although I’m not clear on when the Mail article was first published#). Read the rest of this entry »
Autism Quackery
I’ve come across a couple of examples of autism quackery over the weekend, which have prompted me to write this post. Read the rest of this entry »
Stuff And Nonsense 