Homeopathy – Quackery Or A Key To The Future of Medicine?

Remember my post entitled “Diluting medicine: Homeopathy“? In it I linked to a number of videos refuting the practice of homeopathy. A few days ago I found a 2-hour video of a debate held at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. The debate alternates between both viewpoints. It can be watched fairly quickly because the video is cued up with a Powerpoint slide. Advancing the flash Powerpoint slide also advances the video. It’s quite interesting. The Canadian homeopathic doctor at the end makes the very radical point that the healthcare crisis would be completely solved if everyone switched over to homeopathy…ahh, yeah right. The moderator mentioned that more such debates would be happening in 2008. I wished the format is more of an actual debate. The video was just 4-5 different people talking with little discussion occurring. I feel the best part of the video could have been the question and answer session that occurred after the online webcast ended. Here’s hoping that the format will be different for their future debates.

Advertisement for the debate:

A Debate: Homeopathy – Quackery Or A Key To The Future of Medicine?
Donald Marcus M.D. (Baylor)

An international forum to explore the facts around this controversial modality in an attempt to determine whether it has any place in medical care.

Participants to include Donald Marcus M.D. (Baylor), Iris Bell M.D., Ph.D. (University of Arizona), Rustum Roy Ph.D. (Penn State) and others.

You are invited to watch a debate between six internationally renowned experts as they examine the basic science as well as the clinical and epidemiological evidence around this 200 year old system of medicine.

Link to video

3 thoughts on “Homeopathy – Quackery Or A Key To The Future of Medicine?

  1. Livs

    Hey Scott,

    Interesting link, thanks for including it.

    I studied Homeopathy myself for four years after getting spectacular results from a little kit I purchased while waiting for perscrption # 5 for my then 3 month old baby boy at the drug store.

    I laugh when people come back with the – “it’s placebo” line.
    “Yeah” I reply,
    ” I gave my son a little white pill and then brain washed his thrush, and colic away.”

    He’s a happy, healthy 91/2 yr old now, amazingly those little white placebo pills have brainwashed away lots of childhood ailments. The downside for him is, he never takes a sick day off school. He comes home amazed at his little class mates dropping like flys with Flu, tummy bugs or what not. He’s constantly asking me why their parents don’t get their kids better “properly” with Homeopathy.

    My reply is – “Well, they think it’s just too good to be true”

    But I hope someday more little kids get the benefit of Homeopathy so they can put the bad ole’ days of continuous prescription drugs behind them, and the opportunity to naturally strengthen their immune systems.

  2. Scott K

    Hi Livs,

    Thanks for commenting. It’s always fun to hear about these good experiences and I’m glad that your son is doing well. Just a few questions for you: Did you choose to vaccinate your son or are there homeopathic remedies for that as well? (In some States in the US, vaccination is required for attendance at a public school…) Also, if homeopathy is really such a good thing, why is it not more mainstream? What is holding back the majority of people from trying it?

    Regarding the thrush and colic: Colic is a condition with an unknown cause of undefined crying in an infant. It typically goes away on its own within a few months unless there is an underlying cause, such as an intestinal obstruction. Thrush is a Candida infection of the mouth that is also relatively common in infants. Candida is ubiquitous fungus in the environment. Typically an oral antifungal medication such as Nystatin is given. However again, it wouldn’t be out of the line of possibility of an infant’s weakened immune system allowing Candida growth and then fighting it off as immune system function returns. The placebo effect has been shown to have a wide range of physiological effects.

    One of the things that I can’t come to grasps with is the homeopathic belief of treating “like with like.” A good example of this is problems with sleeping. Look on the bottle of a homeopathic sleep aid and you will see that the “active” ingredient is caffeine. Caffeine is a CNS stimulant and keeps you awake. The thought is that a substantially diluted solution of caffeine will somehow acquire the opposite effect and act as a sleep aid. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.

    Anyway, thanks again the comment Livs.

  3. Livs

    Hey again Scott,

    In answer to your question, my son had the following vaccinations – @ 6 weeks OPV1, DTPH1, Hep B1, all repeated @ 3 months, 5 months and 15 months with the addition of MMR1.

    He has had no other vaccinations. After his vaccinations @ 15 mnths I decided not to continue with any more. There is prophylaxis in Homeopathy but we have not treated my son in this manner.

    Is it possible that his natural immune system kicked in precisely after being given Homeopathic treatment? Well anything is possible, however over the last 9 yrs and scores of maladies and Homeopathiic remedies later, probability and observation tells me otherwise.

    I myself had been a severe asthmatic with regular hospitalisation for 30 odd years, after Homeopathic treatment I have been medication free for about 7 years.

    As for the treating “like with like” this method of treatment pre dates Homeopathy having it’s roots in the works of Galen and Paracelsus. So Scott you’d better get comfortable with it, as you’ll be seeing alot of it (albeit in it’s crude form) via vaccinations and ADHD medications to name but a few in allopathic/conventional medicine.

    Hope it gives you a little more perspective, regards Livs.

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