Which one is more scientific: Allopathy or Homeopathy?


I don't find it very convincing. They put the burden of proof on those who disagee with them. a neat trick, but not permissible in rational debate.

As far as I can make out none of the authors can be regarded as a person of standing in the scientific community. Have they offered any papers for evaluation to a recognized scientific body ?

If water behaves as if it had a memory, how can homeopathic remidies by consistent. Do you claim that water in an Indian home is precisely the same as that in a European home or in a Saudi home where, unless treated, it has an unacceptably high iron content ? How abour spa waters from different areas, which can be shown to have varying mineral contents ?


In all, not very convincing.
 
Back in the day when Herr Hahnemann was alive people also used amulets to protect themselves and they'd still occasionally brutalize old women for being "witches".

Homeopathy has lasted longer than amulets for the most part (though "good luck charms" are amulets as well, and some people still have those), but it's a child compared to the ancient, but useless, art of astrology. Despite astrology being bunk, it's lasted for many millennia because people delude themselves into thinking it works. Antiquity is no guarantee of authenticity, especially when dealing with science.

The truth is that homeopathy probably does work—but only in the way placebos work—people took the medicine that supposedly had the "essence" of certain healing substance in it, and because they expected to feel better afterwards, they did. (Often, the substance supposedly doing the work would so diluted that the actual physical presence of that substance was reduced to zero, but homeopathy is fine with that because the "essence" can be transfered to the medicine even if there are zero parts per million of the substance that's supposedly curative).

It is, in every conceivable way, no different than drinking "magic potions" and expecting those to work.

As for real medicines that have gone by the wayside, you overstate things tremendously. *Some* medicines have been pulled for being dangerous. Many more medicines that made it to the market in the past 80 years (and before then I agree that there were a lot of bunk medicines mostly because the sorts of doctors ho invented them were of a non-scientific, often homeopathic, mindset) were replaced because they had side-effects and better medicines, that treat the same condition with fewer or more manageable side effects were discovered. Other times alterative medicines were developed because certain people have severe negative reactions to a given drug, so alternatives were needed for those people.

I would not say that homeopathy and folk medicine had no good effects though. Some of the folk remedies they relied on turned out to have some merit and were incorporated into modern scientific medicine and were generally made more effective in the process. Aspirin itself may be a form of that, as some used to prepare willow bark in a way that supposedly treated headaches, and willow bark does contain some acetylsalicylic acid.

The stuff that had no value was by and larged looked at and discarded. "Allopathic" medicine is not per se *opposed* to homeopathy, so long as there is evidence that it works. That proof, shown in repeated trials of the treatment, is that mark of "science." If homeopathy showed incontrovertible success in such tests, then the effective treatments would drift over into modern, scientific medicine (which is what "allopathic medicine" really is).

I understand that you feel that homeopathy is better, but such a feeling is not a useful scientific criteria. I understand that you feel that because homeopathy uses natural substances that it must be "safer", but most poisons that are naturally occurring substances. Posons have also been around for many, many millennia, and artificial poisons only about 150 years. "Natural" does not mean "safe" and it certainly does not mean effective.

Again, though, to the extent you or anyone else feels that you have a natural and effective treatment for an ailment, you are fee to research it, test it, publish your findings, wait for others to test it in the same way as other science is tested. If you are right, "allopathy" will gladly embrace your findings. Scientists are generally cool like that.
Medicine replaced by new mediicne. So side effects will be replaced by new side effects.

I am not against allopathy. My only idea is the patient has every right to choose homeopathy. You can not dictate him.

The patient has to decide which would be the first line of treatment, and which one is complemetary/alternative
 
Millions of people swear by homeopathy because they have personally benefited from it. Now if you tell them it is not scientific because it does not pass double blind test, he will ask you what is double blind? What is lancet? what is scientific?

You can not replace their cure which they themselves have undergone by your false propganda that homeopathy does not work, however hard you try.

Millions of people have seen the Virgin Mary at various sights throughout the world. So what ? The majority of people are not qualified to make judgements which rightly belong in the province of science.

If you have to ask what constitutes a scientific approach at this stage, you are unlikely ever to learn. Homeopathy relies on ignorance and anecdote rather than scientific evidence. Your "cure" rate is no better than can be achieved with placebos. This has been popinted out asd nauseam.

As a matter of interest, in what discipline were you awarded you PhD. Can you provide a reference to your doctoral dissertation so I can read what you wrote ?
 
Medicine replaced by new mediicne. So side effects will be replaced by new side effects.

I am not against allopathy. My only idea is the patient has every right to choose homeopathy. You can not dictate him.

The patient has to decide which would be the first line of treatment, and which one is complemetary/alternative

That sound great but fails to address the question of how informed the patient must be to make a correct decision.
 
The micro doses of homeopathy produces mega results.

Propaganda. Proof that it functions on a level even equivalent to conventional medicine?

Millions of people swear by homeopathy because they have personally benefited from it. Now if you tell them it is not scientific because it does not pass double blind test, he will ask you what is double blind? What is lancet? what is scientific?

And he will be pick-pocketed by you and your scurrilous confreres at every turn.

You can not replace their cure which they themselves have undergone by your false propganda that homeopathy does not work, however hard you try.

It's propaganda, "Nancy"; and their cure is as statistically likely as doing nothing at all.

In fact, I'm going to announce my discovery of a new medical theory that has every bit as much statistical support as your own. I call it "Geoffopathy" in order to distinguish it from both allopathy and homeopathy. This is how it works:

You send me an envelope with your name, your illness, any other details you feel like revealing or not and, let's say, $20. A clean, smooth Jackson. I agree - as part of our confidential medical contract - to walk away and think about your illness and read your letter and details, or not. It doesn't really matter if I do or not, or even how it works. Because, you see, all the information will be stored in my files and not for public consumption. You must understand that I believe that all information has an integral "energy". By passing this energy on to my filing cabinet, and the impurifying effects of money as a source of this energy to my bank account, the effects of disease will be alleviated in the actual sufferer.

And the kicker? I guarantee that on average the efficacy of Geoffopathy will be approximately equal to that of homeopathy in all respects. And in fact, Geoffopathy is able to cure all diseases that homeopathy can presently cure! And it's only 20 bucks! This is a steal compared to regular homeopathic treatments, especially when you consider that my treatment is a lifetime cure. Think about it. How can you turn down a lifetime of good health on the order of effectiveness of homeopathic medicine for only 20 bucks!

So the next time you catch a debilitating case of pancreatic cancer, think Geoffopathy: a one-shot cure to a (probably) one-shot illness.

Geoff
 
Anecdotal evedince is the real evidence,an evidence of millions of patients worldwide. How can you ignore so many voices? Not hearing them is an insult to the patients of homeopathy. Not a evidence written in some lines in some journals read by just few thousands of people worldwide.
This is a frightening comment coming from a Dr.

Anecdotal evidence is extremely weak epistemologically and prone to numerous errors, biases, and logical fallacies. Memory is demonstrably inaccurate and correlations are falsely attributed significance regularly. Indeed, your appeal to popular opinion is a logical fallacy. There is no insult; we are all prone to make these types of mistakes. However, that does not mean they are not mistakes.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=33

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence
http://www.skepdic.com/testimon.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representativeness_heuristic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_fallacy

~Raithere
 
I am not against allopathy. My only idea is the patient has every right to choose homeopathy. You can not dictate him.

The patient has to decide which would be the first line of treatment, and which one is complemetary/alternative

I agree with that (though insurers need not pay for care that's not likely to be substantially effective). A patient has the right to choose any care (or no care) at his or her option, but he or she should also not have it suggested that homeopathy is the more scientific of the two, as that would be propaganda. In fact, the very term "allopathy" is not really accepted by the medical community, and probably should not be used. The only people who call "modern medicine" allopathy are those who think homeopathy is better, despite its inability to be demonstrably more effective than placebos (though it is sometimes less effective than placebos) in a clinical trials.

I am fine with telling potential homeopathy patients about the anecdotal evidence too, so long as the clinical evidence to the contrary is also fairly presented.
 
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