1. James Pannozzi on Homeopathy at risk of being lost in translation
    James Pannozzi James Pannozzi United States says:
    July 2, 2009 at 10:53 PM

    Once again the headline does not jive with the text - the article is actually pro Homeoapthy.

    The heroes of Homeopathy are not all in the past and the scientific research in this area is just in its infancy, for example the pioneering experiments of M. Ennis, who had the courage to publish her results which went contrary to what was expected, when her high dilutions demonstrated a stimulation of biological effects, even though all molecules of the stimulant had been diluted away (Inflammation Research, vol 53, p181).

    Homeopathy provides exactly what is needed to get past the 'dead ends' to which hundreds of millions of dollars in research money has led standard medicine, for example in cancer research. It provides fresh perspectives and a totally different viewpoint for evaluating disease, their causes, nature and progression.

    Those who persist in making an oblique acknowledgment of the Homeopathic curative effect, for example by attempting to rationalize it away by making spurious claims of association with the mystical "placebo" effect, are actually doing science and medicine grave harm by allowing emotionalism, misrepresentation and innuendo to interfere with their thinking and objectivity.

    Reply
    • sceptic on Homeopathy at risk of being lost in translation
      sceptic sceptic United Kingdom says:
      July 3, 2009 at 6:03 AM

      @James,

      You don't seem to understand placebo. There is nothing 'mystical' about it. You can reduce it down to a simple observation that peoples expectations of a particular medicine or treatment can have an effect on how they feel and even produce measurable physiological changes. This effect has nothing to do with any specific properties of the medicine, or treatment itself. Your homeopathic pills may well help, but no more so than non-homeopathic sugar pills, or water.

      If you feel like accepting that the effects of high potency homeopathic medicine is the same regardless of which homeopathic medicine you take and whether you go through the proper potentizing ritual then fine. All you've got then is pretend medicine and an interesting back story. If you are claiming that which homeopathic you take, and whether you shake it properly is important then you aren't talking about placebo.

      You also seem to neglect regression to the mean as an explanation for much of homeopathys claimed 'success'.

      Reply
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