Noa wrote:
I worked in a health food and vitamin/nutrition store. The real practice of modern homeopathy is much more akin to magical thinking and some BS misinterpretation of quantum physics. The vague theory is that some microscopic (not merely "minute") amount of some BS mineral substance is added to a quantity of water. That water supposedly makes friends with whatever alleged medically active properties might be attributed to the substance, and the water molecules sort of "catch" the alleged medically active properties by "remembering" that they were at some point within shouting distance of the other molecules which actually rubbed up against the substance. Then the "energy distilled" water is used to make those annoying little white pills in the BS-named capsules, or whatever presentation the company is making of their magical remembering medicinal thingamajig.
It's 300% placebo, in practice. I personally consider it a HUGE waste of money and a terrible exploitation of people who buy into it.
Note that fish oil and St John's Wort, on the other hand, have demonstrated benefits in properly controlled scientific testing. Both are badly overhyped by the alternative medicine marketing machine, but neither of those is a waste of money.
Just so you understand, I dislike homeopathic ALSO! As for your statement about placebo? I bought one product because it seemed like EVERYONE swore by it. I decided to look at the list of ingredients. For a 1 Gram product, it had 3 ingredients. One had gobbledgook regarding amount, but the other 2 added up to EXACTLY(down to the thousandth of a gram) 1Gram! What were THEY? Two common types of SUGAR! Placebos don't work on me, but I decided to try it. It didn't work. It was like grannys(on the beverly hillbillys) cure for the common cold! Her cure? Drink plenty of fluids, get plenty of rest, and you will be over the common cold in 3-7 days! NEAT, HUH?
As for the fish oil and st johns wort, they DO work. Maybe not as well as SOME would have you believe, but they do.
27 Sep 2007, 6:30 am
