Any official or semi-official approval will be exploited like an endorsement, a replacement for scientific truth.

THERE YA GO! This illustrates why the article recommends that the Government stop funding this fraud… the funding itself, however small, is used by the fraudsters to make the junk seem legitimate.

I’m crossing my fingers for you that the Government actually understands and implements this sound advice.

Greetings from Norway,
Daniel

The homeopathic hospital being part of the NHS is an accident of history.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to know which 50% will benefit. In other words, you have to give the medicine to everyone for the 50% to benefit.

“If homeopathic medicines are “Placebos” and do not cause ill effects what is the harm in prescribing this medicine”

When it’s prescribed for conditions that will respond to real medicine. When it’s prescribed instead of vaccines that actually work. When the daignosis is unknown and the patient suffers form a fatal condition for which a conventional treatment could have saved his life. When you lie to the patient by telling him that it works better than placebo. When you make up nonsense about how it works and confuse the publis abotu genuine science.

“When live or attenuated virus/bacteria are injected our body develops immunity and we have protection against the disease. This is the principle behind homeopathy”

It is an entirely different mechanism altogether. For a start, there is an optimal dilution of a vaccine at which it works most effectively and diluting it further would gradually negate its effect. With homoeopathy, the more dilute the greater the effect (presumably). Secondly, most homoeopathic treatments are diluted beyond Avagadro’s number, meaning there is actually no active ingredient in there at all.

“Pure penicillin is efficient in unbelievable dilution of one part in 50 million parts of water.”

A typical homoeopathic preparation is diluted 1 part in a million million million million parts of water!

I refer to the recent reports on homeopathy.
Experts say that most drugs, whatever the disease, work for only about half the people who take them .This is an accepted principal in modern medicine. Double blind studies are initiated with one group of patients receiving a dummy or placebo and the other the active drug.. Only when more than 50% of the patients who receive the active drug show response, the drug considered is for further evaluation.By this analogy only 50% of the patients should get the medicine
If homeopathic medicines are “Placebos” and do not cause ill effects what is the harm in prescribing this medicine and more so when patients feel better. When live or attenuated virus/bacteria are injected our body develops immunity and we have protection against the disease. This is the principle behind homeopathy. It is well known that a minute quantity of LSD a psychotropic drug weighing only 1/200.000th of an ounce can cause incredible reactions in the Human Brain. Pure penicillin is efficient in unbelievable dilution of one part in 50 million parts of water.
Many of the complementary medical practices may not have evidence like modern evidence. , but do benefit the ill and indisposed like Yoga, ayurveda, massage, chiropractic, Tai-chi, acupuncture.. All of them are part of modern medical practice… Big hospitals and clinics increasingly offer alternative therapies. Many just offer stress reducers like meditation, yoga and massage. The giant health insurance company of USA, HMO Kaiser Permanente pays for members to go to a Portland, Ore., doctor who prescribes ayurvedic – traditional herbal remedies from India.
If people get relief from simple remedies why deny them. The end point of all treatment is patient relief from pain and disease.

Sincerely

H.N.Ramakrishna

25 February 2010