Have you gone to a homeopath?
April 14, 2010 8:03 PM Subscribe
Have you ever sought homeopathic treatment? In reading through a few discussion threads on the subject of homeopathy, almost all believe it is quackery without having personally experienced it. I am interested in hearing results from people who have actually used homeopathic remedies -- for the good or the bad.
You should talk to my friend the Placebo Effect.
It's literally impossible for homeopathy to affect any biological processes. Any effect that someone recieving "homeopathic treatment" claims, either good or bad, is the result of the Placebo Effect or the underlying condition.
posted by Oktober at 8:08 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
It's literally impossible for homeopathy to affect any biological processes. Any effect that someone recieving "homeopathic treatment" claims, either good or bad, is the result of the Placebo Effect or the underlying condition.
posted by Oktober at 8:08 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've tried homeopathic remedies for colds; they don't work.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:10 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:10 PM on April 14, 2010
After I got hit by a car a couple years ago, a coworker brought me a pack of arnica gel with little arnica caplets to help w/ my bruising and pain. I don't think either made the bruises go away any faster, but it felt nice to rub the gel on my sore spots. Anyway, it certainly didn't hurt anything.
posted by leesh at 8:12 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by leesh at 8:12 PM on April 14, 2010
My mother made me try it when I was a teenager. Did nothing for me, but sure made her feel better. LOL
It really is nonsense. There was a recent campaign in Britain to convince the leading drug store chain to drop homeopathic products that got a lot of press.
posted by teedee2000 at 8:16 PM on April 14, 2010
It really is nonsense. There was a recent campaign in Britain to convince the leading drug store chain to drop homeopathic products that got a lot of press.
posted by teedee2000 at 8:16 PM on April 14, 2010
almost all believe it is quackery without having personally experienced it.
The difference between quackery and medicine is that the former is based on personal experience, and the latter is based on studies that are carefully designed to prevent personal experience from corrupting the results. When real evidence is available, personal experience can only get in the way.
FWIW, I once tried a homeopathic mosquito-bite remedy. After I noticed that it didn't seem to be doing anything, I found out it was homeopathic.
posted by k. at 8:17 PM on April 14, 2010 [14 favorites]
The difference between quackery and medicine is that the former is based on personal experience, and the latter is based on studies that are carefully designed to prevent personal experience from corrupting the results. When real evidence is available, personal experience can only get in the way.
FWIW, I once tried a homeopathic mosquito-bite remedy. After I noticed that it didn't seem to be doing anything, I found out it was homeopathic.
posted by k. at 8:17 PM on April 14, 2010 [14 favorites]
I tried a homeopathic acne treatment a long time ago. It didn't do anything and my skin continued to get worse while I was using it.
Once I cut out most processed food from my diet and started taking an omega-3 supplement, my skin cleared up almost entirely.
posted by howrobotsaremade at 8:20 PM on April 14, 2010
Once I cut out most processed food from my diet and started taking an omega-3 supplement, my skin cleared up almost entirely.
posted by howrobotsaremade at 8:20 PM on April 14, 2010
My mother was a big believer in homopathy, so I took the remedies she gave me for everything from the common cold to an ankle sprain. It was completely ineffective, and I told her so from about the age of 10. To this day she insists that I was making the ineffectiveness complaints up.
posted by signalnine at 8:22 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by signalnine at 8:22 PM on April 14, 2010
Not long ago I accidentally bought some homeopathic headache remedy, I'm pretty sure from the "Boots" (a UK pharamacy chain) aisle in Target. In retrospect it was dumb not to have checked the label, which I almost always do, but I tossed it in the cart figuring it was the usual analgesic+caffeine combo and got distracted.
Similar to howrobotsaremade, I didn't notice it was homeopathic until I angrily inspected the bottle trying to figure out why it wasn't fucking working.
I was so pissed.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:32 PM on April 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
Similar to howrobotsaremade, I didn't notice it was homeopathic until I angrily inspected the bottle trying to figure out why it wasn't fucking working.
I was so pissed.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:32 PM on April 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
When I was 12 or so my mom bought me homeopathic capsules for a cold. I believe she just saw them in the health food store and didn't realize they were a homeopathic remedy.
The label said I should take 3 every few hours. They had no effect on the cold but were sweet and tasted nice. Within a day or two I had eaten all of them, because they tasted like Tic-Tacs. No positive or negative effects on my health.
posted by rancidchickn at 8:34 PM on April 14, 2010
The label said I should take 3 every few hours. They had no effect on the cold but were sweet and tasted nice. Within a day or two I had eaten all of them, because they tasted like Tic-Tacs. No positive or negative effects on my health.
posted by rancidchickn at 8:34 PM on April 14, 2010
I am tired a lot, and when I was dating a guy who worked at a natural food store, he noticed this and brought me some homeopathic energy pills. I took one to be nice. They definitely had an effect: I took the pill, sat down and ate a bowl of cereal, and immediately ran to the bathroom and puked it all up.
posted by emilyd22222 at 8:37 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by emilyd22222 at 8:37 PM on April 14, 2010
leesh: Just to be precise, arnica by itself is not homeopathy. I guess it would be called a natural or herbal treatment or something like that. Diluting arnica as part of some sort of homeopathic recipe is, of course, homeopathy.
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 8:38 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 8:38 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I gave my baby homeopathic teething tablets a few times. My sister's friends swore by them and I didn't realize at the time what homeopathic meant. They didn't do anything, but she would always stop screaming for a moment to grab the teeny tablets and scarf them down. She'd usually resume screaming once she swallowed them, but she sure loved the sugar pill aspect of it. She did get to practice her pincer grasp on them, so there's one good thing.
posted by artychoke at 8:41 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by artychoke at 8:41 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
My husband has a bad knee and likes to use arnica gel on it. To me it seems kind of cooling and soothing, but that could just be the gel evaporating.
posted by HotToddy at 8:47 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by HotToddy at 8:47 PM on April 14, 2010
I used homeopathic ear drops once, without realizing what they were...no effect whatsoever. After doing some research on homeopathy, I put almost all the remainder in my ear at once, then tasted a drop. It was plain mineral oil, and had no other effect.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 8:47 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by StrikeTheViol at 8:47 PM on April 14, 2010
If you believe that there are 1)things called molecules that make up the matter you interact with and 2) that any two molecules with the same atoms and structure are indistinguishable from one another then it's simple math to show that homeopathic remedies can't possibly cure anything except through the placebo effect (see the James Randi link presented above that describes said math).
If you don't believe 1 and 2 then you can still believe in 3: clinical trials. Which are basically the anecdotes that you are looking for applied in a systematic way to become data.
posted by Green With You at 8:51 PM on April 14, 2010 [10 favorites]
If you don't believe 1 and 2 then you can still believe in 3: clinical trials. Which are basically the anecdotes that you are looking for applied in a systematic way to become data.
posted by Green With You at 8:51 PM on April 14, 2010 [10 favorites]
a good friend of mine relies almost completely on a very expensive homeopathic doctor for her son's medical care. he had impetigo and she spent a couple of c-notes on appointments with the homeopath and the naturopath which resulted in the poor boy's chin being slathered in honey for days. he missed two weeks of school and had a mangy chin to show for all of the honey and homeopathic whatevers that were prescribed. i had been given a sample of an expensive antibiotic impetigo cream (the new and improved bactroban) by my daughter's pediatrician and i gave it to her. his chin cleared up in a couple of days. that kid is seriously always sick. my friend believes. i want to believe, but, umm....
lice keep showing up in my daughter's kindergarten class and we both got it pretty badly at one point. i bought a box of homeopathic louse treatment and those crappy bugs were still crawling vigorously after a couple of treatments.
keep in mind: i am really psyched about naturopathic medicine and one visit to the local naturopath straightened out some long-term issues with my daughter, definitively. worth every penny. i am a great believer in keeping it real with herbal remedies and good lifestyle choices. i am into alternative healing on a lot of levels, and would stake my reputation on what has truly worked for me and my little family. homeopathic remedies are not in the arsenal at this time.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 8:52 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
lice keep showing up in my daughter's kindergarten class and we both got it pretty badly at one point. i bought a box of homeopathic louse treatment and those crappy bugs were still crawling vigorously after a couple of treatments.
keep in mind: i am really psyched about naturopathic medicine and one visit to the local naturopath straightened out some long-term issues with my daughter, definitively. worth every penny. i am a great believer in keeping it real with herbal remedies and good lifestyle choices. i am into alternative healing on a lot of levels, and would stake my reputation on what has truly worked for me and my little family. homeopathic remedies are not in the arsenal at this time.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 8:52 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I saw an osteopath for back and neck problems as a teenager. She did some spinal manipulations which actually did help somewhat with my pain and posture. Then she gave me sugary 'arnica pills' to put under my tongue, ostensibly to prevent soreness the next day. I've actually only just learnt, through googling, that they were homoeopathic - I'd assumed they were just herbal remedies of questionable efficacy. Suffice to say, they didn't have any noticeable effect. I squirmed out of taking them one time, and I was no more or less sore the next day than usual.
The thing is, although I agree that homoeopathy is junk science and its proponents are charlatans, the ordinary schmucks who sincerely claim it cures their everyday ills are actually half-right. Why? Because a huge proportion of trivial human ailments (headaches, stomach upsets, tiredness, sore muscles) are highly responsive to the mental state of the sufferer. We feel worse when we're stressed or when we obsess over our symptoms. Similarly, the placebo effect ensures that if someone convinces us we've been cured, we really will feel better. (I'm talking about minor ailments here - no-one's claiming placebos will cure your cancer).
The problem for scientific rationalists is that is nothing - besides evidence-based medicine, backed up by double-blind placebo-controlled trials - which will convince us our ailments have been cured. Our own rationality is excluding us from whatever benefits crunchier types reap from homeopathy. We can't cure our ills with inert placebos, because the Hippocratic Oath prevents our doctors from handing us sugar pills and telling us we'll be fine. (That doesn't mean we're not susceptible to the placebo effect - it just means we won't get to experience it unless we're in placebo-controlled trial).
Sometimes I wish I was a little more trusting, or my doctor was a little less ethical, because I'd actually love to have a bottle of cure-all placebos to treat my headaches and sniffles. Damn you, scientific rationalism.
posted by embrangled at 9:40 PM on April 14, 2010 [6 favorites]
The thing is, although I agree that homoeopathy is junk science and its proponents are charlatans, the ordinary schmucks who sincerely claim it cures their everyday ills are actually half-right. Why? Because a huge proportion of trivial human ailments (headaches, stomach upsets, tiredness, sore muscles) are highly responsive to the mental state of the sufferer. We feel worse when we're stressed or when we obsess over our symptoms. Similarly, the placebo effect ensures that if someone convinces us we've been cured, we really will feel better. (I'm talking about minor ailments here - no-one's claiming placebos will cure your cancer).
The problem for scientific rationalists is that is nothing - besides evidence-based medicine, backed up by double-blind placebo-controlled trials - which will convince us our ailments have been cured. Our own rationality is excluding us from whatever benefits crunchier types reap from homeopathy. We can't cure our ills with inert placebos, because the Hippocratic Oath prevents our doctors from handing us sugar pills and telling us we'll be fine. (That doesn't mean we're not susceptible to the placebo effect - it just means we won't get to experience it unless we're in placebo-controlled trial).
Sometimes I wish I was a little more trusting, or my doctor was a little less ethical, because I'd actually love to have a bottle of cure-all placebos to treat my headaches and sniffles. Damn you, scientific rationalism.
posted by embrangled at 9:40 PM on April 14, 2010 [6 favorites]
My mother and father swear by homeopathic treatments for the flu and whatnot. I simply refuse to discuss it with them but they are adamant.
(My mother's best friend is a homeopath which complicates matters and makes me worry that at some point I'm going to be attempting to extricate my mother's health and finances from the bullshit quackery)
posted by geek anachronism at 10:02 PM on April 14, 2010
(My mother's best friend is a homeopath which complicates matters and makes me worry that at some point I'm going to be attempting to extricate my mother's health and finances from the bullshit quackery)
posted by geek anachronism at 10:02 PM on April 14, 2010
I'm curious about this too...since there is a homeopathic remedy that *does* seem to work for me and has for years, when I know it logically shouldn't. (Bioallers Tree Pollen) It is also the only one of the many homeopathic remedies my mum tried on me when I was a kid to do anything at all - it cuts my juniper allergy symptoms by probably 50%. (In fact, my brother and I used to like to take our homeopathic remedies with expressions of the utmost martyrdom, then smugly point out they weren't doing anything.)
I'm kind of wondering if the ingredient in it that's working is the alcohol - it has a purified water and 20% alcohol base. Or maybe the fact that there's about 30 ingredients all at much less dilution than Wikipedia tells me is normal? (6X) I just don't know. I think homeopathic remedies are a crock, yet I buy a bottle of this every spring, without much cognitive dissonance. It also gets almost entirely good reviews at Amazon and drugstore.com, but then again, so does Twilight.
posted by wending my way at 10:09 PM on April 14, 2010
I'm kind of wondering if the ingredient in it that's working is the alcohol - it has a purified water and 20% alcohol base. Or maybe the fact that there's about 30 ingredients all at much less dilution than Wikipedia tells me is normal? (6X) I just don't know. I think homeopathic remedies are a crock, yet I buy a bottle of this every spring, without much cognitive dissonance. It also gets almost entirely good reviews at Amazon and drugstore.com, but then again, so does Twilight.
posted by wending my way at 10:09 PM on April 14, 2010
Arnica in topical application has anti-inflammatory properties. I've used many times and it works. As an homeopathic preparation, is at best useless and I imagine it could be dangerous if it's not diluted, as the plant is poisonous.
I used homoepathic treatments a couple of times as a child and they didn't work. But I loved the sugar pills.
posted by clearlydemon at 10:09 PM on April 14, 2010
I used homoepathic treatments a couple of times as a child and they didn't work. But I loved the sugar pills.
posted by clearlydemon at 10:09 PM on April 14, 2010
My school back in India misguidedly handed out homeopathic medicines for minor ailments us kids had. We would find the the slightest pretext to get them as they were basically little sugar pills. Never noticed much of an effect really.
posted by peacheater at 10:10 PM on April 14, 2010
posted by peacheater at 10:10 PM on April 14, 2010
I had a glass of water earlier.
The problem with the argument that people "believe it is quackery without having personally experienced it" is, what constitutes experiencing it? I've rinsed out my coffee cup and refilled it with water before, I should, according to homeopathic theory, have been wide awake for days or at least not gotten a caffeine withdraw headache. Nothing in my life has ever worked that way.
The argument that homeophathy works like a vaccine sounds great when it's all just hand waving. Try to find out what the analogs to mast cells, toal like receptors or class switching are, though, and suddenly it's all cobra and mongoose.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:12 PM on April 14, 2010
The problem with the argument that people "believe it is quackery without having personally experienced it" is, what constitutes experiencing it? I've rinsed out my coffee cup and refilled it with water before, I should, according to homeopathic theory, have been wide awake for days or at least not gotten a caffeine withdraw headache. Nothing in my life has ever worked that way.
The argument that homeophathy works like a vaccine sounds great when it's all just hand waving. Try to find out what the analogs to mast cells, toal like receptors or class switching are, though, and suddenly it's all cobra and mongoose.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:12 PM on April 14, 2010
I've rinsed out my coffee cup and refilled it with water before, I should, according to homeopathic theory, have been wide awake for days or at least not gotten a caffeine withdraw headache. Nothing in my life has ever worked that way.
Actually, according to homeopathy you should be sleepy. That is, the more you dilute caffeine the most of a sedative it becomes.
That being said, I don't buy it. Figuratively and literally. Just like StrikeTheViol, I accidently bought homeopathic ear drops once. It wasn't until 2 weeks of them not working that I finally read the print on the bottle.
posted by sbutler at 10:36 PM on April 14, 2010
Actually, according to homeopathy you should be sleepy. That is, the more you dilute caffeine the most of a sedative it becomes.
That being said, I don't buy it. Figuratively and literally. Just like StrikeTheViol, I accidently bought homeopathic ear drops once. It wasn't until 2 weeks of them not working that I finally read the print on the bottle.
posted by sbutler at 10:36 PM on April 14, 2010
I was reading this just before going to bed (on my phone) and decided I had to come and write an answer.
I have used homeopathy before and it *has* worked for me. When I was very young, around 2 and 4 years old, I used to get lots of fevers. My pediatrician tried everything until he told my mom "I don't know what to do anymore, maybe try alternative medicine?". So she did, and took me to a homeopathic doctor and apparently that's when I stopped getting fevers all the time.
Anyway, in my more grown up years, I sometimes take homeopathic medicine. Yes, I know exactly why everyone thinks it's quack and shouldn't work, and maybe it *is* the placebo effect at work, but then again, what can be so wrong about your own mind curing your body?
Mostly, what I KNOW that worked, without a doubt, was the arnica homeopathic medicine, not the thing you rub on a bruise, but the actual homeopathics liquid (I ask for just drops because I don't like the sugar pills). When I had my wisdom teeth taken out, the dentist scheduled two different surgeries, one for the right side teeth and one for the left side. The first, time, my mom got me homeopathic arnica drops, and I took them and everything went well, almost no pain or swelling. The second time, I said "meh, I don't need the arnica", and I didn't take it and half of my face got huge and I cried from the pain. So yeah, maybe it *was* the placebo effect, but gee, what a difference.
I also get some homeopathic pills (some dry type of pills) for anxiety and some for allergy. I kinda feel like the anxiety ones do cut the "butterflies-in-the-stomach" feeling.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 10:57 PM on April 14, 2010
I have used homeopathy before and it *has* worked for me. When I was very young, around 2 and 4 years old, I used to get lots of fevers. My pediatrician tried everything until he told my mom "I don't know what to do anymore, maybe try alternative medicine?". So she did, and took me to a homeopathic doctor and apparently that's when I stopped getting fevers all the time.
Anyway, in my more grown up years, I sometimes take homeopathic medicine. Yes, I know exactly why everyone thinks it's quack and shouldn't work, and maybe it *is* the placebo effect at work, but then again, what can be so wrong about your own mind curing your body?
Mostly, what I KNOW that worked, without a doubt, was the arnica homeopathic medicine, not the thing you rub on a bruise, but the actual homeopathics liquid (I ask for just drops because I don't like the sugar pills). When I had my wisdom teeth taken out, the dentist scheduled two different surgeries, one for the right side teeth and one for the left side. The first, time, my mom got me homeopathic arnica drops, and I took them and everything went well, almost no pain or swelling. The second time, I said "meh, I don't need the arnica", and I didn't take it and half of my face got huge and I cried from the pain. So yeah, maybe it *was* the placebo effect, but gee, what a difference.
I also get some homeopathic pills (some dry type of pills) for anxiety and some for allergy. I kinda feel like the anxiety ones do cut the "butterflies-in-the-stomach" feeling.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 10:57 PM on April 14, 2010
As you can see, metafilter has a longstanding anti-homeopathy bent, so I say this with the knowledge that everyone here is going to consider me a dummy from now on:
I've used homeopathy some, and also given homeopathic meds to my child and my dogs (when I had dogs).
Did it work? Who freaking knows. Most research says 'no'. My experience at the time said yes in some cases, maybe in others. I don't still do it because I wasn't convinced enough that it was helpful, but that's not to say I would never do it again.
Keep in mind that a lot of how people interpret Western/allopathic medicine is as clouded by bias as how homeopathy consumers interpret their experiences. For example, a poster above mentions how homeopathy didn't work for impetigo but antibiotic cream did. Well, most impetigo resolves itself in a short time. Most likely, the effected child would have gotten better within the same timeline with no homeopathy AND no antibiotics, but we believe in antibiotics, so we believe that solved the problem. The allopathic treatments we receive have not necessarily evaluated for effectiveness - the emphasis on "evidenced-based medicine" is a recent trend and in a doctor's daily practice, she spends much of her time recommending or providing treatments that have not been subject to rigorous, large, double-blind trials. All kinds of healing and medicine, even the "regular" kind, is full of mystery, guess-work and intuition. Most of us don't want the majority of our care to be based on intuition of course, but I think it's worth remembering this when the pitchforks get raised against various "alternative" treatments.
Anyhow, unless you're about to drop a bunch of money on a homeopathist, why not just try it and see what happens. According to all the evidence and the arguments presented here, it certainly shouldn't be able to hurt you!
posted by serazin at 11:07 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've used homeopathy some, and also given homeopathic meds to my child and my dogs (when I had dogs).
Did it work? Who freaking knows. Most research says 'no'. My experience at the time said yes in some cases, maybe in others. I don't still do it because I wasn't convinced enough that it was helpful, but that's not to say I would never do it again.
Keep in mind that a lot of how people interpret Western/allopathic medicine is as clouded by bias as how homeopathy consumers interpret their experiences. For example, a poster above mentions how homeopathy didn't work for impetigo but antibiotic cream did. Well, most impetigo resolves itself in a short time. Most likely, the effected child would have gotten better within the same timeline with no homeopathy AND no antibiotics, but we believe in antibiotics, so we believe that solved the problem. The allopathic treatments we receive have not necessarily evaluated for effectiveness - the emphasis on "evidenced-based medicine" is a recent trend and in a doctor's daily practice, she spends much of her time recommending or providing treatments that have not been subject to rigorous, large, double-blind trials. All kinds of healing and medicine, even the "regular" kind, is full of mystery, guess-work and intuition. Most of us don't want the majority of our care to be based on intuition of course, but I think it's worth remembering this when the pitchforks get raised against various "alternative" treatments.
Anyhow, unless you're about to drop a bunch of money on a homeopathist, why not just try it and see what happens. According to all the evidence and the arguments presented here, it certainly shouldn't be able to hurt you!
posted by serazin at 11:07 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've gone to a homepath. In fact, I was raised on homeopathy and have never used anything else. I'm 35. I've been sick before. I'm healthy now. So far so good. I'd just say a few things:
Homeopathy is predicated on the individual. Over-the-counter preparations for this or that acute ailment are unlikely to work: they are shoehorning homepathic remedies into allopathic one-size-fits-all treatment models. If you want to be treated homeopathically, go see a homeopathic physician. Second, Homeopathy in the US is totally unlicensed and so anyone can claim anything. Quacks abound. Finding a qualified classical homeopath is difficult. Homeopathy elsewhere, India in particular, is licensed, regulated by the government and has it's own accredited universities, ensuring a reasonable standard of skill. My family homeopath has a four-year diploma from an Indian university. In the US, look for the Certification in Classical Homeopathy from the Council for Homeopathic Certification.
General advice: if they practice another form of medicine in addition to homeopathy, be careful. If they practice several, That is a bad sign. If you find a guy with initials after his name that run to two lines on a business card, run away. Classical homeopathy is based on selecting the *single* remedy that best addresses the health condition of the whole patient. If the homeopath is prescribing a bucket of different remedies, run away. Finally, homeopathic remedies are cheap as can be. If your homeopath wants to charge you an arm and a leg for vitamins, supplements, spirulina, etc, run away.
In the end, your health is your own responsibility, and entrusting it to someone else is exactly that: a matter of trust. Good luck.
posted by BinGregory at 11:19 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Homeopathy is predicated on the individual. Over-the-counter preparations for this or that acute ailment are unlikely to work: they are shoehorning homepathic remedies into allopathic one-size-fits-all treatment models. If you want to be treated homeopathically, go see a homeopathic physician. Second, Homeopathy in the US is totally unlicensed and so anyone can claim anything. Quacks abound. Finding a qualified classical homeopath is difficult. Homeopathy elsewhere, India in particular, is licensed, regulated by the government and has it's own accredited universities, ensuring a reasonable standard of skill. My family homeopath has a four-year diploma from an Indian university. In the US, look for the Certification in Classical Homeopathy from the Council for Homeopathic Certification.
General advice: if they practice another form of medicine in addition to homeopathy, be careful. If they practice several, That is a bad sign. If you find a guy with initials after his name that run to two lines on a business card, run away. Classical homeopathy is based on selecting the *single* remedy that best addresses the health condition of the whole patient. If the homeopath is prescribing a bucket of different remedies, run away. Finally, homeopathic remedies are cheap as can be. If your homeopath wants to charge you an arm and a leg for vitamins, supplements, spirulina, etc, run away.
In the end, your health is your own responsibility, and entrusting it to someone else is exactly that: a matter of trust. Good luck.
posted by BinGregory at 11:19 PM on April 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've tried homeopathic remedies for colds and allergies. It did not work. I would have gotten the same results by burning my money.
posted by chillmost at 12:12 AM on April 15, 2010
posted by chillmost at 12:12 AM on April 15, 2010
My toddler had a horrible, painful cough once, and our doctor (!) recommended this stuff which, sure enough, didn't do squat. It was only after a few days (due to language barrier) that I realized the concoction was homeopathic. We changed doctors.
posted by sively at 1:13 AM on April 15, 2010
posted by sively at 1:13 AM on April 15, 2010
I've used homeopathy in the past and it worked where ordinary medicine failed. I consulted with one a couple of times 10 years ago.
It could be placebo, a natural coincidence of me going to the homeopathist just as my symptoms were on the turn, or the palliative effects of actually having someone listen to me and systematically hear out my problem. But after months of a painful skin condition and no end in sight, homeopathy "cured" me. It "worked" more than once.
Yes, the science behind the potions and pills is provably crock. But scientists don't understand as exactly why the process of undergoing homeopathy or many other quackish alternative therapies can [appear to] achieve results. I think the word "holistic" is abused somewhat, but certainly the business of consulting with a homeopathist, the questions she asked and the interest she took was more holistic than any physician I had seen.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:05 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
It could be placebo, a natural coincidence of me going to the homeopathist just as my symptoms were on the turn, or the palliative effects of actually having someone listen to me and systematically hear out my problem. But after months of a painful skin condition and no end in sight, homeopathy "cured" me. It "worked" more than once.
Yes, the science behind the potions and pills is provably crock. But scientists don't understand as exactly why the process of undergoing homeopathy or many other quackish alternative therapies can [appear to] achieve results. I think the word "holistic" is abused somewhat, but certainly the business of consulting with a homeopathist, the questions she asked and the interest she took was more holistic than any physician I had seen.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:05 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I just finished Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst's Trick or Treatment, which discusses various alternative medicine treatments in terms of the best available evidence. The book's website is here. One of the chapters deals with homeopathy, including its history (note that Hahnemann invented homeopathy in the early 19th Century, before germ theory). You may want to take a look at that.
Note that I think there's some conflation between homeopathy and herbal in the US, where people will say something is "homeopathic" when what they really mean is that it's herbal, or natural, or whatever. Something with herbal ingredients may have a clinical effect (though the dose and quality may be inconsistent), whereas real homeopathy will dilute whatever ingredients there are to nothing. Oh, Trick or Treatment has a chapter or two on herbal medicine, with a discussion of the evidence about particular treatments.
posted by chengjih at 4:38 AM on April 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
Note that I think there's some conflation between homeopathy and herbal in the US, where people will say something is "homeopathic" when what they really mean is that it's herbal, or natural, or whatever. Something with herbal ingredients may have a clinical effect (though the dose and quality may be inconsistent), whereas real homeopathy will dilute whatever ingredients there are to nothing. Oh, Trick or Treatment has a chapter or two on herbal medicine, with a discussion of the evidence about particular treatments.
posted by chengjih at 4:38 AM on April 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
The vast majority of minor human ailments for which homeopathy is usually "prescribed" will heal ALL BY THEMSELVES. And anyone who claims that homeopathy "worked" for them is almost certainly confusing natural healing with the effects of the remedy they ingested.
To say "I've used homeopathy my whole life and never been sick" is no more meaningful than saying "I used homeopathy once and then ten years later I got cancer, dammit!"
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:53 AM on April 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
To say "I've used homeopathy my whole life and never been sick" is no more meaningful than saying "I used homeopathy once and then ten years later I got cancer, dammit!"
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:53 AM on April 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
I deliberately took an overdose of homeopathic sleeping pills. Nothing happened.
posted by alby at 4:54 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by alby at 4:54 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't say I have an anti-homeopathy bent. It's just that special pleading has always been a turnoff for me.
Like I said, I can tell you where antibodies come from, what they bind to, their binding affinity and huge amounts about their structure and I can do all this in terms of forces and factors we have known about for ≈100 years. If I really wanted to, I could do some of these things in my kitchen using stuff I had around the house and a few drops of my own blood.
If homeopathy wants acceptance, it needs an in vitro experiment that anyone can do and reliably get positive results with a positive control and negative results with a negative control, and get those results even when you don't know which sample is the positive and which is the negative control. If it works one tenth as well as its practitioners claim, this shouldn't be hard.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:19 AM on April 15, 2010
Like I said, I can tell you where antibodies come from, what they bind to, their binding affinity and huge amounts about their structure and I can do all this in terms of forces and factors we have known about for ≈100 years. If I really wanted to, I could do some of these things in my kitchen using stuff I had around the house and a few drops of my own blood.
If homeopathy wants acceptance, it needs an in vitro experiment that anyone can do and reliably get positive results with a positive control and negative results with a negative control, and get those results even when you don't know which sample is the positive and which is the negative control. If it works one tenth as well as its practitioners claim, this shouldn't be hard.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:19 AM on April 15, 2010
Woah, I think a lot of people are mixing in a wide variety of different Alternative Medicines under the term Homeopathy. Someone even referred to an Osteopathic Doctor. Osteopathic (DO) Doctors go through very rigorous and sound training, quite similar to Allopathic (MD) Doctors. And I am, in fact, an Allopathic medical student, so I'm not speaking here as a DO with a wounded pride. I guess some Osteopathic doctors use homeopathy, but please do not write off Osteopathic doctors in general because of that.
Likewise, Chinese Medicine is generally not Homeopathy. Chiropracters do not necessarily practice homeopathy either (though some possibly do; some chiropracters like to dabble in various alternative medicines). Homeopathy is a whole separate form of alternative medicine that has to do with the "law of similars" and serial dilutions of substances.
That said, no, I've never tried Homeopathy. I have used herbal and other forms of "alternative" medicine that have worked for me. I am very skeptical of homeopathy in particular, but generally open minded about most other forms of alternative medicine.
posted by quirks at 5:54 AM on April 15, 2010
Likewise, Chinese Medicine is generally not Homeopathy. Chiropracters do not necessarily practice homeopathy either (though some possibly do; some chiropracters like to dabble in various alternative medicines). Homeopathy is a whole separate form of alternative medicine that has to do with the "law of similars" and serial dilutions of substances.
That said, no, I've never tried Homeopathy. I have used herbal and other forms of "alternative" medicine that have worked for me. I am very skeptical of homeopathy in particular, but generally open minded about most other forms of alternative medicine.
posted by quirks at 5:54 AM on April 15, 2010
Some commercial products are claimed to be homeopathic, when they are not homeopathic at all. Everyone knows that homeopathic treatments are safe, but the widely available herbal drugs that are falsely claimed to be homeopathic can in fact have real effects, good or bad.
For example, Zicam Cold Remedy products have been claimed by their manufacturer to be homeopathic, which they certainly are not. They are not diluted at all! In some cases, as a result of their being real drugs and not homeopathic, Zicam products have had an extremely serious side effect: the permanent destruction of the user's sense of smell.
Another way supposedly homeopathic treatments can be effective is through their ingredients that are labeled as being inactive. For example, "Yeast Gard" homeopathic suppositories contains the following:
posted by Ery at 6:13 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
For example, Zicam Cold Remedy products have been claimed by their manufacturer to be homeopathic, which they certainly are not. They are not diluted at all! In some cases, as a result of their being real drugs and not homeopathic, Zicam products have had an extremely serious side effect: the permanent destruction of the user's sense of smell.
Another way supposedly homeopathic treatments can be effective is through their ingredients that are labeled as being inactive. For example, "Yeast Gard" homeopathic suppositories contains the following:
- Pulsatilla (Homeopathically prepared to 28X); Candida Parapsilosis (Homeopathically Prepared to 28X); Candida Albicans (Homeopathically Prepared to 28X). Inactive Ingredients: Polyethylene Glycol (Used as a base)
posted by Ery at 6:13 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Mod note: please don't post videos of other people to a thread asking for personal experiences - metatalk is your option
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:35 AM on April 15, 2010
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:35 AM on April 15, 2010
I have been doing a significant amount of work for an OMD/CCH/NMD and he's pretty amazing in my book. He's not "homeopathic", he's "naturopathic", classically trained in Japan, Georgetown University, and a few other places. He does acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and a bunch of other stuff. He went to med school, he's not some dude in a coat.
My first experience with him was like this:
I went to his office on a referral to do some computer work for him. As i was working I was sort of suffering from a few nagging and persistent soccer injuries---I actually had compartment syndrome on my shin from a slide tackle collision and about a golf-ball sized pocket of fluid retention on my knee from a knee-knock. I had been to the ER/urgent care for both, and both had given me steroids/prescription level nsaids, the normal regimen. None of them had done anything but give me the green apple splatters. I've actually got persistent damage from the compartment syndrome.
Anyway, as I'm talking to him and working on his system, I realized that he had all this research in this office, and some book prices, and I started to realize it wasn't so much quackery. So we talked about his time in Japan, and we talked about the differences between a DO and and MD and an OMD, whatever. So I asked him kind of point blank if he'd be willing to look at my knee in exchange for a reduced price on his system. He obliged.
So he tinkered with my leg in the normal doctor way, looking for tendon/ligament damage, asked about the mechanism of injury, etc. After about 5 minutes he said he had just the thing. So I followed him to his pharmacy room, which was basically divided in 2. Half had normal prescription style dispensary bottles, half had old fashioned brown glass apothecary jars. He pulled a few things off a few shelves, went over to an ancient typewriter, and banged out a label. He gave me a squeezie bottle and told me my directions. 10 drops under the tongue every 4 hours, tastes like water, and smear this goo on your knee or any sore spot. The goo was basically just a natural-ingredients sports rub. The water stuff was "Myoticin", maybe or maybe not spelled correctly.
I had zero faith in the stuff, but I figured...whatever. It absolutely tasted like water. For real. So I did my first dose before bed. Got up in the AM, did another dose. That night I banged my knee off a table or something, which had previously been something that hurt really badly. Only it didn't hurt. So I looked down...and the swelling was at about 50%. So I took it for another 3 days. And it went away. And it hasn't come back. It was primarily fluid buildup, but there was significant inflammation and some messed up tendons in there too.
1800mg a day of Tylenol for 6 weeks didn't do it. Prednisone didn't do it. Ice and wrapping didn't do much. But these drops, man, I don't know. They did it. And then my IT bag got stolen with all my equipment and harddrives and my magical bottle of drops.
But yea. He does a lot of work with kids with severe physical disabilities, he's very hands-on. He's also some sort of a martial artist, but you look at him and you see sort of a wizened little man in his mid 50's or so. He totally runs his office like an old-timey doctors office, it's pretty cool.
I am currently trying to convince some of my friends that their chiropractor is a snakeoil salesman who takes all their money and they need to go see someone else...but where I say their chiro is a quack, they think this fella's a quack. (Seriously. Their chiro charges them $110 a week, says they have to come every week, and they can't walk if they don't go see him. What a joke.)
posted by TomMelee at 6:36 AM on April 15, 2010
My first experience with him was like this:
I went to his office on a referral to do some computer work for him. As i was working I was sort of suffering from a few nagging and persistent soccer injuries---I actually had compartment syndrome on my shin from a slide tackle collision and about a golf-ball sized pocket of fluid retention on my knee from a knee-knock. I had been to the ER/urgent care for both, and both had given me steroids/prescription level nsaids, the normal regimen. None of them had done anything but give me the green apple splatters. I've actually got persistent damage from the compartment syndrome.
Anyway, as I'm talking to him and working on his system, I realized that he had all this research in this office, and some book prices, and I started to realize it wasn't so much quackery. So we talked about his time in Japan, and we talked about the differences between a DO and and MD and an OMD, whatever. So I asked him kind of point blank if he'd be willing to look at my knee in exchange for a reduced price on his system. He obliged.
So he tinkered with my leg in the normal doctor way, looking for tendon/ligament damage, asked about the mechanism of injury, etc. After about 5 minutes he said he had just the thing. So I followed him to his pharmacy room, which was basically divided in 2. Half had normal prescription style dispensary bottles, half had old fashioned brown glass apothecary jars. He pulled a few things off a few shelves, went over to an ancient typewriter, and banged out a label. He gave me a squeezie bottle and told me my directions. 10 drops under the tongue every 4 hours, tastes like water, and smear this goo on your knee or any sore spot. The goo was basically just a natural-ingredients sports rub. The water stuff was "Myoticin", maybe or maybe not spelled correctly.
I had zero faith in the stuff, but I figured...whatever. It absolutely tasted like water. For real. So I did my first dose before bed. Got up in the AM, did another dose. That night I banged my knee off a table or something, which had previously been something that hurt really badly. Only it didn't hurt. So I looked down...and the swelling was at about 50%. So I took it for another 3 days. And it went away. And it hasn't come back. It was primarily fluid buildup, but there was significant inflammation and some messed up tendons in there too.
1800mg a day of Tylenol for 6 weeks didn't do it. Prednisone didn't do it. Ice and wrapping didn't do much. But these drops, man, I don't know. They did it. And then my IT bag got stolen with all my equipment and harddrives and my magical bottle of drops.
But yea. He does a lot of work with kids with severe physical disabilities, he's very hands-on. He's also some sort of a martial artist, but you look at him and you see sort of a wizened little man in his mid 50's or so. He totally runs his office like an old-timey doctors office, it's pretty cool.
I am currently trying to convince some of my friends that their chiropractor is a snakeoil salesman who takes all their money and they need to go see someone else...but where I say their chiro is a quack, they think this fella's a quack. (Seriously. Their chiro charges them $110 a week, says they have to come every week, and they can't walk if they don't go see him. What a joke.)
posted by TomMelee at 6:36 AM on April 15, 2010
I used a homeopathic ear drop product once in an attempt to help an earache I was having. At the time, I didn't know what "homeopathic" meant.
After using the product repeatedly over a period of 24 hours or so, I hadn't noticed any difference other than a wet ear. So, I went online and did some research into homeopathic medicine. (Yes, I did my research AFTER buying and trying the product. What can I say? I was stupid back then). I was pretty miffed when I realized I'd basically just been putting water in my ear. That happens to me every day in the shower already!
posted by Vorteks at 7:15 AM on April 15, 2010
After using the product repeatedly over a period of 24 hours or so, I hadn't noticed any difference other than a wet ear. So, I went online and did some research into homeopathic medicine. (Yes, I did my research AFTER buying and trying the product. What can I say? I was stupid back then). I was pretty miffed when I realized I'd basically just been putting water in my ear. That happens to me every day in the shower already!
posted by Vorteks at 7:15 AM on April 15, 2010
Woah, I think a lot of people are mixing in a wide variety of different Alternative Medicines under the term Homeopathy. Someone even referred to an Osteopathic Doctor...
Yeah, that was me. If you read the rest of the comment, you'll find that I mentioned the osteopath to explain why I had taken homeopathic arnica tablets. I wasn't claiming that osteopathy is as crazy as homeopathy. Quite the opposite; I think osteopathy actually did me some good. (In particular, I once woke up to find my neck stuck at a painful angle. My doctor told me to take NSAIDs and rest, but the osteopath restored full mobility in under an hour). I have nothing against osteopathy, but I maintain that the homeopathic tablets this particular practitioner gave me were bunk.
posted by embrangled at 7:34 AM on April 15, 2010
Yeah, that was me. If you read the rest of the comment, you'll find that I mentioned the osteopath to explain why I had taken homeopathic arnica tablets. I wasn't claiming that osteopathy is as crazy as homeopathy. Quite the opposite; I think osteopathy actually did me some good. (In particular, I once woke up to find my neck stuck at a painful angle. My doctor told me to take NSAIDs and rest, but the osteopath restored full mobility in under an hour). I have nothing against osteopathy, but I maintain that the homeopathic tablets this particular practitioner gave me were bunk.
posted by embrangled at 7:34 AM on April 15, 2010
Mod note: comments removed - do not turn this into a generalized conversation about homeopathy - go to metatalk or take it to email
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:53 AM on April 15, 2010
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:53 AM on April 15, 2010
I used a homeopathic nasal mist to clear out my sinuses. I didn't realize it was homeopathic (a friend had recommended it and explained it as a way to clean nasal passages). The only effect was that it made me sneeze a lot, which I guess cleared me out a little. Horseradish or sriracha works better though.
posted by valadil at 8:13 AM on April 15, 2010
posted by valadil at 8:13 AM on April 15, 2010
I went to a homeopath for a period of a year. This was in regards to allergies. One of the things he said was that once I began treatment I should never again consume any sort of western medicine. No more antihistamines, panadol / aspirin, antibiotics, steroids, anti-emetics...
So I duly went on the multi daily doses of ridiculously diluted mercury infused powders (and god knows what else).
I was skeptical at first but it became clear my quality of life improved markedly once I started treatment. Logically I know the sugar pills shouldn't have worked. But I kinda believe in a particular sky god too. My thoughts over the years have resolved to this -
I was feeling better simply because I was free of the side effects that those medicines gave me, PLUS the placebo effects of the sugar pills. And for all I knew my allergies were psychosomatic to begin with (?) in which case treating them with a placebo would be exactly the right course of treatment.
posted by xdvesper at 8:21 AM on April 15, 2010
So I duly went on the multi daily doses of ridiculously diluted mercury infused powders (and god knows what else).
I was skeptical at first but it became clear my quality of life improved markedly once I started treatment. Logically I know the sugar pills shouldn't have worked. But I kinda believe in a particular sky god too. My thoughts over the years have resolved to this -
I was feeling better simply because I was free of the side effects that those medicines gave me, PLUS the placebo effects of the sugar pills. And for all I knew my allergies were psychosomatic to begin with (?) in which case treating them with a placebo would be exactly the right course of treatment.
posted by xdvesper at 8:21 AM on April 15, 2010
Um, xdvesper, if a homeopath told you not to consumer any Western medicine, that person should be locked up. Would you treat your sick child with homeopathy instead of antibiotics? Such reckless advice is why homeopathy must be relentlessly debunked.
posted by teedee2000 at 8:29 AM on April 15, 2010
posted by teedee2000 at 8:29 AM on April 15, 2010
What's the Harm? has some anecdotes about homeopathy that didn't work.
I once bought homeopathic pills by accident. They were in the supplement section, and I thought I was getting a lactobacillus acidophilis supplement to prevent yeast infections during a course of antibiotics. It didn't work, but then I'm not really certain that a supplement would have worked either.
posted by lexicakes at 8:53 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I once bought homeopathic pills by accident. They were in the supplement section, and I thought I was getting a lactobacillus acidophilis supplement to prevent yeast infections during a course of antibiotics. It didn't work, but then I'm not really certain that a supplement would have worked either.
posted by lexicakes at 8:53 AM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I gave my daughter homeopathic teething tablets a couple of times, largely because I was desperate. She loved them. They didn't do squat for her teething symptoms, but they did make her happy and gurgly for about thirty seconds to a minute. Of course, for young infants, sugar is a moderate painkiller, and that's all they are.
I asked my doctor about them and she said "Well, they won't hurt her, but sugar cubes are cheaper. It's up to you."
I'm typically pretty neutral in the woo / anti-woo camp; I believe in acupuncture, I see a chiropractor, I vaccinate on schedule and take antibiotics, &c. But I've never observed any positive correlative effect with homeopathy.
posted by KathrynT at 9:27 AM on April 15, 2010
I asked my doctor about them and she said "Well, they won't hurt her, but sugar cubes are cheaper. It's up to you."
I'm typically pretty neutral in the woo / anti-woo camp; I believe in acupuncture, I see a chiropractor, I vaccinate on schedule and take antibiotics, &c. But I've never observed any positive correlative effect with homeopathy.
posted by KathrynT at 9:27 AM on April 15, 2010
teedee2000: I agree the advice was reckless if taken literally. Pair up a particularly dumb patient with his earnest advice and match that with an unfortunate medical crisis and he could have a dead person on his hands.
I was more inclined to integrate his advice with what I knew about medicine in general - I come from a family of doctors, and I myself studied mathematics at university, so we're hardly the most simple minded of folk to blindly believe in such things. But we do acknowledge that antibiotics DO cause harm. In fact, all medicine disrupts body function to some degree, some more visible than others, and some of us more sensitive to such disruptions than others. The clincher of "when" to use medicine, then, is when the good outweighs the harm. The threshold of that is different for different people. For me, I feel quite ill when taking antibiotics (most types) and antihistamines, and so for me, homeopathy was the superior alternative.
But this is all a derail. I never said I support homeopaths as being better than doctors, or that they aren't a danger to society. I laugh at homeopaths along with everyone else - the idea that diluting something makes it more powerful is very lol-tastic. The poster asked for personal experiences, and there you have mine.
posted by xdvesper at 1:18 AM on April 16, 2010
I was more inclined to integrate his advice with what I knew about medicine in general - I come from a family of doctors, and I myself studied mathematics at university, so we're hardly the most simple minded of folk to blindly believe in such things. But we do acknowledge that antibiotics DO cause harm. In fact, all medicine disrupts body function to some degree, some more visible than others, and some of us more sensitive to such disruptions than others. The clincher of "when" to use medicine, then, is when the good outweighs the harm. The threshold of that is different for different people. For me, I feel quite ill when taking antibiotics (most types) and antihistamines, and so for me, homeopathy was the superior alternative.
But this is all a derail. I never said I support homeopaths as being better than doctors, or that they aren't a danger to society. I laugh at homeopaths along with everyone else - the idea that diluting something makes it more powerful is very lol-tastic. The poster asked for personal experiences, and there you have mine.
posted by xdvesper at 1:18 AM on April 16, 2010
I am not sure if this counts as homeopathic treatment, but I use a sinus rinse on a somewhat regular basis, which is similar to a Neti Pot. No, I didn't start using it because Oprah recommends it, but because my ear nose and throat doctor told me I had to start using it. I had recurring sinus infections for years, and he said it would help prevent infections and provide some relief, and I can say that it does provide a lot of relief for sinus pain and allergy symptoms. He recommended it in conjunction with some prescription medicine.
I don't have to take my prescription medicine anymore, since I had surgery which fixed the underlying problem, but I still use the sinus rinse when I have allergies or a cold, and it provides a lot of relief, but it definitely doesn't feel as awesome as Oprah claims!
posted by inertia at 5:54 PM on April 16, 2010
I don't have to take my prescription medicine anymore, since I had surgery which fixed the underlying problem, but I still use the sinus rinse when I have allergies or a cold, and it provides a lot of relief, but it definitely doesn't feel as awesome as Oprah claims!
posted by inertia at 5:54 PM on April 16, 2010
I am not sure if this counts as homeopathic treatment, but I use a sinus rinse on a somewhat regular basis
Nope.
My personal experience with homeopathy is that I looked up the systematic meta-reviews on it in the medical literature, realized it was bunk, and that I shouldn't use it if I actually want anything to get better.
posted by grouse at 11:47 PM on April 16, 2010
Nope.
My personal experience with homeopathy is that I looked up the systematic meta-reviews on it in the medical literature, realized it was bunk, and that I shouldn't use it if I actually want anything to get better.
posted by grouse at 11:47 PM on April 16, 2010
Best answer: Well, I no see reason at all why homeopathy could possibly work, and always thought it was ridiculous. And then my mother developed an intestinal problem. She went back and forth to various doctors for months, was given various tablets that made it much worse, and eventually gave up trying. And then she went to a homeopath. She was tested with some sort of machine, and was told she had to take various drops diluted in water every day for several weeks. So she tried it. Within a few weeks the problem disappeared and has never reappeared.
So soon afterwards she took my grandma (who suffers badly from Irritable Bowel Syndrome) to the same homeopath to be tested. She was given a different set of drops. She tried them, and had fewer attacks of IBS than normal, and they were less vicious. Unfortunately, the drops gave her a dry mouth, so she decided to stop taking them. Within a day or two, she had a nasty attack of IBS, and she kept having bad ones until she went back on the drops. I don't know if she's still taking them or if they worked in the long run, but they seem to have a dramatic result in the short term.
To sum up, I think homeopathy is a pile of nonsense, except both my mother and grandmother had remarkable success from it. This leaves me in something of a dilemma...
posted by badmoonrising at 10:48 AM on April 17, 2010
So soon afterwards she took my grandma (who suffers badly from Irritable Bowel Syndrome) to the same homeopath to be tested. She was given a different set of drops. She tried them, and had fewer attacks of IBS than normal, and they were less vicious. Unfortunately, the drops gave her a dry mouth, so she decided to stop taking them. Within a day or two, she had a nasty attack of IBS, and she kept having bad ones until she went back on the drops. I don't know if she's still taking them or if they worked in the long run, but they seem to have a dramatic result in the short term.
To sum up, I think homeopathy is a pile of nonsense, except both my mother and grandmother had remarkable success from it. This leaves me in something of a dilemma...
posted by badmoonrising at 10:48 AM on April 17, 2010
Er, meant to write this back when this was question was active but I forgot. Sorry to have misinterpreted you, embrangled! As an allopathic medical student I hear a lot of misunderstanding of osteopathy and of many branches of alternative medicine and I'm perhaps a bit oversensitive when it comes to this. It's not that I didn't think you respected your osteopathic doctor. It was just strange to me having it being brought up that your doctor was osteopathic at all, since no one ever says "my allopathic doctor."
posted by quirks at 9:06 PM on June 25, 2010
posted by quirks at 9:06 PM on June 25, 2010
no one ever says "my allopathic doctor."
The term "allopathic" to describe conventional medicine is a misnomer.
posted by grouse at 11:38 PM on June 25, 2010
The term "allopathic" to describe conventional medicine is a misnomer.
posted by grouse at 11:38 PM on June 25, 2010
No offence taken, quirks. But to clarify: my osteopath was not a doctor of any sort. In the UK and other Commonwealth countries, osteopaths are practitioners of 'osteopathic manipulative medicine'. They deal primarily with spines and muscles and joints. They don't have prescribing rights and they only have to train for four years. It's a completely separate profession to what you know in the US as osteopathic medicine.
My osteopath was a total hippy. She was into auras and crystals and all sorts of unscientific nonsense. I don't respect the fact that she gave me homeopathic 'medicine', at all. And some of what she did - specifically cranio-sacral manipulation - has zero scientific evidence behind it. But I do respect her skill at spinal manipulation, because whatever she did restored full mobility to my painfully locked neck in under an hour - something my GP would never have attempted.
Sometimes you find a mix of both helpful treatments and pointless woo being practised by the same practitioner. And sometimes it can be hard to tell one from the other.
posted by embrangled at 6:09 AM on June 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
My osteopath was a total hippy. She was into auras and crystals and all sorts of unscientific nonsense. I don't respect the fact that she gave me homeopathic 'medicine', at all. And some of what she did - specifically cranio-sacral manipulation - has zero scientific evidence behind it. But I do respect her skill at spinal manipulation, because whatever she did restored full mobility to my painfully locked neck in under an hour - something my GP would never have attempted.
Sometimes you find a mix of both helpful treatments and pointless woo being practised by the same practitioner. And sometimes it can be hard to tell one from the other.
posted by embrangled at 6:09 AM on June 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Useless is the best word to use.
Actual drugs have side effects, some of which suck a great deal. At least they work as advertised.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:07 PM on April 14, 2010