Told ya so, Alex Stroup

[Alex]

Damn. Actually read it, the author didn't even bother to mention anything particularly new (and, as usual, he cherry picks. Much weight placed on one Lancet article (from 1997) and one small meta-analysis but he doesn't mention the huge meta-analysis published in Lancet in 2005 that finds no evidence of a non-placebo effects and also that most of the pro-homeopathy trials were from small and/or poorly managed trials). It's most the same crap studies that have been generally discredited or unrepoduced for more than a decade.

But the comments are fun. The BS slung about is so damned spectacular. I like this one:

Originally Posted by Person A

Allergies are one of the most common reasons people seek out homeopathic treatment. The well prescribed homeopathic remedy reduces the intensity and frequency of the symptoms--and if it is seasonal allergies over time they no longer experience the problem.

Thank you Dana for providing studies showing the effectiveness of homeopathy for allergies. In my own clinic people are amazed by the results.

Originally Posted by Person B

You are a practitioner? Good!

I have one direct, simple question for you, and I know you can not answer it:

A person is told they have “Mercury poisoning” on account of fillings. A Homeopathic Practitioner “Prescribes” a sugar pill which allegedly contains a “single atom” of mercury.

Please explain precisely how the body “recognizes” the atom of mercury in the pill, as unique from the millions of other mercury atoms presumably floating around in the body. Explain how this particular mercury atom, is any different that it could act as a mechanism of any kind.

You can’t explain that because an atom of mercury, is an atom of mercury, period. They are all absolutely identical. But I'll be waiting for a response....

Originally Posted by Person C

That is NOT the way homeopathy works! I'm sure Ms. Burch can give a more detailed explanation, but this is the way it goes: The POTENTIZED remedy presents to the body a picture of the symptoms the substance would cause if taken in its original form. That symptom picture stimulates the immune system to do what it would do to heal the body naturally.

Potentized remedy present pictures to the body in order to stimulate the immune system!

It's so clear now! If only they'd said that the first time, science wouldn't have embarrassed itself with a reliance on reality for all these years.

And isn't this a classical bit of mundane stupidity from the article?

Originally Posted by Dana Ullman, Quake

To those of us who do not believe in coincidences,

What kind of brain damage allows a person to believe in water memory but not in coincidence?