Tuesday, February 23, 2010

That's A Good Line (If You Don't Think About It)

"They were looking at randomised clinical trials and that is not a good way to measure homeopathy, as it is individualised medicine."
-- Michelle Hookham, of the Australian Homeopathy Association, claiming Britain's got it all wrong, homeopathic preparations (not "medicines") can't be tested by science, because they're special to each person - even though they're for sale, randomly, in health food stores - each mass-produced bottle revealing the lie, in the service of their cult's beliefs, their medical claims, and their magic water, to the Australian Broadcasting Company.

3 comments:

  1. Actually that's exactly how natural medicines work. Holistic medicine looks at the symptoms of the individual and tries to ascertain what is wrong with them based on their unique circumstances: environment, occupation, behavioural patterns, body types.

    Forget 'magic water' and pre-packaged "homeopathic" medicines, a moment's real reflection will tell you that everyone reacts differently to the things they take into their system. Hence allergies, hence different tastes in foods.

    The fact that there are shysters exploiting this indeterminacy does not detract from its veracity one jot.

    At its best, it should be less open to exploitation than conventional medicine as many herbs and lotions etc can be grown in one's garden or easily obtained in the wild.

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  2. "Forget 'magic water' and pre-packaged "homeopathic" medicines,..."

    I will not.

    That magic water reflects a ruthlessly defended NewAge belief system that any conversation about homeopathy is incomplete without. This isn't about placebos - slipping Mrs. Jacobs a sugar pill for her on-again/off-again ailment - but a silly, yet dangerous cult, with echos of the medieval period. People are being killed, ATS, not by the water but by the actions homeopaths, and their followers, take in it's name. Like the global warming scam, homeopathy's tenets are absurd, but you wouldn't hear that despite the ferocity they're trumpeted with.

    Cultism's the issue.

    And, as far as those pre-packaged "homeopathic" medicines are concerned, spokesmen for their cult can't be allowed to declare it's a scientific fact the water must be made-to-order, when these gullible idiots can and do buy it right off the shelf - with no individualization whatsoever - claiming they're healed. You've got to get the lay of the land, my friend, for instance:

    "Needs more research" is a play for buying more time. Extra points (for controlling the game) if they can make a fool of somebody by actually getting them to conduct that research. Man, that shit could go on for years. Decades. Centuries. And it has.

    But it's gonna stop now.

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  3. I'm fine with you disparaging packaged blarney as long as you are not, by extension, denying the efficacy of all natural medicines, or disputing the fact that something like, say, penicillin, works wonderfully for some, and is extremely dangerous to others.

    I read only recently that 'there is still no cure for the common cold'. Funny, I know people who take ginger, others garlic, and some echinacea, and it is very effective for staving off colds. I guess what they mean is that there is no one manufactured substance in a bottle that will do the trick. Hey, as long as I don't get a cold, I could give a shit. Whatever works, surely.

    Like the global warming scam, homeopathy's tenets are absurd, but you wouldn't hear that despite the ferocity they're trumpeted with.

    There is no commonality between the two whatsoever, apart from the fact that accepting either line cuts into the profit of conventional companies, and have therefore found common ground among right wing critics.

    They use opposing methodologies: Natural medicines are claimed to be bogus because they cannot produce a consistent result in rigorous testing in a laboratory. Denial of global warming, however, requires one deny several sets of empirical evidence - facts that cannot be disputed: rising ocean levels in Pacific island regions, coral bleaching, changes in animal behaviour, record temperatures, melting polar icecaps and ice shelves.

    You have the luxury of being a shill for the interests of big business whose interests are not advanced by the implications of these changes in natural phenomena but climate scientists, oceanographers and marine biologists, island chiefs, and so forth do not. Their professional reputation relies on taking notice of events and formulating a strategy to deal with them. This has bugger nothing to do with cults or fanciful imaginings.
    That is the province of those folk to whom you show a chart showing the hottest weather in 150 years (or ever) and they just shrug.

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