talkmagic.co.uk

"Homeopathy sceptics have staged a mass "overdose" of homeopathic remedies, in a bid to prove they have no effect.

Protesters ate whole bottles of tablets at branches of Boots in places such as Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, London, Leicester, Edinburgh and Birmingham. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8489019.stm

Funny stuff

It could be dangerous. That amount of sawdust and sugar cannot be healthy.

Didnt James Randi do this a while back ?

Also, apparently George Bush is, er, really stupid...


I'd laugh so hard if one of those guys was unknowingly diabetic and started convulsing on the shop after downing all of those sugar pills. (As long as he was OK eventually. I'm not totally heartless )

Much as I agree with their views on homeopathy, I can't help but think that a "sceptics society meet-up" is one of the things I'd least like to experience. Thousands of faces permanently distorted into derisory smirks, the room filled with the sound of scoffing and excited calls of "...but show me the evidence!"

Farlsborough wrote:I can't help but think that a "sceptics society meet-up" is one of the things I'd least like to experience.

I agree. There's little less attractive than fundamentalists, even (or especially?) when they are right!

This just sounds stupid. Saw Dust and Sugar may not do much to the human body, but in large doses it can pretty much do a lot of harm. Tho if some of them are diabetic. Then I'd say that they pretty much brought it on themselves.

I don't quite get this. Everybody seems to agree that homeopathy works on the principle of placebo. In other words it may help some people feel better. So why do these guys get on their high horse - If all it costs is a couple of quid and does no harm anyway.

To me being skeptical is a good thing, creating a club for the purpose of being skeptical is a bit silly and patronizing. Homeopathy doesn't work, god doesn't exist etc... so what; is skepticism and cynicism the new religion? That sort of behavior certainly sounds a little "born again" to me...

It's that it does harm that's the problem, and there's the view that:

Boots oughtn't be selling stuff that does no better than placebo simply on the basis that some people want to buy it.
By failing to speak out against taking pills containing nothing for the treatment of the doldrums or head colds, you create the groundwork for the more deluded to go off to Africa to try and cure AIDS with pills containing nothing.

To say that homeopathy is harmless ignores the cases where people have chosen (or have had chosen for them) homeopathy over conventional treatment for life-threatening but preventable illnesses. it's not harmless; people die.

The skepticism movement is about encouraging people to question what they are told, and to provide a firm counter to those who mistakenly think that their beliefs allow them to behave badly.

Some homeopathy treatment have random stuff just 'thrown' together without being diluted. I have heard of the odd homeopathy treatment containing poison of some sorts

Beardy wrote:Some homeopathy treatment have random stuff just 'thrown' together without being diluted. I have heard of the odd homeopathy treatment containing poison of some sorts

Is that just a bit of propaganda though like people cutting drugs with rat poison, or someone putting razor blades in to apples for trick or treaters?

Human's have a habit of making stuff up in order to support their viewpoint and hear say quickly becomes "truth".

As Iain mentioned in another thread (might have been in Mentalist Forum) he has a friend who is a qualified councillor who uses being a psychic as a kind of "guise" to help people (bare basics, not exactly this, read full thread to see what I mean). I have absolutely no doubt that homeopathy does not work except via placebo but if it gives people peace of mind then so be it. I only see it as a problem when people are financially fleeced for a placebo and neglect proper medical treatment because of the "wonder cure".

I also have problems with them having official titles like "Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine". Woahhhhhhhhh hang on a sec, if you want to give people some peace of mind that's one thing but claiming a ground in medicine is another. Places like Boots selling this as medication is along the same grounds and I agree with the above, should not be sold just because there is a market for it.

A_n_t wrote:

Beardy wrote:Some homeopathy treatment have random stuff just 'thrown' together without being diluted. I have heard of the odd homeopathy treatment containing poison of some sorts

Is that just a bit of propaganda though like people cutting drugs with rat poison, or someone putting razor blades in to apples for trick or treaters?

Human's have a habit of making stuff up in order to support their viewpoint and hear say quickly becomes "truth".

As Iain mentioned in another thread (might have been in Mentalist Forum) he has a friend who is a qualified councillor who uses being a psychic as a kind of "guise" to help people (bare basics, not exactly this, read full thread to see what I mean). I have absolutely no doubt that homeopathy does not work except via placebo but if it gives people peace of mind then so be it. I only see it as a problem when people are financially fleeced for a placebo and neglect proper medical treatment because of the "wonder cure".

I also have problems with them having official titles like "Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine". Woahhhhhhhhh hang on a sec, if you want to give people some peace of mind that's one thing but claiming a ground in medicine is another. Places like Boots selling this as medication is along the same grounds and I agree with the above, should not be sold just because there is a market for it.

Im sure there was something to this actually. There was a big crackdown on Homeopathic and herbal remedies a few years ago because some of them had some pretty dangerous side effects if taken for long periods of time.
Most of the time Homeopathic stuff is diluted to such a degree that its ingrediants are nearly non-existant anyway.

Not sure about homeopathy being spiked with pharmaceutical medicines, but that's certainly been the case with Traditional Chinese Medicince.

http://www.mhra.gov.uk/NewsCentre/Press ... /CON043905

Matthius88 wrote:Most of the time Homeopathic stuff is diluted to such a degree that its ingrediants are nearly non-existant anyway.

Nearly?

A_n_t wrote:

Beardy wrote:Some homeopathy treatment have random stuff just 'thrown' together without being diluted. I have heard of the odd homeopathy treatment containing poison of some sorts

Is that just a bit of propaganda though like people cutting drugs with rat poison, or someone putting razor blades in to apples for trick or treaters?

Human's have a habit of making stuff up in order to support their viewpoint and hear say quickly becomes "truth".

As Iain mentioned in another thread (might have been in Mentalist Forum) he has a friend who is a qualified councillor who uses being a psychic as a kind of "guise" to help people (bare basics, not exactly this, read full thread to see what I mean). I have absolutely no doubt that homeopathy does not work except via placebo but if it gives people peace of mind then so be it. I only see it as a problem when people are financially fleeced for a placebo and neglect proper medical treatment because of the "wonder cure".

I also have problems with them having official titles like "Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine". Woahhhhhhhhh hang on a sec, if you want to give people some peace of mind that's one thing but claiming a ground in medicine is another. Places like Boots selling this as medication is along the same grounds and I agree with the above, should not be sold just because there is a market for it.

Unfortunately quite a number of things sold as 'homeopathic' actually have an active ingredient. It's an entirely unregulated term. The sceptics actually had to be quite careful about which 'homeopathic' sleeping pill they bought because there is a chance it could have been real pills advertised as 'homeopathic' to get the new agers to buy it!

Even if its just the stuff used to bind the pills together, I'm sure theres something in there I wouldn't want to overdose on!