Have Doctors Seriously Been Prescibing This Mumbo Jumbo?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-43950865
Surely any doctor who thinks this BS can work should not be a doctor.

[New Judge]

The NHS should not be using its funds to prescribe snake oil.

[vetuste_ennemi]

...no, that should be left to vets.

[Peter Pedant]

preserved by the 1948 Act

[Old_Geezer]

I don't mind them prescribing it to lost causes. It should be a cheap placebo and the mind can work wonders if convinced to.

[Mamyalynne]

//Spending on homeopathy prescriptions accounted for about £92,000 last year.//

By all means prescribe expensive drugs instead.

[237SJ]

Expensive drugs that have been clinically proven to work ^

[Mamyalynne]

Yes.

[ToraToraTora]

but surely they would not be on any drugs at all?? so that's invalid.

[jim360]

I'm surprised at the BHA really. The less homeopathy medication prescribed, the more effective it must be, surely?

[nailit]

pmsl @ jim ^
Once had a GP who was fond of this quackery.

[EDDIE51]

^ The most effective homeopathic medications are those that are so diluted they contain no active ingredient at all. !!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathic_dilutions

[Deskdiary]

There has never been a proper clinical test that demonstrates the efficacy of homepathy.

At the very best it may act as a placebo on the easily suggestible.

Homeopathy is nothing more than water. Any 'active' ingredient has been diluted to such an extent that is entirely untraceable.

The peddlers of this pseudo science have the bare faced temerity to suggest the water has a memory.

Frankly, they are a disgrace.

If the gullible want to spend their money on this nonsense, then fine, but not a single penny of public money should be wasted on it.

[nailit]

Anyone going to post the James Randi vid where he 'overdoses' on homeopathy drugs? (and lives to tell the tale)?

[andy-hughes]

I have seen homeopathic medicine in action, so I can't agree that it is 'snake oil', or 'mumbo jumbo' and all the standard insults it attracts.

[ToraToraTora]

it was tested on Horizon with James Randi ready to hand over $1m in 2002, see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/homeopathy.shtml

[ToraToraTora]

oddly enough the $1m was available for about 30 years for anyone who could demonstrate scientifically any of the branches of the world of total bowls. It was never claimed.

[ToraToraTora]

AH: "I have seen homeopathic medicine in action, so I can't agree that it is 'snake oil', or 'mumbo jumbo' and all the standard insults it attracts. " - there goes any cred you had left me old china!

[jim360]

Maybe you saw someone take homeopathic medicine and then get better, ah, but there was certainly no causal connection between the two (beyond placebo).

[andy-hughes]

TTT - // AH: "I have seen homeopathic medicine in action, so I can't agree that it is 'snake oil', or 'mumbo jumbo' and all the standard insults it attracts. " - there goes any cred you had left me old china! //

I am far too old to worry about 'cred'!!!

[andy-hughes]

jim - // Maybe you saw someone take homeopathic medicine and then get better, ah, but there was certainly no causal connection between the two (beyond placebo). //

I'm not sure you can explain the placebo effect to a three-year-old - what do you think?