Homeopathic Medicines Are a Hoax

Joel Hirschhorn
To understand why so many people worldwide still buy homeopathic medicines you must think delusion, denial and disagreement. They give alternative and complementary medicine a very bad name. The plain and absolute fact is that if you believe in science and logic, especially chemistry and physics, then there is absolutely and unequivocally no basis for believing that homeopathic medicines work at all.

Every trustworthy analysis in modern times has come to the same conclusion: there is no basis in fact or theory why homeopathic medicines should be trusted and consumed. People are consuming vast amounts of supposedly benign liquid or solid substances that contain no useful amount of materials that can have any positive effect on curing or relieving diseases and ailments. Indeed, the carrier substances may contain unknown impurities that are unhealthy. So, why do so many people keep buying homeopathic medicines?

The only way to understand the persistence of homeopathic drugs is that many people have fallen for marketing pitches and have deluded themselves that these bogus medicines are worth using. These consumers are in a state of denial; no matter what they read that presents solid cases why homeopathic medicines cannot possibly work, they are so desperate that they will use them anyway. Desperate because they probably have most likely tried conventional, orthodox doctors and medicines and not found a solution. They persist in disagreeing with the huge number of critics and actions that should persuade any reasonable, sane person that homeopathic medicines are a cruel hoax.

As so many objective critics have concluded: the only rational way to explain why some consumers persist in believing that the homeopathic medicines they use actually work is the well known placebo effect. If, indeed, they are experiencing any positive relief, then it is solely because their minds have made them think so and, possibly, may have also altered something in their bodies to explain their positive results. In the end, however, really serious diseases are not cured by the placebo effect. This inevitably should help people understand that the real and most serious danger of relying on homeopathic medicines is that people will forego conventional medical treatments that stand a good chance of solving their medical problem and keeping them alive. Premature and unnecessary death is too high an opportunity cost to pay for believing in homeopathic medicines.

Consider these things:

The Swiss government, after a 5-year trial, withdrew homeopathy and four other complementary treatments in 2005, stating that they did not meet efficacy and cost-effectiveness criteria.

In 2005, The Lancet medical journal published a meta-analysis of 110 placebo-controlled homeopathy trials and 110 matched medical trials based upon the Swiss government's Program for Evaluating Complementary Medicine, or PEK. The study concluded that its findings were compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homeopathy are nothing more than placebo effects.

A 2006 meta-analysis of six trials evaluating homeopathic treatments found no convincing evidence in support of homeopathic treatment and concluded that there was "insufficient evidence to support clinical efficacy of homeopathic therapy in cancer care"

A 2007 systematic review of homeopathy for children and adolescents found no difference from placebo for adenoid vegetation, asthma, or upper respiratory tract infection. Evidence was not sufficient to recommend any therapeutic or preventative intervention

Health organizations such as the UK's National Health Service, the American Medical Association, and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology have issued statements of their conclusion that there is no convincing scientific evidence to support the use of homeopathic treatments in medicine.

You decide: Do you want to be deluded, in denial and in disagreement and possibly miss an opportunity for a real solution to your health problem, including valid vitamins and supplements with solid evidence supporting their use?

Published by Joel Hirschhorn

Author: Delusional Democracy, Prosperity Without Pollution & Sprawl Kills. Senior official Congressional Office of Technology Assessment & National Governors Assn; full prof Univ. of Wisc. Publishing regul...  View profile

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