Homeopathy more popular in the UK?

[Rolfe]

And these "allergy" tests are quackery as well. A complete scam.

People get sucked into it all because a lot of the symptoms they presented with in the first place are things that go away on their own, particularly in babies. They get frightened by the massive list of things the child is supposedly allergic to. There are well-documented cases of children developing malnutrition as a result of parents acting on this misinformation. But eventually the problem resolves, and if the kid was getting the dehydrated water pills at the same time, then they get the credit.

"It worked for me!" "It saved my child having to go on steroids" and so on.

It's like standing by the sea throwing sugar pills on the waves and taking credit for the tide coming in.

Rolef.

 

[randman]

2 years with symptoms....go to the doctor and she prescribes treatment....we follow it, she is will....my daughter was 10 or so at the time

 

[Rolfe]

That's the rough outline of all these alleged miracle cures. Nobody is talking about the many many more cases where a child was taken to a homoeopath and nothing changed at all. (I was one of these.) The times it happens to coincide with the kid naturally getting better are the times that people get excited and tell everyone about it.

The trouble is that when you do a controlled study and look at groups of people, you discover that homoeopathy is only taking credit for what happens anyway.

Rolfe.

 

[randman]

That's the rough outline of all these alleged miracle cures. Nobody is talking about the many many more cases where a child was taken to a homoeopath and nothing changed at all. (I was one of these.) The times it happens to coincide with the kid naturally getting better are the times that people get excited and tell everyone about it.

The trouble is that when you do a controlled study and look at groups of people, you discover that homoeopathy is only taking credit for what happens anyway.

Rolfe.

Her doctor is a well-respected MD.

 

[Rolfe]

Any doctor who prescribes sugar pills and pretends they are medicine does not deserve any respect he or she is being given.

Rolfe.

 

[randman]

Any doctor who prescribes sugar pills and pretends they are medicine does not deserve any respect he or she is being given.

Rolfe.

She did not do that. She prescribed probiotics which has since then become more common in mainstream medicine.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

Her doctor is a well-respected MD.

Doesn't mean she isn't a nutter.

 

[RationalVetMed]

As far as homeopathy, not sure I know what it is. I thought I did and then someone said it was shaking a solution then diluting down and repeating that to about 100x less it's strength.

Add (literally) about 50 zeroes to your 100X and you're pretty much right. There is literally nothing, other than the chosen diluent, in any homeopathic remedy.

We took our daughter to a MD, a pediatrician trained also in alternative medicine. She was tested due to very visible skin break-outs on her face. She was allergic to a massive amount of foods. She wouldn't die from them, but she was "senstitive" or allergic to about 100 different kinds of foods, including cane sugar, milk, wheat, some seafoods and the list was truly daunting.

What tests were used as a matter of interest, what happened when the tests were conducted? This sounds a bit like kinesilogy.

Each time she went 3 whole months not eating some food, she lost the sensitivity or allergy to that food.

Whether or not you're taking probiotics you can't cure an allergy by just avoiding the allergen for 3 months.

Sugar was particularly hard as you'd be surprised how many things have sugar in them

Indeed, including us! There are many types of sugar but before any of them are absorbed they are broken down into the monosaccharide glucose. Lactose is the sugar contained in milk and some people get enteric signs as a result of being unable to digest it so it affects the gut directly. In order to cause skin signs however the cane sugar would have to get to the skin and to do that it would have to be digested and absorbed into the blood stream and it can only do that once it has been broken down to the much simpler glucose molecule.

After that happens the body has no idea whether a glucose molecule has come from fructose, lactose, sucrose or straight glucose powder. And you cannot be allergic to glucose - we are made from (among other things obviously) glucose, if you were allergic to it this would be incompatible with life.

I am highly sceptical of your MD's diagnosis of your daughter, regardless of how impressive her qualifications may sound on paper.

Yuri

 

[RationalVetMed]

Doesn't mean she isn't a nutter.

Quite.

Yuri

 

[Last of the Fraggles]

Is homeopathy more popular and/or well-known in the U.K. than in the U.S.?

I ask this because I have seen more articles and YouTube videos about homeopathy that come from Britain than from here in the States. I am pretty sure that if I were to ask 10 Americans about homeopathy 9 of them would have no idea what it is.

But I have even seen comedy routines from British shows and comics that rely on a knowledge of homeopathy for the parody to even make sense. I do not think those same kind of jokes would work on an American show like Saturday Night Live.

So...is my observation (based on a very limited data set) accurate? Is it more popular in Britain than the U.S.? If so, WHY? And besides being better-known, is it also accepted as legitimate by a higher percentage of the population?

Thanks,
Barber Shop

Well I guess we don't have as much mental religiosity as the States so we need something to fill the stoopid gap.

 

[Rolfe]

She did not do that. She prescribed probiotics which has since then become more common in mainstream medicine.

Well why are you bringing that up in a thread about homoeopathy?

I was recommending probiotics as a rational treatment back in the mid-1990s, when they were being scoffed at by a number of my colleagues. I believe they are beneficial, and there is no reason to describe them as anything but mainstream. (Unless you're talking about the silly claims that they'll give you energy or sort out your love life or cure AIDS that is.)

Homoeopathy has nothing to do with probiotics. Stick to the subject.

Rolfe.

 

[Sledge]

I don't think another round of "why homeopathy is crap" with randman is actually on topic here. Perhaps this vital and original discussion could be taken to another thread?

Barber Shop: comedians have to make jokes their audience will understand. You might want to consider the possibility that more people in the UK understand what homeopathy actually is than in the US, thus making jokes about it possible with a UK audience.

 

[Barber Shop]

Barber Shop: comedians have to make jokes their audience will understand. You might want to consider the possibility that more people in the UK understand what homeopathy actually is than in the US, thus making jokes about it possible with a UK audience.

That was my point in mentioning it...As I said, the UK audience seems more familiar with homeopathy.

My questions to my fellow JREFers were: (1) Is my impression that homeopathy is more popular in the UK than the US accurate? and (2) If it is accurate, then does anybody know any reason(s) why this would be so?

As Sledge mentioned, there are plenty of other threads about the ineffectiveness and implausibility of homeopathy. I was hoping for an answer to a more specific question about homeopathy's popularity in two different countries.

 

[Mashuna]

Fundamental religion isn't very popular here, so we use homoeopathy as an alternative faith system.

 

[ehcks]

If any alternative medicine worked, it wouldn't be alternative anymore. Real doctors would take up an alternative immediately if it was as effective as current treatment with fewer side-effects.

So I can't see why homeopathy is popular anywhere.

 

[Sledge]

It's cheaper than real medicine.

 

[saraban]

It's cheaper than real medicine.

It literally falls from the skies

 

[Rocko]

Homeopathy has received quite a bit of (mostly negative) publicity in the UK of late. My experience, however, is that the vast majority of people have heard of it but know nothing about the supposed mechanisms - they think it's some sort of herbal remedy. That's based on a straw poll of my last office, so pretty much anecdotal - but - homeopaths have a history of making claims for their products they can't evidence. You will find homeopathic teething granules, or hayfever "remedies" stocked in supermarkets, with no indication of the fact there's zero evidence they work. That, obviously, would confuse people. Most people presume that if something says "This product will help your hayfever" that it will do just that. Especially when it's on a box sandwiched between remedies that actually will work.

Perhaps as a result of this publicity, the popularity of homeopathy in the UK is apparently falling. Can't find the link at the moment, but as much was admitted in some Society of Homeopathy (IIRC) document a year or so back.

Overall - depends what you're watching. If it's scientifically-aware comedians playing to a home crowd then they'll be in on the joke. If it's not, then expect a quick preamble explaining just how daft homeopathy is before the jokes start.

 

[Emet]

A little blurb from Science-Based Medicine:

Still, even though homeopathy is not as popular in the U.S. as it is in the U.K. and the rest of Europe, it’s obviously making some inroads if it’s being sold in Target.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=8223

 

[geni]

So...is my observation (based on a very limited data set) accurate? Is it more popular in Britain than the U.S.? If so, WHY?

It's more popular in the UK. Probably because homeopathy died out in the US as real medicine because more effective. The current US homeopaths are a reintroduction. Homeopathy never died out in the UK although it's not clear why.