"Professor savages homeopathy"- 'nuff said

At first I read that as "professor savages homeopath" - which would have been slightly less positive but still made me smile ;)

--- G.
 
I'd like to know more about:

But now the scourge of alternative medicine says he is going to have to quit because Exeter will no longer support him or his department. 'They have never provided me with the money they originally promised me. Now we have been told in no uncertain terms that this department is going to close.' The university denied the charge. 'Professor Ernst's department has enough money to go on for a couple of more years,' said a spokesman. 'We are still trying to raise cash. It is premature to talk of closure.'
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Badly Shaved Monkey said:
'You may as well take a glass of water than a homeopathic medicine.'
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That reminds me: just as I was about to go out this morning, Vanessa Feltz appeared on the "local news" section of the BBC Breakfast show, plugging her BBC London radio show with precisely this quotation and encouraging homoeopaths to phone up for a whinge. Did anyone hear it?
 
Not a chance. Radios in Chateau Rolfe currently superglued to Radio 3, and will remain so until Christmas Day.

Rolfe.
 
Badly Shaved Monkey said:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1669982,00.html

'Homeopathic remedies don't work,' he told The Observer. 'Study after study has shown it is simply the purest form of placebo. You may as well take a glass of water than a homeopathic medicine.'

Well, that about wraps it up.
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This is bad! Bad bad bad!!! Stay with me on this one....

Premise 1: Many people believe in homoeopathy.
Premise 2: Plain water is as effective as homoeopathic medicine.
Conclusion: Many people will now believe in homoeopathic medicinal value of plain water.
Ramification: Homoeopaths can now legitimately sell plain water as homoeopathic medicine.

"Try our patented Plain Water™ remedy! Scientifically proven to be as effective as homoeopathic medicine!"
 
I think that people that practice "alternative medicine" for a living should be excluded from the public health program. No, I don't just mean no funding or subsidies for their treatments, I mean they should no longer have their own conventional treatment covered. Got cancer? Either you pay full price for all your treatments or you rely on your very helpful homeopathic remedies.

That would narrow the field down to the people that actually believe this crap, a minority in my estimation.

--- G.

p.s. I'm speaking as a European here, I know Americans often don't actually have insurance unless they work for someone
 
logical muse said:
This is bad! Bad bad bad!!! Stay with me on this one....

Premise 1: Many people believe in homoeopathy.
Premise 2: Plain water is as effective as homoeopathic medicine.
Conclusion: Many people will now believe in homoeopathic medicinal value of plain water.
Ramification: Homoeopaths can now legitimately sell plain water as homoeopathic medicine.

"Try our patented Plain Water™ remedy! Scientifically proven to be as effective as homoeopathic medicine!"
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How do you sell something that is freely available? That's like saying that if we proclaimed air to be a cure, then homeopaths would be able to sell air. Not really, it's already available :D

I actually made a similar argument to my mom once, when she admitted she knew placebo was probably responsible for a certain supernatural treatment. I asked her to substitute her non-belief in that crap for the belief that a glass of milk would do the same job, one year at a time. Just remember to drink that glass of milk once a year.

Her reply: "But that's silly!" - somehow more silly than continuing to do something else she knew didn't work but still gave a placebo effect. My argument is that the glass of milk is cheaper.

--- G.
 
logical muse said:
"Try our patented Plain Water™ remedy! Scientifically proven to be as effective as homoeopathic medicine!"
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Heh. There is an alt med system based that claims to be based around the healing power of drinking water. I think it has as i's basic theory the claim that all illlness is caused by dehydration.
 
Morrison's Lament said:
How do you sell something that is freely available? That's like saying that if we proclaimed air to be a cure, then homeopaths would be able to sell air. Not really, it's already available :D
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Well, I was being facetious, but...

Bottled water is already a huge product. Even here in Australia where our tap water is of high quality. Imagine if it was marketed as equivalent in effectiveness to homoeopathic medicine.
 
geni said:
Heh. There is an alt med system based that claims to be based around the healing power of drinking water. I think it has as i's basic theory the claim that all illlness is caused by dehydration.
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Do they get into fights with the breatharians?
 
They have a very vaguely slightly almost partially true point. A lot of people do not drink "enough pure" water (I'm sorry how woo that sounds, but you know what I mean). Water is good for you, and a lot of people consume their water in the context of drinks that may or may not be hydrating overall.

That being said: this is nuts.

--- G.
 
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logical muse said:
haha! I was joking, since, to me, the concept was absurd.

It seems I underestimated both gullibility and greed.
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(Arthur) Gold's Law - "It is not possible to create a work of satire that someone, somewhere, will not try and implement seriously; often before the ink is even dry."
 
logical muse said:
Well, I was being facetious, but...

Bottled water is already a huge product. Even here in Australia where our tap water is of high quality. Imagine if it was marketed as equivalent in effectiveness to homoeopathic medicine.
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Penta anyone ?

http://www.pentawater.com/research.shtml

Interestingly enough, all the studies apart from the one which is only tangentially related to Penta (it's about how plain water is better than water with carbs in), are in the "in preparation for publication" state
 
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