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Homeopathy, quackery and fraud

prasad1

Active member
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...ts-conclude-homeopathy-doesnt-work-180954534/

Does It Work?​

Research is mixed. Some studies show that homeopathic remedies are helpful, while others don’t. Critics chalk up the benefits to the placebo effect. That’s when symptoms improve because you believe the treatment is working -- not because it really is. This can trigger the brain to release chemicals that briefly relieve the pain or other symptoms.
Doctors are divided because some of the theories behind homeopathy don’t line up with the principles of chemistry and physics. Scientists argue that a medicine with no active ingredient shouldn’t have an effect on the body.

What Are the Risks?​

The FDA oversees homeopathic remedies. But it doesn’t check to see if they’re safe or effective. In general, most are so watered down that they don’t cause any side effects. But there are exceptions. Homeopathic medicines can contain a large amount of an active ingredient, like a heavy metal, that can be dangerous.
Case in point: In 2016, the FDA issued a warning against using homeopathic teething tablets and gels because of possible health risks to infants and children.

Teething: What to Know and Do to Help Your Baby​

Think your baby is teething? Read about the signs and symptoms. Discover remedies to soothe painful teething and...




https://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2417/rr/763086


Homeopathy​

Homeopathy is a "treatment" based on the use of highly diluted substances, which practitioners claim can cause the body to heal itself.
A 2010 House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report on homeopathy said that homeopathic remedies perform no better than placebos (dummy treatments).
In 2017 NHS England said it would no longer fund homeopathy on the NHS as the lack of any evidence for its effectiveness did not justify the cost. This was backed by a High Court judgement in 2018.

Does homeopathy work?​

There's been extensive investigation of the effectiveness of homeopathy. There's no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition.

Is homeopathy available on the NHS?​

Homeopathy isn't widely available on the NHS. In 2017, NHS England recommended that GPs and other prescribers should stop providing it.
This is because they found "no clear or robust evidence to support the use of homeopathy on the NHS (PDF, 607kb)".
In 2018 a High Court ruling backed NHS England's recommendation after the British Homeopathic Association (BHA) challenged the decision.
Homeopathy

Homeopathy​

Find out about homeopathy, including how it has developed and used in treatments, plus links to other resources.




James Randi: Homeopathy, quackery and fraud

James Randi: Homeopathy, quackery and fraud​

Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a fatal dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage, kicking off a searing 18...
 
What gall people should have to dismiss a body of knowledge as quackery and fraud! There are two things that any system should satisy for right results. One is the method and the other is the actual idea. Yes science does great on the former but in my opinion has been mediocre only on the latter but does not feel it shameless to harshly criticize others who are actually doing better on the latter.

There is a lot of crap that science keeps churning out but all of them covered under the touts of rigorous methods.

Real pathetic and unhealthy that one has to bring down the alternatives to continue to retain its position as the only purportedly authentic provider of solutions.
 
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Modi govt cleared 3 bills on Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Indian System of Medicines recently; Check details​

Excerpts….​

The National Commission for Homoeopathy (NCH) Bill, 2020​

On the lines of the The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2020, this Bill sought to repeal the Homoeopathy Central Council Act, 1973, and establish a quality education system for homoeopathy medicine. The Bill has the same objectives as that of the Indian System of Medicine Bill, only with a narrow focus on the branch of Homoeopathy.

Moreover, instead of NCIMS, this Bill seeks to establish a National Commission for Homoeopathy (NCH), which, again, has the same functions as the NCIMS, modified to only be applied to Homoeopathy. Moreover, within three years of the passage of this Bill as well, the state governments would be required to set up State Medical Councils for Homoeopathy.

Link: https://www.financialexpress.com/li...-of-medicines-recently-check-details/2093430/
 
I wouldn't be surprised if there comes a point in the near future when people will identify and reject allopathy as shoddy and pseudo science not rooted in good logic. They will embrace homeopathy, ayurveda and other solid systems based on deep logic.

People are just beginning to understand the marketing games played by the west in pushing their shoddy systems so desperately.
 
A good example of selling a very mediocre product aggressively is the selling of AI systems. As far as I know there is not even a good understanding of what intelligence is and look at them touting AI as a magical solution and that it is growing leaps and bounds. Hilarious indeed! I challenge the westerners to give a satisfactory definition of intelligence before they create machines that are intelligent.

The very same people mostly through their sycophants try to tarnish the image of non western ideas but what are definitely way more rooted in logic.
 
There was another thread with similar views.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if there comes a point in the near future when people will identify and reject allopathy as shoddy and pseudo science not rooted in good logic. They will embrace homeopathy, ayurveda and other solid systems based on deep logic.

People are just beginning to understand the marketing games played by the west in pushing their shoddy systems so desperately.
Have. Seen and experienced homeopathy medicine cure without side effects. There was a concerted moves to ban other system of medicine including ayurveda in the western world.
 
Perhaps you remember when scientists debunked homeopathy in 2002. Or 2010. Or 2014. But now a major Australian study analyzing over 1,800 papers has shown that homeopathy, the alternative treatment that relies on super-diluted substances and the principle of “like cures like” is completely ineffective.

After assessing more than 1,800 studies on homeopathy, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council was only able to find 225 that were rigorous enough to analyze. And a systematic review of these studies revealed “no good quality evidence to support the claim that homeopathy is effective in treating health conditions.”

The Australian study, which is the first position statement relying on such an extensive review of medical literature, strikes the latest blow at a 200-year-old alternative treatment developed by a German physician with “no interest in detailed pathology, and none in conventional diagnosis and treatment.” The Washington Post reports that the study’s authors are concerned that people who continue to choose homeopathic remedies over proven medicine face real health risks—including the nearly 4 million Americans who use homeopathic “medicines.”

The head of the National Health and Medical Research Council told the Guardian that he hopes the findings will lead to changes in Australia’s health insurance and pharmacy systems. But he also said that “there will be a tail of people who won’t respond to this report, and who will say it’s all a conspiracy of the establishment.”

News of the Australian study comes on the heels of newly released National Health Interview Survey data showing a “small but significant” increase in the use of homeopathy during 2012. And recently, a Canadian homeopathic college came under fire for taking an anti-vaccination stance and promoting homeopathic “nosodes” as an alternative to vaccines.

But will the not-so-new news that homeopathy is ineffective keep consumers from wasting their money on the complementary therapy? If the growing homeopathic industry is any indication, the answer is probably no.

 
Homeopathy is a medical system devised by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), who first postulated it at the end of the 18th century and codified it in 1810 in the first edition of his Organon. It arose during the transition period from the ancient teachings—theories about the deficiency or excess of four bodily fluids or theories about “corrupted juices”—and the beginning of the scientific age, unlike most pre‐scientific medical theories, has survived until this day. One of the reasons for its persistence is the fact that homeopathy was much less intrusive and harsh and did not harm patients as other drastic cures of that time did.

The almost unanimous view of the scientific community is that the basic assumptions on which homeopathy rests are either refuted or implausible.
As a result of its survival, homeopathy has repeatedly come into conflict with science and modern medicine: By the criteria of modern, evidence‐based medicine, it is not efficient at all and should not be practiced. However, its adherents and practitioners persist that homeopathy is effective, using different, often contradictory arguments to try to demonstrate its validity. On the one hand, they bend and interpret studies to the effect that homeopathy does have an impact beyond the placebo effect and clamor for its recognition by the scientific and medical community. On the other hand, adherents of Hahnemann's method are quick to dismiss science and evidence‐based medicine altogether as being insufficient to explain its effect. This is not just an example of several cognitive biases, but it has real and serious consequences. If patients or their parents refuse medical treatment in lieu of homeopathy, it can prolong sickness and suffering and even cause death. It wastes valuable healthcare resources that are lacking elsewhere. And by subverting science and the scientific method, it feeds to the dangerous rise of post‐science, post‐truth attitudes that slowly degrade trust in scientific institutions and science itself.

 
I was not aware that homeopathy was devised by a German. Nevertheless my posts on the western approach to competition reflects utter truth.
 

A 'grave error': France to phase out coverage for homeopathy​


In a country where nearly 60% of the population uses homeopathic remedies, the French ministry of health’s decision to slash reimbursements for the alternative remedies has sparked outrage among users of alternative medicine.


For the 38 million people in France who depend on homeopathic remedies to cure insomnia, backaches and other medical conditions, getting a good night’s sleep just became a little more difficult.
“Homeopathic medicines do not provide sufficient public health benefits to justify their reimbursement by the federal government,”the ministry of health announced in a statement released on Wednesday.
“These remedies have not demonstrated their effectiveness in remedying illness, nor have they proven to reduce the consumption of other medicines,” added a committee of experts commissioned by the ministry, a claim that homeopathic medicine producers find outrageous.

 
WARNING LETTER

The Art Of Cure​


WARNING LETTER

Date: April 15, 2020

RE: Unapproved and Misbranded Products Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

This is to advise you that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reviewed your website at the Internet address at https://theartofcure.net/ on April 1, 2020, and April 13, 2020, respectively. We also reviewed your social media website at https://www.facebook.com/TheArtOfCure/, where you direct consumers to your website, https://theartofcure.net/, to purchase your products. The FDA has observed that your website offers homeopathic drug products for sale in the United States and that these products are intended to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19[1] in people. Based on our review, these products are unapproved new drugs sold in violation of section 505(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), 21 U.S.C. § 355(a). Furthermore, these products are misbranded drugs under section 502 of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. § 352. The introduction or delivery for introduction of these products into interstate commerce is prohibited under sections 301(a) and (d) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. § 331(a) and (d).

There is currently a global outbreak of respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that has been named “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2). The disease caused by the virus has been named “Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19). On January 31, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a declaration of a public health emergency related to COVID-19 and mobilized the Operating Divisions of HHS.[2] In addition, on March 13, 2020, the President declared a national emergency in response to COVID-19.[3] Therefore, FDA is taking urgent measures to protect consumers from certain products that, without approval or authorization by FDA, claim to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19 in people. As described below, you sell products that are intended to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19 in people. We request that you take immediate action to cease the sale of such unapproved products for the mitigation, prevention, treatment, diagnosis, or cure of COVID-19.

Some examples of the claims on your websites that establish the intended use of your products and misleadingly represent them as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 include:

  • “BOOST NATURAL IMMUNITY HOMEOPATHICALLY FOR CIRCULATING VIRUSES, INCLUDING COVID-19” [from your website https://theartofcure.net/blogs/news...ly-for-circulating-viruses-including-covid-19]
  • “Top Compiled HOMEOPATHIC Remedies for Coronavirus: … what remedies to use to lessen the chance of contraction and treat the virus. . . . 1. Homeopathic Coronavirus – a homeopathic made out of actual coronavirus . . . that you can take to lessen the chance of contraction. . . . PURCHASE HERE to purchase . . . 2) Petasites hybridus . . . key to helping with the cough and lung symptoms produced by this coronavirus. to purchase . . . 3) Arsenicum album . . . excellent remedy to treat respiratory distress . . . pneumonia . . . PURCHASE HERE to purchase . . . 4) Gelsemium sempervirens . . . Homeopaths have treated individuals with coronavirus using Gelsemium in China with success . . . to purchase . . . 5) Eupatorium perfoliatum . . . has been used with success to treat the coronavirus in China during this outbreak . . to purchase . . . 6) Bryonia alba . . . has been used with success in this coronavirus outbreak in China . . . to purchase . . . 7) Influenzinum 2019-2020 . . . to purchase . . . 8) Aconitum napellus: great for shortness of breath, high fevers, dry cough . . . to purchase . . . 9) Rumex: for that incessant tickle in the back of the throat that causes a suffocating coughing spell . . . to purchase . . . 10) Squilla Maritima – for difficult and labored breathing . . . violent coughing spells . . . to purchase . . . 11) Kali-Carbonicum – Shortness of breath, labored breathing, cough is spasmodic, dry and suffocating at night . . . to purchase” [from your website https://theartofcure.net/blogs/news...ly-for-circulating-viruses-including-covid-19]
  • “NEW CORONAVIRUS: ALL EYES ON INDIA . . . what does India know about the new coronavirus and COVID-19 disease . . . India reports that it has 23,531 people under observation, with no current infections or deaths . . . How is this possible . . . Could India’s dependence on homeopathy be one reason for the difference . . . [from your website https://theartofcure.net/blogs/news/new-coronavirus-all-eyes-on-india]
  • The [Central Council for Research in Homeopathy] recommended that homeopathy medicine Arsenicum album 30 could be taken as a prophylactic medicine against Coronavirus infections . . . Judging by recent COVID-19 patient accounts and case reports other remedies may also be useful. What can be said at this early stage is that Arsenicum album is a contender and its use will not harm those who take it.” [from your website https://theartofcure.net/blogs/news/new-coronavirus-all-eyes-on-india]
  • “CORONA-KIT & CONSULTATION . . . THIS IS OUR CORONA-KIT . . . THIS KIT CONTAINS GENUS EPIDEMICUS REMEDIES FOR COVID19” [from your website https://theartofcure.net/products/corona-kit-consultation?_pos=1&_sid=c80825cd8&_ss=r]
  • “Read, share, and stock up . . . Boost Natural Immunity Homeopathically for Circulating Viruses, Including COVID-19” [from a March 11 post on your social media website https://www.facebook.com/TheArtOfCure/]
  • “Educational post: CORONAVIRUS Treatment with Homeopathy and Natural Medicine” [from a March 7 post on your social media website https://www.facebook.com/TheArtOfCure/]
You should take immediate action to correct the violations cited in this letter. This letter is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of violations that exist in connection with your products or operations. It is your responsibility to ensure that the products you sell are in compliance with the FD&C Act and FDA's implementing regulations. We advise you to review your websites, product labels, and other labeling and promotional materials to ensure that you are not misleadingly representing your products as safe and effective for a COVID-19-related use for which they have not been approved by FDA and that you do not make claims that misbrand the products in violation of the FD&C Act. Within 48 hours, please send an email to [email protected] describing the specific steps you have taken to correct these violations. Include an explanation of each step being taken to prevent the recurrence of violations, as well as copies of related documentation. Failure to immediately correct the violations cited in this letter may result in legal action, including, without limitation, seizure and injunction.

FDA is advising consumers not to purchase or use certain products that have not been approved, cleared, or authorized by FDA and that are being misleadingly represented as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. Your firm will be added to a published list on FDA’s website of firms and websites that have received warning letters from FDA concerning the sale or distribution of COVID-19 related products in violation of the FD&C Act. This list can be found at http://www.fda.gov/consumers/health-fraud-scams/fraudulent-coronavirus-disease-covid-19-products. Once you have taken corrective actions to cease the sale of your unapproved and unauthorized products for the mitigation, prevention, treatment, diagnosis, or cure of COVID-19, and such actions have been confirmed by the FDA, the published list will be updated to indicate that your firm has taken appropriate corrective action.

If you cannot complete corrective action within 48 hours, state the reason for the delay and the time within which you will complete the corrections. If you believe that your products are not in violation of the FD&C Act, include your reasoning and any supporting information for our consideration.

If you are not located in the United States, please note that products that appear to be misbranded or unapproved new drugs are subject to detention and refusal of admission if they are offered for importation into the United States. We may advise the appropriate regulatory officials in the country from which you operate that FDA considers your product(s) referenced above to be unapproved and misbranded products that cannot be legally sold to consumers in the United States.

Please direct any inquiries to FDA at [email protected].

In addition, it is unlawful under the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 41 et seq., to advertise that a product can prevent, treat, or cure human disease unless you possess competent and reliable scientific evidence, including, when appropriate, well-controlled human clinical studies, substantiating that the claims are true at the time they are made. For COVID-19, no such study is currently known to exist for the products identified above. Thus, any coronavirus-related prevention or treatment claims regarding such products are not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence. You must immediately cease making all such claims. Violations of the FTC Act may result in legal action seeking a Federal District Court injunction and an order may require that you pay back money to consumers. Within 48 hours, please send an email to Richard Cleland, Assistant Director of the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices, via electronic mail at [email protected] describing the specific actions you have taken to address the FTC’s concerns. If you have any questions regarding compliance with the FTC Act, please contact Mr. Cleland at 202-326-3088.


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Homeopathy for covid-19: panacea or false hope?​


Despite doubts over efficacy, the Ayush ministry has initiated clinical trials to explore the use of homoeopathy for covid-19 prevention and treatment
Pradeep Gupta isn’t afraid of the coronavirus. “It’s a simple flu virus in terms of symptoms," says the principal of Naiminath Homoeopathic Medical College in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. But he is quick to add a note of caution: “It’s a lot more infectious though."
Soon after the first case was reported in India in late January, Dr Gupta, a homoeopath, had wanted a greater role for homoeopathy in covid-19 treatment. He claims to have pitched the idea to officials from the Union ministry of health, the ministry of Ayush (Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy) and even Narendra Modi, through the NaMo app. “I am ready to work anywhere in any hospital of modern medicine along with homoeopathic medicine as an integrated approach," he wrote to the prime minister. “For which I do not need anything other than permission."

 
Homeopathy – Hope or Hoax?

Homeopathy – Hope or Hoax?​


In a world where most diseases do not have a permanent cure and medications instill the fear of side effects, patients often look towards complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with hope. Homeopathy is the most popular of all CAM across the world, but is there any evidence of actual therapeutic benefit?

A British study showed that up to 65% of their population has tried Homeopathy treatment at least once in their lifetime. Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) comprises a large body of treatment modalities which include Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha, Acupuncture, Acupressure and Shamanism. Homeopathy was founded and developed by a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann. The medicine is based on the “law of similars” and the “law of infinitesimals”.

The law of similars implies that certain symptoms and ailments can be cured when a medicine is given that can induce the same symptoms in man. In simple terms, it means “like treats like”. Hahnemann concluded that drugs function by replacing the pathologic disruption in the life force with similar artificial symptoms, which the life force then has the capability to overwhelm. This concept is not exclusive to Homeopathy. Modern Allopathic medicine uses the same concept in vaccinations and pain-relief ointments.

The law of infinitesimals implies that said drug must be administered in a diluted form and higher the dilution, greater will be the effect. A dilution of 1:100 is denoted as 1C. Most Homeopathic medications are prepared to a dilution of 30C to 200C. At these dilutions, most Homeopathic medications do not contain even a molecule of the original drug, much less an entire gram.
Medicine does not work as well when it is diluted. This is a law of nature. To explain this, Hahnemann developed the theory of dynamism and “memory of water”. This theory states that the healing power of the substance remains even if the substance itself may have been eliminated through multiple dilutions. This is because the water retains the “essence of the medicine”. Besides, with every dilution, the medicine is shaken by a machine in a process known as “succussion”. The shaking along with the dilution is said to increase the potency of the medicine.

These theoretical principles lack any scientific credibility and are not consistent with the laws of nature and chemistry as we know it. When tested under stringent double-blind scientific studies (meaning neither the patient nor his doctor knows if he is receiving medication or a placebo), Homeopathy has almost consistently shown to be comparable to a placebo in its efficacy. Modest improvements reported in some studies were either not statistically significant, or they could not be reproduced. “Reproducibility”, i.e, the ability to recreate the same effect from the same medicine in different patients, is a basic principle of the scientific method.

An extensive study of over 1800 papers by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has found that Homeopathy is not effective in the treatment of ANY health condition. Most of these studies were carried out by scientists. This is because of reluctance by CAM practitioners to subject their medicine to scientific scrutiny. A search of MEDLINE database in recent years shows that homeopathic studies make up for only 0.15% of all medical and scientific publications. This is in sharp contrast to the widespread use of Homeopathic medicine by the general public. CAM practitioners have argued that methods of stringent scientific studies are not the appropriate tool to judge the therapeutic benefits of their medicine. This is because treatment for the same ailment will differ from patient to patient based on said patient’s body constitution, intrinsic nature and lifestyle factors. However some studies have been carried out where patients of a similar ailment and similar constitution were pre-selected and divided into treatment group and placebo group. Even in such studies, Homeopathy was only found to be slightly superior to the placebo. Homeopathic doctors have defended themselves against these allegations by reiterating that their medicine was not found to be inferior to placebo, and has been found to benefit infants and toddlers who cannot possibly perceive a placebo effect.
Homeopathy claims to take the holistic approach of “healing” an individual unlike just “treating” symptoms as in modern scientific medicine. It claims to treat man in disease and not disease in man. However, treating an ailment by taking into consideration its root cause, genetic factors and lifestyle factors, with focus on nutrition, exercise and emotional well-being is not the sole bastion of Homeopathy. Allopathic medicine is also practiced in the same manner, with physicians and surgeons spending countless hours in educating the general public on dietary modification, the benefits of exercise, stress management, self-examinations and regular health checks. Most patients who are on Homeopathic medication may still need to continue at least one of their allopathic drugs. Homeopathy has also proven to fall short in the management of medical emergencies and crisis. In such circumstances, most CAM practitioners are found to either prescribe allopathic drugs, or refer the patient to the nearest hospital. This in itself proves the failures of this system of medicine. In fact the Indian Medical Council has been staunchly fighting to disallow Homeopaths from prescribing allopathic medicine. In the UK, the NHS spends an estimated 4 million pounds of tax payer’s money every year towards Homeopathy, even when their top scientists advice them against doing so.

So why does Homeopathy invite and excite several ardent believers? The popularity of CAM medicine can be founded on anecdotes, hearsay, and perceived benefit over a period of time, which can be attributed to the placebo effect or the body’s innate ability to overcome most ailments in its own time. In India, Allopathic doctors are not allowed to advertise their practice in any form, which could directly or indirectly procure more patients. However, Homeopathic doctors have no such regulatory restrictions, and routinely publish page long advertisements in leading newspapers! Lack of regulations has led to certain unscrupulous doctors claiming “complete cure” for conditions like HIV, cancer, homosexuality, autism, inflammatory bowel disease etc, which cannot possibly have a cure. Given the high cost of modern medicine (which includes doctor’s fee, investigations and drugs), the general public is lured at the idea of low cost medicine with no side effect. CAM practitioners routinely indulge in public fear-mongering against allopathic medicine to promote their own business interests. Once your heart and mind is instilled with fear, logic and common sense fly out of the window. Please bear in mind that effect and counter-effect is a law of nature, and any medicine which claims “no side effect” will most likely have “no benefit” either. In fact, Allopathic doctors have routinely met patients who suffer from side-effects of Homeopathic medication, which are classical of side-effects attributed to Allopathic medications. For instance, facial redness and puffiness in a child treated with Homeopathic pills for Asthma, which is a dead ringer for adulteration with synthetic steroids! Furthermore, in the West, Homeopathic medications are sold at 5-10 dollars for about 20 grams of pills. Several patients will say that switching over to Homeopathy has helped them cut back on the number of allopathic drugs they need to take per day, and this has reduced the overall cost of their treatment. But considering that these medication contain less than a microgram of actual medicine (or maybe just a molecule), that is a lot of money of very little amount of sugar!

When patients refuse real treatment by placing their faith in alternative medicine, they end up wasting time, risking disease aggravation and in the case of contagious diseases like Tuberculosis, they are risking the health of their family members as well. In fact, many Homeopaths actively discourage their patients from seeking medical treatment despite deterioration in their health; sometimes even claiming that disease aggravation is a part of the treatment! A patient with terminal illness may be left with a distorted sense of reality and false hope of cure. This is great cruelty and it is especially heart-breaking to watch HIV patients deteriorate rapidly, especially when modern medicine has several treatments which now mean that HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence that it used to be.

Even allopathic doctors will occasionally prescribe a simple, easy-to-administer, harm-free and effect-free placebo at times, for conditions which have no proven or effective treatment. However over the years, the commercialization of Homeopathy has led its practitioners to abuse its placebo privilege. However, there is a lesson here for Allopathic practitioners as well. That is to never underestimate the power of a good placebo! Effective treatment may sometimes depend of the personal chemistry between doctor and patient. If the patient does not like his doctor, he is unlikely to benefit from that doctor’s treatment, even if the diagnosis and treatment is accurate. Patients often look towards CAM medicine for emotional support, better coping skills, an improved quality of life and a sense of more active participation in the management of their ailment. These are valuable lessons for practitioners of scientific medicine, who often find it necessary to maintain emotional detachment from their patient for objective treatment and analysis.

 

Hundreds of Babies Harmed by Homeopathic Remedies, Families Say​


Case 7682299: Aug. 1, 2010. A mother gives her toddler three homeopathic pills to relieve her teething pain. Within minutes, the baby stops breathing.

“My daughter had a seizure, lost consciousness, and stopped breathing about 30 minutes after I gave her three Hyland’s Teething Tablets,” the mother later told the Food and Drug Administration. “She had to receive mouth-to-mouth CPR to resume breathing and was brought to the hospital.”

The company, Hyland’s, promotes “safe, effective, and natural health solutions” that appeal to parents seeking alternative treatments. But the agency would soon hear much more about Hyland’s teething products. Staff at the FDA would come to consider Case 7682299 one of the luckier outcomes.

A review of FDA records obtained by STAT under the Freedom of Information Act paint a far grimmer picture: Babies who were given Hyland’s teething products turned blue and died. Babies had repeated seizures. Babies became delirious. Babies were airlifted to the hospital, where emergency room staff tried to figure out what had caused their legs and arms to start twitching.

Over a 10-year period, from 2006 to 2016, the FDA collected reports of “adverse events” in more than 370 children who had used Hyland’s homeopathic teething tablets or gel, a similar product that is applied directly to a baby’s gums. Agency records show eight cases in which babies were reported to have died after taking Hyland’s products, though the FDA says the question of whether those products caused the deaths is still under review.

(The agency is also investigating two other deaths tied to teething remedies but declined to confirm the manufacturer of the products or provide the case reports.)

Following an FDA warning in September, Hyland’s said that it would no longer manufacture the teething products. But they remained on some store shelves for months, and are still available on the Internet. They likely continue to be used in homes nationwide.

Hyland’s, a 114-year-old private company based in Los Angeles, is the nation’s largest homeopathic business. It insists its products are safe and says the FDA has failed to show there is a scientific link between them and infant seizures or other complications.

“That doesn’t mean that children don’t have a sensitivity to a product. There is a lot of sensitivity on kids’ parts and we have to watch carefully,” said a spokeswoman, Mary Borneman. “It’s not something that condemns the entire product line.”

Behind each of the FDA case numbers are angry and, in some cases, heartbroken parents. But a STAT examination — and the first detailed look at the case reports — also raises questions over the response of regulators.

It took four years until the FDA pushed Hyland’s to reformulate its remedies, in 2010. In the seven years since then, there has been a steady stream of reports of adverse events tied to Hyland’s homeopathic teething products.

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“The FDA could bring the hammer down on them,” said Sarah Sorscher, an attorney for the nonprofit Public Citizen Health Research Group. “But it doesn’t. At the point where you have infants being hospitalized and deaths reported, it’s simply not acceptable for the agency to delay in taking action.”

An FDA spokeswoman defended the agency’s handling of the matter.

“It is important to note that while adverse event reports give us some information about a product and serious injuries or deaths related to use of a particular product, they often indicate situations that require additional analysis and do not constitute conclusive evidence of a problem with the product,” the spokeswoman, Lyndsay Meyer, said in a statement.

Despite the FDA’s difficulty in proving Hyland’s products harmed children, some doctors had no doubt.

In case 462749, dated Sept. 15, 2011, a physician sent Hyland’s a handwritten note, stating his patient, a 5-month-old girl, was unresponsive for 45 minutes after taking its teething tablets.

“I am sure this was not an allergic reaction,” he wrote. “I would like you to report it, find a contact at the FDA, so we can start an investigation and pull this dangerous, unregulated product from the shelves.”

One mother wrote the company to say her son’s pupils dilated “like marbles with big black eyes.” Another described seizures her daughter continued to have after taking the tablets and told the company, “I hate hate hate u for this.”

 

What Is 'Water Memory'? Why This Homeopathy Claim Doesn't Hold Water​


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Dec. 18 that it plans to crack down on dangerous or dishonestly advertised homeopathic products — a class of products that sellers claim treat diseases by delivering extremely diluted traces of the substances that cause those diseases in the first place. If certain homeopathic remedies become more difficult to access due to the crackdown, what will homeopathy users miss out on?


Homeopathy dates to the 1700s, according to a statement from the FDA, and relies on the idea of "like cures like" — that symptom-causing chemicals can, at low enough doses when mixed with water, treat the symptoms that those substances cause. In other words, a chemical that causes vomiting would be given at a very diluted concentration to treat vomiting. And the more diluted the substance, the more potent the beneficial effects, the thinking goes.

But is there any real science behind this idea?


The British Homeopathic Association (BHA)'s website acknowledges that homeopathic remedies might seem "implausible for many people," because "the medicines are often — though by no means always — diluted to the point where there may be no molecules of original substance left."

BHA offers two partial explanations — both commonly expressed by homeopathy advocates — for why homeopathic remedies might nonetheless have benefits for people who take them.


The first is that a homeopathic substance, even diluted to the point that it no longer can be detected by even the finest instruments in a sample of water, changes the structure of the hydrogen bonds in the water. Homeopaths term this supposed effect "water memory."

Water memory​


Hydrogen bonds are real attractions between the hydrogen atoms in one water molecule and the oxygen atoms in that molecule's neighbors. (A water molecule has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.) These bonds account for many strange features of water, including the crystalline structure of ice that causes it to expand and float on top of liquid water.

But May Nyman, a chemistry professor at Oregon State University, told Live Science that the whole idea of "water memory" doesn't make sense.

 
I was not aware that homeopathy was devised by a German. Nevertheless my posts on the western approach to competition reflects utter truth.
The german guy first tried the medicine on himself to see the efficacy. Of late there are efforts to ban other system of medicines and this includes our ayurveda. First there is a huge market for grabs running into multi billions and rest falls on line.
 

What Is 'Water Memory'? Why This Homeopathy Claim Doesn't Hold Water​


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Dec. 18 that it plans to crack down on dangerous or dishonestly advertised homeopathic products — a class of products that sellers claim treat diseases by delivering extremely diluted traces of the substances that cause those diseases in the first place. If certain homeopathic remedies become more difficult to access due to the crackdown, what will homeopathy users miss out on?


Homeopathy dates to the 1700s, according to a statement from the FDA, and relies on the idea of "like cures like" — that symptom-causing chemicals can, at low enough doses when mixed with water, treat the symptoms that those substances cause. In other words, a chemical that causes vomiting would be given at a very diluted concentration to treat vomiting. And the more diluted the substance, the more potent the beneficial effects, the thinking goes.

But is there any real science behind this idea?


The British Homeopathic Association (BHA)'s website acknowledges that homeopathic remedies might seem "implausible for many people," because "the medicines are often — though by no means always — diluted to the point where there may be no molecules of original substance left."

BHA offers two partial explanations — both commonly expressed by homeopathy advocates — for why homeopathic remedies might nonetheless have benefits for people who take them.


The first is that a homeopathic substance, even diluted to the point that it no longer can be detected by even the finest instruments in a sample of water, changes the structure of the hydrogen bonds in the water. Homeopaths term this supposed effect "water memory."

Water memory​


Hydrogen bonds are real attractions between the hydrogen atoms in one water molecule and the oxygen atoms in that molecule's neighbors. (A water molecule has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.) These bonds account for many strange features of water, including the crystalline structure of ice that causes it to expand and float on top of liquid water.

But May Nyman, a chemistry professor at Oregon State University, told Live Science that the whole idea of "water memory" doesn't make sense.

Water memory actually does not need any experiment for anyone of us to believe it.

The human body is 60% water.
Brain itself is 73% water.

If these levels drop, we all know the consequences.

Now, simple maths..
We store full biomemory in each and every cell in our body which is made up mostly of water..so naturally water does hold memory.

It might be a little hard to prove as we might not have found the mechanics to prove it as yet but for now this simple logic does hold water.

We have to also think in terms of frequency too, the frequency that pervades anything and what it can carry or transmit.

So we cant just say everything is false or hoax but just that we might have to broaden our outlook.

Personally I do not take any traditional or homeopathy meds, not because I feel its not efficient but becos there is no proper drug control of its contents because these days everything is about making money.

Also since these traditional practitioners dont get sued if anything goes wrong so they have no fear of anything.

As medical docs we are bound by strict laws and surely we would think a 100 times before we prescribe anything to a patient.
 
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