It's good to see that the NHS is getting more reluctant to fund new age nonsenical remedies like homeopathy. The debate on homeopathy is over, done, finished. We know that it doesn't work. We know that a solution of tortoises ear wax that has been diluted billions of times (equivalent to one drop of ear wax in all the oceans on earth) cannot possibly have any effect on anything, let alone help you to grow a new leg. But it's the same old theme - believers will not countenance any evidence that shows they are wrong, whilst they in turn are unable to provide any evidence that they are right - it's a pointless discussion to have and you are left with trying to limit the spread of such stupid beliefs and to try to ensure that they dont affect people that still retain the power to actually work things out for themselves.
So we know - beyond any doubt, beyond any contradiction- that homeopathy is just sugar pills that may act as a placebo - which is not in any way diluting the effectiveness of placebos, the effect can most certainly be very powerful. The ethics, however, of dressing up a monstrously and demonstrably wrong piece of pseudo-science as being a credible alternative treatment for anything is highly questionable. I personally consider it has far more to do with wealth creation than a desire to bring relief to anyones suffering. Yet there are doctors who swear by it - what a waste of an expensive edication! I suppose there are also doctors who believe in ghosts, so the same applies, but my point is this. People should not be told lies when they are offered a treatment for an illness. The big name pharmacies like Boots are telling outright lies to their customers in the name of profit, and that is morally disgusting, although the shareholders may not agree.
As with all woo, the adherents usually end up saying something like 'OK, smart arse, well explain this' and go on to relate how they knew someone who had a friend who's uncle had an ingrown toenail that defied the best efforts of medical science to cure, but a daily dose of viper spit pills had it fixed in a week. As if we are supposed to say - 'Oh, well, I take everything back, on the basis of that remarkable bit of research it's obvious that it works so I will go and beat myself with bunches of nettles'. No, I prefer the double blind clinical tests that are done for all other medication (why should the 'science' of homeopathy get a bye on this) which have conclusively proved time and time again that it is nonsense! So the Royal family believe in it, do they? As if that is some form of endorsement! They also believe in god and the power of conversation with plants, so I think it's safe to say that their beliefs are rather tenuous to say the least.
But why is it such a popular thing? In my view, it's a sort of folk memory, a throwback to the days when we didn't have to think anything through for ourselves because there wasn't the information available and we had little choice but to believe anything we were told by those who appeared to be educated. That gene lives on today. It's a simple fact that when homeopathy was invented by Hahnemann in the late 1700's, the conventional medical treatment of the day probably killed more patients than it saved. By prescribing homeopathic remedies and insisting on cleanliness, healthy living, diet and exercise, Hahnemann was undoubtedly saving lives, merely by not attaching leeches, bleeding, adminstering arsenic or laudanum or giving purgatives! And so the false science of homeopathy passed into folk legend and exists to this day.
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