I have had family members suffering badly for years under traditional (and various kinds of alternative) care who suddenly improved dramatically (and so far permanently) with homeopathy. I don't know why that is. It could be explained by the natural tendency for the body to return to equilibrium, it could be that they just found a placebo they could believe in, but the bottom line is that they are now fully healthy, the treatment had no side effects and it was relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, the harm from traditional medicine was extraordinary.
homeopathy is as much bunk as the placebo effect.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo</a><p>Why would anyone choose to ingest powerful pharmaceuticals if they could experience significant improvements simply by believing that homeopathy works?<p>Even when you take advil for a headache, some/all of the effect may just be the placebo effect.<p>note: placebos are used by many modern doctors who write prescriptions for a drug called "Obecalp" routinely to harness the placebo effect:<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/health/27plac.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/health/27plac.html</a><p>The human mind/body healing process is too complex to dismiss placebos offhand.
Oh the irony.<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31388177/ns/health-cold_and_flu/" rel="nofollow">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31388177/ns/health-cold_and_flu/</a>
And here I was thinking that there was some grain of truth in homeopathy.<p>If I recall correctly, the link was here, a few months ago, about "13 things that Dont Make Sense". A scientist who was the scourge of homeopathy, had to admit that there was _something_.<p>Then there's water remembering when it freezes. Occasionally, distilled water will not freeze until a bit lower than 0c. It'll be around -2 to -4c before it freezes. Now, if we add a small amount of water, that is also distilled, but shown to freeze at 0c, all the water will freeze no lower than 0c. You must boil the water rigorously before it can retain the possibility of freezing below 0c.<p>Who knows how it happens. Quantum memory, perhaps? But there is something.