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Alternative Medicine: Homeopathy

10 children die after taking homeopathic teething pills
The US Food and Drug Administration is also looking into 400 adverse events related to the tablets

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating the deaths of 10 children and 400 adverse events surrounding the use of homeopathic teething pills.

The FDA warned that teething children should stop using the treatment, and to go to a doctor if the child exhibits symptoms such as seizures, difficulty in breathing, lethargy, excessive sleepiness, muscle weakness, skin flushing, constipation, difficulty urinating, or agitation – similar symptoms displayed over the last six years.

The agency also asked caregivers and parents to throw away any remaining pills and gels.

"Teething can be managed without prescription or over-the-counter remedies,” said Janet Woodcock, managing director of the FDA’s center for drug evaluation and research.

"We recommend parents and caregivers not give homeopathic teething tablets and gels to children and seek advice from their health care professional for safe alternatives."

CVS and Walgreens, both US pharmacies, have withdrawn the treatments from their shelves. However, there is no recall on the products, which include: Hyland's Baby Teething Tablets, Hyland's Baby Teething Tablets Nighttime and Hyland's Baby Teething Gel.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ic-children-die-taking-remedies-a7359411.html
 
Is there a religious component to "alternative medicine"? There is the old theological conundrum about why God allows such suffering in the world. I am wondering if some of this "cure yourself naturally"-bullshit is an attempt to deal with that. That the idea is God gave us the cure to the world's ills ages ago and we were just too blind to see it. Do you guys think that could be part of the drive?
 
Xanatic* said:
Is there a religious component to "alternative medicine"? There is the old theological conundrum about why God allows such suffering in the world. I am wondering if some of this "cure yourself naturally"-bullshit is an attempt to deal with that. That the idea is God gave us the cure to the world's ills ages ago and we were just too blind to see it. Do you guys think that could be part of the drive?
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It's an interesting query to pose, but I doubt there's a single coherent answer that encompasses both:

(a) all the orientations one might subsume under 'religion' (particularly if one includes non-institutionalized self-fulfillment / spiritual / New Age / etc. beliefs) and ...

(b) all the institutions / movements / doctrines / orientations one might subsume under 'alternative medicine'.
 
EnolaGaia said:
It's an interesting query to pose, but I doubt there's a single coherent answer that encompasses both:

(a) all the orientations one might subsume under 'religion' (particularly if one includes non-institutionalized self-fulfillment / spiritual / New Age / etc. beliefs) and ...

(b) all the institutions / movements / doctrines / orientations one might subsume under 'alternative medicine'.
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Religious beliefs, belief in 'alternative therapies' and 'lack of critical thinking' correlate with each other. There are a number of papers showing this correlation, here's one for a starter...

Critical thinking ability and belief in the paranormal
Hergovich, Andreas ; Arendasy, Martin (2005)

If I find others, I'll post them (I can't recall where I filed them, sorry) otherwise I'll leave you to find them for yourselves!
 
Xanatic* said:
Is there a religious component to "alternative medicine"?
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Certainly. If you read the current edition of National Geographic, there is along, detailed and interesting article about faith healing, which is a/ closely connected with various religions, b/ often seems to work, and
c/ seems to work by a powerful application of the placebo effect, which has been replicated innumerable times. Alternative medicine works in a similar manner*, and is similarly based on faith.

*Except when it doesn't. Many or most alternative medicines work because of the placebo effect, but a few actually use medically active substances in an often unregulated way, especially ones which have never been accepted by mainstream medicine. I think that is even worse than just giving people sugar pills.
 
eburacum said:
Certainly. If you read the current edition of National Geographic, there is along, detailed and interesting article about faith healing, which is a/ closely connected with various religions, b/ often seems to work, and
c/ seems to work by a powerful application of the placebo effect, which has been replicated innumerable times. Alternative medicine works in a similar manner*, and is similarly based on faith.

*Except when it doesn't. Many or most alternative medicines work because of the placebo effect, but a few actually use medically active substances in an often unregulated way, especially ones which have never been accepted by mainstream medicine. I think that is even worse than just giving people sugar pills.
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When I did a Health Studies degree we were taught about Non-Western Medicine, which puzzled me because it was mainly prayers and, I dunno, weeds and mud.

I was expecting to hear about ancient ways of dealing with illnesses without modern technology but what I got was little better than 'Do a bit of chanting and slap on some crocodile dung.'

Either we were being taught wrongly or that's the best you can expect from Traditional Medicine. Not impressed!
 
escargot said:
When I did a Health Studies degree we were taught about Non-Western Medicine, which puzzled me because it was mainly prayers and, I dunno, weeds and mud.

I was expecting to hear about ancient ways of dealing with illnesses without modern technology but what I got was little better than 'Do a bit of chanting and slap on some crocodile dung.'

Either we were being taught wrongly or that's the best you can expect from Traditional Medicine. Not impressed!
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I'm no fan of alternative medicine but I do have experience of studying health at degree level and it's more likely that the lecturer just phoned it in and put fuck all effort in.
 
escargot said:
...ancient ways of dealing with illnesses without modern technology...little better than 'Do a bit of chanting and slap on some crocodile dung.'

Either we were being taught wrongly or that's the best you can expect from Traditional Medicine.
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In AD 1276 people in England used traditional medicine, ate locally-sourced organic food which was mainly if not solely vegetarian, and performed large amounts of aerobic exercise in unpolluted air. Average life expectancy for a male at birth was 31.3 years:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/241864.stm

750-ish years later we slump in front of computers in centrally-heated offices bathed in fluorescent light, guzzling fatty, chemical-filled food before driving home in fume-spewing motor vehicles. We do, however, enjoy modern medical care. Average life expectancy for a male at birth is 79.4:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

One of these things is not like the other...

maximus otter
 
One should be careful in categorizing medical practices, because it's all too easy to fall into an 'apples versus oranges' la-la land.

For example, 'traditional' is variably applied to connote (a) older / past practical approaches as well as (b) remedies defined or driven by cultural (especially religious) traditions. There's a difference between (e.g.) antiquated, but pragmatic, physical treatments (e.g., 18th / 19th century western medicine) versus ritualized interventions prescribed by dogma (e.g., stereotypical 'witch doctoring' or exorcism).

'Modern' might connote simple recency of mainstream acceptance, or it may more specifically imply the approach / remedy is based in scientific experimentation and / or theory.

The allusion to theory is important, because it underlies the promotion of exotic treatments suggested by either (a) scientific analysis / technical innovation or (b) pseudoscientific hypotheses.

'Alternative' is a vacuous term unless one specifies that which it opposes or with which it contrasts.

To go back to this thread's stated topic ... Homeopathy is not 'traditional' in either of the senses cited above. It is 'modern' based on both its recency (having emerged at the end of the 18th century) and its being theory-driven. However, its theoretical basis is reasonably ascribed to the (b) sense of pseudoscientific hand-waving.
 
My question to the homeopaths is why they aren't out saving the third world. Organisations like Doctors Without Borders have to deal with buying medicines, logistics, refrigeration etc. However if you can cure an african village with a glass of water, why don't you?
 
Xanatic* said:
My question to the homeopaths is why they aren't out saving the third world. Organisations like Doctors Without Borders have to deal with buying medicines, logistics, refrigeration etc. However if you can cure an african village with a glass of water, why don't you?
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Well (a) homeopathy doesn't actually work and (b) 'belief systems' don't always travel well.
 
Xanatic* said:
if you can cure an african village with a glass of water, why don't you?
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In parts of the Third World, finding some clean water for that glass might be a problem. You're right though.
 
If you can be cured by homeopathy, why can't you be cured just by drinking water? Just think about all medicins thrown into the sewage and end up in your drinking water eventually.
 
The memory of the water needs to be activated first, also the specific dilutions are meant to cure specific ailments.
 
There's a process to activate it.
 
Analysing all this is made a bit difficult by the placebo paradox, which I assume isn't woo. If it is, someone tell me and it makes it all a lot simpler.
 
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