Homeopathic medicine question

[Numptie]

Following a couple of bouts of surgery, I've been experiencing a fair bit of residual pain (7/10ish at times).

I've got a decent prescription cocktail to take the edge off when required.

Saw the doc yesterday and he put me on to a homeopathic remedy - Arnica 30c.

I knew nothing about this so did some reading on the web last night. I now understand all the '[i]like cures like[/i]' business and how dilute everything is etc.

Question though ... I was told not to touch the tablets. I have to tip one into the cap of the bottle and then straight onto the tongue. Why might this be?

TIA

Cheers,

N :)

[lunarscope]

It's complete nonsense, simply a placebo.

If it can be proved to work then there are fairly serious gaps in our current understanding of chemistry.

Water has a memory ? ! ! !
And this memory is preserved even when it is unlikely that a single molecule of the original 'poison' remains in the solution.

Hmm...

[Julian64]

I'm having a head exploding moment. Anyone got an appropriate smiley?

[cyberface]

If you've done some research on the web re: homeopathic 'medicine', then presumably you've also seen that the solutions are diluted to the point where the likelihood of getting *one* molecule of active ingredient is very low?

I know that doctors these days are reluctant to prescribe proper painkillers because of the US-led attitude towards drugs but homeopathic 'remedies' don't actually contain any ingredients, and are just pure water. Absolute nonsense IMO.

If, amazingly, they cure your pain then brilliant. Don't waste time incapacitated if/when they don't work though, go back to the doc and get something decent.

Edit: beaten to it!!! The best painkillers are still, unfortunately, opiates...

>> Edited by cyberface on Friday 1st July 16:44

[love machine]

It does work but not due to direct modification of your bio-chemistry.

I think it's a load of bollox personally.

[Numptie]

As I said ...

Numptie said:

I've got a decent prescription cocktail to take the edge off when required.

Now, on homeopathy ...

Nonsense? - possibly

Will it do any harm? - nope

Now, leaving aside opinions on the principle, any theories on the 'don't touch' thing?

Cheers,

N

[dieseljohn]

My mum suffers from the same thing and has tried pretty much everything. Homeopathy did nothing for her but anything is worth a try (placebo or not). She has had some results from accupuncture and uses a tens (sp?) machine and something similar the name of which escapes me. I think these only work for nerve pain though which may not be what you have.

Good luck, living is pain is a sh*te, hope things get better for you.

[cyberface]

Aha thanks, I missed that

As to the 'touching the tablets' - well since homeopathy itself is mumbo jumbo (and we still don't really understand the brain well enough to discount mumbo jumbo and other placebo-effects as *not* efficaceous) then they may as well sling some more witch-doctor stuff in.

The tablets are probably sugar pills, with the 1x10^-50 % of 'ingredient' - if the non-homeopathic content of the pill was in any way active, it'd have to be labelled as such on the packaging.

As such, you may as well pick the pills up by hand. Have you checked that they're not radioactive? May be worth a shot.

[Julian64]

Okay back to the posters question. You are likely being told that to create the illusion of power.

Or you had really dirty hands when you saw the 'doctor'.

[Numptie]

cyberface said:

As such, you may as well pick the pills up by hand. Have you checked that they're not radioactive? May be worth a shot.

Julian64 said:

Or you had really dirty hands when you saw the 'doctor'.

Thanks folks - that made me laugh and hence feel better

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

N

[jas xjr]

did anyone hear about the research that suggested that some varieties of potato may have an ingredient that helps lower blood pressure? it was on the news yesterday. apparently the chinese have been using it for years

[Ricardo G]

Is anyone else looking forward to Bruciebabes take on this? Must be away googling at the moment.

[love machine]

jas xjr said:

did anyone hear about the research that suggested that some varieties of potato may have an ingredient that helps lower blood pressure? it was on the news yesterday. apparently the chinese have been using it for years

When it comes to medicine, there is always an idealistic lean to herbal methods. I'm not condoning it, I just find it typical when someone mentions that "The Eastern Way has been doing this for years", it's the left-wing lentilist element of medical journos flexing their wings against the corporate drug giants. I'm fully down with the fact that you can't patent a plant but just because some nonsense stems from people with slitty eyes who eat cats doesn't mean the stuff has it's credibility fixed in reality.

Sorry to have a rant but I think a lot of this stuff is a new fashionable take on good old medical pseudo-science. Shoot them at dawn (or at least run some proper trials).

[hugoagogo]

'alternative therapy'?

there's medecine that works, tested in clinical double-blind trials etc - and there's any amount of voodoo snake oil mumbo jumbo stuff that doesn't

that's your alternative

[cyberface]

love machine said:

Sorry to have a rant but I think a lot of this stuff is a new fashionable take on good old medical pseudo-science. Shoot them at dawn (or at least run some proper trials).

There's a difference between the homeopathic bullshit and 'herbal' medicine... Plants after all are the source of many of our pharms, e.g. morphine, aspirin, etc.

Being a cynical bastard, the rise of high-street 'herbal' / 'chinese' medicine shops probably has a lot to do with the fact that their products are generally not covered by legal requirements for the 'proper trials' you mention, which cost lots of money and often give statistically insignificant 'results'

[simpo two]

Whilst some alternative medicine has a place, eg osteopathy, chiropracty, acupuncture, IMHO homeopathy is a nonsense and I'm surprised a GP (who with due apologies to PH GPs are often traditional aspirin-peddlers) put you on to it.

[jas xjr]

i am indian. we have a condition which is not recognised by western medicine. if i went to a doctor in the uk of indian medicine and told him what i was suffering with , he would know exactly what it is.
do you ever feel lethargic,have a lot of sleep in your eyes, have a strong appetite but feel hot and sweaty and a lot of stuff on your tongue? well we call that bayee. take more ginger in your diet and it will disappear. thata a homeopathic cure and it works,unfortunatley western medice does not even recognise the condition, but hey next time you have those symtoms...lots of ginger. mate of mine laughed when i mentioned this in the pub...he tried it , and he felt better. the chinese have ying and yang. the indians reckon all foods are hot or cold, an imbalance must be rectified. orange juice is cold, cinammon or ginger is hot. excuse me i am a little drunk but it does work.all, i stand to be corrected, drugs originate from plants, homeopathy has plant related cures etc. trust me i know all these guys are not the answer but some of them are..

[vixpy1]

Homeopathic?

Is'nt that a Gay serial killer?

[ATG]

jas xjr said:

take more ginger in your diet and it will disappear. thata a homeopathic cure ...

No, that isn't a homeopathic cure. Homeopathy is quite specifically about taking some toxin and diluting it many, many times ... then consuming the pure water you're left with at the end. Eating a chunk of ginger ain't homeopathy as it actually involves eating a large enough amount of a substance that it might just have a useful effect .

p.s. the reason you're not allowed to touch the pills is coz you'll invert their metavibrations causing your symptoms to become much more severe ... only way to rebalance them is, unfortunately, to injest them immediately in a rectal stylee.

>> Edited by ATG on Sunday 3rd July 00:56

[Ecks Ridgehead]

Numptie said:

Saw the doc yesterday and he put me on to a homeopathic remedy - Arnica 30c.

Change your doctor.

Homeopathy Remedy "Ineffective" (BBC)

Even the NHS' own study group at York University concluded that "Findings did not indicate that homeopathic arnica is any more effective than placebo" (See page 8).

Love Machine said:

I think it's a load of bollox personally.

Nice to see you coming round, LM.

Has your friend had his paper published on ARECs yet? (see this thread for details).