Does homeopathy have any grounding in scientific fact or is it entirely bogus? What fraction of Americans believe in it?

Similar questions: homeopathy grounding scientific fact bogus fraction Americans.

Pseudoscience There is a very large fraction of the public who want to believe that evidence based medicine is bogus, I'm not sure why. The answer is always something "natural". There is also the false belief that natural things can't hurt you or have side effects - they certainly can.

Homeopathy is based on the odd idea that a microscopic dose of an agent that could produce similar symptoms to yours might cure you. This has never been supported by experimental evidence and chemically makes no sense. But it gives some people a placebo improvement because they expect it to work.

Then they recommend it to all their friends and relatives. It is more popular in Europe than the USA.

Not a bit. Homeopathy is the hypothesis that "like cures like" -- therefore, if you have lead poisoning, microdoses of lead should clear that right up. When I say "microdoses" what I mean is that you take a solution that has some lead in it, and start diluting it.

You keep diluting it with water. Keep on diluting it. You end up with lead-water so dilute that mathematically it should have no lead at all in it.

But, get this, the water "remembers" that it had lead in it and so behaves accordingly. Say what? According to wikipedia, 3% of americans are wasting their time with this.

Products like "Head On" (which by the rules of homeopathy must be unmedicated chapstick! ) certainly don't help, and neither do "zinc pills" for colds that (by the rules of homeopathy) have no zinc in them (how's that like-for-like anyway? If you actually ate zinc, would you get cold-like symptoms?).

Short answer: Homeopathy is completely bogus and results in treatments with zero active agents. Homeopathic remedies are, by definition, placebo. On the plus side, that makes it safe and without side effect.

What's weird is that some meta-studies of homeopathy show that it's not completely bogus, and even though there are concerns about methodology and bias in studies that show a positive effect, proponents are quick to point out these positive results. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#USA TeeSeeJay's Recommendations Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Amazon List Price: $16.00 Used from: $2.65 Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 135 reviews) .

Homeopathic. Org has a list of peer-reviewed research articles - see list in details. So yes, it is grounded in scientific fact.

See the list of articles below:Homeopathy for Menopausal Symptoms in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled TrialJournal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 1December 108, Vol. 11, No. 1: 21-27C.N.Shealy, MD, R.P. Thomlinson, V.

Borgmeyer,Osteoarthritic Pain: A Comparison of Homeopathy and AcetaminophenAmerican Journal of Pain Management, 1998;8:89-91A double-blinded study to document the relative efficacy of homeopathic remedies in comparison to acetaminophen for the treatment of pain associated with osteoarthritis (OA) among 65 patients. An IRB approved protocol. Results of the study documented better pain relief in the homeopathic group (55% achieved measured relief from homeopathy as compared to 38% from acetaminophen); however, the superiority of this treatment, in comparison with the acetaminophen group, did not reach statistical significance.

The investigators conclude that homeopathic treatments for pain in OA patients appear to be safe and at least as effective as acetaminophen, and are without its potential adverse effects including compromise to both liver and kidney function. Many of the patients asked to continue with the homeopathic treatment.M. Weiser, W.

Strosser, P. Klein,Homeopathic vs. Conventional Treatment of Vertigo: A Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Clinical Study Archives of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, August, 1998, 124:879-885. This was a study with 119 subjects with various types of vertigo, half of whom were given a homeopathic medicine (a combination of four homeopathic medicines) and half were given a leading conventional drug in Europe for vertigo, betahistine hydrochloride.

The homeopathic medicines were found to be similarly effective and significantly safer than the conventional control.D. Reilly, M. Taylor, N.

Beattie, et al. , Is Evidence for Homoeopathy Reproducible? Lancet, December 10, 1994, 344:1601-6.

This study successfully reproduced evidence from two previous double-blinded trials all of which used the same model of homeopathic immunotherapy in inhalant allergy. In this third study, 9 of 11 patients on homeopathic treatment improved compared to only 5 of 13 patients on placebo. The researchers concluded that either homeopathic medicines work or controlled studies don't.

Their work has again be recently replicated and is submitted for publication.(See Is Homeopathy a Placebo Response? Lancet 1986, below. ) J.

Jacobs, L. Jimenez, S. Gloyd, Treatment of Acute Childhood Diarrhea with Homeopathic Medicine: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Nicaragua, Pediatrics, October 18, 1986, 93,5:71December 10, 19940.

This study was the first on homeopathy to be published in an American medical journal. The study compared individualized high potency homeopathic preparations against a placebo in 81 children, between ages 6 mo. And 5 yrs.

, suffering with acute diarrhea. The treatment group benefited from a statistically significant 15% decrease in duration. The authors noted that the clinical significance would extend to decreasing dehydration and postdiarrheal malnutrition and a significant reduction in morbidity.E.

Ernst, T. Saradeth, and K.L. Resch, Complementary Treatment of Varicose Veins: A Randomized Placebo-controlled, Double-Blind Trial, Phlebology, 1990, 5:157-163. This study of 61 patients showed a 44% improvement in venous filling time in the homeopathic treated group when compared with placebo.P.

Fisher, A. Greenwood, E.C. Huskisson, et al. , Effect of Homoeopathic Treatment on Fibrositis British Medical Journal, 1December 103, 299:36December 10, 19941.

This trial was double-blind with a crossover design, comparing R toxicodendron to a placebo in 30 patients all suffering from an identical syndrome identified as the admission criteria. It showed a significant reduction in tender spots, by 25%, when patients were given the homeopathic medicine, as compared to when they were given the placebo.D. Reilly, M.

Taylor, C. McSherry, Is Homeopathy a Placebo Response? Controlled Trial of Homeopathic Potency with Pollen in Hayfever as Model, Lancet, October 18, 1986, 88December 10, 19940.

The double-blind study compared a high dilution homeopathic preparation of grass pollens against a placebo in 144 patients with active hay fever. The study method considered pollen counts, aggravation in symptoms and use of antihistamines and concluded that patients using homeopathy showed greater improvement in symptoms than those on placebo, and that this difference was reflected in a significantly reduced need for antihistamines among the homeopathically treated group. The results confirmed those of the pilot study and demonstrate that homeopathic potencies show effects distinct from those of the placebo Sources: http://www.homeopathic.org/controlled.htm .

1 edfoug, regarding your answer "Pseudoscience": I was expecting to hear from you on this question. I have several friends and family members who believe in homeopathy and it's tough to discuss it with them because they are true believers, and evidence doesn't seem to matter. In fact, some of these people are highly intelligent, at least in several areas; how they got sucked into believing in homeopathy is a mystery to me.

I am really interested in seeing what the other Askvillers have to say; already I see one "pro-astrology" answer, always good to have some balance. Above all, we need to keep an open mind (but it sure does hurt! ).

Edfoug, regarding your answer "Pseudoscience": I was expecting to hear from you on this question. I have several friends and family members who believe in homeopathy and it's tough to discuss it with them because they are true believers, and evidence doesn't seem to matter. In fact, some of these people are highly intelligent, at least in several areas; how they got sucked into believing in homeopathy is a mystery to me.

I am really interested in seeing what the other Askvillers have to say; already I see one "pro-astrology" answer, always good to have some balance. Above all, we need to keep an open mind (but it sure does hurt! ).

2 Keeping an open mind is great, so long as your mind isn't so open that your brain falls out. :) .

Keeping an open mind is great, so long as your mind isn't so open that your brain falls out. :).

Which classes of paranormal phenomena, if any, have a grounding in scientific fact, i.e. , are legitimate? " "Does astrology have any grounding in scientific fact or is it entirely bogus?

What fraction of Americans believe in it?

Which classes of paranormal phenomena, if any, have a grounding in scientific fact, i.e. , are legitimate?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.