article from the Observer on homeopathy

[siestatime]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comme...200814,00.html

Nick Cohen, not pulling any punches.

[Allo Allo]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comme...200814,00.html

Nick Cohen, not pulling any punches.

Are there any statistics on the five ? is it five ? homeopathic hospitals that have been running in comparison to ordinary hospitals in any of the common conditions treated?

Quote"About 100 MPs signed a Commons motion asserting that homeopathic hospitals were 'valuable national assets' that could magic away conditions from eczema to irritable bowel syndrome."

I was wondering how we knew they were 'valuable national assets' - are there studies/figures/statistics?

[siestatime]

Homeopathy has been part of the NHS since it began in 1948. It is practised in five homeopathic hospitals in Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Tunbridge Wells.

Quote from The League of Friends website. Googling to find out more...

[siestatime]

I found this (apologies if it´s been posted before) :

http://breathspakids.blogspot.com/20...review-of.html

this bit was priceless -

Lord Broers: I have a simple, technical question about homeopathy and drugs. Is it possible to distinguish between homeopathic drugs after they have been diluted? Is there any means of distinguishing one from the other?

Ms Chatfield: Only by the label.

[Admin]

The Tunbridge Wells one is closing so it's 4 now.

They were already a relic from a bygone age when the NHS took them on in 1948.

I think they were all founded around the middle of the 19th century.

Off the top of my head but...

In the 1850s parliament were considering scrapping the homeopathic hospitals as it was recognised that they didn't really do any good even back then.

But, there was a cholera outbreak (IIRC) and it was found that the patients who were treated in the London homeopathic hospital fared better than those who were treated in the conventional hospitals - this fact saved the hospitals.

It wasn't known then, but it turns out that a very effective treatment (before antibiotics, of course) for cholera was drinking plenty of water. So it has been suggested that the homeopathic hospital saved more patients simply by giving them more drinking water! (This is nothing to do with their 'remedies' being nothing but water).

As for treating AIDS with homeopathic remedies - well this just shows up how dangerous belief in this sort of nonsense can be. If people think they are somehow protected from AIDS by homeopathy or that they can be cured by it then it could well encourage more promiscuous behaviour. The very thing that will cause the problem to worsen.

When you have deluded people pushing the likes of homeopathy mixed with the catholic church telling Africans it's a sin to use condoms (so don't do it) then you can only look with despair at situations like this and wonder just how much harm has to be done before rationality wins the day.

[Admin]

http://dcscience.net/?p=167

[siestatime]

I read (but can´t find the link now ) how a homeopathic hospital in Scotland has been saved from NHS cuts - again

[Lord Muck oGentry]

This story is a couple of years old:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4552289.stm

I don't know whether there has been a similar episode since.