Which one is more scientific: Allopathy or Homeopathy?

[maddog]

This is a very strong claim and I'd like to see what you base this on. Since I have seen doctors all my life due to chronic asthma and allergies, I am quite used to talking to doctors and discussing my medical needs with them.

 

In the 1970s I was a guinea pig in drug testing for new medicines against asthma, which turned out to be wildly successful. They let asthmatic people lead relatively normal lives.

 

As far as I know, homoeopathy has little effect against asthma, even though there are claims that it can cure asthma within a week. I have yet to read about such a miracle in a serious journal...

 

Yes, the pharmaceutical industry is a gigantic money machine. But that doesn't validate the claims on homeopathy.

Tormod,

 

I also was a child asthmatic (chronic not acute). I did somewhat "grow" out it as I

became an adult. My allergies though were Ragweed/Goldenrod pollen and House-dust.

The pollen would get me Every year near my birthday (Aug) with bad hay fever. I moved

away from the midwest as an adult to Southern CA where (for the most part) my

allergies went away. House-dust would still get me though (makes me sneeze like

crazy).

 

In the ninties, I met a homeopathic doctor though a friend. I had a number of symptoms

(not related to allergies), where I got diagnosed with Candiadis (basically a yeast infection).

I was suspicious. What did surprise me was (at least then if not now) that Allopathy

didn't even consider it a problem.

I was treated for a year and a half. I did a number of procedures, one was interesting

in particular. This is the crux of Homeopathy in a solution titrated out til there is virtually

nothing left but water (H2O) as Freezestar said.

 

You could say a placebo effect was in force here. If so it has been in effect for 19 years

and counting. I have had no real return of my earlier symptoms (Candidiasis) as well

as my Allergies (I recently came back to Indiana during my birth month and absolutely

NO Hay Fever!).

 

I am a Physicist so I don't see how the titration process to produce nothing but water

can boost an immune system.

 

Now if in an accident, my foot was practically cut off, I would definitely have a surgeon

reattach. I will admit there are some diseases that I might seek counsel with a Homeopathic

Doctor (some serious enough to kill). The important thing here is what explanation

you get from Allopathy. When you get Indifference, phrases like "that doesn't happen"

or "I don't know what is wrong with you", then I might look elsewhere.

 

maddog

 

ps: If you have interest in Candidiasis as an actual disease do a google search, there

are actual Allopathic Doctors doing research in this disease. You might also check with

CDC in the US.

[enorbet2]

It is important to note the difference between procedures for which the active mechanism is not well understood but yet produces reasonably consistent and verifiable results and procedures which have no mechanism whatsoever as seen in results in scientific testing where the resuilts are equivalent to chance, at best. An example of the former is acupuncture. There are numerous studies but one I read in Scientific American, while trashing the concept of Chi, the ancients' mystical explanation for the mechanism, upholds the likelihood that some mechanism is at work that does produce consistent results including deep surgery with little or no anaesthetic. The Scientific American article can be found here but is abbreviated so for full data see the mentioned article in Journal of American Medical Assciation

Full of Holes: Scientific American

 

There are numerous examples of the latter since almost anything qualifies as it involves seeing connections where none exist, non sequitors eg: "Water is a poison since most lifeforms that drink it die" or "If I draw a five sided figure and call it a triangle, five sided triangles are possible". Bottom line if you took some homeopathic preparation and got better, something else is responsible just as your so-called birth sign does not control your fate or fortune no matter how accurate you may imagine your horoscope seems. If one reads them everyday they can feel very compelling but it is language and rationalization not logical deduction or science but a food example of how otherwise rational people can be duped.

 

Just because the PRACTICE of allopathic medicine has shortcomings and doctors have many more does nothing to prove faith healing has any basis in fact and that is precisely the point. Wasting resources on procedures with no basis in fact is counterproductive except in experiments. I have no problem with anybody's right to try anything, barking at the moon for all I care, to help their health condition. I have deep problems with being allowed to make unsubstantiated claims that "muddy the waters" and confuse desperate people not to mention fleece them of their money.