Homeopothy?

[Luv Bunnies]

DS15's friend has been really sick this week. The boys are in the same musical theater group and just finished a show last weekend. They had a whole week of tech rehearsals and six performances in four days. All of the kids were run down. Several caught colds, which spread through the cast. My DS fought one all week, but was fine. His friend ended up with a sinus infection and pink eye, according to his mom. We carpool with them to school, and he ended up missing four days last week.

So yesterday, we went to see another show and the friend came along with us. When he got in the car, I immediately noticed that his right eye still looked really red. I asked him if he was feeling better and he said "kind of." His mom didn't take him to a doctor because she doesn't want him to have antibiotics or eye drops. Instead, she's been giving him homeopathic remedies all week. I've talked to this mom before about the subject. She was suffering from a bladder infection for a week and kept trying different remedies. She is against antibiotics, which I understand that many people are. To each his own. However, her son's eye still looked quite red after a week of her treatments. Pink eye is very contagious and I was kind of worried that it didn't appear to be knocked out yet.

So, I'm wondering if these homeopathic remedies work? Are they safe? Another friend of ours is a homeopath and has approached me several times about various remedies, including massive doses of iodine. I don't know what to think, but I'm willing to be open-minded. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[15isto2]

Medicine and Homeopathic Medicine , I know which one I would put my money on

 

[Southernmiss]

DS15's friend has been really sick this week. The boys are in the same musical theater group and just finished a show last weekend. They had a whole week of tech rehearsals and six performances in four days. All of the kids were run down. Several caught colds, which spread through the cast. My DS fought one all week, but was fine. His friend ended up with a sinus infection and pink eye, according to his mom. We carpool with them to school, and he ended up missing four days last week.

So yesterday, we went to see another show and the friend came along with us. When he got in the car, I immediately noticed that his right eye still looked really red. I asked him if he was feeling better and he said "kind of." His mom didn't take him to a doctor because she doesn't want him to have antibiotics or eye drops. Instead, she's been giving him homeopathic remedies all week. I've talked to this mom before about the subject. She was suffering from a bladder infection for a week and kept trying different remedies. She is against antibiotics, which I understand that many people are. To each his own. However, her son's eye still looked quite red after a week of her treatments. Pink eye is very contagious and I was kind of worried that it didn't appear to be knocked out yet.

So, I'm wondering if these homeopathic remedies work? Are they safe? Another friend of ours is a homeopath and has approached me several times about various remedies, including massive doses of iodine. I don't know what to think, but I'm willing to be open-minded. Anyone have experience with this?

Obviously, what the friend's mom did did not work. I firmly believe that there are natural rememdies available, I just don't know many myself.

I rarely take my kids to the dr. but they rarely have more than a common cold.

I wish I knew more home remedies. I muddle through a few after research on the internet.

I would love to go to a person trained in both homeopathy and modern medicine who successfully blended the 2.

 

[rwdavis2]

Medicine and Homeopathic Medicine , I know which one I would put my money on

A greed. Homeopathic medicine is quackery. There is a reason the people referred to above were till sick. They were not getting their illnesses treated at all.

 

[laura.anne]

There is a difference between homeopathy and alternative or "natural" medicine. Homeopathy is, as someone else said, just pure quackery. It's based on the idea that the more you dilute a substance the more powerful it becomes, which is just plain wrong.

 

[autumnpalm]

Homeopathic medicine is a form of pseudoscience.

From Timothy Caufield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta:

Homeopathy has been around for hundreds of years. The basic philosophy behind the practice is the idea of “like cures like.” A homeopathic remedy consists of a natural substance – a bit of herb, root, mineral, you get the idea – that “corresponds” to the ailment you wish to treat. The “active” agent is placed in water and then diluted to the point where it no longer exists in any physical sense.

In fact, practitioners of homeopathy believe that the more diluted a remedy is, the more powerful it is. So, if you subscribe to this particular worldview, ironically, you want your active agents to be not just non-existent, but super non-existent.

The bottom line: For those of us who reside in the material world, where the laws of physics have relevance, a homeopathic remedy is either nothing but water or, if in capsule form, a sugar pill.

Certainly there is anecdotal evidence that individuals who have taken homeopathic remedies have experienced improved symptoms; however, numerous scientific studies have shown that this is likely just a placebo effect and there is no legitimate scientific evidence for homeopathic medicine as an effective medical treatment.