It seems to me that the multinational drug companies and the doctors under their influence are beyond reproach. At least in our present system.

James Randi regularly overdoses on homeopathic sleeping pills.

Amazingly, he is still with us today.

Yep, homeopathy is a fraud.  People don't trust pharmaceutical companies, so they flock to crackpot stuff like this.  There is no proof of the homeopathic claims of the power of dilution or water memory or any of that.  It's a lot like a religion, really.

To state that homeopathy is a fraud is an insult to those homeopathic doctors who are highly trained....some have received as much training as medical doctors.

I have been in the care of a homoepathic doctor for a dozen years - she saved my life, and has helped me gain a quality of life I was not receiving with regular medical treatment.  Years of Tylenol 3 with codeine and other prescription medications have compromised my immune system and my health...this from regular medical practitioners who couldn't be bothered to look at cause and effect, and seriously investigate underlying symptoms. They were all too ready with pen and paper to write yet another prescription which not only masked symptoms but added to exisiting problems.

You may be a science grad, chemgal, and I expect you are very intelligent, but you should not be disparaging a profession that has been very beneficial to thousands of people.  I personally know cancer patients who have benefitted from homepopathy rather than the side effects of the poisons of chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.

A very good friend would be blind today if it wasn't for the care of a homepopathic doctor.

I think too, that you are presenting a very narrow and one-sided view of homeopathy.

Medical doctors at present receive minimal training in nutrition and preventive medicine....we all need to be much more aware and responsible for our own health, and the chemicals we are putting into our bodies, for sure.

chemgal - it's interesting that you you feel so strongly about homeopathy and you state "Many homeopaths have some background in some of the other naturopathic medicine, so they might recommend some treatments that are helpful, but homeopathy isn't one of them." Yet you clearly haven't tried treatment in homeopathy or listened to others who have had positive results (gecko46 above has clearly suggested that it has been helpful for her!). Why do you suggest that naturopathic medicine would have more benefits? Some people find benefit from certain naturopathic treatments, some from homeopathic, some from traditional Chinese medicine and so on. There are many options with skilled practioners and often it's a case of finding the right fit. Our bodies are very complex ... sometimes the so called 'scientific' explanations do not allow for acceptance of unexplained results.  Homeopathy offers a different understanding of how the body works.

I can appreciate that you have the opinion that you would never try homeopathy (or another treatment option) for yourself, but I encourage you to open yourself to the possibility that it may have benefit for others.

From New Scientist magazine, "13 things that do not make sense":

"MADELEINE Ennis, a pharmacologist at Queen's University, Belfast, was the scourge of homeopathy. She railed against its claims that a chemical remedy could be diluted to the point where a sample was unlikely to contain a single molecule of anything but water, and yet still have a healing effect. Until, that is, she set out to prove once and for all that homeopathy was bunkum.

In her most recent paper, Ennis describes how her team looked at the effects of ultra-dilute solutions of histamine on human white blood cells involved in inflammation. These "basophils" release histamine when the cells are under attack. Once released, the histamine stops them releasing any more. The study, replicated in four different labs, found that homeopathic solutions - so dilute that they probably didn't contain a single histamine molecule - worked just like histamine. Ennis might not be happy with the homeopaths' claims, but she admits that an effect cannot be ruled out.

So how could it happen? Homeopaths prepare their remedies by dissolving things like charcoal, deadly nightshade or spider venom in ethanol, and then diluting this "mother tincture" in water again and again. No matter what the level of dilution, homeopaths claim, the original remedy leaves some kind of imprint on the water molecules. Thus, however dilute the solution becomes, it is still imbued with the properties of the remedy.

You can understand why Ennis remains sceptical. And it remains true that no homeopathic remedy has ever been shown to work in a large randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial. But the Belfast study (Inflammation Research, vol 53, p 181) suggests that something is going on. "We are," Ennis says in her paper, "unable to explain our findings and are reporting them to encourage others to investigate this phenomenon." If the results turn out to be real, she says, the implications are profound: we may have to rewrite physics and chemistry."

The sad thing is that people will spend alot of money on "water that has memories" yet refuse to take medications that are scientifically proven to help.

Then people run into real risks. 

Placebo effect is strong for sure.  Our minds have great abilities to affect our ability to heal.  But i feel these practices are very dangerous for people with real illnesses.

I went to see a homeopath/naturopath about ten years ago for some stomach problems... problems that I actually still have. 

While I really enjoyed the holistic approach to wellbeing and good eating and taking care of yourself that the woman preached, her methods brought out the cynic and sceptic in me.  She diagnosed me with energy readings and chi tests, then tried treatment after treatment.  I got the most frustrated when I told her I simply couldn't stomach some of the treatments and she basically laughed it off and told me I could.  Apparently she had been an MD before she chose to be a h/n - but her bedside manner made me feel worthless.  In the end, I simply stopped going to see her.

I know many friends who have benefitted from homeopathic and naturopathic remedies and treatment... however I'm not one of them, and my relationship towards it is ruined.

So, why go to a homeopath?  Why not just get a dog?

My medical professional doesn't chew my shoelaces.

chemgal -

It just so happens that I've found REALLY good doctors - which I know seems to be a combination of fortune and favour.  Favour being the fact that I live in a very affluent neighbourhood with a good hospital.  Anyhow, I've seen at least three specialists  in the past 5 months(aside from my GP), trying to get some rather serious things sorted out, and all three of them have been excellent.  I think it's helped that I've done a good amount of research into what's ailing me, but the process has been helped along by a willingness to trust that they actually know a lot about what they specialize in.

I think there's still a place for alternative medicines, or rather integrated ones.  My sister is a chiropractic intern at the moment, and her studies have been very VERY thorough - comparable to most med schools.  But she's the first one to tell you that there are many 'bone crackers' out there that aren't worth a lick.  Any alternative therapy should be willing and enthusiastic to take what doctors tell them seriously, and work from there.  Specialists are fantastic in their fields, but they aren't always willing to tie in multiple systems and look at a bigger picture.

Just my experience.

best statement of the thread.