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Comment by whamlastxmas | Hacker News Reader

Maybe we should promote homeopathy more, because at the very least that's only distilled water that doesn't do anything. Would be pretty funny to see a government supply of free homeopathic medicines. I imagine the placebo effect would have a very real impact in reducing medical expenses nation-wide.

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> Maybe we should promote homeopathy more, because at the very least that's only distilled water that doesn't do anything.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/fda-homeopathic-teeth...

> FDA: Homeopathic teething gels may have killed 10 babies, sickened 400

> Makers have been warned before about varying amounts of deadly nightshade in gels.

This was supposed to be homeopathic (the label says so), but contained dangerous levels of ingredient, even after the manufacturers were warned.

> Maybe we should promote homeopathy more, because at the very least that's only distilled water that doesn't do anything.

If there was actual quality control, that would be the case. Actual "homoeopathic" products, OTOH, are, in fact, often not what the purported process would produce, and have been known to be dangerous.

I cynically thought that homeopathy was just distilled water, but then there is this: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/uc...

While as a joke I like your comment... I think what you suggest is a terrible idea. How about we just use whatever the best proven medicine is for whatever the issue is and leave ritual voodoo witch doctor stuff in history where it belongs.

I dated a woman from France for three months and was surprised to find that the French government healthcare system reimbursed for homeopathic prescriptions. See [1].

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25921648

To get the placebo effect to work you just need sugar pills .So tic tacs would work in this case.

Yeah but then you have issues with diabetics or children/infants who could choke on the tic tac (which has a lot more sugar than the label leads you to believe).

Maybe we should not promote nonsense at all?

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