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Comment by macandcheese | Hacker News Reader

I think it's a bit disingenuous to conflate all homeopathic remedies with "quack" science.

Have you ever used Arnica gel on a bruise? Oscillococcinum for a flu? Extremely effective naturally derived products.

Homeopathic refers to a specific set of products, where the "active ingredient" is diluted to the point where it is no longer present. It is literally water.

There are other types of non-standard remedies, which you might be talking about. But Homeopathic, specifically, is a synonym for water with fancy labeling.

There is no compelling evidence that Oscillococcinum performs better than placebo[1][2]. And, at 200CK dilution there wouldn't be a single molecule of the active ingredient left, it's literally just sugar water, so yeah it's junk science or quack medicine and no better than rhino horn. If you use it and feel better, that's the placebo effect because there's nothing in Oscillococcinum but water and sugar.

[1]http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001957...

[2]https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Oscillococcinum+evidenc...

> I think it's a bit disingenuous to conflate all homeopathic remedies with "quack" science.

That's true, it's not science at all, but homeopathy is a particular form of quackery (and many homeopathic products are frauds on top of the quackery of homeopathy.)

Well, the concept is ludicrous, and it's been refuted by studies.

So, quack quack?

Oscillococcinum is just sugar. And yes, I've been fed many Oscillococcinum pills as a kid because my mum was into homeopathy - did my flu go away? You bet it did! But there's zero evidence that it happened because of Oscillococcinum - it would have passed away naturally without me taking sugar pills few times a day.

I really don't want to believe it. It doesn't make any sense. But I did see some relatives get well from some issues (none are serious) going this so called 'homeopathic' route after trying out regular doctors. Are some of the regular medicines so ineffective that a placebo is trouncing them ? That probably requires some study.

Placebo medicine does work for some people, so it's not surprising that some people get better after taking homeopathic pills. But there's nothing about homeopathic pills that makes them work - anything with a label "medicine" glued to it would have worked, if placebo works for you.

Next time you get a common cold, pick any (non-toxic) substance you like, ingest it twice a day, and within about a week you should be feeling much better.

You won't convince people on this sub. They will quote some molecular theory. People don't realize that science changes, and current theories of molecules may be superseded.

Of course science changes. But it's the best thing we have to go off of. Otherwise you're just guessing in the dark. If you have scientific evidence of the efficacy of.... whatever it is you're talking about, you will gain some attention. Homeopathy specifically has been quite soundly put to rest as ineffective.

Science changes as a result of evidence.

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