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Comment by bad_user | Hacker News Reader

> Otherwise the hundred-million dollar a year industry that is homeopathy would not exist

Just because there are crooks in the world that became rich by seeling fake homeopathic remedies, that doesn't mean there aren't homeopathic remedies that work.

The placebo effect doesn't work on me because it is in my nature to be pessimistic about everything. Having asthma also makes my lungs sensitive to any cold I catch.

Paracetamol [1] doesn't work on me. Oscillococcinum [2] does.

And I'm not into homeopathy, but I'm a tea addict and I know from personal experience the effects dozens of plants have on my body. Just last week I drank tea made from cherry tails ... it made me go pissing every half an hour (really useful when you've got prostate problems).

     [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol
     [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillococcinum

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And I'm not into homeopathy, but I'm a tea addict and I know from personal experience the effects dozens of plants have on my body.

The two aren't comparable. In homeopathic preparation the "medical" ingredient is diluted to the point where it is unlikely that even a single molecule remains. There's no known mechanism (or even chemistry) by which a non-placebo result could be produced, and this has been substantiated by hundreds of studies. In tea, this is clearly not the case.

Woah! An anecdote! Now, that sure is convincing!

bad_user, say hi to the Placebo effect. It’s so awesome, it even works when you believe it doesn’t.

Haha, yeah, maybe it is Placebo :)

You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proven to work?

Medicine.

> You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proven to work?

That's debatable ...

There are lots of drugs whose effects aren't well known , being sold just because the tests on animals and humans have been positive. Here's one example ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotretinoin

Hence, every 5 years or so drugs are pulled off the market because of newly discovered side-effects, like this one ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamizole

The Placebo effect is also used in the farmaceutical industry to sell old drugs under new names. There are dozens and dozens of products based on a combination of Paracetamol and Vitamin C. When speaking of the common cold, nothing new happened in the last 10 years.

When you say "proven" ... does that mean from a statistical point of view?

Yes, they do lots of tests on humans and animals, increasing the chances that the drug actually works with no really bad (observable) side-effect. But that's not "proven" to me ;)

"Proven to work -> medicine" doesn't imply "medicine -> proven to work".

> The Placebo effect is also used in the farmaceutical industry to sell old drugs under new names.

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

> There are dozens and dozens of products based on a combination of Paracetamol and Vitamin C.

And?

How can you say that the placebo effect doesn't work and then clam that water works, but only when it has a special label?

From your link: The preparation is derived from duck liver and heart, diluted to 200C—a ratio of one part duck offal to 100200 parts water.[2] This is such a high dilution that the final product likely contains not even one molecule of the original liver.

Yes, Oscillococcinum, the wonderful 200C "preparation" of duck liver, which statically can not contain anything but sugar.

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