Homeopathic Database

Homeopathy for the elderly doesn’t necessarily improve their quality of life but it may reduce the severity of some chronic conditions, says a new study.

For this study, researchers looked at data on nearly 4000 European seniors from Germany and Switzerland. This research looked only at elderly patients age 70 or older who were consulting a homeopathic physician for the first time. The physicians took baseline assessments then re-assessed the patients at 3 months, 1 year and again at 2 years after the initial consultation.

At the end of the study both the physicians and the patients reported that the patients complained of less-severe symptoms and in many cases the drop in severity was deemed “significant”. Overall quality of life, as measured by the patients, did not increase, however. Additionally, the number of medications taken by the patients did not change, even after 2 years of homeopathic care.

All the patients received “classic” homeopathic treatments.

Source:

Teut, M., et al. (2010). Homeopathic treatment of elderly patients—a prospective observational study with follow-up over a two year period. BMC Geriatrics.

On January 30, 2010 at 10:23 a.m. several dozen (or perhaps even a few hundred) people calling themselves “homeopathic skeptics” or “consumer advocates” plan to protest outside the UK’s largest pharmacies to protest what they consider the chain’s hypocritical practice of selling homeopathic remedies even after an executive with the chain admitted that they don’t actually believe the remedies work.

According to the official protest website, one of the activities will involve the swallowing of entire bottles of homeopathic remedies to prove that even a massive “overdose” is completely incapable of “activating” anything in the body.

Does such a stunt interest you at all? Will watching someone swallow an entire bottle of something that homeopaths already agree can’t hurt you change your mind about homeopathy?

And what about the pharmacy chain’s role in all this? Do the powers that be at Boots have a responsibility to remove unproven but profitable homeopathic remedies? Do we really want to start demanding that our retail stores save us all from our own stupidity? If so, why aren’t they protesting colon cleansers? What about castor oil—often sold for something known as the “castor oil flush”?

Finally, what about the “delay of treatment” argument? Is the fact that someone might go to a homeopath before a mainstream physician really a good reason to outlaw “remedies” used by millions of people around the world?

Tell us what you think about the upcoming 10:23 protest. Will you go?