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posted by LaminatorX on Friday April 24 2015, @05:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the take-.00002-and-call-me-in-the-morning dept.

ScienceMag has an article discussing the reevaluation of the entire field of Homeopathy. For starters, the FDA has decided to take a new look at how homeopathic treatment are manufactured.

In a 2-day hearing, the agency invited public input on how it should regulate homeopathy—a traditional healing practice that has been called into question by numerous scientific studies.

The problem is that there isn't any evidence beyond the placebo effect for much of homeopathy:

“By its own definition, homeopathy cannot work,” Michael De Dora, director of public policy at the nonprofit Center for Inquiry’s Washington, D.C., branch, told the panel in his Monday presentation. Several large metastudies, including a recent analysis by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia, have concluded that homeopathic remedies are no more effective than placebos for treating any condition. “We need not spend much time on this,” De Dora said, “as the federal government is well aware of the scientific evidence against homeopathy.”

Yet, largely due to the political maneuvering on the part to U.S. senator and homeopathic physician Royal Copeland, who co-authored the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA has regulated homeopathic "medicine" since 1938, largely taking a hands off approach.

But homeopath is now starting to cost big money. Homeopathic treatments generally qualify insurance coverage, including Medicare. Because Obamacare now funds medical premiums for the poor, this is costing the government (and government mandated insurance plans) huge sums of money, and inflating premiums for the rest of us.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by SubiculumHammer on Friday April 24 2015, @05:49PM

    by SubiculumHammer (5191) on Friday April 24 2015, @05:49PM (#174759)

    If placebos are often effective in their own right, why can't the market efficiently find the most effective placebo?

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday April 24 2015, @06:01PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2015, @06:01PM (#174764) Journal

    Because, as the multi-billion dollar homeopathy industry demonstrates, the market sucks at efficiently doing anything that requires complex domain knowledge, except parting fools and their money.

    • (Score: 1, Disagree) by jmorris on Friday April 24 2015, @06:48PM

      by jmorris (4844) on Friday April 24 2015, @06:48PM (#174797)

      the market sucks

      There is not really a 'market' involved in the medical industry. This situation is not Obamacare's fault, although it certainly made it worse. Pretty much all of it is people spending other people's money and it usually takes a blue ribbon committee to even estimate how much anything actually costs. There will be a published price but nobody pays that price.

      No, the problem with Homeopathy is that it isn't either medicine or science. By the official definition the closest definition is sympathetic magic. Requiring the taxpayers to pay for magic is just wrong. 1st Amendment wrong. Are we going to pay for faith healers next? Well we basically already are with this bull.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Friday April 24 2015, @07:11PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2015, @07:11PM (#174804) Journal

        You're an honest-to-god moron, jmoris. Sorry if that seems rude, but homeopathy has jack-all to do with "Obamacare". Which had the following to say about the field: literally not one word.

        Not a goddamn thing about alternative medicine or homeopathy. the full text [congress.gov]. It had to do with insurance. And insurance has no mandate to cover homeopathy, which is mostly sold over the counter anyways.

        And you're blaming fucking Obama care for the effects of Orrin Hatch's let's not regulate useless medicines act of 1994 [wikipedia.org], for which you can go impale yourself on a spike, you duplicitous, cheerleading bastard,

        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday April 24 2015, @07:24PM

          by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 24 2015, @07:24PM (#174808) Journal

          Troll nothing. This guy is completely ignorant of the legal details surrounding homeopathy and opens his dumb mouth and spewed that ignorance all over this discussion. I'm gonna call him out about it because bullshit should never go uncontested.

          • (Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday April 24 2015, @10:05PM

            by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday April 24 2015, @10:05PM (#174856) Homepage

            My word! Quite a lack of civilization in here, methinks. Best to scoot out before the fisticuffs.

            Is there no decency in this abhorrent world in which we live? Whatever happened to manners and respect of kinfolk? It's barbaric!

          • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 24 2015, @10:44PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 24 2015, @10:44PM (#174873)

            It's not that you're wrong; it's just that you're a dick about it.

            • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @12:21AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @12:21AM (#174895)

              One can only tolerate so much transparent, partisan, and thinly-veiled racist bullshit and remain polite about it. After about the 100th time, there's no reason to not be a dick to hateful bigots spreading lies.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @02:34AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @02:34AM (#174932)

                I can and have said the same thing about ikanreed.

                Bonus: it seems that the entirely veiled mod wars are heating up. Content, cognition, logic, sources, or just plain human decency be damned. In the lead as usual is ikanreed followed by The Mighty Buzzard with jmorris approaching fast. Out of the top three, only one seems to have posts consistently and swiftly downmodded if in disagreement.

                • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday April 25 2015, @02:43AM

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday April 25 2015, @02:43AM (#174936) Journal

                  But wait! Did you not see that the whole kerfuffle has resulted in Eth posting a polite intervention with no racism or profanity!!! Makes it all worth it. And if it can help jmorris stop being such a partisan bigot, that would be nice as well.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @11:33AM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @11:33AM (#175027)

                    He was down modded earlier. Twas reinforcing my point on hushing anyone that does not toe the line. But you are right, maybe progress can be made. If only it affected the third one too, he has been slowly getting more virulent over the last few months.

                    In any case I am glad they are around. It is hard to have a strong disagreement with someone if they aren't capable of producing value themselves.

            • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Saturday April 25 2015, @03:47AM

              by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 25 2015, @03:47AM (#174955) Journal

              Yeah, I was a dick about it. You're right. I don't want to apologize because I feel it was deserved, but my feelings aren't the only ones that count. Sorry.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @11:37AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @11:37AM (#175029)

                What about jmorris and his feelings? And how can progress be made when verbal stones are being thrown?

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @01:30PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @01:30PM (#175049)

                Please consider that this place would be a lot more fun if we could all be civil, even when we disagree. Otherwise we might as well hang up the shingle and go back to Slashdot.

    • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday April 25 2015, @02:43AM

      by captain normal (2205) on Saturday April 25 2015, @02:43AM (#174935)

      Because, as the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutic industry demonstrates, the market sucks at efficiently doing anything that requires complex domain knowledge, except parting fools and their money.

      TFTFY

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
  • (Score: 2) by Tramii on Friday April 24 2015, @06:20PM

    by Tramii (920) on Friday April 24 2015, @06:20PM (#174784)

    Define "most effective". Most effective at "curing" ailments? Or most effective at earning maximum profits for the company selling them?

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by davester666 on Friday April 24 2015, @06:38PM

    by davester666 (155) on Friday April 24 2015, @06:38PM (#174795)

    Different ones work best for each person. You need just the right combination of common and rare ingredients, with an appropriate mix of medical jargon, the right price, and a reasonable level of promises of effectiveness for a specific person to believe it'll work. It's different for everyone.

    • (Score: 1) by CaTfiSh on Saturday April 25 2015, @10:17AM

      by CaTfiSh (5221) on Saturday April 25 2015, @10:17AM (#175013)

      Somehow I don't think that impresses my elderly cat, but yet a homeopathic preparation seems to reliably cure her urinary tract infections.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by gringer on Saturday April 25 2015, @03:22AM

    by gringer (962) on Saturday April 25 2015, @03:22AM (#174944)

    There has actually been quite a bit of research on the most effective placebo. See here for a nice video summary:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfRVCaA5o18 [youtube.com]

    or here if you can't be bothered with a 1m introduction:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfRVCaA5o18&t=1m05s [youtube.com]

    If you're taking it orally, take lots of big expensive branded capsules once a day for the best effect. If you want even more power, use a syringe and combine it with a big ass-science machine.

    --
    Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
    • (Score: 2) by SubiculumHammer on Saturday April 25 2015, @03:36AM

      by SubiculumHammer (5191) on Saturday April 25 2015, @03:36AM (#174948)

      +1

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by tynin on Saturday April 25 2015, @05:06AM

      by tynin (2013) on Saturday April 25 2015, @05:06AM (#174978) Journal

      ...combine it with a big ass-science machine.

      +1, would lol again.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @08:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2015, @08:27PM (#175153)

      a big ass-science machine

      I see that you have followed the way of the master. [xkcd.com]

      -- gewg_