Comments on: All bow before the mighty power of the nocebo effect

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:32:42 +0000

Firstly, I hope the people who think homeopathic remedies work aren’t Derren Brown fans. He would laugh in your faces. Why are you on his site?!

Secondly, you need to get your heads round the concept of SCIENCE. Scientists don’t say it’s useless because they feel like it. They say it because they’ve carried out multiple double-blinded clinical trials with proper samples of the population. Your individual anecdotal evidence means NOTHING, and if you think we should base medicine on what you’ve observed happening to your DOG, Christ help us all.

You’re either misinformed, ignorant or stupid. Pick one and work on rectifying it.

By: frieda peppercorn

frieda peppercorn — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:23:33 +0000

my dog had a cyst on his paw and was given a remedy to fix it, it went in less than a day, and if i forgot to give him the pill for one day it would come back on that day, how can this be a placebo, he is a dog…and it cant ‘just get better on its own’ because the days i forgot to give him the pill it would come back! i know this is just one instance, but i know many people it has worked on, where it cant have been the placebo affect. people dismiss it because the dont understand it, or that it does not work on every one every time, but thats because it takes time to find the right remidy for the right person, and their specific ailment, rather than just masking the illness, like regular medecine, homeopathy helps get rid of it, like it has got rid of my dust allergy. i dont care how it works, all i know is that it does!

By: Irony

Irony — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:21:19 +0000

I’m loving how derren has posted this story and people are saying homeopathy works. THEIR IS NOTHING IN THE PILLS OTHER THAN SUGAR. THESE PILLS DO NOT WORK. HOW CAN THEY?! The water that you drink probably has more chemicals in it than these! There is no way this works.

The same thing applies to lourdes. Everyone claims for miraculous healing water, IT DOESNT CURE ANYTHING there are just some cases where “things get better” and because this happens to some doesn’t mean the pills do anything!

People should really do some research before immediately replying to things.

By: frieda peppercorn

frieda peppercorn — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:29:50 +0000

i’m sorry but homeopathy does work, i have used it and we even we treat our dogs with homeopathic pills, and it really works, and if its on a dog, how can it be a placebo effect?? one of our dogs had a prolapsed disc in his back, and could barely move, the regular vet said there wasnt much hope and they would try and operate, but couldn’t promise anything, so we turned to out homeopathic vet and he prescribed some pills and with in days he was a new dog, completely better!

By: david

david — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:32:36 +0000

Homeopathy can work. My dad had been suffering from M.E for years. He took the pill to relieve some of the pain (only one half of it) and then, miraculously, it worked. Whilst there is no rational explanation for how the hell this could possibly happen, it was definately not the placebo effect seeing as he took the pill, being about 100% sure that it would not work.

However, i have taken simmilar pills and even with a positive attitude, they did not work at all, so there is definately something there, but it is inconsistent and usually a poor relacement to real medicine.

By: Nopke

Nopke — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:49:30 +0000

I sell them because people want to buy them … yeah, that’s commerce .. that’s people’s nature. People dont want to know the truth quite often. They buy hope and some time away from the truth inside. A romantic movie is not true either .. but hey … as so many other things. People actually do at times believe in that stuff. And you can’t blame them …

Books … lots of lies in them … self help books etc … but no-one is fighting them yet ..

Ofcourse .. there should be limits on what they put out as PR around homeopathic products .. that they wont cure cancer etc. Maybe use the same pr as with alcohol and such … ehehehe …

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:12:53 +0000

I believe homoeopathy is baloney but it seems a bit mean spirited to try and convince people they are wrong if their ignorance is making them well.

Is it better to be informed and feeling ill or ignorant but feeling better?
Perhaps the NHS should be making its own sugar pills as cheaply as it can and then providing them as ‘homoeopathy’ for those patients who wish to take them? If the patient shows improvement from a condition that couldn’t otherwise be treated surely everyone wins.

By: Ben Jardine

Ben Jardine — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:46:31 +0000

People believe in religion, smoke fags and drink alcohol legally so why not just let them believe in sugar pills? Irrationality is now the norm in PCGB Plc. thanks to NuLab and their attacks on the freedom of speech that would otherwise have mocked homeopathy out of the public onsciousness

By: roz

roz — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:31:53 +0000

why shouldnt insurance companies want to pay for homeopathic drugs? they’re a whole lot cheaper!

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:03:04 +0000

I am sure many homoeopathy pills are a good safe placebo, so it makes sense to allow their use in any health service so long as they don’t contain any harmful quantities of toxic substances.