Homeopathic Medicine.. does it work ?

Rigsby

The vet I bring my dog to believes in Homeopathic Medicine as well as conventional medicine. I have no opinions either way on this, but just wanted to get some views or opinions here. I know the basic idea is to kick start the body's natural healing mechanism, but is there any hard evidence that it actually works ?

amazingemmet

There is no evidence Homeopathy works at all, it has never been shown to be better then a placebo in any trials.

kylith

There is no evidence that it works any better than placebo.

fourcats

farrington.vet@gmail.com Try this site and see what you think.

Rosemarie.

Rancid

Rigsby wrote: »

The vet I bring my dog to believes in Homeopathic Medicine as well as conventional medicine. I have no opinions either way on this, but just wanted to get some views or opinions here. I know the basic idea is to kick start the body's natural healing mechanism, but is there any hard evidence that it actually works ?

My vet also uses Homoeopathic remedies as well as conventional medicine and that's one of the reasons I chose him.
I've found Homoeopathy to be quite successful both for myself and my cats.
The best example I can give is this: My 7 year old neutered tom cat had started marking his territory INSIDE the house as well as the garden. After 4 or 5 days on Staphysagria the indoor marking and spraying stopped 100% and he continued to spray in the garden. A very specific and positive result!

Tigger

i'm confident homeopathy is total nonsense
any placebo effect that it has on humans is irrelevant to animals

if yer using it to treat cats spraying in the house then fire away but not for anything serious please

Discodog

I also believe it to be pointless & just an expensive placebo. It can also be very dangerous if you rely on it rather than "normal" medical care.

I am sure that there are a few Vets that believe it (if maybe from the placebo aspect). But I am also sure that some will offer it as an additional profit centre in that they know that some clients are looking for alternative therapies.

doctor evil

If water had 'memory' which is the basis of homeopathy would it not remember all the sh*t* it had been through?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0

Rigsby

Tigger wrote: »

if yer using it to treat cats spraying in the house then fire away but not for anything serious please

I doubt very much that any serious animal lover would endorse using it as a stand alone treatment for anything serious.



Some have mentioned about vets making a profit from it. The vet I currently go to, is a lot cheaper than the previous two, who did not use homeopathy.

Rancid

Rigsby wrote: »

I doubt very much that any serious animal lover would endorse using it as a stand alone treatment for anything serious....

As a complementary medicine, it's very useful in treating many non-serious conditions, obviously it's not to be relied on for every illness, but ongoing chronic ailments respond well to it.
That's why any vet using Homoeopathic remedies is also a fully qualified vet!

Rigsby

Rancid wrote: »

As a complementary medicine, it's very useful in treating many non-serious conditions, obviously it's not to be relied on for every illness, but ongoing chronic ailments respond well to it.
That's why any vet using Homoeopathic remedies is also a fully qualified vet!

Thanks for that.

My vet seems to use it as a kind of follow up treatment, after performing whatever is required on the "conventional" side of things.

As I said in my original post, I have no opinions on this either way, but I have no problem following the vets advice and administering this medicine, if it, in any small way, helps to improve my pet's health.

Whispered

Discodog wrote: »

I also believe it to be pointless & just an expensive placebo. It can also be very dangerous if you rely on it rather than "normal" medical care.

+1

Placebos wouldn't work on animals. I don't know enough about it to comment on homeopathic medicine, but I do know people who swear by it for themselves and their pets.

I think that as usual when a thread like this comes up it is very important to point out that ANY complementary therapist (whatever the therapy) should always advise that therapy should only be used to complement proper vet/doctor care.

Cherry Blossom

I have seen equissage work miracles on jittery mares. It may have some scientific basis though, release of endorphines, mimics the grooming they perform on each other etc. I suppose it may depend on the particular treatment.

pokertalk

placebo does not work on animals so if it helps then its working in my opinion.my mother had cancer and the traditional treatment was making her very ill so she went with the homeopathy and it worked for her ,she is in remission now. it is very expensive

kylith

pokertalk wrote: »

placebo does not work on animals so if it helps then its working in my opinion.my mother had cancer and the traditional treatment was making her very ill so she went with the homeopathy and it worked for her ,she is in remission now. it is very expensive

That's all part of the placebo effect; studies have shown that the more expensive the treatment the better it works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_effect#Mechanism_of_the_effect

fourcats

I was delighted to see your reply regarding your neutered tom. I too am having the same problem with a neutered tom. It started a couple of years ago when a stray started visiting through the cat flap, now when he plays with our dog he gets carried away and sprays just for the hell of it - tried everything, including hormone tablets to no avail. In what form did you give the staphysagnia and what potency? would appreciate any suggestions.
Many thanks
Rosemarie

Tigger

pokertalk wrote: »

placebo does not work on animals so if it helps then its working in my opinion.my mother had cancer and the traditional treatment was making her very ill so she went with the homeopathy and it worked for her ,she is in remission now. it is very expensive

Ok glad she's doing well

Homeopathy is water water it shouldt be epensive

kylith

pokertalk wrote: »

placebo does not work on animals so if it helps then its working in my opinion.

Actually there is acase of placebo-by-proxy where the vet's assurances mean that the owner can believe they see an improvement. There's also the possibility that the owner being less stressed about the animals illness means that the animal is less stressed and therefore appears better.

The case studies at the end are very interesting.
http://www.ukskeptics.com/article.php?dir=articles&article=it_works_in_animals.php

The link to the dairy cow study doesn't work, but I found this one:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1751-0147-44-97.pdf

Shenshen

Rigsby wrote: »

The vet I bring my dog to believes in Homeopathic Medicine as well as conventional medicine. I have no opinions either way on this, but just wanted to get some views or opinions here. I know the basic idea is to kick start the body's natural healing mechanism, but is there any hard evidence that it actually works ?

Homeopathy works on the principle that any substance that would cause certain symptoms can be used to cure any sickness that displays the same symptoms. All substances get watered down to such a degree that mathematically, there is next to no chance of a single molecule of the substance in the resulting solution.
The theory is that water "memorises" the substance, so the more you water it down, the more potent it becomes.

It's up to you if you want to believe it or not. If you do, getting drunk should become a whole lot cheaper.

Scientifically, no study that I'm aware of ever showed it to be any more effective than placebos.

Rancid

fourcats wrote: »

I was delighted to see your reply regarding your neutered tom. I too am having the same problem with a neutered tom. It started a couple of years ago when a stray started visiting through the cat flap, now when he plays with our dog he gets carried away and sprays just for the hell of it - tried everything, including hormone tablets to no avail. In what form did you give the staphysagnia and what potency? would appreciate any suggestions.
Many thanks
Rosemarie

I think it was the potency was 6, the one that has the most physical effects and it was in the form of a liquid, literally just 2 little pillules dissolved in a tiny bottle of water and shaken.
As far as I can remember I gave the cat 5ml twice a day between meals.
It's important to administer it an hour after food, and at least an hour before the next food.

Before the vet prescribed this remedy, he examined him thoroughly for any signs of urinary tract infection, or any other condition that could cause the excessive spraying and only then prescribed the homoeopathic remedy.

Nonoperational

Homeopathy is 100% nonsense. There are no ifs buts or maybe's.

Rancid

When my daughter was aged 4 or 5 she had recurring strep throat infections and antibiotics each time.
Our Homoeopath prescribed Homoeopathic Sulphur and the redness and swelling were gone in 3 or 4 days.
And it actually seemed to give her some immunity from it for several years.

Owen

Part of me is disappointed that people would give their animals water and pay for it, depriving them of actual medicine, but part of me is more disappointed that people believe in Homeopathy. It's just water.

DeVore

If "alternative medicine" worked and be shown to have worked... it would be called "medicine".


DeV.

sligopark

No expert but I remember reading somewhere that because homeopathic remedies worked with animals it was an arguement agianst the placebo thing although the owner's reassurance thing would implicate something else at work

Owen

Homeopathy is based on the assertion (Or made up malarky if you like) that water has a memory. So what they do is they take something which causes similar symptoms to what you're suffering from, and stir it around in water. Then take a drop or two of that water, dilute it, take a drop of that water, dilute it, and keep doing that.

The problem is threefold.

1. Curing illnesses by administering something that causes similar symptoms is a bit daft.
2. By the time all the dilution has happened, the original liquid is so watered down that if you had a swimming pool of water, there wouldn't be so much as a particle in it. *That's* how much dilution we're talking about.
3. If water really does have a memory for the things it's carried, how come it doesn't remember to carry things like poo, urine, used condoms, diseases and only remembers the happy homeopathy stuff?

It's just water. Water water water. That's all. It's made with good intentions yes, but absolutely no science, no logic, no common sense, and no brains. For the good of your pets give them real medicine - same applies to kids. Gambling their health with hocus pocus is not on.

Discodog

DeVore wrote: »

If "alternative medicine" worked and be shown to have worked... it would be called "medicine".


DeV.

Gosh we are honoured - unusual to see you in these parts !. I agree & I suspect that there is a placebo effect of sorts in Animals. I don't mean the sugar pill type but the extra attention that may come from being treated.

We all recover better when we are unstressed & feel a bit loved. Why should it be any different for an animal ?.

sligopark

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Homeopathy is based on the assertion (Or made up malarky if you like) that water has a memory.

didn't a japanese scientist years ago write a book about water crystal memory and the emotive imprinting upon these same crystals - any one else heard of it?

pokertalk

DeVore wrote: »

If "alternative medicine" worked and be shown to have worked... it would be called "medicine".


DeV.

as i said in my eairler post my mother had cancer and came off her durgs course and went for this alternative medicine and she has not got the cancer anymore. now i dont know much about alternative medicines but cant see how a placebo can cure cancer. if it works then its medicine no????
its also n h s approved with is something

Whispered

Can we please call it complementary medicine. It should never be used as an alternative.

/butting in.

Cherry Blossom

PaintDoctor wrote: »

3. If water really does have a memory for the things it's carried, how come it doesn't remember to carry things like poo, urine, used condoms, diseases and only remembers the happy homeopathy stuff?

I'm never drinking water again on the off chance that it does remember those things