Hypnotism and Homeopathy - a rejoinder

[muthu kumar]

This is a reply I sent to hypnosis and hypnotherapy yahoo group for
the comment below. My reply is at the end of the post
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Sorry for coming late into this -

I have a background in homeopathy and hypnosis and I have a medical
degree as well...

I have used homeopathy to treat and cure many pathological conditions
after the patient had done the rounds with many physicians of repute
without relief ( so obviously the placebo effect had not worked with
them) and had benefited considerably with homeopathic remedies. This
kind of clinical evidence repeated over and over does not support the
contention of just placebo effect for homeopathy...
Most of the patients coming to homeopathy have already gone to many
specialists or regular hospitals before coming to homeopathy - and
there is no reason why homeopathy alone could effect a placebo effect
when regular doctors with impressive degrees and an authoritative aura
could not exert the same placebo effect? In fact I would say the
conditions that would respond to placebo effect DO NOT come to
homeopathy at all for the mere fact that they have already gone to
other regular doctors in whose care that placebo effect had already
"cured" them and filtered them out. It is the rest, the ones who do
not respond to such placebo that come to homeopathy.
I have still got to see placebo effect to correct pain associated with
disc prolapse ( of 3 years duration and treated by leading orthopedic
doctors ) after a single dose of homeopathic remedy ( and at that time
I was practising in a dingy room at the back of another building - the
least impressive clinic you would ever see); also reduce levels of
urea in blood associated with 1 kidney failure and hydrpnephrosis in
another with stones, which case also responded to just a single
medicine....
The problem in proving homeopathy scientifically or in finding the
mechanisms of its action does not negate the practical results that
could be achieved independent of its so-branded placebo effect.

Veterinary homeopathy is another field that is flourishing - and that
itself counters the placebo contention...

We can probably say for non-believers -the jury is still out, only
till we create a research protocol that would satisfy the scientific
community. But for people who have prescribed homeopathy and seen it
working and for the countless people that it has helped all across the
world, it is a boon to humanity.

I have practised in India using homeopathy. There , people who are
most amenable to placebo, generally believe that injections are the
answers to everything. They need to get a shot to call the treatment
effective and I have known many medical doctors just giving distilled
water injections along with oral antibiotics just to get the patients
coming... and in their midst if homeopathy with its sugar pills can
survive it is certainly not due to placebo effect...people were not
getting homeopathic injections...

People like Ben, who think they are the analytical geniuses and the
rest are idiots and gullible, need to have THEIR heads examined...

[Luise Kunkle]

Hi H2200,

I agree with all you say in your reply - only one addition:

It is just not true that in the studies that showed
significantly positive for the flaws you seem to accept as given are
actually existent.

In many of them randomization and double blind method was done, and
they have been published.

Regards

Luise
--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
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