Herbal fraudsters...

monquixote

Myranda said: "shove it up a pony to get golden eggs"

Sigworthy 

holnrew

octatonic said:

spider venom, uranium, asbestos, arsenic, botulism, formaldehyde & anthrax are all NATURAL substances.

I'm taking them all when I next get a cold.

fatherjack

Brass Saddles

Callahan trem blocks

:-?

bertie

fatherjack said:

Brass Saddles

Callahan trem blocks

:-?

these both definitely work (particularly the latter),    whether its for the better is subjective and open to debate, but a difference make, they certainly do.

back on topic,   we take echinacea tabs when the on-set of  "cold like symptoms" start......or there is "bug" going around -  and TBH 90% of the time,  full blown symptoms do not occur (I was careful not to put 'they work')  We certainly get a LOT less cold/sniffle/chil like attacks then we did prior to taking them.

Whether you believe its coincidence and they might not have occurred without taking the tabs - thas fine, and I may not disagree.  All I know is taking them "appears" to work.  So we will carry on

fatherjack

bertie said:

fatherjack said:

Brass Saddles

Callahan trem blocks

:-?

these both definitely work (particularly the latter),    whether its for the better is subjective and open to debate, but a difference make, they certainly do.

The definition of 'work' that's been used on here is 'shown to work after a double blind test'.  I'd be surprised if anyone's done a test rigorous enough to discount some of the distorting effects of users' expectations described in earlier posts.

JAYJO

I was told to try st johns Wort (sp) for depression( a few years back). I bought some for £17 squid(at a time when prescriptions were about £4, and felt more depressed robbing twunts.

I got more out of a self help book.

randomhandclaps

JAYJO said:

I was told to try st johns Wort (sp) for depression( a few years back). I bought some for £17 squid(at a time when prescriptions were about £4, and felt more depressed robbing twunts.

I got more out of a self help book.

You have to be careful.  Mixed with certain meds St John Wort can be fatal.  It's dodgy stuff.

HAL9000

Homeopathic A&E sketch from Mitchell & Webb Enjoy

JAYJO

randomhandclaps said:

JAYJO said:

I was told to try st johns Wort (sp) for depression( a few years back). I bought some for £17 squid(at a time when prescriptions were about £4, and felt more depressed robbing twunts.

I got more out of a self help book.

You have to be careful.  Mixed with certain meds St John Wort can be fatal.  It's dodgy stuff.

I will remember that and Thanks for pointing that out.

Evilmags

Homeopathy is state funded with royal approval. London has a Royal Homeopathic Hospital on prime central property worth milllions. Stupidity goes that high up. It also has the pernicious added bonus of granting official approval to homeopathy. Hence it is allowed. In the old days when people studied for the bar after a primary degree youd have had a small chance of getting a judge with a science background and could have tried a fraud suit. But the homeopathic industry is well funded and has a lot of public support. The state should stop funding it and remove that veneer of credibility. That alone would hurt the industry badly. A lot of public ridicule and a Daily Mail /Express campaign to expose fraudsters would also kill sales, as users of such products are hardly reading Grauniad/Times/Torygraph. If someone bothered to coordinate it I suspect the GMC and Big Pharma would happily lend a hand...

imalone

Bucket said:

I'm just going to leave this here.

Beat me to it.

NervousJohn

Year of two back I saw a car parked up in a local car park with the sign on the back

"Homeopath on call"


I turned to my mate, a GP, and agreed the appropriate response was "oh for fuck's sake"

holnrew

Evilmags said:

Homeopathy is state funded with royal approval. London has a Royal Homeopathic Hospital on prime central property worth milllions. Stupidity goes that high up. It also has the pernicious added bonus of granting official approval to homeopathy. Hence it is allowed. In the old days when people studied for the bar after a primary degree youd have had a small chance of getting a judge with a science background and could have tried a fraud suit. But the homeopathic industry is well funded and has a lot of public support. The state should stop funding it and remove that veneer of credibility. That alone would hurt the industry badly. A lot of public ridicule and a Daily Mail /Express campaign to expose fraudsters would also kill sales, as users of such products are hardly reading Grauniad/Times/Torygraph. If someone bothered to coordinate it I suspect the GMC and Big Pharma would happily lend a hand...

I'd have thought Guardian readers were most likely to be into it.

octatonic

Certainly the 'middle class hippy-dippy' is a cliche- I don't think they have ownership of being scientifically ignorant.

Evilmags

Ben Goldacre's one service to mankind was his work on homeopaths in the Grauniad. The shops that sell that sort of crap seem to employ dreadlocked types with suspect personal hygiene who, if female, are experts in cultivating armpit hair. The customers seem mainly middle class types. You only need to look where they print horoscopes and other such mystic nonsense. 

Tex Mexico

Myranda said:

 there was a fantastic thread on mumsnet ...

 ... was like a text version of loose women

Isn't Mumsnet just basically Loose Women anyway?

Reverend

What about those that push high dosages of vitamins?