Posts Tagged ‘Homeopathy’
Homeopathic Remedy Found Ineffective at Pain Management
Researchers at the University of Exeter and the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital recently put homeopathic remedy arnica to the test and found it came up lacking.
Arnica tables are widely available in Great Britain and, according to the BBC, are “usually sold to control bruising, reduce swelling and generally help recovery after an injury or operation.”
Researchers studying the efficacy of arnica looked at patients about to have wrist surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. They divided the patients into three groups: one group received a high dosage of arnica, a second group a low dosage, and the third group received a placebo.
Along with asking patients to keep a diary of pain and monitoring their painkiller usage, the researchers took photos of the patients’ wrist and used a computer to evaluate the extent of bruising and swelling.
The result was there was no significant difference in terms of pain, bruising, swelling, or painkiller usage between the three groups.
Lead researcher professor Edzard Ernst told the BBC, “I hope this research will help people to look for more effective treatments and save money by not buying homeopathic arnica.”
Source:
Homeopathic remedy ‘ineffective’. The BBC, February 3, 2003.
Tags: Homeopathy
Study Finds No Benefit to Asthmatics from Homeopathic Remedies
Southampton General Hospital in Great Britain recently conducted a study to measure whether or not Homeopathy was effective in treating asthma, as its proponents claim.
Researchers identified 242 people who were asthmatic and allergic to house dust mite. Researchers gave some of those people a homeopathic remedy for asthma and the other half a placebo.
The results? No difference in lung function or quality of life between the group that received the placebo and the group that received the homeopathic remedy.
Of course this did not do a thing to dent support for treating asthma with homeopathic remedies among its supporters. The BBC quotes Dr. Peter Fisher who practices at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and is critical of this study.
Fisher tells the BBC that, “There have been four studies completed which show homeopathy does work for hay fever, asthma and perennial rhinitis.”
But those studies were all small and not as methodologically robust as this latest study, as the authors note in their discussion of their findings which were published in the March 2 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Consider, for example, one of the studies alluded to by Fisher — a 28 patient study of homeopathic remedies given to rhinitis sufferers. It did find a benefit to homeopathy, but it had a serious flaw as the authors of the BMJ study note,
Other than attributing a type 1 error to the earlier study, which we believe was underpowered, one possible reason for the difference between the two studies may be because in the earlier study a homoeopath was involved in patient selection and could veto entry for any individual patient, though no details of entry criteria were given. Perhaps differences in patient recruitment or other unknown factors may explain the inconsistency of the results between these two studies. However, in view of the much larger sample used in our study compared with the earlier one, the proposal that homoeopathic immunotherapy is efficacious in selected patients with asthma should be treated with some caution.
The presence of subjective entrance criteria for the earlier rhinitis study is a huge red flag
Source:
Use of ultramolecular potencies of allergen to treat asthmatic people allergic to house dust mite: double blind randomised controlled clinical trial. G T Lewith, A D Watkins, M E Hyland, S Shaw, J A Broomfield, G Dolan, and S T Holgate. British Medical Journal, 2002;324:520, March 2, 2002.
Homeopathy ‘no benefit’ to asthmatics. The BBC, March 1, 2002.
Tags: Alternative Medicine, Homeopathy
British Health System May Pay for Alternative Therapies
In December the BBC reported that the United Kingdom is considering expanding the range of alternative therapies available from its National Health Service. Considering that the NHS already has enough problems finding the money to pay for medical services, this seems like an extremely unwise move.
According to the BBC, the NHS already pays for chiropractic, acupuncture and osteopathic therapy if doctors prescribe it for patients. Some groups in Great Britain would like the NHS to cover herbal medicine, homeopathy and other alternative medical remedies.
The UK Department of Health claims that any alternative treatment will have to pass muster in clinical trials to be approved within the NHS.
Source:
Alternative therapies ‘backed by ministers’. The BBC, December 31, 2001.
Tags: Alternative Medicine, Homeopathy
Cyberchondria
The BBC recently had a story about a growing phenomenon which it called cyberchondria — people who mis-diagnose themselves (often with phantom illnesses) thanks to Internet sites that offer dubious health-related information.
The unique nature of the Internet, which allows people to communicate more quickly and widely than ever before, turns out to also be a boon to hypochondriacs and quacks to more widely disseminate their claims. The BBC cited a University of Alabama study which found that people with Munchausen syndrome (who feign illness to get sympathetic attention) “had been logging on to Internet chat rooms and claiming illness, rape or assault in an attempt to get an audience for their claims.”
The Internet also makes it easier for traditional quacks to reach larger audiences. Just enter the keyword “homeopathy” into an Internet search engine for confirmation of this. Of course the Internet also makes it easier for skeptics and others to quickly direct people to information that debunks such nonsense, so the Internet is a double edged sword for such quackery.
Source:
‘Cyberchondria’ hits web users. The BBC, April 13, 2001.
Tags: Homeopathy