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Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

skeptic.org.uk

51–60 of 172 posts

Re: Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

#51

I still don't understand why these can be sold in American pharmacies.

Because every bottle is clearly labeled “The FDA has not evaluated this for treating any condition”. There are a great many products that the FDA hasn’t evaluated that are still sold, why should these be any different?

Because a lot of those bottles also make claims that are in violation of the FDA rules. The label is not sufficient.

They need to avoid making claims that they can treat or diagnose some condition. They do their best to hint at it without crossing the line, and frequently blatantly do cross it. The FDA does not have anywhere near the manpower to enforce it. And when they do finally get around to it, the brand vanishes, and a new one appears with exactly the same product lineup.

The sector has long lost any entitlement to benefit of the doubt. They are knowingly making illegal claims and using a disclaimer as a fig leaf even though everything else on the package contradicts it.

Re: Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

#52
post #10

If homeopathy "theory" says that the water retains an "imprint" of other chemicals it encountered, clearly the tap water coming into your house is horribly contaminated with the fish pee, ozone (from UV purification treatment) and the pipes themselves. I briefly considered selling a device that would "reverse" those consequences so the water from your tap would be homeopathically neutralized. But it just seemed uneth…

Such devices are indeed already on the market. They are fancy water filters, nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

#53

Homeopathy is BS, but understanding of edible foraging and plant chemistry is surprisingly helpful for better health and diet. As an example onions and garlic do nothing to cure or address asthma. They do contain an active chemical that vaporized when they are cut which causes uncontrolled tear production. That same chemical agitates the throat in a way that arrests some amount of night coughing induced by asthma. An…

> Another is that common fruits like pears, apples, and citrus contain drug like chemicals that alter the metabolism. This is super potent in grapefruit and has been known to cause fatal drug interactions in people on prescribed medicine.

Grapefruit does not "alter the metabolism." Furanocoumarin binds to a receptor in the gut which causes some medications to pass through the gut much faster than normal which affects the level of the medicine in the blood.

That has nothing to do with "metabolism."

It also only affects some medications.

You might want to refrain from commenting on medicine until you have an actual science-based education in it.

Re: Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because every bottle is clearly labeled “The FDA has not evaluated this for treating any condition”. There are a great many products that the FDA hasn’t evaluated that are still sold, why should these be any different?

But why are businesses like CVS hawking snake oil while also having trained pharmacists on staff.

It makes money

Re: Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

#58

I regularly had arguments on homeopathy with some close family members. I stopped, because belief in homeopathy is the same kind of belief as belief in flat-earth, and you can't be cured off it. People get seduced by a somewhat internal logic. They get a fuzzy feeling of superiority in their discovery that the mainstream ignores. If you point out the absolute lack of evidence of any of what they believe in, it's beca…

There's more to it. I am someone who has had medical problems that took years to diagnose. I had doctors who were terrific and I had doctors be almost accusatory when the tests they ran came back negative. When the medical establishment fails you it's tough, and there plenty of snake oil salesmen who are happy to sell you a cure THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT!!! I can see the allure when there's literally no one else to turn to.

Re: Research into homeopathy: data falsification, fabrication and manipulation

#59
post #36
post #10

If homeopathy "theory" says that the water retains an "imprint" of other chemicals it encountered, clearly the tap water coming into your house is horribly contaminated with the fish pee, ozone (from UV purification treatment) and the pipes themselves. I briefly considered selling a device that would "reverse" those consequences so the water from your tap would be homeopathically neutralized. But it just seemed uneth…

> But it just seemed unethical to take advantage of the poorly educated I thought about doing the same during COVID when people were believing ludicrous claims about nanobots in the vaccine. I was thinking that you could make a nice chunk of coin selling those old acam magnetic bracelets that 'deactivate the nanobots so that you can get the vaccine protection without the bots' That way people would be helped by your…

Other scammers might be even less scrupulous and sell stuff which is actively harmful.
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