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Does anyone take them?

 

I just bought Oscillococcinum, which is something you take when you feel rundown and it's supposed to kill off the cold/flu/body chills symptoms. They were out of the immune booster tablets, it's copper gold silver (zinc too) so that's on order for me.

 

My sis, husband and kids haven't been sick ONCE! They swear this stuff works, so I'm giving it a try. I've had abit of a sore throat the last few days so let's see if this stuff actually works!

Edited by a LoveShack.org Moderator
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I don't really take anything like that, but there are three things my mother always swore by and I tend to believe:

 

- plain yogurt is one of the best things you can eat on a regular basis; the acidopholus keeps the good bacteria thriving and the bad bacteria in check. Also, it makes a great face mask to soften skin and exfoliate!

 

- chamomile tea and Greek mountain tea cure everything from stomach upsets to bad moods; in my family, we give chamomile tea to babies and toddlers instead of fruit juices

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I'm all about airborne. And Emergen'C packets.

 

But I am pretty skepital of homeopathic remedies.

 

From quackwatch.com:

 

Oscillococcinum, a 200C product "for the relief of colds and flu-like symptoms," involves "dilutions" that are even more far-fetched. Its "active ingredient" is prepared by incubating small amounts of a freshly killed duck's liver and heart for 40 days. The resultant solution is then filtered, freeze-dried, rehydrated, repeatedly diluted, and impregnated into sugar granules. If a single molecule of the duck's heart or liver were to survive the dilution, its concentration would be 1 in 100 to the 200th power. This huge number, which has 400 zeroes, is vastly greater than the estimated number of molecules in the universe (about one googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeroes). In its February 17, 1997, issue, U.S. News & World Report noted that only one duck per year is needed to manufacture the product, which had total sales of $20 million in 1996. The magazine dubbed that unlucky bird "the $20-million duck."
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duck's liver and heart for 40 days. The resultant solution is then filtered, freeze-dried, rehydrated, repeatedly diluted, and impregnated into sugar granules. If a single molecule of the duck's heart or liver were to survive the dilution

 

Okay, so more or less you're saying what I took earlier today was fermented inside of a duck's liver and heart for 40 days.....hmm...

 

Anyway, the stuff is working because I feel much better than earlier today.

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The human mind is a powerful thing indeed. I think most things are more about belief than actual scientific effect. This is why placebos seem to have some effect in almost every test. I'd say that the belief in the product is responsible for a good portion of the results people see.

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melodymatters
The human mind is a powerful thing indeed. I think most things are more about belief than actual scientific effect. This is why placebos seem to have some effect in almost every test. I'd say that the belief in the product is responsible for a good portion of the results people see.

 

 

I completely agree ! Good to see you back, how did your Corleone family revenge style plot ever work out ?

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I completely agree ! Good to see you back, how did your Corleone family revenge style plot ever work out ?

 

Things are well. Finishing up school and working on a "web 2.0" project (a website) in my spare time with a couple friends.

 

As for my revenge, I realized that I didn't even have to do anything (although she's still under investigation from work). The best revenge was seeing that she sits around and plays MMORPGs with all her spare time now. I think that's worse than anything I could have ever done to her. I kept the money though, I figure it's reparations for supporting her for the majority of the relationship (the number is about right when I did the math).

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Phil McCracken
Anyway, the stuff is working because I feel much better than earlier today.

I'm pretty sure that homeopathic remedies work. They are based on very solid science, so don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Scientists are, by their very nature, conservative, and they won't say something is proven if there is 0.000001% chance that it might not be. Let's face it - the results speak for themselves. Any normal person would accept them as a miracle of nature.

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I'm pretty sure that homeopathic remedies work. They are based on very solid science, so don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Scientists are, by their very nature, conservative, and they won't say something is proven if there is 0.000001% chance that it might not be. Let's face it - the results speak for themselves. Any normal person would accept them as a miracle of nature.

 

Just want to point out that, in science, nothing can be proven. Theories can only be dis-proven. As science gets more advanced, theories that are considered "fact" might very well be a complete fallacy (for example, the world being flat). Science is basically, a bunch of concepts that are tested to see which one is more logical. As new theories are introduced and better testing equipment becomes available, we understand more and more... although, we're currently very much a toddler in the time line of science at this point.

 

Guess, I'm just trying to say... take everything with a grain of salt.

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I'm pretty sure that homeopathic remedies work. They are based on very solid science, so don't believe everything you read .... the results speak for themselves.

 

I don't beleive everything I read, especially when it comes to pseudo-science. If herbal suppliments lived up to their claims (and to _real_ scientific double-blind studies), they would no longer be suppliments and would become scheduled drugs.

 

I would like to see even 1 example of this "very solid science."

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I'm pretty sure that homeopathic remedies work. They are based on very solid science, so don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Scientists are, by their very nature, conservative, and they won't say something is proven if there is 0.000001% chance that it might not be. Let's face it - the results speak for themselves. Any normal person would accept them as a miracle of nature.

 

Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a German physician, began formulating homeopathy's basic principles in the late 1700s. His work was in response to the admittedly torturous and not very effective medical treatments of the time, like bloodletting,leeching, and purging.

 

Homeopathy was much more benign than the current treatments of the day and thus gained popularity among healthcare practitioners in the 18th century.

 

At the turn of the twentieth century, homeopathy had about 14,000 practitioners and 22 schools in the United States. But as medical science and medical education advanced, homeopathy declined sharply in America, where its schools either closed or converted to modern methods. The last pure homeopathic school in this country closed during the 1920s.

 

Homeopathic products are made from minerals, botanical substances, and several other sources. If the original substance is soluble, one part is diluted with either nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and shaken vigorously (succussed); if insoluble, it is finely ground and pulverized in similar proportions with powdered lactose (milk sugar). One part of the diluted medicine is then further diluted, and the process is repeated until the desired concentration is reached. Dilutions of 1 to 10 are designated by the Roman numeral X (1X = 1/10, 3X = 1/1,000, 6X = 1/1,000,000). Similarly, dilutions of 1 to 100 are designated by the Roman numeral C (1C = 1/100, 3C = 1/1,000,000, and so on). Most remedies today range from 6X to 30X, but products of 30C or more are marketed.

 

A 30X dilution means that the original substance has been diluted 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times. Assuming that a cubic centimeter of water contains 15 drops, this number is greater than the number of drops of water that would fill a container more than 50 times the size of the Earth. Imagine placing a drop of red dye into such a container so that it disperses evenly. Homeopathy's "law of infinitesimals" is the equivalent of saying that any drop of water subsequently removed from that container will possess an essence of redness. Robert L. Park, Ph.D., a prominent physicist who is executive director of The American Physical Society, has noted that since the least amount of a substance in a solution is one molecule, a 30C solution would have to have at least one molecule of the original substance dissolved in a minimum of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. This would require a container more than 30,000,000,000 times the size of the Earth.

 

But if you believe it, it will likely have some sort of effect on you. Hell my SO KNOWS all this stuff about homeopathy and still uses it and says it works.

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Phil McCracken

The big pharmaceutical companies know that homeopathy works, but they spend billions to propagate misinformation on the Internet. The science is pretty much understood, and the results are way beyond what is to be expected with placebo. The "dilution" misinformation is perhaps the most common propaganda - failing to take into account of the multitude of structural modifications that take place when molecules interact.

 

Big pharma is scared of homeopathy because they are certain it would totally erode their profit margins. They need more patients to treat, not less, so that their profits can be maximized.

 

The truth is out there.

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Last edited by LoveShack.org Moderator; Yesterday at 8:31 PM.

 

Thank you for changing homopatic to homeopathic in the my thread title!

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The big pharmaceutical companies know that homeopathy works, but they spend billions to propagate misinformation on the Internet. The science is pretty much understood, and the results are way beyond what is to be expected with placebo. The "dilution" misinformation is perhaps the most common propaganda - failing to take into account of the multitude of structural modifications that take place when molecules interact.

 

Big pharma is scared of homeopathy because they are certain it would totally erode their profit margins. They need more patients to treat, not less, so that their profits can be maximized.

 

The truth is out there.

 

Bollocks. I think that if homeopathy really did work as you say it does, the pharmaceuticals industry would have been cashing in on it long ago. They would own all the patents, and be marketing it alongside conventional medicine. People use both kinds all the time.

 

The alternative therapies industry is worth billions NOW, but the pharmaceutical industry can only market things that have been tested according to stringent standards, and peer- reviewed over and over again.

 

I went to a lecture about homeopathy in my field recently and it was full of anecdotal "isn't it wonderful" evidence. The speaker contradicted herself and did not quote from one single randomised control trial/ scientific paper/ peer review. So much for your "solid science". She also refused point blank to answer any "controversial" questions, which is exceptionally unscientific- true science is always open to criticism.

 

Homeopaths CAN do these trials if they want to. There is enough money floating around in the industry to do so. They know that if they do the trials and review them, they will gain much more credibility in the scientific world. Unfortunately, they KNOW that their results will not be favourable to them, so they drag their heels and moan about lack of funding as an excuse not to perform such trials.

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  • 3 weeks later...
shadowofman

I'm a huge conspiracy nut and even I know that homeopathy is crap. There is a big difference in what is now claimed to be homeopathy. Homeopathy is based on the assumption that like cures like. A substance such as a poison that would give you the effects of, say, the flu, would be diluted to a point that it is harmless, and then used as a cure.

 

This is not the same as an herbal remedy. Some of these remedies claim to be homeopathic, but they are doing themselves a disservice. Natural occurring chemicals can effect, positively, our health for sure. But to dilute this chemical down to nothing is useless, which is the definition of homeopathic.

 

So, Phil, do not confuse your herbal substances with homeopathic substances. Your herbs could work. As could simply eating healthy natural foods.

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Good point Shadow- I am all for natural remedies, esp those that have been proven to work (there are many). But ones that follow the principles of homeopathy have nowhere near enough proof to substantiate their claims IMO

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Homeopathy is based on the assumption that like cures like. A substance such as a poison that would give you the effects of, say, the flu, would be diluted to a point that it is harmless, and then used as a cure.

 

This is not the same as an herbal remedy. Some of these remedies claim to be homeopathic, but they are doing themselves a disservice. Natural occurring chemicals can effect, positively, our health for sure. But to dilute this chemical down to nothing is useless, which is the definition of homeopathic.

 

So, Phil, do not confuse your herbal substances with homeopathic substances. Your herbs could work. As could simply eating healthy natural foods.

 

Excellent and plain description, shadow.

 

I agree...homeopathy is not herbal remedies. While it may work, I doubt that it is the "thought" of the chemical that is left in the solution.

 

Anyway, the stuff is working because I feel much better than earlier today.

 

And that is all that matters. :D

 

The fact is that without the pills you could have still felt better today.

 

It is like saying that this pill I took prevents elephants from stepping on me. Since I have not been stepped on yet, then it must be working. :laugh:

 

Personally, if something works, then I am for it.

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blind_otter

Speaking of herbal remebies, the company responsible for manufacturing Airborne just settled a $23 million class action lawsuit.

 

"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," David Schardt, a nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a written statement this week. "Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."

 

Well I feel lied to. I guess it was all about the placebo effect....

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The only concern is that while something may not help you, it still may be harmful. Taking all sorts of herbal remedies without researching the dangers...if they are known, can lead to other illnesses or even death. As a society, we want a pill for every problem. So, we have become more susceptible to outrageous claims...even though we should know better.

 

So, while this homeopathic remedy may have helped you via the placebo effect or even in reality, the concern is always there that it may also harm you. As a guy who has tried numerous remedies, I say that from the angle of one who wants them to work, too.

 

I was one who took MetaboLife before they went bankrupt from lawsuits. And yes, it worked, but it also gave me heart palpitations.

 

So, buyer beware at the expense of your life.

 

Here is just one of many examples.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62671-2004Sep4.html

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