Homeopathy Awareness Week June 14-21

This week is supposedly Homeopathy Awareness Week, at least in the UK.  If only people were aware of the bunk that is homeopathy perhaps we wouldn’t have children dying from easily managed conditions.

Here are a couple of articles by prominent skeptics that you might want to read to enlighten yourself:

Dr Steve Novella from Skepticsblog

According to the British Homeopathic Association (does that mean the fewer members they have the more powerful the group?) June 14-21 is Homeopathy Awareness Week. I would like to do my part to increase awareness of homeopathy.

I would like people to be aware of the fact that homeopathy is a pre-scientific philosophy, that it is based entirely on magical thinking and is out of step with the last 200 years of science. People should know that typical homeopathic remedies are diluted to the point that no active ingredient remains, and that homeopaths invoke mysterious vibrations or implausible and highly fanciful water chemistry.  I would further like people to know that clinical research with homeopathic remedies, when taken as a whole, show no effect for any such remedy….[read more]

and some good news from Dr Rachael Dunlop on a prominent Homeopathic website being forced to remove unlawful   claims as to the efficacy of their product

Some good news to report regarding consumer protection. And news that it is illegal to imply that other therapeutic goods, including vaccines, are harmful.

Unfortunately, it has become all too common commonplace that SCAMs (Supplementary, Complementary andAlternative Medicine) make unsubstantiated claims about their products and services.

It has also become commonplace that they get away with making such claims, seemingly without consequence.

As was the case when I was told at the Mind Body Wallet festival that my friend’s cancer could be cured with an AUD12,000 course of fruit juice diets, detox and herbs/supplements. Claims such as these are illegal in New South Wales under section 5 of the Code of Conduct for Unregistered Practitioners which states that;

“Health practitioners not to make claims to cure certain serious illnesses. (1) A health practitioner must not hold him or herself out as qualified, able or willing to cure cancer and other serious illnesses”.

So it was a surprise to see this happen today.

This is the work of a sceptical colleague, Michael, who issued a lengthy complaint…[read more]

So what can we do as ordinary citizens to bring these wackaloons and mountebanks into line?

Well I noticed that my local YMCA has an advertiser promoting the following.  Now I know that Naturopathy is not the

same as Homeopathy (indeed Eren Segev on Skeptic Zone # 33 goes into a little detail about these methodologies) but the suggestion is the same.

Write a nicely worded letter to the organisations CEO, manager, PR department informing them of the lack of evidence for these remedies.  The ridiculous claims that they make.  Chances are that they are not aware of what Homeopathy/Naturopathy is or how its proponents claim that it works.

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