6 responses so far ↓

• 1 Seanna Lea // Mar 14, 2013 at 8:19 am

  Thanks for the comedy list. I’d say that comedies are about 80% of what I watch, so the list is a good reminder of things to watch along with some things that are new to me.

• 2 KC // Mar 14, 2013 at 5:39 pm

  Are those the kind of homeopathy where they take a tiny amount of a substance and then water it down and then water it down again and then water it down again and then apply it to sugar pills, or are those the kind of thing sometimes referred to as homeopathy where it’s more of a home remedy or naturopathy (contains measurable natural ingredients with active properties, like mint or gingko or willow tree bark or chamomile, rather than relying on the idea of water keeping an “impression” of the original foreign substance)?

  I’m way more skeptical of the “water has a memory, and we have erased its previous memories [any given water molecule has been in innumerable clouds and rained through smog in LA or somewhere and been pulled up through tree roots and all sorts of things by now] and only given it this particular memory” kind, but the “you could get your Vitamin C from pills, or you could eat an orange, and either works pretty well” kind has at least a lot of accuracy (and double-blind studies backing them up sometimes, yay! Did you know you could lower your blood pressure with *hibiscus tea*?), and I think is something technically different from homeopathy, although I may be getting my terminology muddled.

  (and, of course, I love natural methods that work and don’t have side effects but I always caution people against a universal “it’s labeled all-natural, so it won’t harm me at all” position, since tobacco, opium, and cyanide are all-natural, too)(but if anyone tried to take my ginger [anti-nausea] or mint-tea-with-honey [decongestant and throat-soother] away from me, I’d be putting up a fight!)(and if anyone was using the like-cures-like homeopathy wherein the only active ingredients are sugar and theoretically memory-enhanced water, I’d probably say it can’t hurt them except in the wallet, so if you want to, go for it, and enjoy any placebo effect! [placebo effects: amazing stuff in itself!])

• 3 Kat // Mar 15, 2013 at 9:07 pm

  Do you have any kind of brand name on those homeopathy tubes (the kind you have?) I could totally use those.

• 4 Monique // Mar 16, 2013 at 9:40 am

  I agree with the comments made by KC. Homeopathie has repeatedly been proven to be ineffective. I am sad to see you suggesting something that is a pseudo-science. Even Wiki knows better: “Homeopathic remedies have been the subject of numerous clinical trials. Taken together, these trials showed at best no effect beyond placebo, at worst that homeopathy could be actively harmful.” For more information on this, please read:
  http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/51-facts-about-homeopathy/

  I am a long time reader of your blog and will continue to be so. I just wanted to encourage to consider your impact on those that read your blog and to encourage you to not promote a “treatment” that is a sham and best and potentially harmful at worst.

• 5 megan // Mar 16, 2013 at 9:47 am

  Kat – I don’t have a brand name, sorry!

  Monique and KC – I do believe in the power of a placebo :)

• 6 KC // Mar 16, 2013 at 11:36 am

  Sorry to potentially reduce your placebo effect, then! That is a problem with this sort of thing.

  (I mostly object to the conflation of “natural remedies” with “homeopathy”, since they’re two really different things. The problem of people getting totally swindled in one sense, but potentially getting their money’s worth in a placebo effect in another sense, is… pretty weird and honestly I’m not sure what to do with that. :-) )

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