# Homeopathic remedies...?



## LastHorcrux (Jan 6, 2012)

I'd like to know if anyone has taken any and your experience with them. I recently went to a Whole Foods store where they sell a few. 

I purchased a bottle of 80 pellets of argenticum centricum, or silver nitrate. It's for panic attacks and nervousness. Have you tried silver nitrate or any other remedy? I'm debating on whether I should ingest some pellets or not, yet.


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## offbyone (May 5, 2010)

It's a placebo but if you can get it to work for you and it isn't too expensive. :stu


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## LastHorcrux (Jan 6, 2012)

Ah, are all homeopathic remedies placebo's?


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## Andre (Feb 27, 2004)

Yes. Homeopathy only works when people think it works. The remedies consist of greatly diluted substances, coinciding with the claim that you only need a tiny amount of whatever substance in order to turn on the body's own healing abilities. It should be obvious that this is a scheme to separate people from their money, yet there are still plenty of fools to be got. http://www.skepdic.com/homeo.html


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## JimmyDeansRetartedCousin (Nov 28, 2009)




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## offbyone (May 5, 2010)

Rufus said:


> Yes. Homeopathy only works when people think it works. The remedies consist of greatly diluted substances, coinciding with the claim that you only need a tiny amount of whatever substance in order to turn on the body's own healing abilities. It should be obvious that this is a scheme to separate people from their money, yet there are still plenty of fools to be got. http://www.skepdic.com/homeo.html


Diluted is being nice. Depending on the dilution used it is very unlikely to almost impossible that any of the supposed cure will be in the remedy. Most of them are very literally sugar pills.


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## Duke of Prunes (Jul 20, 2009)

Expensive water.


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## lazy (Nov 19, 2008)

offbyone said:


> Diluted is being nice. Depending on the dilution used it is very unlikely to almost impossible that any of the supposed cure will be in the remedy. Most of them are very literally sugar pills.


I did think about trying some a few years back, then I saw this video:





Fast forward to 12m 20s

_"that's equivalent to taking 1 grain of rice, crushing it to a powder and dissolving it in a sphere of water the size of the solar system..."_

Fastforward half a decade later, is their philosophy still the same? I get my placebos (my sense of security) from vitamin pills and herbs.


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## offbyone (May 5, 2010)

lazy said:


> I did think about trying some a few years back, then I saw this video:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well I skimmed Wikipedia to reconfirm my memory and apparently it depends on the people preparing the "remedy" some dilutions are more sensible and actually contain whatever the homeopathist is claiming is medically active. I'm surprised at that because a ten part dilution obviously has the chance to have an effect (this is supposing the actual compound does anything).

However, ever single time I've run into homeopathy in my own life it's been a dilution like you describe. If the remedy is in the form of those sugary balls, it has been diluted to hell and back and there is almost no way it contains anything more than sugar.

There is a specific one that I love out of a sort of morbid curiosity. It's ossicillium or something similar and is supposed to combat the flu. Well, most of the time when people think they have the flu it is actually just a minor cold or some transitory fatigue. The actual incidence of flu is way less common. Basically it is something that will go away quickly on its own without treatment.

So, for people who believe in it, they take this remedy whenever they feel slightly crap and suddenly they feel better fairly soon. So they attribute it to the success of the remedy and keep buying it. just an endless loop of false reinforcement. If for some reason they do get the flu they don't count it against the remedy because they believe it has worked so many times in the past.

It's a really interesting bit of psychology.


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## jonny neurotic (Jan 20, 2011)

LOL

That's what I have to say about homeopathy. LOL

I was given this nonsense for the best part of my childhood for allergies and it didn't do a bloody thing. I was told that it made a difference but I experienced none. So I had to endure various symptoms including earache - as a result of inflamed sinuses - and asthma - as a result of inflamed bronchial tubes. This stuff isn't even snake oil. It's nothing. Pseudo-scientific tosh...


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