Homeopathy
2011-08-15 00:09i'm rather fed up with most of the anti-homeopathy snark i come across nowadays.
It's easy to dismiss homeopaths as charlatans, and homeopath clients/enthusiasts as deluded and anti-scientific fools. But i strongly feel i'm not anti-science1 - and i have seen a homeopath.
i have CFS. Over the years i've had medical 'professionals' tell me there's nothing wrong with me, that my health issues are a result of not being married, that my CFS is actually rickettsiosis, which has also deluded me into thinking i'm a woman2. Overall, my experience with the medical profession has been .... less than positive3.
i turned to a homeopath well after i spent a considerable amount of time dealing with this. i saw a homeopath who was a former member of the (pro-science, anti-New-Age) Communist Party of Australia. And for the first time, i had a health practitioner take my CFS seriously and treat me and my claims of ill-health with respect.
i tried a number of homeopathic remedies. Most i feel had no effect; at least one seemed to, briefly, have a powerful, mind-altering effect. But i don't regret at least trying homeopathy, because (a) "medical 'science'", when it wasn't completely dismissing me, was offering me no concrete help; and (b) the homeopath i saw treated me with respect, and this helped my mental health.
On the basis of my experience, i've come to dislike the cheap shots of much / most anti-homeopathy snark. Not because i'm an advocate for homeopathy - which is certainly lacking in replicable evidence4 - but because it often seems to come from a place of condescension, a place lacking any apparent recognition of possible broader contextual issues. How about more focus on why people might be turning to homeopathy? Might it not be because they're being treated with disdain by privileged (particularly in terms of class) medical practitioners5? Might it not be because medical practitioners are often unwilling to say "We don't know?" Might it not be because paternalistic and elitist qualification structures severely and unnecessarily restrict the number of medical professionals, increasing the costs of accessing them, and forcing them to spend time providing medical certificates for people with colds rather than on investigating more serious issues?
i would suggest that if scientific medicine is truly superior to homeopathy in all cases, one won't need to attempt to dissuade people from visiting homeopaths and to discredit homeopathy; people would in general choose scientific medicine whenever it provides an effective and accessible solution to their health issues.
So instead of snarking homeopathy, how about snarking the arrogance, elitism and costs of Western medicine and medical institutions, and work towards making scientific medicine an effective alternative?
1. i'm basically a zetetic; and cf. this old blog entry of mine about science.
2. As per this old blog post.
3. E.g. this.
4. Although "[h]omeopathy consultations can benefit arthritis patients, say scientists".
5.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moominmuppet recently shared this article on being a 'border gimp'.
It's easy to dismiss homeopaths as charlatans, and homeopath clients/enthusiasts as deluded and anti-scientific fools. But i strongly feel i'm not anti-science1 - and i have seen a homeopath.
i have CFS. Over the years i've had medical 'professionals' tell me there's nothing wrong with me, that my health issues are a result of not being married, that my CFS is actually rickettsiosis, which has also deluded me into thinking i'm a woman2. Overall, my experience with the medical profession has been .... less than positive3.
i turned to a homeopath well after i spent a considerable amount of time dealing with this. i saw a homeopath who was a former member of the (pro-science, anti-New-Age) Communist Party of Australia. And for the first time, i had a health practitioner take my CFS seriously and treat me and my claims of ill-health with respect.
i tried a number of homeopathic remedies. Most i feel had no effect; at least one seemed to, briefly, have a powerful, mind-altering effect. But i don't regret at least trying homeopathy, because (a) "medical 'science'", when it wasn't completely dismissing me, was offering me no concrete help; and (b) the homeopath i saw treated me with respect, and this helped my mental health.
On the basis of my experience, i've come to dislike the cheap shots of much / most anti-homeopathy snark. Not because i'm an advocate for homeopathy - which is certainly lacking in replicable evidence4 - but because it often seems to come from a place of condescension, a place lacking any apparent recognition of possible broader contextual issues. How about more focus on why people might be turning to homeopathy? Might it not be because they're being treated with disdain by privileged (particularly in terms of class) medical practitioners5? Might it not be because medical practitioners are often unwilling to say "We don't know?" Might it not be because paternalistic and elitist qualification structures severely and unnecessarily restrict the number of medical professionals, increasing the costs of accessing them, and forcing them to spend time providing medical certificates for people with colds rather than on investigating more serious issues?
i would suggest that if scientific medicine is truly superior to homeopathy in all cases, one won't need to attempt to dissuade people from visiting homeopaths and to discredit homeopathy; people would in general choose scientific medicine whenever it provides an effective and accessible solution to their health issues.
So instead of snarking homeopathy, how about snarking the arrogance, elitism and costs of Western medicine and medical institutions, and work towards making scientific medicine an effective alternative?
1. i'm basically a zetetic; and cf. this old blog entry of mine about science.
2. As per this old blog post.
3. E.g. this.
4. Although "[h]omeopathy consultations can benefit arthritis patients, say scientists".
5.
moominmuppet recently shared this article on being a 'border gimp'.
