How Does Homeopathy Work?

I should have been this simple:

How Does Homeopathy Work?

Elsewhere:

• How Does Homeopathy Work? (Respectful Insolence)
• The Long Dark Tea-Time of Homeopathy (Respectful Insolence)
• Index to posts on homeopathy & links to resources (Science Based Medicine)

Previously Here:

Most recent post

• Homeopathy: There's Nothing In It (10^23 campaign)

Four-part series on homeopathy from 2003

• Part I--Critique of Homeopathy: An Overview of Why Homeopathy Cannot Be Effective, And Is More Like A Religion
• Part II--Critique of Homeopathy: The Foundations and Background; Why It Is Hard to Think About Homeopathy; and Why It Is Health Fraud
• Part III--Critique of homeopathy: An Examination of Its Utility in Some Life-Threatening Medical Conditions Where The Tough Get Going: Homeopathy and Life-Threatening Conditions
• Part IV--Critique of Homeopathy Is Homeopathy Pure, or Is Homeopathy Big Business?
• Index to the series.  Read the, uhm, rationally-challenged posts

Other posts prior to 2010

• Dyslexia and Homeopathy Don't waste your money and time.
• Another Confused quack homeopath. Repeat after me, there is no reputable evidence that homeopathy works.
• Dolivaxil cannot cure anything.
• Can Homeopathy (Oscillococcinum, Dolivaxil, Influenzinum) Help With The Flu? No, although homeopaths continue to misrepresent the research and insist that homeopathy is effective.
• Clark Bertram (a pseudonymous physician) speaks against homeopathy
• Homeopathy is indeed Big Business
• Homeopathy: It Just Doesn't Work (2005)

Update April 2010 Homeopathy a systematic review finds no evidence that homeopathy has effects beyond placebo. Dr. Steven Barnett's article, Homeopathy: The Ultimate Fake reviews the status of homeopathy in the United States. Homeopathy lists the critiques published of homeopathy in April, 2010. homeopathyThere's Nothing In It, the 10:23 campaign.

Comments

[Dr Aust]

Perhaps you need a musical category, Liz? I can offer my own homeopathic singalong.

[Grant]

I've a recent post up about the UK Science and Technology Committee recommendations:

http://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2010/02/23/homeopathy-check-up-not-in-the-health-system-disclaimers-in-pharmacies/

and an earlier article discussing some aspects of homeopathy and why I believe it shouldn't be in pharmacies:

http://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2010/01/25/homeopathic-remedies-in-nz-pharmacies/

I was intending to write a series explaining the origins and nonsense associated with homeopathy, but I have to admit with all that's out there, I wonder if it's worth the effort!

[Liz Ditz]

This is brilliant. Alice in Galaxyland has put up a list of excuses for homeopathy. Some of my favorites:

ARGUMENT FROM NECESSARY OPPOSITES (1)
1) There are problems associated with conventional medicine.
2) Therefore, homeopathy works.

ARGUMENT FROM NECESSARY OPPOSITES (2)
1) Homeopathy doesn't cause side-effects like conventional medicine.
2) Therefore, homeopathy works.

ARGUMENT FROM INCOMPREHENSIBILITY
1) Quantum physics is weird.
2) I don't understand it, and surely you don't either.
3) Therefore, homeopathy works.

[Liz Ditz]

From Chris McDonald's Business Ethics Blog

Or, since this is The Business Ethics Blog, let's ask it this way: which products is it ethical for a pharmacy to sell? Should pharmacies only sell remedies supported by RCTs? Or is consumer demand the only standard that matters?

Presumably defenders of homeopathy don't think that the government should fund literally every therapy that someone claims is useful. There have to be some standards. Likewise, surely defenders of homeopathy don't think that pharmacies should sell literally every product claimed (by someone) to have some therapeutic value. If I were to think up a "cure for cancer" while in a drunken stupor, surely my new "discovery" shouldn't be sold in pharmacies just because I think it's a cool idea. So, what generalizable principle do fans of homeopathy recommend for sorting this out?