Not a single word of criticism from the BBC...

[Diamond]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4423303.stm

Read it and weep. :(

[BobK]

This is the part that surprised me.In the UK today there are five NHS homeopathic hospitals and the global sale of homeopathic medicines represents more than £1bn globally.
The National Health Service is paying for 5 of these hospitals? Amazing!:eek:

[wahrheit]

But few of those with homeopathic remedies in their cupboards know that they have a German physician to thank for the remedies.
Damn, in British news it's always us being the bad guys ;)

That's really a piece way below the expected quality of a BBC news item, it reads like a press release of some homeopathic organisation. Sad.

[Just thinking]

Maybe this is just another example of Nature displaying Natural Selection -- those who choose to use such nonsense will not be around (in such big numbers) in successive generations.

[Quasi]

Originally posted by wahrheit
Damn, in British news it's always us being the bad guys ;)

That's really a piece way below the expected quality of a BBC news item, it reads like a press release of some homeopathic organisation. Sad.

Funny, it was actually a guy named Butler (Irish by nationality.) Homeopathy is described in Van Helmont's "Ortus Medicinae" under the chapter titled "Butler." The guy invented it in the early 1600s. Hahnemann was just a plagiarist who had better marketing skills.
http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/hist_science/OrtusOriatrikePage.html
Chapter 13(80)

No need to worry, the US NIH also repeats this lie as well.
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/#q1

[wipeout]

Damn. :o That's a bad article if ever I saw one.

[Eos of the Eons]

Originally posted by Just thinking
Maybe this is just another example of Nature displaying Natural Selection -- those who choose to use such nonsense will not be around (in such big numbers) in successive generations.

Most choose both though, and live long enough to reproduce. It's sad to see quackery profiting and being supported as something "real".

[Kess]

This article is a poor display by the BBC, especially as it was their own Horizon program that put homeopathy to the test and proved it ineffective!
In fact the BBC's Health pages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/healthy_living/complementary_medicine/index.shtml) are pretty supportive of the full range of complementary medicines, even stuff like reiki and reflexology - there's hardly a negative or critical word to be found.

Kess

[LucyR]

How about this from the "See also" links (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4203479.stm):

"The British Medical Association agreed not all complementary medicine had a proven track record."

Just out of interest what complementary medicine does have a proven track record?

[wahrheit]

Originally posted by LucyR
Just out of interest what complementary medicine does have a proven track record?
Dunno. Seems like we are all looking for the answer to that question, but just can't find a positive answer.

[Capsid]

Well, at least we can say homoeopathy has not been shown to work in 250 years (rather than the 200 years normally quoted); excluding Butler's original work in the 1600s.

[richardm]

Put the boot in, chaps. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3950000/newsid_3955200/3955223.stm)

Not sure whether it's best suited to a factual inaccuracy or a complaint about balance or omission. Take yer pick!

[JamesM]

Is it my imagination, or have some extra (somewhat negative) comments about the efficacy of homeopathy comments by Edzard Ernst been added since yesterday?

[Brian the Snail]

Originally posted by JamesM
Is it my imagination, or have some extra (somewhat negative) comments about the efficacy of homeopathy comments by Edzard Ernst been added since yesterday?

No, it's not your imagination- it's been changed. You can still see the cached original (for the time being at least) via Google (http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:AtbiDVbNB-UJ:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4423303.stm+malaria+row+inspired+homeopathy+bbc&hl=en).

[Deetee]

There is a thread on this at the BBC's science message boards
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/h2/h2.cgi?state=threads&board=science.headlines&

[Orangutan]

Originally posted by JamesM
Is it my imagination, or have some extra (somewhat negative) comments about the efficacy of homeopathy comments by Edzard Ernst been added since yesterday?

Added Text:

However, even 250 years after Hahnemann's birth, there is still debate over the effectiveness of the discipline.

There's no doubt that the debate about whether homeopathic medicine is more th
an a placebo is ongoing
Professor Edzard Ernst, Peninsula Medical School

But even though there is still obviously great interest in homeopathy, there is debate over if, and to what extent, treatments actually work.

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, said: "Hahnemann was advising that homeopathy has to be used as an alternative to conventional medicine.
"That's understandable in the context of his time, when conventional treatments were clearly doing more harm than good.

"But today's homeopathic practitioners use it as a complement to conventional medicines."

Professor Ernst added: "There's no doubt that the debate about whether homeopathic medicine is more than a placebo is ongoing, and during the last few years, the pendulum has swung a little towards the negative side."

He said patients certainly reported benefits from homeopathic treatments, but added that may be due to factors such as longer consultation times compared to the amount of time GPs can spend with patients.

O.

[rwguinn]

Originally posted by Orangutan
Added Text:

However, even 250 years after Hahnemann's birth, there is still debate over the effectiveness of the discipline.

There's no doubt that the debate about whether homeopathic medicine is more th
an a placebo is ongoing
Professor Edzard Ernst, Peninsula Medical School

But even though there is still obviously great interest in homeopathy, there is debate over if, and to what extent, treatments actually work.

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, said: "Hahnemann was advising that homeopathy has to be used as an alternative to conventional medicine.
"That's understandable in the context of his time, when conventional treatments were clearly doing more harm than good.

"But today's homeopathic practitioners use it as a complement to conventional medicines."

Professor Ernst added: "There's no doubt that the debate about whether homeopathic medicine is more than a placebo is ongoing, and during the last few years, the pendulum has swung a little towards the negative side."

He said patients certainly reported benefits from homeopathic treatments, but added that may be due to factors such as longer consultation times compared to the amount of time GPs can spend with patients.

O.
If that is what someone considers negative, what is a "rant"?
Here in the American West, guys with that sort of attitude have their britches crotch ripped out. "bob-war" fences are all we have, and straddling them is a bit dicey, y'know?