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→Scientific testing of remedies
Jobst KA (2005). "Homeopathy, Hahnemann, and the Lancet 250 years on: a case of the emperor's new clothes?". J Alt Comp Med 11: 751-54.[http://www.liebertonline.com/toc/acm/11/5]
Jobst KA (2005). "Homeopathy, Hahnemann, and the Lancet 250 years on: a case of the emperor's new clothes?". J Alt Comp Med 11: 751-54.[http://www.liebertonline.com/toc/acm/11/5]
'As a fourth study says it's no better than a placebo, is this the end for homeopathy?' [http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1556831,00.html The Guardian, Aug 26 2005]</ref>
'As a fourth study says it's no better than a placebo, is this the end for homeopathy?' [http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1556831,00.html The Guardian, Aug 26 2005]</ref>
==Medical organizations' attitudes towards homeopathy==
:''People use homeopathy because they believe it works. Although homeopathy, like other placebos, does not work in a clinical sense, it can induce physiological changes. It can also coincide with getting better anyway.''<ref>[http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/SenseAboutHomeopathy.pdf Sense About Science]</ref>
In the USA, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, funds research into homeopathy. According to its statement on homeopathy,<ref>[http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/#q8 Statement on Homeopathy]</ref> controlled clinical trials of homeopathy had produced mixed results; in some, homeopathy appeared to be no more helpful than a placebo, but in others, more benefits were seen than expected from a placebo. Despite the lack of clear empirical support for homeopathy, the statement concluded that "Some people feel that if homeopathy appears to be helpful and safe, then scientifically valid explanations or proofs of this alternative system of medicine are not necessary."
According to The UK National Health Service there have been about 200 randomised controlled trials evaluating homeopathy, many of which suggest that any effectiveness that homeopathy may have is due to the placebo effect. In 1997, the American Medical Association(AMA) adopted the following policy statement after a report on several alternative therapies including homeopathy: "There is little evidence to confirm the safety or efficacy of most alternative therapies. Much of the information currently known about these therapies makes it clear that many have not been shown to be efficacious. Well-designed, stringently controlled research should be done to evaluate the efficacy of alternative therapies"<ref>Report 12 of the [http://www.ama-assn.org/ American Medical Association] Council on Scientific Affairs [http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13638.html alternative theories including homeopathy]</ref>
According to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,<ref>[http://indianmedicine.nic.in/html/homoeopathy/homoe.htm Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare]</ref> homeopathy is one of the National Systems of Medicine in India, and it plays an important role in health care for many people. "Its strength lies in its evident effectiveness as it takes a holistic approach towards the sick individual through promotion of inner balance at mental, emotional, spiritual and physical levels."
==Safety of homeopathic remedies==
:''The highest ideal of cure is the speedy, gentle, and enduring restoration of health by the most trustworthy and least harmful way.'' (Samuel Hahnemann)
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration's view of homeopathy<ref>[http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/096_home.html View of Homeopathy]</ref> is that there is no real concern about the safety of most homeopathic products, as they "have little or no pharmacologically active ingredients". There have been some reports of illness associated with the use of homeopathic products, but in cases that they reviewed, the FDA concluded that the homeopathic product was not the cause of the adverse reactions. The main concern about the safety of homeopathy arises not from the products themselves, but from the possible withholding of more efficacious treatment, or from misdiagnosis of dangerous conditions by a non-medically qualified homeopath. For example, a 2006 survey by the UK charitable trust 'Sense About Science' revealed that homeopaths were advising travelers against taking conventional anti-malarial drugs, instead providing them with a homeopathic dilution of quinine. Even the director of the The Royal London Homeopathic Hospital condemned this:
:''"I'm very angry about it because people are going to get malaria - there is absolutely no reason to think that homeopathy works to prevent malaria and you won't find that in any textbook or journal of homeopathy so people will get malaria, people may even die of malaria if they follow this advice."''<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1820103,00.html Homeopaths "endangering lives" by offering malaria remedies] Alok Jha, Friday July 14 2006, The Guardian
House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology - Sixth Report[http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldselect/ldsctech/123/12301.htm]</ref>
Professor Pasvol, a tropical medicine expert at Imperial College, London was reported as saying "Medical practitioners would be sued, taken to court and found guilty for far less. What this investigation has unearthed is appalling."<ref>BBC News [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5178488.stm Homeopathic practices 'risk lives']</ref>
A particular concern is that homeopaths discourage the use of vaccines. This attitude dates back to Hahnemann, who said "...to use a human morbific matter (a Psorin taken from the itch in man) as a remedy for the same itch or for evils arisen therefrom, stay away from it! Nothing can result from this but trouble and aggravation of the disease." Homeopathy is superficially like vaccination, in that vaccines contain a small dose of the 'disease' against which they offer protection (a vaccine is usually made from a bacterium or virus that is either dead or weakened so that it cannot produce symptoms, while still providing enough information to the immune system to generate antibody production). However, most homeopaths believe that vaccination has serious health consequences, and might arouse latent inherited and constitutional weaknesses.
== References ==
== References ==
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