Homeopathy rage

[Ronja]

Complain and make a stink AFTER you pass your pharmacy exam. Best of luck with that too!

.

and

[charlou]

Of course that ^ would be more sensible.

[Pappa]

[ficklefiend]

Unless you are worried about passing and need every mark, I would just put a big, fat X through the question and write "none of the above: homeopathy is bullshit" underneath. but maybe that's just me...

Umm, well my entire career hinges on passing this one, and four years of university was pretty much working me up to this one, so yeah, throwing away marks not the greatest idea. (Also it's 70% pass rate, 80% for the maths )

I should add, for clarity, that I have finished uni, this isn't one random lecturers little test. This exam is set by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland. A government body. Who should know better.

In my first week here my tutor handed me a stack of textbooks, one of which was Bach's flower remedies. I have not touched this, it's still sitting on my shelf in the shop. Turns out a pharmacist's job is currently 60% stopping doctors and patients making silly mistakes and 40% pure fucking voodoo.

[Ronja]

Ficklefiend, you could engage Ayaan in a discussion about how medicines vs. woo are regarded on either side of the Atlantic - by the qualified personnel, that is - when you're done with your exam. That would be a discussion that I would just love to read.

[Geoff]

Only just found this thread...ficklefiend, are you aware that the NHS (or, more precisely, the Government) are currently reviewing their opinion of homeopathy?

There was a Government report last summer, I remember (I'll see if I can find it), that basically said to the homeopathers: "we think it's woo, prove that it works, or we're gonna dump it", IIRC.

[odysseus]

Stuff it with hooch, roll it up and smoke it ... would be my response.

I like your style, ma'am!

[Geoff]

From the NHS website:
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Homeopathy ... ction.aspx

Content on homeopathy has been removed from the website pending a review by the Department of Health policy team responsible for complementary and alternative medicines.
Homeopathy is not part of mainstream medicine. Instead it is defined as a complementary or alternative medicine. If you are considering using homeopathy, talk to your GP first.

And, following the link to the Government report:

Government Response to the Science and Technology Committee report 'Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy’
Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Health by Command of Her Majesty
July 2010

http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/gro ... 117811.pdf

Worth reading the full report, but selected quotes:

There has been enough testing of homeopathy and plenty of evidence showing that it is not efficacious...

We conclude that the principle of like-cures-like is theoretically weak. It fails to provide a credible physiological mode of action for homeopathic products. We note that this is the settled view of medical science...

We consider the notion that ultra-dilutions can maintain an imprint of substances previously dissolved in them to be scientifically implausible...

In our view, the systematic reviews and meta-analyses conclusively demonstrate that homeopathic products perform no better than placebos...

The Government should stop allowing the funding of homeopathy on the NHS.

Overall conclusion
By providing homeopathy on the NHS and allowing MHRA licensing of products which subsequently appear on pharmacy shelves, the Government runs the risk of endorsing homeopathy as an efficacious system of medicine. To maintain patient trust, choice and safety, the Government should not endorse the use of placebo treatments, including homeopathy. Homeopathy should not be funded on the NHS and the MHRA should stop licensing homeopathic products.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

That's unfair!

Homeopathy DOES WORK!!1! It has been SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN that water has a MEMORY! It can also do basic arithmetic and communicate in sign-language!1!!


...or was that chimpanzees?

[Svartalf]

Are pharmacists in NI required to bullshit their customers about sugar pills too?

aren't all british subjects in positions of authority required to BS the less well informed about the state of things?

Like the tories saying they will improve the economy.
or the hanovers claiming they have a right to sit on that big chair.

[Svartalf]

Stuff it with hooch, roll it up and smoke it ... would be my response.

I like your style, ma'am!

I thought that "hooch" was a term to designate booze, not hemp?

[Pappa]

Are pharmacists in NI required to bullshit their customers about sugar pills too?

aren't all british subjects in positions of authority required to BS the less well informed about the state of things?

Like the tories saying they will improve the economy.
or the hanovers claiming they have a right to sit on that big chair.

Yes... though on the last point, I don't think many people believe the royals have a right to be there. There's just the widespread perception that they affect everyone's lives in no practical way at all so there's no impetus to get rid of them. Mostly, they're just a puppet show.

[Svartalf]

They stole the effing crown from my relatives, and I want my share of that fortune they control is all.

[Thinking Aloud]

<Royals> Mostly, they're just a puppet show.

They have a damned big audience though.

[odysseus]

Stuff it with hooch, roll it up and smoke it ... would be my response.

I like your style, ma'am!

I thought that "hooch" was a term to designate booze, not hemp?

either/or in my experience... a general term for something which will fuck you up nicely....