Celebrating Homeopathy Awareness Week

Let us celebrate this scam. From the website:

Homeopathy Awareness Week
Homeopathy Awareness Week takes place internationally from April 10th-16th and is aimed at raising awareness of homeopathic remedies. Each year, homeopaths from around the world use this week to promote their practice and gain publicity � yet public awareness of the realities of homeopathy remains low.

For example, many people mistakenly believe homeopathic products are a form of herbal product � not realising that homeopathic products typically contain no active ingredients at all. Over two centuries ago, the first homeopaths perversely decided that diluting an active medicinal ingredient makes it more potent, with the vast majority of remedies containing nothing at all! Modern homeopathic tablets are generally 100% sugar, containing no active ingredient whatsoever.

As part of World Homeopathy Awareness Week, we would like to raise awareness of twelve key points about homeopathy:

#1) In 2010, the UK Government Science and Technology Committee analysed the research into homeopathy and concluded that �homeopathic products perform no better than placebos.� This conclusion was backed up this week in a review by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. With many homeopaths claiming their pills can treat serious illnesses, homeopathy is a dangerous placebo.

#2) When Penelope Dingle chose to take the advice of her homeopath husband and treat her rectal cancer with homeopathic remedies, the results were tragic � her death was, according to the coroner, the result of being �influenced by misinformation and bad science�. There are real dangers in using homeopathy in place of real medicine.

#3) Homeopathy is big business. The homeopathic industry is highly-profitable for companies like Boiron, Weleda and Nelson�s. The UK homeopathic market is estimated at �213m per year � comparable to the US ($300m), France and Germany (�400m each). All this for treatments which have not been proven to be any more effective than placebo.

#4) In 2010, the NHS spent around �4 million on homeopathy � this money could instead be spent providing effective treatments, vital surgery and additional nursing staff. With NHS budgets under increasing pressure, wasting money by giving sugar pills to the sick is unjustifiable. According to the 2010 UK Government Science and Technology Committee: �The Government should stop allowing the funding of homeopathy on the NHS.�

#5) In 2012, Boiron settled a class action law suit over their popular �Oscillococcinum� homeopathic remedy for colds and flu. Boiron claim the remedy is made from the heart and liver of a single duck - given that the �ultra-dilute� remedy contains nothing at all of the original duck and generates over $20 million of revenue, it has to be the ultimate �quack� remedy.

#6) Even now, groups such as Homeopaths Without Borders are currently offering ineffective homeopathic treatments in the developing world. Other homeopathy charities are known to dispense sugar pills to treat AIDS and the Ebola virus. Some of these groups are even promoted on the website of the World Homeopathy Awareness Organisation.

Six more points plus a lot more at the site. I have zero problems with alternative medicines -- I have profited by acupuncture and Chinese medicine and am experimenting with herbal medicines. That being said, homeopathy is just plain junk. It has zero bearing in medicine and promoting its use should be considered a criminal activity.