I would disagree - despite being highly sceptical of just about everything (I still am a liberal, science loving geek). I don't speak as a scientist (I'm not) or from any huge research on my part - just from my experiences of the healthcare world (traditional or otherwise).
When I was a teenager, I had major sinus problems (multiple eye-watering headaches every day) and went to doctors numerous times. They gave me lots of drugs - which, if the placebo effect (and the above campaign claims homoeopathic successes are just placebo based) was to be considered, should have "cured" me. It didn't - zero effect.
I went to a homoeopath - and despite being sceptical, what he gave me worked. He thought something (weedkiller - common on roadsides in NZ where I'm from) had been effecting my sinuses and gave me homoeopathic amounts of it for my system to accept (initially that made me think that was bad but the same applies to normal inoculations and is just as scary as taking "good bacteria" for the stomach). This made the headaches go away ...until the next time someone sprayed their weeds.
However, another type of practitioner probably regarded as a hippie - a naturopath - said that my immune system was in a poor state (something the doctors nor the homoeopath saw - no, I have never been a big drinker) and put me on a course of simple off-the-shelf vitamins and minerals (some you'd recognise from detoxing - which is also regarded as "bad science") and some basic good advice. Again sceptical - result, not one headache in over a year (until I diverged from the advice). Yes, I went back to following the simple advice very quickly!
Compared:
- doctors - result: no change, still had the headaches.
- homoeopath: got rid of the headaches as they arose but was still liable to get them.
- naturopath: got rid of headaches in a more permanent way.
That said, I would still go to doctors for other things (although now, I'm mostly healthy) and like in every "profession" (doctors, homoeopaths, naturopaths, or any other) there are good, bad, well meaning but useless, and dangerous practitioners. Like in all professions, being able to "dot the i's and cross the t's" also doesn't make you good at your job too but it would be good if there was some decently accepted certification for natural health practitioners.
As part of this campaign mentioned above there was a joke homoeopathic mass overdose yesterday.As for overdosing on homoeopathic pills - when something is watered down to 1/10000 strength, that is going to take eating a LOT of pills to "dose" let alone overdose and even then, a lot of commonly available homoeopathic pills are just "cleansers". Hardly scientific there. And when you see pharmaceutical companies looking into every second crackpot idea/old wive's tale for ideas so they can give doctors the next "scientific" cure - well, again, hardly a victory for modern science.
If a cure works, good, if it doesn't, bad - and for every dangerous crackpot there'll be plenty of failed pharmaceutical trials and many successful pharmaceutical drugs that have very dangerous side effects.
