Monday, June 21, 2010

H is for Homeopathy and Hyprocrisy

According to the West Australian:

Homeopathy can be used to treat serious illnesses such as cancer and heart conditions, according to a leading practitioner of the alternative medicine in WA.


This practitioner is Madeleine Innocent, WA President of the Australian Homeopathic Association. It does seem rather a rigid, hierarchical, one might say almost patriarchal and paternalistic structure for such an anti-establishment belief system, but EoR has never noticed that consistency or insight has been a particular strength of homeopathic adherents.

According to Ms Innocent:

(Homeopathy) worked in many cases for all ailments, including potentially life-threatening conditions. (...) homeopathy could reverse serious symptoms, such as clogged arteries. (...) There actually isn't anything that homeopathy can't treat.


Of course, in some rare, tragic cases, homeopathy fails. This is clearly not due to any failing on the part of the magical art of homeopathy, but the patient's fault:

It can get to a stage where homeopathy can't help because you've left it too long and then homeopathy can only palliate.


As Ms Innocent has stated, homeopathy can cure anything. Depression for example, where the implication is that drugs for depression are bad, and homeopathy (ie water drops) are much better. As Ms Innocent so tellingly states:

treating your depression homeopathically may cost you in the short term


Especially if suicidal ideation is not treated, EoR imagines. What are Ms Innocent's qualifications for dealing with such issues?

Cancer of course, is a doddle for homeopathy to cure. If this makes any sense to you, you're doing better than EoR:

Life's piano can only produce melodies of brother- and sisterhood when it is recognised that the black keys are as basic, necessary and beautiful as the white keys.


Ms Innocent also urges you to consider your cancer your 'friend'. Barbara Ehrenreich, a cancer sufferer (not a cancer friend) would strongly disagree.

Ms Innocent's methods for dealing with your cancer — sorry, your friend, sounds horribly like the way Penelope Dingle hoped to cure her cancer, which would seem to indicate a pattern of bizarre beliefs across all homeopaths:

Next decision is, who do you tell? My suggestion is that you only tell those people who will be positive and support you whatever you decide to do. While most people mean well, some will be negative or judgemental and you need your strength for you, not for others.


Her website is full of links to other equally bizarre sites including, of course, the 'fact' that vaccinations are the work of the Big Pharma Devil (the quality of her links is evidenced by the fact that her very first one is to a Natural News Report about ex-Dr Andrew Wakefield. Clearly, Ms Innocent fails to keep up her scientifically accurate research to take into account new information — which is hardly surprising, since the whole basis of homeopathy is an unchanging belief in a 200 year old hypothesis). Cell phones cause cancer and they can cook eggs! This is a supposed 'health' practitioner who is happy to publish a disproved urban legend on her site for people concerned about cancer! This was shown to be nothing more than a joke in 2006, but Ms Innocent (the President of WA's Homeopaths) still has this entirely fake claim on her website. How do these people get away with it? EoR can only say this woman is no kind of reliable source of information and if she is the best WA's Homeopaths can offer (as her position would seem to indicate) then EoR is stunned.

Her claims about how homeopathy is such a wonderful, spiritual, fairy-dust laden journey of lightness and joy seem like a mockery in the light of what happened to Penelope Dingle:

When you start to use homoeopathic treatment for all your health concerns, the process subtly changes your perspective on life. Over time you relax more, shift your focus, let things go more easily, naturally move towards a healthier approach to life. Materialism becomes less important. Inner peace becomes your focus. Relationships improve. People can no longer easily push your buttons.

This is in perfect natural balance. Ill health is more about the unresolved emotional energy that creates physical ill health as a result, than apparently appearing out of nowhere.

Enjoy the journey. The destination will take care of itself.


Penelope Dingle's 'destination' was death.

Gloria Sam's 'destination' was death.

3 comments:

  1. Holy S***! I thought the comments in The West were bad enough when I read them this morning. Frying eggs!?!?

    So here's my question... Given that it is apparently against the code of conduct to claim that homeopathy can treat cancer, will the national association take any action against a senior member who makes that claim very publicly (or anywhere)?

    The coroner is considering the possibility of regulating this industry. Here's a test case for him to see how well they play by rules.

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  2. Okay, I just had a glance at that twolegs cancer article. It starts with the much-discredited "chemo only helps 2%" study - a study done by radiotherapists and which excluded cancers where chemo is known to be highly effective and included some for which chemo isn't even indicated.

    But then she promotes homeopathy - which, from studies, doesn't even have that skewed 2% success rate.

    “Hate cannot drive out hate.”

    Hmmm, I thought "like cured like".

    Oh well, there I go expecting consistency again.

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  3. The Swine Flu page comes complete with genocidal conspiracy theories though, sadly, David Icke is nowhere to be seen :(

    Why is tinfoil always in short supply when you most need it? It's another conspiracy I suspect.

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