Homeopathy Now Consigned to Dustbin of Ideas. Officially.

Well, if officially means by anyone with a brain who can use, analyse and reflect on empirical data.

An Australian meta-study has looked at 1800 studies, and has concluded that the quackery that is homeopathy is bullsh*t. No surprise. But it's good to have such robust data to defend even the most obvious of claims. As Dead State explains:

In a sweeping new Australian study, researchers have settled the question of homeopathy‘s effectiveness quite throughly: it simply doesn’t work.

The team from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council conducted a survey of 1,800 other studies of homeopathic medicines—a broad category of non-prescription healthcare alternatives that includes so-called “super-diluted substances” and medicines operating under the principle of “like cures like”—in coming to its ultimate conclusion. Out of their broad-sweep approach, the team managed to find a mere 225 studies that were conducted rigorously enough to support critical analysis. After culling the pack to the 225, they found “no good quality evidence to claim that homeopathy is effective in treating health conditions.”

The study’s authors expressed concern that those who continue to use homeopathic medicines in lieu of traditional medical approaches face real health risks. Homeopathy’s roots run deep, and they’ve long been the subject of criticism from the established medical community. Developed over 200 years ago by a German physician with “no interest in detailed pathology, and none in conventional treatment and diagnosis,” homeopathic medicines are still used by some 4 million Americans today, despite these shady origins....

News of the Australian study comes at a critical time, as a recently released National Health Interview Survey found the use of homeopathic medicines has been on the rise since 2012. A Canadian school of homeopathic medicine also recently came under fire for endorsing an anti-vaccination stance and promoting homeopathic “nosodes” as an alternative to traditional vaccination.

That settles that, then.