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Donald Marcus from Baylor did an excellent job of presenting a review of the clinical evidence for homeopathy, accurately conveying that the evidence is largely negative. Iris Bell, a protege of Andrew Weil from the University of Arizona, had the job of distorting and cherry picking the clinical evidence to make is seem as if it supports homeopathy. Her strategy was typical, standard fare for CAM proponents.
First, she argued that we should accept clinical observations as reliable evidence. These are open-label or uncontrolled case reports, essentially the clinical experience of homeopaths. This is all a fancy way of saying anecdotal evidence, which over a century of scientific medicine has taught us is completely unreliable. I think anecdotes are worse than unreliable – they tend to lead us to conclusions we wish to be true rather than those that are true, and they can cause a false sense of confidence in the unwary.
It is not a surprise that homeopaths think their treatments work. As unreliable as anecdotal experience is, it is especially so if it confirms the beliefs of an ideological group desperate for recognition and legitimacy, and further a group dedicated to one treatment modality. (I don’t trust the experience of cardiac surgeons with cardiac surgery.) And to put one more nail in this coffin, I especially don’t trust the subjective experience of a group of practitioners that decidedly lack a scientific tradition.
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