Speaking of expensive placebos, how is selling oscillococcinum legal? I can't imagine how many well-intended people mistakenly buy these sugar pills believing it is efficacious medicine.
Lots of people do know that homeopathic means it is just water. They believe there is an imprint of the molecule left in the water. Some believe the imprint works as well as the original molecule. Others believe that imprint is how the molecule actually works, so getting rid of the molecule is healthier.
I'll tell you how i bought it in 2005. My boss's wife recommended it to me so i went out and got it. Then my symptoms went away and i thought OK i should do that again.
I trusted the recommendation and presumed the pharmacy wouldn't be selling actual sugar pills so I didn't investigate it at first. Then when I saw it labeled with the homeopaths a year later somewhere else, I looked into it and was like "oh...".
I think my experience is probably 97% of the stories with or without the realization. The other 3 percent is like " oh homeopaths, gee isn't this stuff great? What a wonderful science."
Stuff like this is why I never buy or take any medicine until I know what's in it and do some brief research to see how it works and what effects it might have.
Well, emphasis on the "just." When I say "this is just water" I mean nothing but, no imprints, no magic whatever, just plain water. I'm sure plenty of people "understand" it as you say, but it's not what I meant to include.
