Growing acceptance of Homeopathy – under threat in UK

Homeopathy is gaining acceptance in large economies such as India and France.  Unfortunately a small group of skeptic scientists  are impeding its use in Britain by a concerted propaganda campaign against NHS homeopathic hospitals, homeopathy and homeopathic professionals.   Is it moral to prevent the UK taxpayer access to a form of medicine that many people find effective worldwide?  Will we all end up having to go abroad for treatment?

Homeo biz to touch $500m: Times of India 10th December 2007

‘Sujata Dutta Sachdeva | TNN

New Delhi: For years, it has grown quietly in the shadows of the pharma industry, settling for second place to allopathy. But now things are changing fast. Finally, the Indian homeopathy industry is coming out on its own. Estimated to be worth Rs 1,250 crore, the industry is now growing at 25-30% and by 2010, it’s expected to touch Rs 2,600 crore. In fact, more and more people are turning to homeopathy as a first line of treatment, especially for chronic ailments. That’s because it has effective remedies for many diseases now. Perhaps this explains the sudden mushrooming of practitioners in every corner of urban India. Realising its importance, many hospitals too have started enlisting homeopaths in their panel of doctors.
   Interestingly, not only India, the homeopathy industry has seen exceptional growth across the globe. The size of the global industry has gone beyond Rs 135 billion and it’s growing at around 25% per annum. At Rs 45 billion, France has the largest homeopathy industry in the world. This was revealed by a study done by Assocham. ‘

Ineffective medications call the double blind placebo controlled clinical trial into question

Freetochoosehealth weblog : Conventional medicines ineffective for sinus infections

So our suspicions may be correct about prescription medicines being ineffective.  But surely these medications have been subject to double blind placebo controlled trials for effectiveness before being released to the public?  Does this mean that these trials are not a good indicator of how drugs will perform out of the laboratory?   How much are people paying out for these ineffective treatments?

And how on earth do doctors decide what is an effective treatment with conflicting trial data?