A year ago, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) published a review of the evidence on homeopathy, which concluded that homeopathy does not work (d’uh!).
Now, the NHMRC has released a new report that, after reviewing 255 studies on homeopathy, reached the same conclusion once again:
Based on the assessment of the evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy, NHMRC concludes that there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective.
Homeopathy should not be used to treat health conditions that are chronic, serious, or could become serious. People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness. People who are considering whether to use homeopathy should first get advice from a registered health practitioner.* Those who use homeopathy should tell their health practitioner and should keep taking any prescribed treatments.
The National Health and Medical Research Council expects that the Australian public will be offered treatments and therapies based on the best available evidence.
Besides not working, homeopathy is dangerous, so it should not even be considered a medical option for anyone.
Very sensibly, Steven Novella and David Gorski have suggested we stop studying pseudoscience, since it is a bit like trying to prove that magic works. The time, money and human resources wasted on it could be devoted to research in real medicine, instead of repeating what we already know.
(image: Curious Expeditions via photopin cc)
