The other evening I was at a pub in Brighton and chatting to a guy I know (who happens to work for the NHS as a researcher). He told me about all his health problems and I, slightly tongue in cheek, asked whether he had considered homeopathy as an alternative.
I wasn’t prepared for the response of his friend who launched into a tirade against homeopathy. ‘Oh homeopathy, that’s all a load of rubbish, it doesn’t work, there’s no scientific evidence’.
Now, I was out for drink and a nice time and wasn’t really prepared for an intense conversation about homeopathy. However, I confess I felt personally affronted by this man. We have to face the fact that homeopathy is an easy target. Sometimes when we talk about it homeopathy can sound borderline magical. However, that is before you take into account the facts that homeopathy has an abundance of scientific evidence in its favour, is used by around 400 million people around the world, is considered mainstream in India, is used by farmers (who let’s face it are not normally ‘new agers’) for their livestock, is used by thousands of doctors around the world.
But a small number of ‘flat earth’ activists (some with the support of big Pharma) are committed to spreading disinformation about homeopathy. Their first line is ‘there is no scientific evidence that homeopathy works’. That, unfortunately for them, is simply not true and they think that if it is said enough times it will somehow become true.
Thankfully, these activists are a small, if vocal, minority.
So, back to my nice evening out and I decided to stand up to the man who was spouting nonsense. I told him he was spouting nonsense and offered to send him the evidence by email that he so clearly thought didn’t exist. He very quickly backed down.
It is important for all us who passionately believe in the ability of homeopathy to change lives for the better to stand up and state our truth clearly and strongly.
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