I've mostly heard of homeopathic medicine as the pseudoscience wherein "Like cures like"... if you have X symptom, find a plant that causes that symptom, make some kind of concoction with the plant then add water to reduce the concentration of plant bits until you might as well have waved the leaves over the water without them actually touching anything, and that water will cure you - really expensive placebos. Herbal folk medicine, on the other hand has not been fully scientifically tested - some herbs have been shown to have some effect, some have been shown to have no effect, and some have not been studied enough for a verdict to be rendered. And many herbal supplements are not reliable for their strengths of the active phytochemicals which might do some good. So herbal medicine has some problems to it, but is not utter hogwash. We use it when we do things like drink ginger ale or peppermint tea for tummy trouble.

I think that that sometimes "Homeopathic" has been used as an umbrella term for both homeopathy and for herbal medicines. I suspect that much of that confusion stems from whatever studies a Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine undergoes also educates such a person on herbal remedies, and they may use both.

"Like to cure like" is literally medieval. I was getting confused because the vast majority of drugs are based on the processes developed from herbal remedies. I'm pretty sure some of these homeopathic things are recipes I've found in actual books of magic. Unfortunately, my stepdaughter follows a bunch of this stuff, and I'm reluctant to make much of a fuss over this on Facebook, where she's one of my friends. Fortunately I have Buffistas!

make some kind of concoction with the plant then add water to reduce the concentration of plant bits until you might as well have waved the leaves over the water without them actually touching anything

It's this part that makes it BS.

It's this part that makes it BS.

Yeah. Take a tisane or tea, make it useless.

I figure by drinking tap water, I'm drinking the homeopathic remedy for everything.

Huh. I've generally thought homeopathic just meant "anything not western medicine" which is a pretty broad spectrum.

Oh, and meara, there is a "turn off notifications" you can select on any given post's drop down. I use it a lot for condolence posts and birthdays and stuff. I just wanted to say my thing, I don't need to see everyone else's thing.

Jesse! Though I am sad that I can't go to NO with you all, I think I will use the Southwest information to see if I can get a good deal to go down to LA for the Bora Bora trip.

Huh. I've generally thought homeopathic just meant "anything not western medicine" which is a pretty broad spectrum.

I think of "not Western medicine" as "alternative medicine" or "complementary medicine."

ION, I'm really torn about something. Tim's dad still lives alone, and he's kind of slid into eating mostly frozen dinners and frozen pizza for dinner, and frozen pancakes for breakfast. And one of the SILs, who I absolutely adore, has decided that this isn't okay, it's not healthy, and she's going to go over to his house with a bag of groceries like broccoli and kale and rice and oatmeal and clean out his frozen food. (I'm 99% sure her husband [Tim's brother] talked her out of it.)

I agree he could eat a LOT healthier. Based on his own accounts of his gastrointestinal health (or lack thereof), he certainly needs more fiber.

But he's still an autonomous adult, and if he wants to subsist on frozen sweet-and-sour chicken and frozen pancakes, well, then he gets to subsist on that. (I also know that a big part of why he gets frozen food is that he doesn't trust himself to cook, because he forgets to turn off the stove. And that's a whole separate issue -- he REALLY shouldn't still be living alone, but given that right now he *is* living alone, then I do understand why he gets food he can microwave.)

Anyway, SIL wants everyone to be in agreement that he needs to start getting groceries that aren't frozen pancakes, and I'm just not on board with that. He still gets to make his own choices, and he can choose pancakes. I personally think he'd feel better with more fruit and vegetables, but he gets to eat pancakes if that's what he wants. (Yes, Tim has tried to buy him fruit to eat WITH the pancakes, or with lunch or whatever, and it just rots. He doesn't eat it.)

I guess I'm not really torn. I'm in the camp of Let The Autonomous Adult Have His Pancakes. I just don't want to make waves about it by not falling in line with SIL.

I feel really bad about the fact I'm about to have a frozen pizza for dinner. And I do so a couple of times a week.

But making him buy perishables is useless unless someone's going to be cooking them for him as well.