David Mitchell and Dara O'Briain on Homeopathy & Psychics

Bonus track from "Dara O'Briain Talks Funny - Live in London". David Mitchell and Dara O'Briain comment on Dara's Homeopathy bit, discussing why "earned knowledge is better than fairy tales".

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• David Mitchell
• Dara O'Briain
• science
• skepticism
• homeopathy
• psychic

[neversurreder793]

I think Dara is slightly pissed.

[TheSobek]

@CalumGilhooly It's not that science can't explain it - it's that it doesn't work. There is no evidence that it works any better than a sugar pill. It doesn't work. End of story.

[youn00ber]

@Hoodinski Nonsense. Which people in ''medical society'' recognize it as a ''means of therapy''. It's not about inciting the immune system to work. The placebo effect does nothing but symptom relief, because the patient fools himself into thinking he or she is better. The underlying disease is not affected in anyway. Check out Science-Based Medicine for more info on this. Two recent articles talk about the misconceptions surrounding the placebo effect.

[Hoodinski]

@youn00ber Wrong- get your facts straight. The placebo effect is a widely recognized by the medical society as a mean of therapy, dear sir. It's all about the state of mind and inciting the immune system to work.

[youn00ber]

@Hoodinski Wrong. The placebo effect doesn't make some of them work. The placebo effect merely makes you think it work. The underlying disease is not affected in anyway. It may subside on its own due to your natural immune system, taking a water pill had absolutely zero to do with it. This is often misunderstood about the placebo effect and its a misunderstanding the quacks in their desperation are latching onto, like there's some mysterious mind-body healing at work when you take bogus pills.

[Neonman78]

"Homeopathy & Psychics"?! I thought it said "Homophobia & Psychics"

[Omni315]

not that I believe it, but they have assumed that "psychic ability" is genetic, which I have never though was the case in the times I have heard of it

[DackxJaniels]

@neversurreder793 To be fair, he's Irish ;) j/k, j/k

[Hoodinski]

Well- technically speaking the homopathic pills don't do anything at all. But the placebo effect (i.e. making the pacient believe he's taking something which will help him) makes some of them work:). Still prescribing them is bogus and I won't have anything to do with em.

[StrummingSparrow]

@handsomebrick enlightened-yes.

[handsomebrick]

@StrummingSparrow you meant evolved in the non-biological sense? that wasn't clear at all.