Homeopathic Students On Hunger Strike?
March 3rd, 2009
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Apparently the Indian government (coming to its senses) has stated to discriminate against branches of medicine that don’t work.
Homoeo students on hunger strike
BHUBANESWAR: Students of homeopathy and ayurveda under the Directorate of Indian Systems of Medicine have gone on an indefinite hunger strike to protest the discrimination in stipend enhancement by the Government among the wings of medical sciences.
While the Government raised the stipend of the house surgeons of the three allopathic medical colleges recently, it did not take into consideration the status of the students under the Indian system of medicine.
The homeopathic and ayurvedic students, including PG doctors led by All Orissa Homeopathic and Ayurvedic Students’ Association president Sovan Sethy, today started a fast on to death seeking immediate announcement of increased stipend from the Government.
The imposition of code of conduct with the announcement of Assembly and General Elections today notwithstanding, the agitating students have demanded a commitment from the Government to consider their case.
The students have asked for an increase in stipend from Rs 3,700 to Rs 7,340 in case of house surgeons. The stipend for Post Graduate doctors should be 82 per cent, 86 per cent and 90 per cent of homoeopathy and ayurveda medical officers’ gross salary in the first, second and third year respectively.
The PG doctors in homoeopathy and ayurveda systems are presently getting only Rs 6,000, Rs 6,500 and Rs 7,000 in three years while their allopathic counterparts are better off at around Rs 20,000, Rs 21,000 and Rs 22,000 respectively.
Sethy alleged that the Government had gone back on its commitment to enhance their stipends if it did so for the allopathic branch students as even after a month of giving in to the latter’s demands.
On the other hand, the fact that a homeopathic “doctor” gets paid at all is a crime against science and logic in general. However, I have a feeling these idiots won’t be going without eating for too long. Despite the claims that homeopathy is run by a group of noble, patient caring, truth telling angles of mercy, most of the homeopaths are just scam artists. (A few might be genuinely insane falling for this, either because they’re mental cases or just not so bright.)
Now the obligatory joke:
Unfortunately, the hunger strike is not going so well. The students had hoped that images showing them wasting away with hunger and getting thinner each day would tug at the heartstrings of the public and politicians. However, it seems that a single molecule of a powerful weight loss drug found its way into the local water supply and now all the ‘hunger strike’ participants are morbidly obese.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Humor, Just LAME, Not Even Wrong, Politics, Quackery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 3rd, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I applaud their convictions to their noble cause. Were I running the Indian government I would immediately place them in protective custody with armed guards to make sure that no one tries to break their resolve by offering them food. If they wish to starve to death, then every step must be taken to accommodate them so that they may pass away with dignity. Naturally as the end nears, some might start to hallucinate and demand to be released and fed, but it is important that the authorities, respect their initial stand that they made when they were healthy, and help them meet their heroic end. [/sarcasm]
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March 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
The problem with a hunger strike is that it takes too long to get to the critical point. A healthy person with descent fat reserves can go more than a month and still make a full recovery. People gave gone more than two months without eating a thing and survived. Nobody is going to be in any danger for weeks. That’s no good because this is all about getting attention and so they’ll call it off as soon as the press gets bored with it. The media attention doesn’t have long enough endurance for this.
Things move faster these days. People want their critically near-death people NOW and not in a few weeks. What they need is a thirst strike or even better an asphyxiation strike.
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March 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Chem Geek Gregor said:
My son does that when he doesn’t get his way.
He’s one and a half.
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March 4th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Chuhk P. said:
Yeah, but I bet he lets it go and succumbs to the reflex to breathe before he actually reaches the point of experiencing momentary loss of consciousness. That’s generally how it goes.
It’s extremely difficult to hold one’s breath on will power alone to the point where you start to go into partial blackout. It’s basically impossible to reach the point of potentially fatal damage by just consciously suppressing the breathing reflex.
It’s totally doable with some extra help though. So if there are any homeopaths looking to try this, I’d be happy to contribute a plastic bag to the effort.
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March 4th, 2009 at 2:07 am
If a homeopathic doctor wants to be paid for their services, the patient should take their bill, tear off a tiny corner and then dilute it in several liters of water then take a dropper and dilute that into several liters more of water, repeat this a few times and tell them that’s the payment.
If they say that’s not going to do, then dilute it again until the payment is potent enough. However, if you dilute it more times than necessary, ask for change in return.
This makes exactly as much sense as their entire concept of treatment does.
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March 4th, 2009 at 4:07 am
This isn’t a hunger strike.
They’re feeding themselves by diluting traces of food in their bodies with lots of water, which should make it stronger according to their homeopathic ideas. No wonder they’re getting fat…
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March 4th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I never could understand the “bloated bellies” on those supposedly-starving kids in Ethiopia. Now I know!
THANKS, SCIENCE!
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March 4th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Michel said:
No no… “Like treats like” or in other words, when it is diluted it treats what it would cause in regular strength. Therefore, becasue food makes you fat, diluting it makes you thin.
It’s why homeopathic sleep formulas contain superdiluted caffeine, because caffeine makes you stay awake.
Of course, this makes no sense either, so ya know…
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March 4th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Perhaps they can take some tips from Cindy Sheehan.
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March 4th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
“Unfortunately, the hunger strike is not going so well. The students had hoped that images showing them wasting away with hunger and getting thinner each day would tug at the heartstrings of the public and politicians. However, it seems that a single molecule of a powerful weight loss drug found its way into the local water supply and now all the ‘hunger strike’ participants are morbidly obese.”
*hoots* FOR THE WIN!!!!
Actually, I’m a little surprised none of them have enough convictions to try the rather more drastic protest maneuvers you see from time to time in Asia. Hunger strikes are amateurish by Asian standards. Sewing ones mouth shut? Impalement? Severing digits? Self-immolation? Seppuku? (Yeah, that’s Japanese and not Indian, I know, but it’s been done as a rather gruesome form of protest.)
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March 4th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Calli Arcale said:
Self-immolation is totally badass, I still remember the monks that lit themselves up in Vietnam during the war. I had a lot of respect for them – it takes stainless steel balls to soak yourself with gas and then flick your Bic. Now that’s a protest.
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
DV82XL said:
Yeah, or just crazy. I was reading something about the guys who pulled that at the Pentagon or in Washington as part of a political protest. It seems that at least one of them was really a genuine nut and apparently was on LSD at the time.
As far as hunger strikes go, one time there was a guy who didn’t eat for 45 days while in a glass box over London. He was protesting lack of publicity and demanding that he be put on TV and paid for his actions. He furthermore was demanding that an event be made of it and that it be declared a magic trick, even though it wasn’t really an illusion… just a guy not eating for a while.
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March 5th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Traditional doctors do not use chemicals. It is not toxic and has not the side effects of other medical methods. It is natural and that is important. It may not cure disease all the time. It is more to stop disease from coming to begin so good health continues with good nutrition, organic foods and no chemicals, good medicine. It works with the body to keep it in balance and use the internal healing forces. homeopathy treats the person different. There are three parts to us all and those are the mind the body and the spirit. if you treat the spirit then the mind and the body will become healthy.
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March 5th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Juan said:
Don’t certain “traditional medicines” involve heavy metal tinctures, such as solutions of gold or mercury? Paracelsus and various traditional Chinese doctors were big on that sort of thing, weren’t they? And all their medical theories were firmly planted in their respective spiritual beliefs.
I think I’d have a bit more respect for homeopathic practitioners if they had the courage of their convictions that Paracelsus had, and acknowledged it as a magical practice, rather than trying to pretend its a scientific practice.
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March 5th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
HA! Have you ever heard of committing ‘homeopathic suicide’? James Randi did it a couple of times and its a stunt that is performed by skeptics to debunk homeopathy. They take a whole bottle or two of homeopathic medicine that you’re only supposed to take one pill of and then wait to die in protest of homeopathy, but of course it doesn’t happen because you can’t overdose on an empty pill.
Randi has done really well in going after homeopathy. He uses the same kind of backhanded humor and has really gotten them ruffled a few times.
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March 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
If homeopathy works, then obviously the less you use it, the stronger it gets. So the best way to apply homeopathy is to not use it at all.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
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March 6th, 2009 at 9:25 am
DV82XL said:
That’s apparently not how it works. I mean, sure it seems like that would be the logical extension, but at some point it becomes important to take the medicine, or rather the water or whatever other filler material is used for dilusion. Why this apparent twist in logic? Because if they conceded that it’s better to just not take it then they wouldn’t make any money! I mean come on, isn’t that what this is about anyway?
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July 8th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Come on what has happened to people now a days? has everyone lost faith in natural remedy??? I think many people are not taking homepathy seriously as the treatment is cheap and so are the medicines, until and unless they dont get robbed out of their pockets they dont feel they are cured. gosh people now a days are just impossible…
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July 8th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Kelvin said:
Plenty of natural remedies work. Asprin is natural (or in most cases a synthetic version of a natural compound). Penecillin is a natural material generated by Penicillium mold cells. Lithium salts (as used to treat bipolar disorder) can be found in nature. Many legitimate medications are extracted from naturally occurring material.
Homeopathy is the problem. It’s absolutely useless in all cases. It’s not even “Natural” – it’s a dumb idea invented by a single guy in 1798
Oh and also.. I don’t have “faith” in any medicine. I accept the scientific facts, but I don’t have “faith” in that kind of thing.
Kelvin said:
No.. it’s because homeopathy is impossible. It’s not only bunk, it’s stupid. The whole concept behind it is downright moronic. It’s not even an invalid scientific hypothesis. It’s just bat**** crazy and totally laughably absurdly idiotic.
Lets call it what it is. It does not deserve to be elevated to the level of any concept that has even a grain of credible logic to it. The whole thing should be ridiculed because it is ridiculous. It deserves no respect. It’s so dumb it’s like the butt of a bad joke.
more here: http://depletedcranium.com/?p=2828
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