DOUG
According to homeopathy "theory," if you were to empty the container of an OTC drug and fill the bottle with tap water, it would be even more effective.
DAR
And if you want to make it even more effective, do it again. And then do it again. More dilution = more effective according to homeopathy.
Since the claims of homeopathy seem so hard to swallow (even "silly" as Coralie has said) we are getting this new variation which has far lower dilutions and more diverse ingredients. Good. This is at least less silly. But if the ingredients chosen are still based upon the baseless "like cures like" and "the Law[sic] of Similars", then "good, right-thinking skeptics" are probably not going to be persuaded. Not this one anyway. Seems like a waste of time.
I am sure there are many natural, herbal, alternative cures for many diseases/infections. I have had relatives with this problem and have known of this remedy for many years.
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Cranberry Juice Helps Prevent Bladder Infections
In March of 1994 (Journal of the American Medical Association), researchers at Harvard Medical School were able to show that women who drank 10 ounces of cranberry juice each day were 58 percent less likely to have bladder infections (urinary tract infections).
Many people thought that they had fewer bladder infections because the cranberry juice made the urine in the bladder more acidic. The acid in the bladder would kill the bacteria arriving in the bladder. Recent research has shown that this hypothesis was wrong!!
Amy B. Howell and others from Rutgers University conducted experiments to understand how cranberry juice lowers the numbers of bladder infections. The study was published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine (Oct. 8, 1998). They found that cranberry juice's ability to prevent bladder infections had nothing to do with increasing the acid levels in the bladder. Instead they demonstrated that a compound present in the juice called tannin was able to prevent the bacteria (most commonly Escherichia coli or E. coli) from attaching to human cells that line the inside surface of the urinary tract (urinary tract= bladder, urethra (tube from the bladder to the outside), ureters (tube from the bladder to the kidneys). If the tannins were present, the bacteria could not bind to those human cells and as a result the bacteria could be washed out of the bladder during the next urination.
The researchers also found out that these tannins are only present in cranberry juice and in blueberries. Tannins were NOT present in many other foods including lemons, oranges, apples, bananas, and carrots. So if you are bothered by this infection, a glass of cranberry juice a day may well keep the bladder infection away. Please remember, cranberry juice should not be used with some medications. Check with your physician first.
Link
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DAR
So we have good evidence that it works, and good theory explaining how it works. So it is an alternative natural remedy that is welcomed in the evidence based family (with exceptions, for bad cases or if you don't catch it early enough cranberries won't work and antibiotics will then save you). So this remedy has two important ingredients homeopathy wants to have but does not have. Evidence it does work and theory explaining how it works.
Any alternative remedy which can provide these two things, especially the first one, is welcomed into the family of evidenced based medicine. If it isn't, it should be.
D.