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my personal experience living in several places in Germany: the whole appeal to nature argument is unreasonably effective here. Most germans will try an array o

my personal experience living in several places in Germany: the whole appeal to nature argument is unreasonably effective here. Most germans will try an array of homeopathic remedies before taking ibuprofen. Most GP doctors advertise a secondary expertise in some woo or other, be it homeopathy, crystals, or osteopathy. It is downright tricky to find a doctor who will give you evidence based pharmaceuticals for your complaint; I can't tell you how many times I've come home from a doctor to look up the "medicine" they gave me, to find that it's some variant of hyper-diluted rosewater.

formerly_proven 5y ago
> I can't tell you how many times I've come home from a doctor to look up the "medicine" they gave me, to find that it's some variant of hyper-diluted rosewater. Non-Germans might be shocked to find that most public/mandatory health insurers actually cover this. Even the language reflect this, since they're called "homeopathic pharmaceuticals".
- ohthehugemanate 5y ago
  oh yeah, plus there's a whole FDA equivalent for homeopathic pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, at least here, when you buy a supplement, you are guaranteed that it contains the active ingredient as it says on the bottle.
dunefox 5y ago
this is plainly wrong or exaggerated. I have never had a single doctor tell me to use homeopathy or something similarly silly, and I've been to quite a few doctors. Also, it's not 'most germans' who even consider homeopathy as valid, it's a portion.
- gallexme 5y ago
  As (south west) German, I think the world's of medicine here are pretty far apart depending on where you are, as a city person it may be a none issue, but living in the countryside I had no other gp than two homeopathic selling doctors in 23 years(in 1h travel range with public transport) , luckily these days we also have a great gp. But Boi it's pretty ingrained into a lot of older people in my environment to take snake oil over physical therapy/fitting pharmaceuticals.

formerly_proven 5y ago

> I can't tell you how many times I've come home from a doctor to look up the "medicine" they gave me, to find that it's some variant of hyper-diluted rosewater. Non-Germans might be shocked to find that most public/mandatory health insurers actually cover this. Even the language reflect this, since they're called "homeopathic pharmaceuticals".

ohthehugemanate 5y ago
oh yeah, plus there's a whole FDA equivalent for homeopathic pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, at least here, when you buy a supplement, you are guaranteed that it contains the active ingredient as it says on the bottle.

dunefox 5y ago

this is plainly wrong or exaggerated. I have never had a single doctor tell me to use homeopathy or something similarly silly, and I've been to quite a few doctors. Also, it's not 'most germans' who even consider homeopathy as valid, it's a portion.

gallexme 5y ago
As (south west) German, I think the world's of medicine here are pretty far apart depending on where you are, as a city person it may be a none issue, but living in the countryside I had no other gp than two homeopathic selling doctors in 23 years(in 1h travel range with public transport) , luckily these days we also have a great gp. But Boi it's pretty ingrained into a lot of older people in my environment to take snake oil over physical therapy/fitting pharmaceuticals.