Brit MPs demand ban on homeopathic medicines

London, Feb. 23 (ANI): British parliamentarians have called for a ban on homeopathic treatment, which costs the country four million pounds-a-year despite the fact that they have no scientific basis.

According to a report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee, the alternative therapy has not been proven to work beyond a placebo effect for patients, the Daily Express reports.

The report concluded that the British Government's position on homeopathy was "confused," and it risked giving patients wrong information.

Homeopathy is claimed to work on a like-cures-like basis where sufferers get a diluted form of the substance that causes illness to trigger the body's natural healing process.

However, a doctor and journalist Ben Goldacre said: "There have now been around 200 trials against placebo sugar pills and, taken collectively, they show that there is no evidence that homeopathy pills are any better."

But Paula Ross chief executive of the Society of Homeopaths, said: "The evidence shows that homeopathy is effective beyond placebo. Scientists have yet to understand how." (ANI)