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Will homeopathy make you a fitter, faster, healthier cyclist?
Fri, Jul 21, 2017 22:07
Do homeopathic remedies have a place in your cycling armoury?
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John wrote about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day’s work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
He worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John also wrote for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site’s main audience. He joined road.cc in 2013.
John died from cancer in 2025, changing his name to John Abbott Valentine in the months before his death.
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bensynnock 17 minutes ago
What gets me is the people who, after I've been stuck behind them for a while having to ride slower than I normally would, when I eventually get to a point where I can overtake then decide they want to have a race.
eburtthebike 22 minutes ago
"Accessible Ayr scheme" Accessible only by drivers and dinosaurs. “We sat here in January and were told no cycle lanes in Alloway Street or in the Sandgate. I reported this good news to all my community councillors. They were all beaming and smiling and saying great news." It isn't good news, the community councillors don't care about the community if they're beaming and smiling and saying great news: they are out of touch and car obsessed. Just how many schemes like this have to happen to show that they work, they make the community better, they increase trade at the shops and people like them? A thousand? A million? I've just realised that it probably doesn't matter how many times such schemes are successful the 'it won't work here' neanderthals will never accept it in their back yard. Depressing. I've only visited Ayr once, and was glad to leave. Don't think I'll be going back.
Rendel Harris 31 minutes ago
@Nigel Garage Funny that, because I have worked with many disabled people both professionally and as a volunteer, mainly helping them to navigate the complexities of the grant system. Oddly enough, not one of them has ever said to me. “I don’t want to be treated like this, I want to stand on my own two feet“ and not applied for the assistance to which they were entitled. If you end up disabled through accident or illness and need very expensive special equipment to help you live as normal a life as possible, and indeed to make a contribution to society, are you going to refuse the assistance on offer? I suggest when you clearly have no experience and no knowledge in an area it’s best for you just to shut up rather than assume that you can speak on behalf of disabled people.
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
@belugabob I think the (conservative!) Baron John Bird @ Big Issue puts it well: a hand up, not a handout. I think a fairly narrowly focused tax break on specific assistance vehicles should fit that ideal very well! Of course "but rich people can abuse tax breaks". But ain't it the case that the rich are not infrequently rich (or richer) by sharp practice, and that has been true since at least the start of history?
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
@belugabob following Chris Boardman's rule of "those most affected get to make the decisions but also own the consequences" ... ... I hope they leave a couple of quid from the grant to buy them a card which says "you chose 'do nothing' - your right. But therefore no right to extra cash to try to sort out any congestion, the crumbling road infra which we just can't keep up with, and the health and economic consequences of declining activity in the population".
Another_MAMIL 2 hours ago
I feel sorry for the staff whose jobs are at risk.
ktache 3 hours ago
@sclarke3@talktalk.net there's a bit of a vanity thing going on with a great deal of Walmart money. They are very into their cycling, bikesnobnyc has written a bit about the very cycling company town. My better half got me some leg and arm warmers for my birthday. I look forward to wearing them when the going gets much colder. I did manage to punch myself in the face, twice, when trying to get the right arm one on, a lesson learned and I will try not to do it again.
quiff 3 hours ago
Drives me mad at the Westminster end of the Embankment cycle lane, where there will often be enough cyclists queuing that you might, shock horror, have to wait for two traffic light cycles before you get through. So many cyclists just jump to the front and expect you to make space for them. Worst example I saw was a pedicab driver who overtook the 50 odd queuing cyclists and then sat blocking the cycle traffic in the opposite direction.
quiff 3 hours ago
Re: the snarky Geraint Thomas caption "sunglasses that peaked probably a decade prior" - to be fair, that became a bit of a personal brand.
belugabob 4 hours ago
@jackcycles so...disabled people don't want any help....? if you dig any deeper, you'll hit the bedrock
19 thoughts on “Will homeopathy make you a fitter, faster, healthier cyclist?”
It might … the placebo
It might … the placebo effect does work on some people some of the time … the precise treatment doesn’t matter … its belief that produces the required effect. Just don’t count on it working as success cannot be predicted or guaranteed. For a stronger effect you could always try a hay fever remedy.
Yes. As pointed out above, if
Yes. As pointed out above, if the complaint is psychosomatic in origin homeopathy has as much chance of working as anything else. A positive attitude and belief that something can and will be cured / improved also correlates well with improvement. So, homeopathy may have a place, but so might your horoscope
But if you believe in
But if you believe in homeopathy and you use it to enhance performance, then even though there is no medication as such to detect in a test, surely you are still morally guilty of a doping offence?
Mungecrundle wrote:
The same thing could be said about eating a banana, or an ‘energy’ bar…
caaad10 wrote:
The same thing could be said about eating a banana, or an ‘energy’ bar…— Mungecrundle
I don’t recall any person detected as a drug cheat claiming they took a bunch of pills because they were hungry.
Mungecrundle wrote:
Presumably then you will receive a homeopathic ban? Banned from one in 10^20 events.
Mungecrundle wrote:
This is along the lines of a question my daughter asked today
“If a dog farts in the woods and there’s no-one there, does it still smell?”
madcarew wrote:
This is along the lines of a question my daughter asked today
“If a dog farts in the woods and there’s no-one there, does it still smell?”— Mungecrundle
I prefer Steven Wright’s:
“If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?”
Homeopathy
Q. What do you call alternative medicine that works?
A. Medicine
Short, sharp and to the point
Short, sharp and to the point. Well put.
How are they going to test
How are they going to test for homeopathic doping? I bet they’d get loads of false positives.
Regarding the placebo affect, there must be a cheaper way of taking placebos than the high priced homeopathic “products” (water).
hawkinspeter wrote:
No, if it’s too cheap it won’t work as well … we have a tendency to believe something is better the more it costs.
nbrus wrote:
Sounds like titanium bits for bikes.
Even though homeopathy is
Even though homeopathy is pure quackery and completely useless, if a rider uses it in an attempt to improve performance, they can be banned.
6.3. Athletes’ health care providers should act in accordance with the latest recognised medical knowledge and, when available, evidence-based medicine.
DavidC wrote:
Does this also apply to swimmers? If a swimmer deliberately ingests some sea-water then they’re essentially taking every single homeopathic remedy at once including the banned substances.
I drink Homeopathic Lager
I drink Homeopathic Lager when riding my bike.
Leviathan wrote:
Really? I just don’t like the taste of Aussie lager, but if you like it…
Merely dressing up in skin
Merely dressing up in skin tight lycra, often explicitly trying to look like other grown fit men who dress in skin tight lycra, then following them around all day getting sweaty whilst looking at their arses does NOT in ANY WAY imply that cycllists are homeos….
The theory of homeopathy says
The theory of homeopathy says that the more a substance is diluted, the more effective it becomes. How come it doesn’t work for alcohol then ?