Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a system of therapeutic thought based on the concept that “like cures like.” It was developed at the end of the 18th century by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Using as evidence the effect of quinine on himself that it produced symptoms that resembled those of malaria, he developed the concept of the “law of similars.” This law supposes that diseases should be treated by drugs that produce in healthy people the types of symptoms of the disease which it is hoped to be remedied. Homeopathy was welcomed at the time as a positive and innovative manner of thinking and to be preferred to other methods such as bleeding and purging which were then still widespread. However, in the 20th century and beyond, homeopathy began to be treated with some disdain by scientists because it did not cohere with the methods then being developed and extended.

Modern homeopaths are likely to concentrate on the correct identification of the disease to be treated on which considerable care is likely to be spent. For many symptoms or combinations of symptoms, many possible diseases or causes might be responsible. The homeopath is likely to rely on self-description by patients and personal experience to identify the correct cause and hence to select the appropriate cure. There is also the issue of identifying a suitable remedy for each disease or problem. Thousands of these exist, but most have become part of the homeopathic canon either through reliance on previous wisdom or on personal experience and experimentation. The large-scale resources available in many cases to develop new pharmaceuticals have not been available to homeopaths generally speaking and documentation of the efficacy of treatment and possibility of side effects is also lacking. In the absence of rigorous quality-control standards which are transparent [Page 857]and enforceable by state law agencies, there is also the potential problem of inconsistency of supply and variability in potency of drug used.

Once the homeopath has determined the nature of the medical cause of symptoms and determined, therefore, an appropriate treatment, it is necessary to dilute the treatment in a much larger volume of water. One drug alone is used and the dilution may be more than one part of effective agent to one trillion parts of water. According to scientific theory, such a low level of active agent can have no possible impact upon any cure that might subsequently eventuate. Nevertheless, homeopathy continues to have many adherents and it strikes a chord with many people who believe that the nature of the modern developed world relies too much upon artificial or unnatural substances and that chemical pharmaceuticals are inherently undesirable. Medical research has not found compelling evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy but it has not dismissed it completely either. There are cases in which people suffering from hay fever or some kinds of asthma and flu have obtained relief from homeopathic remedies. However, distinguishing between positive results from homeopathy and those arising from placebo effects has also not yet been fully achieved. On a realistic note, homeopathic remedies are not likely to do any actual harm because the patient will almost certainly be drinking nothing other than plain water.

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