Nothing in the alternative medicine world attracts more disdain and haughtiness from skeptics than homeopathy. “Homeopathy,” they sneer, “only idiots and charlatans practice homeopathy.”
The quickest way to be labeled a quack is to openly admit that you practice homeopathy.
So what is homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a system of medicine developed in the 18th century by a medical doctor named Samuel Hahnemann who was so disgusted by the practice of medicine in his day that he set out to find a better way to practice. What he created was a system of medicine founded on completely different principles from our modern conventional one. It is so different in fact that it seems to make no sense.
- That a substance that causes symptoms when given to a healthy person can cure those same symptoms in a sick person. This runs counter to our conventional system of medicine which uses primarily anti- medicines (antibiotics, antihistamines, anti-inflammatories, etc.) and doesn’t seem to make much sense.
- Homeopathy doesn’t determine how medicines work by analyzing their molecular structures or testing them on animals but by giving them to healthy people. These healthy people are monitored for what symptoms they develop. For instance, taking a substance may produce a dry, irritating cough.
- This substance is then given medicinally to people with a dry, irritating cough in order to help the person resolve the cough.
- That a substance can be diluted to a level where statistically no molecules of that substance remain and yet still have an effect. While the first principle is strange this is the one that gets everyone in an uproar. This runs counter to the conventional system of medicine which is organized around biochemistry. If there are no molecules of the substance left, how can it have an effect?
Let me say this right now. We have no idea how homeopathy works. There are many theories; Hahnemann proposed some back in the 18th century, as have many people since then, but no one knows how it works. But there is a critically important difference between saying we don’t know how it works, and that it CAN’T work.
No true scientist will say that something CANNOT work, they might say they believe that it won’t work, or that there is no evidence that it does work. But the statement it cannot work is a belief not science. After all everyone knew the Earth was flat until we discovered it wasn’t, and the Sun went around the Earth, until we discovered it didn’t. The Church members refused to look through Galileo’s telescope because they knew without looking that what he said could not possibly be true.
Statements that there are no scientific studies showing homeopathy works are false. Studies on homeopathy are mixed. Some show that it is no better than placebo, others that it is. Could it be placebo (work only through the power of the mind)? Possibly. But we also thought arthroscopic knee surgery really worked until we discovered the effects were merely placebo. Figures I have seen quoted suggest 30% or more of the medicines we use everyday are placebo. Many of the positive effects we believe come from our medicines (conventional and alternative) are the result of the placebo effect. But homeopathy has also been used effectively on pets (dogs and cats) and livestock (horses, pigs and cows) which makes it much harder to argue the only effect happening is from placebo. Homeopathy has also been used on babies and comatose patients (a real stretch to say that there is any placebo effect on someone in a coma).
Why do I use homeopathy? Because in my clinical practice I have seen it work. I have seen it work on small things and I have seen it work “miracles.” Does it always work? No, nothing always works. If it is just a placebo, I don’t care. It is cheap, it has few side effects (things that cannot be said about most conventional medicines), and my primary concern is to see people get better, and I am less concerned with how they get better. I use homeopathy as one of the tools in my medical practice to help people live a high quality life.
For an entertaining, easily readable short work published in 1896 on why an MD became a homeopath, download this free book here. J Compton Burnett was a medical doctor who, frustrated with his inability to help people get better turned to homeopathy. Despite tremendous skepticism he was so impressed with his experiments in homeopathy that he became a homeopath. Challenged by one of his conventional peers to state why he used homeopathy, he wrote this little book of his 50 reasons.
What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear them? Have you ever used homeopathy and did it help you? Share your comments below.