Homeopathy: when clever people believe that sugar water can cure
Homeopathy, created in 1772 by the German doctor Samuel Hahnemann, is the most popular of those so-called alternative therapies and by far the most profitable. A whole industry has developed around it. Sales of homeopathic remedies in the US currently reach around 7.5 billion dollars; in Spain, according to a report of the main pharmaceutical company selling homeopathic products here (France-based Boiron), there are more than 10,000 doctors prescribing such treatments, which led to turnover of 60 million euros in 2011.
The Spanish Society of Medicine and Pharma for Emerging Therapies recently published a survey stating that around 40% of Spaniards take or have taken homeopathic remedies. In fact, 52% of Spaniards believe homeopathy does indeed work, and almost 60% blindly trust in acupuncture — read also here the study recently published by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT).
The homeopathic theory believes that the same substance that causes a disease can be used to cure it, but always diluted in water and in small amounts — the more diluted, the more powerful the remedy is. However, the scientific community does not recognise homeopathy as effective, and it should be considered as pseudoscience.
Despite all that literature and research regarding this, and despite the scientific evidence that homeopathy does not work, there is a never-ending debate in society about it and some people incredibly still have faith in such remedies. However, this situation may be changing: the US government, via its Federal Trade Commission, forced homeopathic drugs to carry a label telling consumers that “there is no scientific evidence that the product works” and that “the product’s claims are based only on theories of homeopathy from the 1700s that are not accepted by most modern medical experts.” The evidence is clear: homeopathy is a sham.
The scientific community insists on the fact that homeopathy is based in negligible doses (even undetectable in the diluted water) of substances that generate similar symptoms to those caused by the disease we intend to cure. In more than two centuries, this method has failed to prove its effectiveness, it does not work any better than a slug of sugar water.
Going back to the Fecyt report in Spain mentioned before, the group of people that most trust homeopathy is that of centre-left orientated women who live in cities. Jose Ignacio Fernandez, General Director of Fecyt, said during the presentation of the study that “pseudoscience is dangerous” and that public authorities “should do something” to make citizens aware of the risks of trusting unreliable information. “We must be much stricter with these things,” Mr. Fernandez insisted, “because it is simply placebo.” He is not alone:
top universities have actually dropped their master’s degree courses in Homeopathy, including Barcelona University, arguing its “lack of scientific basis.”
Vicente Baos, one of the medical experts working for the European Medicines Agency, believes that “accepting and trusting homeopathy is like opening the doors of magical thinking in Healthcare.” One of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries is why the heck so many people still trust homeopathic remedies. “Good question, it could also be asked to people with religious faiths. People’s beliefs and the mechanisms which justify certain effects on them is a truly fascinating field out of science,” explains doctor Baos, “where neuroscience and the placebo effect get mixed up.” Unfortunately, those who practise alternative therapies know about this and take advantage of its social effect.
I am not a fan of homeopathy but I am pretty sure there is another -sort of- remedy that heals our souls: reading. And, in case you are one of those fascinated by the magic of miraculous homeopathic products, I highly recommend you to read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science chapter entitled ‘Why Clever People Believe Stupid Things.”
