Homeopathy- Does it work?
Or is it a scam?
Homeopathy- We’ve all heard about it, or even may have experimented with it at some point of time. It’s the biggest alternative to medicine, at the same time being the most controversial. Some argue against it, stating that it is scientifically baseless, while others swear by its greatness and effectiveness. So -Is Homeopathy a real science and a true alternative to medicine?
So before diving deep into its effectiveness, let us first talk about how it works.
Homeopathy emerged about 200 years ago. At that time medicine was not what it is today. Some thought, it was doing more harm than good and sent back patients worse off than before, I mean bloodletting by leech was a thing back then. One such thinker was a German doctor named Samuel Hahnemann (father of homeopathy). So he started researching the causes of some common diseases.
He ran multiple tests and experiments on limited subjects and found some results. After which he compiled his findings and formed three main postulates that would later form the basis of homeopathy. These were-
1. Like Cures Like.
This is the most important postulate. According to it, the remedies made use the ingredient that causes the symptoms one wants to cure. While a substance in large doses causes certain symptoms, in small doses it could cure those same symptoms. This sounds a bit confusing, I’ll clear it with an example. Suppose you catch the flu. This flu is caused by a special substance named ‘X’, Now according to this theory, to make the remedy for this flu, we need to use a mixture containing ‘X’. Another example is that suppose you get stung by a bee, the mixture that will be made to treat the itchy swelling would be made from bee venom.
Samuel concluded this based on his testing on his own self. Once he ate the bark of a Cinchona tree, which was at that time used as a remedy for Malaria. After he ate the bark, he got symptoms similar to that of Malaria. Eating cinchona, he said, produced all the symptoms of malaria but to a mild degree and without the characteristic rigors of that disease. So he concluded, that in order to make remedies you need to use ingredients that cause the symptoms you want to cure.
2. Potentization
The second principle is the special method of preparation of homeopathic medicine called Potentization. The idea is that diluting and agitating the ingredients activates their curative powers and enhances their effectiveness.
To do this, the ingredient is dissolved in alcohol or water. Then one part or drop of the solution is taken and mixed with nine drops or parts of water and shaken, diluting it to 1/10 of its original concentration. With this process, you get 1X Potency. Now with this 1X solution, you can repeat the process again and again until you reach the desired potency. For example, you take one part of 1X, mix it with 9 parts of water and shake it. Now you have 2X Potency. This solution is taken orally in liquid form or sometimes applied to sugar pellets.
3. Water can remember.
Now the problem with potentization is that, in homeopathy, homeopaths use extreme potency. Consider the potency of 30C which is the one you would find in most homeopathic medicines. C here means that the mixture obtained by potency has one part ingredient and 99 parts of water. So the commonly sold 30C mixture means, one part ingredient and one trillion, trillion, trillion, TRILLION parts of water! This mixture is diluted so much that statistically, not even a single molecule of the original ingredient is left in the mixture. Homeopaths think that diluting the ingredients makes it more effective, but on a physical level, this doesn’t make sense.
To explain that this works homeopaths claim that water can somehow remember what has been dissolved in it, and pass the effects onto other solutions, and ultimately the patient. So even when the resultant 30C solution has approximately 0 molecules of the original ingredient, it still carries effects of it.
They say that shaking the mixture after every dilution leaves behind a spirit like the essence of the original ingredient. The basic idea is that water remembers what was put in it.
At the time, when these theories were developed, they didn’t have the concepts of atoms and molecules as fundamental units of matter. So maybe they couldn’t know that you could dissolve something until it was essentially gone, that is why they may have given the theory of Water Remembers. But now, we know these concepts and till date, there has been no scientific evidence to back this up.
So yeah, your water doesn’t remember what was put into it.
The US National Institute of Health puts it like this -
“SEVERAL KEY CONCEPTS OF HOMEOPATHY ARE INCONSISTENT WITH THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS”
A 2015 report from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council reviewed the results of about 200 studies about Homeopathy. And after looking at the results, they concluded that Homeopathic remedies are no better than sugar pills.
So as we can see, the basic concepts of homeopathy are absurd and we know beyond doubt now, that homeopathy doesn’t work.
Then why do so many people claim it worked for them? Why do they swear by its greatness and effectiveness? Why is it the biggest alternative to scientific medicine?
This all is because homeopathy has a placebo effect. Most of the people using homeopathy believe that these medicines would cure them. If people believe that something will make them feel better, their trust alone would make them better.
The most powerful tool of homeopathy is nothing but time. Most of the common diseases get cured on their own after a few days or weeks. Our bodies are survival machines, our immune system is so strong that most of the common diseases don’t stand a chance against it. So suppose, you get a cold which will obviously pass on its own after a few days. But if you take some homeopathic medicines while you’re ill, and after a week you start feeling better, it would feel like it did cure you, when actually it would have happened anyway.
So yeah, homeopathy is a sham.
So, the big question still remains should you believe in homeopathy?
There are two aspects to it -
The first one (also what I believe) is that it clearly does no good to you. The science behind homeopathy is not satisfactory, and the medicines are nothing but useless sugar pills. It is an absolute waste of money and time. You should not believe in homeopathic medicines at all, not a single bit.
The second aspect is that the practitioners of homeopathy offer disgruntled or unhappy patients hope. The homeopaths offer the patients the required empathy, that they don’t get in our modern medical system. Our modern system treats patients like objects whereas homeopaths treat them like humans, providing them counseling and treatment at the same time.
And it is also true that it does no harm to the body as they contain no active ingredient, highly dilute homeopathic remedies are devoid of side effects. So, there’s still this theory in favor of homeopathy which says that the treatment that does no harm cannot be bad entirely. From this perspective, homeopathy might still be OK.
So should you believe in homeopathy?
Using homeopathic medicines for minor illness is ok as the body would cure itself anyway and the medicine doesn’t do any harm to us. But for instance, there are people who believe that homeopathy can cure cancer. This is a big issue with homeopathy that needs to be resolved. People still believe that homeopathy is equivalent to modern medicine. One must never risk his or her life on homeopathy. Giving empathy to patients is good but the simple fact is that- “Sugar pills don’t cure cancer”.
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