Does homeopathy work?

This post is part of Harry’s blog at http://SEXnYOGA.blogspot.com

Does Homeopathy work? is a difficult question to answer, however I am attempting to do just that here. Homeopathy has a placebo effect. This is a statement I have heard very often. My answer to this is that as long as it cures my headache, cancer, tumor, addiction or whatever, I don’t care if I am simply being fooled by the “Placebo effect” or it is really working. However, taking the argument against homeopathy forward it is scientifically possible to prove that remedies of homeopathy do not contain any real medicine. Let us look at how remedies are prepared. I have mostly used remedies in 30c potency. As an example let’s take Arsenicum. Arsenic is a lethal poison and less than a gram of arsenic can kill a person. To prepare the first level or 1c (mother tincture) of the Homeopathic remedy we take one part by weight of the arsenic (vitreous arsenous acid) and boil it to a complete solution in sixty parts of water. This is filtered and more distilled water added till it is raised to ninety parts. This is then added to ten parts of ninety-five p.c. alcohol. To make 2c potency we add one part 1c to 100 parts of alcohol. To make 3c potency we add 1 part 2c to 100 parts of alcohol, thus the dilution is now 10,000 times or 1 followed by 4 zeros. We keep repeating the process till we reach potency 30c, the dilution is 1 followed by 58 zeros. If you take it forward to say 200c the dilution is 1 followed by 398 zeros. Homeopathic remedies may be diluted 100,000 times in a similar way. At this point the dilution of the substance is 1 followed by 199,998 zeros.

Now let us look at how the remedies are administered. Homeopathic remedies can be used in two ways. One, a couple of drops of the remedy, as prepared by the dilution process described above, may be put in a tablespoon of distilled water and taken as a dose or sugar pills may be saturated with the remedy and sucked as and when required. Both methods are equally effective, but the second one is preferred for convenience. In each case the amount of the material if one was to calculate, in theory, would not be present in all doses of the medication, Or maybe a molecule would be present in a few thousand doses of remedies prepared by this dilution process. However, I know from experience that all remedies of homeopathy work and I have experienced some very dramatic cases.

Recently I had a swelling (abscess) in the top left wisdom tooth. The tooth is hollow, broken and in very bad shape. I went to a dentist and he recommended extraction. Before the extraction I was told to take a course of antibiotics. Usually after the surgery (extraction) one has to take another course of antibiotics. I was in a lot of pain, so I started and completed the course of antibiotics. The abscess receded and the pain went away and I never went back for the extraction. A few months later the pain started again and the same infection was back. Again I was recommended antibiotics and extraction but I decided to try a homeopathic remedy. After looking at many remedies I decided to take Hepar Sulf in 30c potency. The remedy worked like magic. In two days the abscess and pain were gone. I still have what is left of the tooth. I just keep it clean and at the slightest sign of infection I take a few doses of Hepar Sulf.

Going back to the placebo effect of homeopathy, I fail to understand how an abscess can get better, if what I was taking were dummy pills. I have been using homeopathic remedies for over 20 years now and very often I find that, for any given complaint just one remedy brings complete relief.

Homeopathy works on the principle of similia similibus curanter (curentur), this means that whatever substance induces symptoms can potentially cure the same symptoms. The principle is used to some extent in modern medicine where vaccines have been developed on similar lines. The difference however is that allopathic medicines use it as preventive, but homeopathy uses the principle to create remedies for already developed diseases and there are instances where homeopathic remedies have cured tumors and cancer. Homeopathy has another advantage, it can catch a disease even when modern pathological lab tests, cannot detect the disease. Lab tests will usually detect a disease once it is fully developed or at least more than 70% developed. These tests cannot catch any deviation in energy and vitality, which usually happens years before a disease will show up in a pathological lab test.

In modern day practice of homeopathy however, homeopaths and medicine manufacturers have started using some very “un-homeopathic” methods. According to the principles of homeopathy only one remedy should be prescribed for a complaint. However, mostly one finds homeopaths prescribe two or more remedies. This usually happens because the amount of time required to pinpoint the correct remedy can be ridiculously high. The practitioner and the patient both want a quick fix. They want homeopathy to work like allopathy does. However, homeopathy requires a lot of skill and a bit of trial and error to hit upon the correct remedy. So when a homeopath finds three or four remedies which probably fit the symptoms he usually prescribes all of them to be taken by rotation. Thereby he spoils the case and sometimes induces more symptoms.

Homeopathic remedy manufacturing companies also produce mixtures of more than one remedy, against the principle of homeopathic prescribing and push homeopaths to prescribe these formulations, purely for profit. They make specific remedy mixtures for specific complaints, which are touted to work for anyone with a specific problem. However, the principles of homeopathy say that you need to find one specific remedy keeping in mind the complaint, the patient and totality of symptoms specific to that patient and symptoms.

There may be times however, when one remedy does not cover all the symptoms, so the homeopath should tackle the bigger issue first, one this is cured he should move on to other issues if any. Sometimes a well-chosen remedy will not only rid the patient of the known symptoms of a remedy but also other symptoms not yet documented. So it becomes the duty of the homeopath to document any new symptoms he may come across and share it with the rest of the homeopathic community.

In conclusion I would like to say that firstly homeopathy works and has been working for over 200 years, when Samuel Hahnemann first discovered and documented the principles of homeopathy. Secondly, it is possible to rubbish the potential of homeopathy, because one can prove statistically and scientifically that homeopathy cannot work. Thirdly, to all the skeptics there is only one thing to be said, you need to try it and then decide on whether it is worth using homeopathy or not. Last but not the least, the reason why homeopathy is not as popular as it should be is mostly because the people in the business of homeopathy do not have obscenely high budgets, even a fraction of what modern medical professionals, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies have. Today the game, even in medicine, is that to pushing services down the consumer’s throat, rather than that of merit.