Homeopathy (also known as Homoeopathy or Homœopathy) is a type of alternative medicine (medicine other than the prescription drugs and treatments you might get from a chemist or doctors’) created by the physician Samuel Hahnemann 1796. This works through the use of heavily diluted preparations (prepared through a process called ‘potentisation’. that follow the ‘Law of Similars’; which states that medicines that cause similar symptoms to the condition can be used to treat it. As well as the law of similars, homeopaths (experts in homeopathy) also use information about the individual (such as their physical and psychological states) to prescribe treatments.

Hahnemann first conceived of homeopathy when experimenting with the effects of cinchona bark in treating malaria. During these experiments he noted that the effects of the bark were similar to malaria itself. From this he deduced that a medicine should cause similar symptoms to be effective in treating the disease – this being known as the ‘law of similars’ or ‘like cures like’ (‘similia similibus curentur’ in Latin). The concept here was that by simulating the symptoms the ‘vital force’ of the body could learn to counter and drive out the real illness. At the same time Hahnemann proposed the idea of ‘miasms’, which described the underlying cause of many illnesses allowing for homeopathic remedies to treat the route cause of the problem as well as the symptoms. Homeopathic remedies claim that every disease can ‘generally be traced to some latent, deep-seated, underlying chronic or inherited tendency’ which causes a disturbance to the ‘vital force’. The concept of miasms however is contested even with the homeopathic community.

These miasms or underlying causes are thought to be innate and genetically inherited. For this reason a detailed examination of the patient’s physical and mental history is usually conducted in order to present tailored homeopathic remedies. These include their emotional state, their life circumstances, psychological disorders and physical disabilities or illnesses. From this the homeopath will conduct complex formulae of the individual’s mental and physical ‘symptoms’ which can include everything from their body types to their preferences in food. The remedy will then aim to treat these symptoms as well as the symptoms of the condition they are suffering from. This analysis of the individual occurs only in ‘classical’ homeopathy whereas ‘clinical’ homeopathy will focus on only the symptoms of the illness.

Obviously for homeopathic remedies to induce further symptoms of an illness could exacerbate the initial condition and could potentially be fatal. You wouldn’t for example increase someone’s fever if it was already high. For this reason the remedies are subjected to a process called potentisation (or ‘dnamisation’) during which they are diluted to prevent adverse effects.

This is achieved by first diluting with distilled water then using a ‘succussion’ – whereby the substance is subjected to vigorous shaking through ten hard strikes against an elastic body. Hahnemann himself had a specially commissioned striking board covered with leather and stuffed with horsehair for this purpose. When ingredients include insoluble solids such as quartz or oyster shell, they are diluted by using lactose (trituration). It is thought that though the substance is mostly lost in this process, its ‘vital energy’ would persist and would be passed over to the new mixture. Water and/or alcohol are usually used to dilute the substance.

A scale of potency was also conceived by Hahnemann which described how dilute the final homeopathic remedies are. This ‘centesimal’ or ‘C’ scale dilutes the substance by a scale of 100 at each stage. The lowest denomination that counts as ‘higher potency’ is ‘2C’, which results in a substance that is diluted to 10,000 parts of the solution to 1 part of the ‘active’ ingredient. A 6C dilution then repeats this process six times resulting in the original material diluted by a factor of 100 to the -6=10 to the -12. Interestingly the more dilute homeopathic remedies are in homeopathy, the more ‘potent’ and deep acting they are considered to be (because potentisation process should incur the adoption of the ‘vital energy’). Homeopathic remedies considered potent by this point have so diluted the original substance that becomes indistinguishable from the solution itself. A 12C solution in terms of ratio is roughly the equivalent of a single pinch of salt diluted within the North and South Atlantic Oceans. The popular Oscillococcinum, marketed as a remedy for the flu, uses a dilution of 200C, which is a ratio considerably greater than a single atom to all the atoms in the observable universe (which would be 40C). In other words there would need to be 10 to the 320 more universes for there to be even a single molecule of the initial substance (duck liver) to be present in the final preparation.

While condoning the treatment of symptoms using the ‘law of similars’; homeopaths have also been known to warn against the use of conventional medicine. Homeopaths believe that ‘suppressing’ symptoms, or ‘working against’ them, using conventional medicine could force them to go deeper and manifest within the internal organs. For example, homeopaths recommend against the use of penicillin to treat syphilis (claiming that it would cause secondary or tertiary syphilis, infecting the central nervous system), instead advocating the use of homeopathic remedies. This is despite penicillin being shown to cure syphilis in 90% of cases.

Homeopathic remedies and homeopathy as a whole has come under a lot of criticism from the scientific community and others. Firstly, by ‘cautioning’ against conventional medicine, homeopaths deny their followers effective treatments which could eventually prove lethal. This could cynically be seen to be an attempt to sell more of their own products, potentially at the cost of human life.

At the same time, the high dilution of the materials in the homeopathic remedies themselves suggests that in most cases the product is entirely water and alcohol with not even a single molecule of pharmacologically active agents. This means it is highly unlikely to have any noticeable effect other than a placebo effect (whereby a patient’s belief in a medicine or treatment alone eases the symptoms). Indeed clinical trials have failed to demonstrate any efficacy, resulting in homeopathy being branded a ‘pseudoscience’. Modern homeopaths attempt to explain water as retaining the essence of their ingredients through a ‘water memory’, though no evidence exists for such a phenomenon and the molecular structure of water makes it scientifically impossible. Such concepts also fail to adhere to scientific protocol – setting out to prove a hypothesis rather than basing the hypothesis objectively on the results.

However it is just as unscientific to completely dismiss any school of medicine, and indeed there is value in homeopathy. First of all, unlike modern medicine, homeopathy looks at the state of the individual taking into account body type, eating habits and psychology. Many practitioners of modern medicine treat illness only in terms of the presenting symptoms, rather than looking at the patient as an individual. At the same time, while the homeopathic remedies have no proven positive effects, neither do they generally present any unpleasant side effects. In this way they are at least natural and avoid powerful drugs while potentially causes a placebo effect to lessen symptoms. Finally, not all homeopaths advocate high dilutions instead promoting remedies of 1C or lower. These have a far higher possibility of having an effect though should be reviewed on a individual basis.

In conclusion then, homeopathic remedies are unlikely to have any noticeable effect and are outdated in today’s society. They certainly should not be used in the place of conventional medicine and for serious conditions all individuals should consult a doctor and heed their advice. At the same time though, some patients may wish to try homeopathy alongside their prescription (choose ‘lower potency’ solutions) and modern medicine could learn from the holistic, individual approach to illness.

Mack LeMouse

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