What is Homeopathy?

Question

The wikipedia article based on homeopathy is really really hard to understand, can anyone break it down for me simply.

And try to put it in an easy way.

thanks

Answer 1

I'm not sold on the therapy myself but am quite happy for people to use it as it does no harm and seems to be remarkably effecient at starting the placebo process if that is all it does.

If you do decied to look at quackwatch look at it carefully. it is very biased and as well as selectively showing some evidence based articles supporting what it is saying (others showing their argument less favourably are ignored) it is also loaded with anecdotal testamony with no evidence whatsoever.

Have a look at this web site http://www.quackpotwatch.org/.

A bit vitriolic i must admit but doesn't make any untrue claims against Steven Barret.

Do a search on google under Steven Barret and law suits and see how many failed suits he has.

Also look at court documents detailing that he lied about his qualifications and although he has had no legal training sites himself as an expert in medical law and in complementry medicine. He has appeared as an expert witness all over the US with these credentials.

If you want to know about Homeopathy ask homeopaths as well as people who think its a load of whack.

I'm sure if you wanted to be a millionaire you'd consult Richard Branson or Donald trump as well as the tramps living under the bridge on the way to their offices.

Edit:

###There is no evidence for the above 4 fantastical points which is why nearly all scientists and doctors reject homeopathy.

It's up to you if you want to do the same.####

Yep let people make informed choices. it may well be the relationship between the practitioner and patient that starts the healing response. If so, why should be looked at and not dismissed

###PS I wouldn't follow lightning's advice by speaking to a homeopath. The explanations of what homeopathy does vary hugely from quack to quack - usually involving pseudoscientific gobbledygook (e.g. lulu's answer, below), with the words "nano" "micro" "quantum" and "einstein" randomly thrown in. Homeopathy is not science or medicine but a religion which requires faith in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.###

The website make claims which are ill informed and untrue.

I haven't read it in its entirety but I have read the section on cranial sacral therapy for example.

The website asserts that the cranial sutures fuse. This is not true.

They never fuse right up until extended old age although they do become more fibrous and less mobile.

The cranial bones are seperate from each other and are joined via fibrous connective tissue.

The website asserts this to be incorrect to justify its claim that the therpy is a load of whack. This is not only misleading it is false.

Dis-articualted skulls have been available for a long time. Skulls are very hard to get hold of today but you can still buy them today disarticulated. They would not exist if the bones fused.

Upledger has conclusively measured and proved the cranial articulation and mobility (he's an MD too!). I seriously have to question Mr Barrets Knowledge of human physiology if he really beleives his assetion to be the truth.

###PPS: Lightning - quackpotwatch doesn't make any untrue claims? Are you for real?###

My Apologies Kalos, I stand corrected. It makes no claims AGAINST STEVEN BARRET WHICH ARE UNTRUE to the best of my knowledge.

I have amended my original statement. I wont put my hands in the fire regarding the other stuff.

###All of this is just opinion with no evidence to back it up. A reliable website would have sources to support each of these extreme statements (and no, friend of a friend anecdotes don't count).###

Read quack watch carefully its full of anecdote. Steven Barret is such an embarasment even the medics don't take him seriously anymore.

Answer 2

Here's what no one else will say - although I appreciate those with open and educated minds.

Two "H" doctors are important here:

The first is Hippocrates (the "Father" of Medicine," thus the Hippocratic Oath for graduating doctors), who said that healing occurs in two ways: by treating symptoms with opposites, or by treating symptoms with similars. Conventional medicine is an "opposite" or "anti-" medicine: antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, anti-spasmodics, etc.  (Symptoms are suppressed, and its energy eventually manifests elsewhere.)

Homeopathy treats with similars. This is easily explained by the idea behind martial arts: Going with the flow. Symptoms are the solution, not the problem. Every symptom can be likened to the warning lights on a car - it is an indication that something is amiss. Conventional medicine cuts the wire, and the light goes out. A homeopathic remedy restores homeostasis by stimulating one's self-healing mechanism, and the warning light goes out (symptom resolves), available to go on again as needed.

The second "H" doctor is Samuel Hahnemann, M.D. Hahnemann is the medical doctor who developed homeopathy, in part based on Hippocrates' teaching. He saw that - not unlike today - treatments made people worse than their disease. He developed medicine in general, including hygiene and vaccination. Conventional medicine accepted all of his ideas, rejecting homeopathy alone.

Homeopathy is popular around the world, and was widely practiced in the U.S. until the early 1920's - when politics and materialism resulted in conventional doctors blacklisting other conventional doctors associated with homeopathy. (All homeopaths were originally dissatisfied medical doctors. Their practices grew, their patients healed. The American Homeopathic Association was formed two years before the American Medical Association. By now, you can guess the original purpose behind the AMA.)

Hostility and ignorance are borne of fear. Follow your heart, and disregard the voices that would suppress what is, to them, not only unknown, but unimaginable.

I'm a certified homeopath with an animal / family practice for more than 25 years. I've written and lectured (invited by UC Davis medical professors) on the subject for the past ten years.

Although I was certain that homeopathy worked, it took 7 years of practice for me fully understand its principles. Thus, explaining homeopathy in a way that's accessible is my passion. At this point, my favorite thing is mentoring graduating homeopaths. E-mail me if you have more questions.

I hope this helps. Easy enough?

http://www.homeopathic.com/ (This is a good website. Dana Ullman is not only owner, but has authored books and research that assuages conventional minds.)

Answer 3

Basically homeopathy is when you don't give a person medicine and expect them to get better. Homeopathy is quackery at its worst.

Hahneman invented homeopathy before we knew much of what we know today about medicine and physics. All of the "laws" he declared have been either proven to be incorrect or extremely dubious.

To make homeopathic medicine you take something that causes illness (such as arsenic) then you make a solution of it that is so dilute that there isn't even a single atom of what you started with. then you give this "medicine" which is nothing but distilled water or a sugar pill. Not surprisingly scientific studies show that homeopathy is no more effective than a placebo.

Edit:

To MotherX,

Vaccines are easily explained if you read a medical textbook or if you have a microscope you can actually see a vaccine work.

the difference between the dilution of a vaccination and homeopathy is scale. A vaccination will always have some active component, typically weakened or inert parts of the virus that causes the illness. In homeopathic terms this is approximately 4C-5C. So there is definitely active component in a vaccine.

when a homeopathic solution is diluted to 12C there is likely to be 1 atom of the original solution. a typical dilution of 30C is extremely unlikely to have any active ingredient.

If you are diluting between 1C and 12C then there's some chance homeopathic remedies can work beyond the placebo effect because there is still an active ingredient.

A second key difference between Homeopathy and vaccines is that if you strictly follow Hahneman you would give fully active living virus as this is the principal of like cures like. In some cases this would still cause illness, for some virus' this would vaccinate, and for others it would have no effect. Vaccines usually instead have a weakened form of the virus, or just a protein from the virus, usually not the active form of the virus that causes illness.

Also the Chicken pox vaccine also works against Small Pox. in this case like cures unlike in contradiction to Hahneman.

Answer 4

There is no sensible explanation of homeopathy, simple or otherwise. Homeopathy is a nonsensical belief system based on the following bizarre, unproven and unlikely ideas.

1. that water has a memory

2. that diluting something makes it stronger

3. that shaken water is chemically different to unshaken water

4. that like cures like (e.g. to cure cholera you should ingest human faeces)

There is no evidence for the above 4 fantastical points which is why nearly all scientists and doctors reject homeopathy.

It's up to you if you want to do the same.

PS I wouldn't follow lightning's advice by speaking to a homeopath. The explanations of what homeopathy does vary hugely from quack to quack. Normally it's pseudoscientific gobbledygook (e.g. lulu's answer, below), with the words "nano" "micro" "quantum" and "einstein" randomly thrown in. Homeopathy is not science or medicine but a religion which requires faith in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

PPS: Lightning - quackpotwatch doesn't make any untrue claims? Are you for real?

Taken from the front page of the site:

"North Americans have overwhelmingly (by their purchases) made "Alternative Medicine" the "health choice of the people" - for the best of reasons: it works better than allopathic, it "removes the cause" rather than "treating the symptoms," it is cost effective, it makes people feel better and think clearer, and it doesn't have all those horrible effects, and side effects, of invasive surgery or prescription drugs."

All of this is just opinion with no evidence to back it up. A reliable website would have sources to support each of these extreme statements (and no, friend of a friend anecdotes don't count).

motherx5: Some homeopathic treatments come from plants, and some do not - same for evidence-based medicine. And so what?

There is a difference between a diluted substance (vaccinations) and a substance with no molecules remaining (homeopathy). There is a difference between ingesting something (homeopathy) and injecting into the bloodstream to stimulate immune system (vaccinations). Please, stop promoting this c**p and go to school.

Answer 5

To all the skeptics out there who think homeopathy is a joke. Think about this:

Aspirin came from white willow bark which is used as a pain reliever. Scientist made a synthetic form of white willow bark which they called aspirin.

Also if giving a person a diluted form of the illness that they have to cure that person is nothing more than a placebo then please explain vaccinations.

Vaccinations are diluted forms of the disease that is then injected into the person to build up their immunity to that specific disease i.e Chicken Pox Vaccinations actually give the patient the chicken pox virus so that they can build up an immunity to it.

Homeopathy works!

Homeopathy focus is on the cause of the problem and uses herb to cure the problem.

Modern medicine focus is on the symptoms and only treats the symptoms.

For example if you are diagnosed with depression. A Homeopath will try to figure out what is making you depressed and then treat you to get rid of what ever is making you depressed.

But Modern Medical doctor will diagnose you as being depressed and only treat the depression.

Answer 6

Homeopathy uses medicines to stimulate the body's natural defence mechanisms and is based on the premise that "like cures like"..... for example, a substance that can trigger symptoms in a healthy individual when taken in large doses can cure similar symptoms in a sick person when taken in extremely small doses..... The homeopathic approach to treating illness - viewing the individual (mentally, physically, emotionally) as a whole - is founded on the understanding that symptoms are an expression of the body's attempt to correct an imbalance and restore health.... rather than supressing these symptoms, homeopathic medicines (which come from naturally occurring plant, mineral, or animal substances and are nontoxic) act quickly to stimulate and regulate the body's defences - with no side affects when used as directed.

hope this helps u

peace 2u

Answer 7

Homeopathy is based on the idea that when you dilute a substance down, you are left with the "essence" or "energy" of that substance, which then works on an energetic level in your body to get rid of your ailment. It is based on the premise that the body has an energy feild, and that physical ailments result not only on a physical level, but actually stem from an energetic imbalance. This means there is no harm to you, or any drug interactions, from taking a homeopathic remedy.

Homeopathy is not really based on water having a memory, since their are 2 methods of making homeopathy:

Dilution: in which substances are fermented in a vat of water and alcohol, and then diluted to the appropriate dilution

Succussion: in which the substance is added to dry milk sugar and then repeatedly diluted into more milk sugar and eventually alcohol (no water involved in this one, except whats already in alcohol)

With both of these, it is not the actual water that is curing you. It is the energy of the original substance.

Using homeopathy is more complex than using conventional medicine because in conventional terms, you can take a pill for insomnia and it will work on almost everyone. In homeopathy, you take the pill based on your symptoms, not the actual ailments. The symptoms of insomnia could include: restless sleeping, being wide awake, nigh terrors, nighttime anxiety, irregular rythyms and sleep patters, etc. So you would take the pill to address whatever of those symptoms you are experiencing (like if you are anxious all night and can't sleep because your mind is racing) and the end result is that you fall asleep.

Many doctors say homeopathy works with the placebo effect, and they assert the strength in the placebo affect. However, homeopathy works on babies and pets (and do NOT tell me babies can cognitively understand what is going on around them...they can't.)

With the placebo affect, wouldn't that mean that any doctor could give a patient any drug and say it will fix the problem and it actually WILL because of the placebo effect? Because that just doesn't work in conventional medicine. I have never heard of a doctor treating high blood pressure with ambien by using placebo effect on their patient. If that really worked, I'm sure if would be used more. Why is the placebo effect all of a sudden so "strong" and "prevalent" in the homeopathic feild, and not in the allopathic feild?

Answer 8

Homeopathy is based on two completely unproven and implausible principals, humbly pronounced by the inventor Hahneman as "laws".  These laws are not accepted by anybody except homeopaths, and are NOT the equivalent of the Law of Gravity, or the Law of Motion.

first  the Law of Similars....that "like cures like".  the idea is then if you have say an itchy burning rash, that using something like poison ivy would cure it.

second the Law of Infintesimals....that the more dilute something is, the more effective. So in the above case, they wouldn't give straight poison ivy, they'd dilute it down.  They claim that even with some dilutions where there is no mathematical possibility of there being a single molecule left, that the water magically "remembers" the substance.  They say water remembers if you shake it in a magical way.

There is of course no evidence for any of the above, and it violates the laws of chemistry and physics that have been discovered since Hahnemans time

There has never been a high quality investigation of homeopathy that shows it works any better than placebo, and for all intents and purposes, that is all it is.

Hahenman also had a 3rd law, wherein he claimed that all non-homeopathic treatments couldn't work.  Since that was completely silly and obviously not true,  they don't talk about that one anymore

I suggest you learn more by going to Quackwatch or Homeowatch its sister site.  Yes they are "biased skeptical sites" but there is lots of good, evidence based information.

Answer 9

It's a natural; way of healing the human body with naturally made medicine that can be absorbed n to the body system