Homeopathy: Can We Please, As a Society, Let This One Go?
You hear us rant almost daily about the ridiculous machinations of the modern medical establishment, namely the reliance on drugs and surgery to “fix” health issues that could often be better dealt with or eliminated with simple lifestyle changes. Modern medicine has become a bureaucratic, money-driven actuarial game wherein individual patient rights are routinely sacrificed for the greater good of large populations. And so you hear, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.” or, “We don’t care that you refuse to get vaccinated. You need to do it so the rest of us don’t die from an epidemic of this obscure disease.” Or “Despite debilitating side effects, this new drug appears to benefit 22% of patients who take it.”
For that reason I am a big fan of “integrated medicine,” which combines the best elements of conventional medical methods with some forms of complementary and alternative medicine – when research suggests that these alternatives might provide better benefits with fewer side effects or complications. A lot of doctors are now embracing this new vision of medicine which includes diet and lifestyle alterations, stress management techniques, biofeedback, and the use of certain vitamin regimens and herbal therapies when drugs or surgery just don’t seem ethical. Good for them and better for us. But often lumped in with that group is another specific “branch” of medicine I find ludicrous and which I need to explore with you, since many of my readers tend to assume it is a legitimate option within the “alternative” camp.
That branch is called homeopathy.
Ironically, many people willingly accept homeopathy as a legitimate form of medicine simply because no one has explained to them how silly it is…despite having been in existence for almost 200 years with no reputable studies to prove that it works. Many assume that homeopathy is equivalent to “herbal medicine” and that those little homeopathy pills or tinctures are just smaller versions of the research-proven herbal extracts that often do have real benefits. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The basic theory behind homeopathy involves stimulating the body’s ability to heal itself by providing minute doses of substances that in larger amounts would cause illness. It is often referred to as “like cures like” or “The Law of Similars”. Take a little of the “hair of the dog that bit you” (literally, in some cases). Now dilute it with water and shake vigorously. Now dilute it and shake it again, and again, until it is so dilute that only one part per billion remains. Sorry, it’s still not dilute enough. To make it even “stronger” we need to dilute it to parts per trillion or less! (This is known in homeopathy as the “Law of Infinitesimals” and in science as “officially nothing”). Under the theory of homeopathy, the substance being diluted confers some vibrational energy that remains in the water and which enables the body to heal itself…or at least deal with the symptoms of the condition, since homeopathy doesn’t seem to concern itself with the origin of the disease.
I am astounded that people today still believe that homeopathy has any place in modern medicine. It was developed in the early 1800s by a “physician” named Samuel Hahnemann on a misguided theory that he could restore the body’s “vital forces” using these diluted and vigorously shaken poisons to release “immaterial and spiritual powers.” Please. Almost more ridiculous is the fact that this theory hasn’t changed much in the ensuing 200 years and yet homeopathy is still practiced by otherwise knowledgeable “doctors”.
Homeopathy is even unofficially recognized by the FDA as a form of treatment. How, you ask, could our government condone such silly practices? Simply because there is no way anyone can be harmed by homeopathic remedies. Remember, the more “powerful” the homeopathic remedy is, the less of anything it contains. The FDA has its hands full trying to prevent myriad needless deaths from countless new drugs. They simply look the other way when a homeopathic remedy claims to treat a disease or condition because they know that no one will be hurt (unless by relying on the homeopathic cure, the patient forgoes more effective treatment). Since supplement manufacturers are not allowed to make disease claims, some unscrupulous supplement companies have even moved into the lucrative homeopathy business just to be able to legally claim their products treat disease.
So how is it that so many people swear by their homeopathic remedies and truly believe they work? There’s your answer right there: belief. Blind faith and the placebo effect. (Wasn’t that Ginger Baker’s third band?) The placebo effect occurs when a patient gets better simply as a result of his/her positive expectations that the treatment will work. Some studies show that 50% of people taking a placebo will experience significant improvement if they believe they were given a strong medicine. The mind is a very powerful tool in healing the body, as any Christian Scientist or Voodoo believer will tell you. And that’s all that’s happening in the case of homeopathy. Blind faith. And maybe there’s nothing wrong with that, except that it takes the focus away from the cause of your affliction.
Bottom line: if you are willing to suspend disbelief and are a sucker for placebos, then homeopathy is just what the doctor ordered. Otherwise, let’s see how eating well, exercising and controlling stress might better address the situation.
Further Reading at the Blog:
10 Dumbest Drugs Ever Invented
10 Worst Health Scams
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
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Alternative, natural, herbal, homeopathic…
I think people are confused. I’m confused. Most people think it’s all the same.
In some situations, a placebo effect is a good thing!
I suppose thats why allergy shots don’t work. I watched a documentary 2 years ago on some scientific triple blind testing done of homeopathic cures and the results were unreal, 63% success rate in treatment. Well above placebo effect. I’ll see if I can find the information.
Keep in mind though; Hydrogen sulfide at 50-100 ppm leads to eye damage.
Six parts per trillion estrogen added to a lake was enough to cause Male fish to grow Female tissue. http://addendumb.blogspot.com/2007/07/fetid-fatal-fish-flesh.html
I dont think California would be lowering arsenic levels at huge costs to less than 3 parts per trillion if it wasn’t a hazard http://www.construction.com/NewsCenter/Headlines/ENR/20030317e.asp
An 1 part per trillion of dioxin causes hormonal action to occur. http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Polyvinylchloride/PVC-Health-HazardPWG25oct01.htm
So perhaps they may have something in homeopathic medicine we just don’t understand yet. Sorry to be so sarcastic but you came off so venomous about something thats not even fully understood yet, namely the human body.
Remember some people have been hung as witches for doing things their peers didn’t understand that was later explained through science.
Despite how silly the concept is, researchers tend to get strong results when studying homoepathy. You shouldn’t discount it just because it doesn’t seem logical. The placebo effect doesn’t really make sense to me but I can’t deny that it happens.
There is another effect than the placebo effect: “search and you shill find”. Maybe the illness would have gone away anyway. An insect bite doesn’t last more than a day or two without treatment, but if a homeopathic ointment is used, the curing can be seen as an effect of the “treatment”. Man want to find cause-effect relationships, our brain is built that way.
I say “bullshit” to homeopathy, but not too loudly; both my mother-in-law and my husband are believers… Homeopathy is big in France (and Germany, I think).
Richard,
I don’t get that you were sarcastic at all. No need to apologize.
I love these numbers games…and that’s certainly what homeopathy is all about. The cases you cite are a little off topic: 1) the article on male fish/estrogen actually suggests that 1 ppt in water will equate to many parts per billion up the food chain. That would be 10,000 or more parts per billion inthe actual fish, 2) We all know how reactionary California is. The EPA allows aresenic at 10 parts per billion (which equals 10,000 parts per trillion) of arsenic which is a naturally occurring metal. 3) Didn’t get that third reference, BUT…
I sold the audience short on these numbers because I wanted to suggest figures people are familiar with. In fact, almost no homeopathic remedies are in such “high” doses as one part per trillion. Most are so dilute, that your chances of getting even one molecule of the active ingredient are worse than one in a billion. That means thatyou’d have to buy a billion doses and take them all to assure yourself you’d get one molecule of active ingredient. Like putting a drop into the Pacifc Ocean in Japan, flying LA and hoping to find some of that drop in the Los Angeles Pacific Ocean water. Ain’t gonna happen.
There is no question that this is bunk. We do understand that homeopathy can’t possibly work – except as a placebo…but we do also know that placebos do work an appreciable percentage of the time. Pelikan is correct in that most ailments for which homeopathic remedies are sold go away in time anyway (jet lag, colds and flu, sleeplessness, headaches, etc).
Crystal, the confusion you experience is common, which is why I wrote this piece.
Thanks all.
this is an interesting link to research on homeopathy and subsequent links to sites that report this research:
http://www.healinginealing.com/homeopathyresearch.php
I assume then that the research currently being done involving peanut allergy and giving those who react to peanuts minute/trace amounts of the nut and then gradually increasing it is not considered homeopathy? I don’t have any reference to link to, but I saw a news story about this. Now if only they can do this for the things my ds is allergic to, though they aren’t life threatening so I have little hope.
I wonder if this works for music. If I listen to one country song out of every billion rock songs I listen to, will I eventually stop wearing a cowboy hat?
Nancy,t hat is absolutely NOT homeopathy.
McFly, only if you want to stop wearing a cowboy hat. In this case a “beret” is considered a placebo. Try it. We still may have to do an intervention.
I really don’t understand all the fuss about homeopathy.
If its Rx are only diluted solutions, how is it going to hurt anyone? Why do we need a campaign to remove it from society? If you don’t like it, go elsewhere for treatments. There’s enough warnings around to make people wary about depending any alternative therapies in general. So, why focus on homeopathy?
However way you want to look at, homeopathy is still quite popular from England to Argentina.
The argument against Homoeopathy itself appears to be silly. Do you think lakhs and lakhs of people across the globe are fools and stake their lives to please Homoeopaths ? Not at all . If somebody can not understand the Homoeopathic theory and philosophy , if some one fails to see the truth how Homoeopathy has actually cured a host of conditions including those requiring surgery it is not the problem with the system or the patients. By saying that even the cured patients had blind faith in the placebo – then it just questioning their intellectual capability and honesty to decide what is good for them. We need not get advise from MNC pharma companies to tell us what is good for us.
Ann and Wagle,
The diluted solutions certainly aren’t going to hurt anyone. What hurts people is when they ignore effective medical cures for a homeopathic alternative (i.e. mom gives kid homeopathic medicine to treat leukemia, kid dies). Wagle, you bring up a good point that Big Pharma isn’t always out to tell us what is good for us. In fact, often it is in their best interest to keep us sick in order to keep selling us medicine. However, this is the EXACT same case for companies producing homeopathic medicines, they are just as money driven as big pharma (prove me wrong?).
And I would argue that popularity is never a good benchmark for accurate science.
Number 1 misbelieve about homeopathy is it heals diseases.
It never heals any disease or symptoms rather it creates aggravation.
I had night false problem 10 years back( my semen used to fall once or twice in a week at night)
When I took homeopathy medicine and it aggravated and became 6-7 days in a week and soon I became impotent.
The homeopath gave different medicine like nux Acid phos and some other ,
I remained impotent for 4-5 years this is nothing but aggravation.
One day I bought a homeopathy book and found that I felt the symptoms exactly written in the book so I Believe that time Homeopathy) aggravates the symptoms that it meant for
then i got an idea if i take any medicine which is forbidden in night false that would work.
The book gave indication should not take a medicine(I am not writing the name) if you have night false problem.
I was suffering fr 4-5 years and also I became impotent so I had nothing to lose so I took the medicine and it stopped my night false I was sure that homeopathy only causes aggravation
(if you do not believe take Acid Phos or Nux 30 or 200 or 1M and see the result)
(I got the idea One day I had diarrhea I took a homeo medicine which homeopaths use for constipation and that stopped my diarrhea it is nothing but aggravation )
Then I thought homeopathy only increases diseases so i was sure if i take that medicine it will stop night false. and that’s what happened.
Acid Phos caused problem with my memory made me weak so also Nux and other homeopathy medicine.
If you take Rhus Tox it will cause rheumatic pain if you already have Pain situation will be worse after taking Homeo medicine Rhus tox. Similarly if you take homeo Graphitis it will cause Skin problem if you already have skin problem we will have more problems.
Homeo medicine has nothing to with the patients conditions. It creates those problem in reality which homeopaths think cures. Bull sheet idea .
My method is opposite of homeopathy (against the homeopathy)and it worked.
I start taking homeo medicine Which I thought its aggravation may increase the retentive power of my semen
I found some medicine whose aggravation increases and some medicine whose aggravation decreases sexual intention
After trying for six years I found one medicine whose aggravation increases Male semen retentive Power(I can challenge any one )
After taking Acid phos , Nux ,Selenium prescribed by homeopaths
If I go to masturbate my semen would fall within one minute and this situation remain for 4-5 years.
So I after suffering for 4-5 years from homeo aggravation using my method I got one homeo medicine whose aggravation stopped my night false problem but the impotency problem remained so I was trying to find medicine whose aggravation can increase retentive power and cure my impotence.
Finally using my intuition I got one medicine whose aggravation allowed me to masturbate for 30 minutes it is nothing but aggravation because I found all the other aggravating symptoms of the medicine.
From one minute to 30 minute.I tested the aggravation several times and found the medicine’s aggravation really increases retentive power to hold the semen.
Homeo medicine are very powerful but unfortunately they all increase problem and bring new problem
All the medicines that Homeopaths use(Like Nux ,Acid Phos, Conium Titanium all are very bad and makes any Male impotent(does not matter what condition when you take the medicine
I can prove it.
I know it is very hard to make people believe what I wrote. But if you ever took homeo medicine and found aggravation or heard about it you should believe
If you are a homeopath take this challenge take a dose of Acid phos 1M
Then see what happens as you believe homeopathy medicine has no side effect you should
accept that challenge and also try Nux 30.
As you believe that Nux cures most of the problems so even if any problem happen Nux should cure(actually I challenge it will only aggravate the symptoms)
If you are not a homeopath do not take this challenge.
There are people who believe that it is placebo effect so it is nothing but plain water or sugar pill.
It is not it is a danger and it creates illusion never cures any symptom or decease.
If you say that medicine caused aggravation they will say actually it is healing it was hidden in the body but now it is coming out.
Suppose if one medicine is used for weakness loss of memory etc so when aggravation comes according to homeopaths those were hidden in the body! just bullshit.
Some homeopaths say low potency cause aggravation because the observe it so when aggravation comes they give more dilution or higher potency and eventually creates more aggravation.
Some homeopaths gives lower potency of the same medicine when there is aggravation with the higher potency(But they believe lower potency cause aggravation).
Some homeopaths believe that higher potency can cause aggravation so if a patient
reports aggravation they put the medicine in water and take little amount.they believe it will stop the aggravation (but homeopathy says if you dilute any medicine in water its potency increases and also thats how they increase potency so the conclusion is that if you have aggravation with a higher potency give more higher potency another bullshit!ys
One homeopath in abchomeopathy.com says
if you find aggravation put one peal in one glass of water take little amount if it does not stop aggravation
take one spoon of this water to fresh one glass of water take like one spoon of the medicine water continue the process upto 24 glasses is there anything more bullshit in the world than this?
Lastly homeopaths talk about psychological aspect to match medicine.
But Acid Phos will cause Loss of memory , weakness debility if one million average people take it (homeopaths call it healthy people) the same symtomps will appear thats what they get when they prove any medicine so why they talk about psychology? another bullshit
Thank you and have a nice day
Ricky
Excellent piece! (Criticizing homeopathy got me kicked out of naturopathy college.)
Just look at the research. When the patient and doctor both know who’s getting what, homeopathy works. When the doctor (but not the patient) knows, homeopathy works. When it’s subjected to double-blind tests, it fails.
Homeopathy was started around the same time medicine was still using leeches! There were no anesthetics or antibiotics, let alone modern sanitation. At that time medicine may have hurt just as many people as it helped. In this setting, a new form of treatment, homeopathy, was born and thrived. It is likely that neither form of treatment helped much, but at least homeopathy didn’t hurt people.
Fast forward 200 years and we’ve learned a lot about mechanisms of many diseases, as well as defense and treatment of them. No one (with a clear head) would discount that a myriad of advances have been made in modern medicine. That homeopathy is still around, much less thriving is baffling to me.
Thanks, Mark for bringing this to everyone’s attention. I have to run now to put some water in my gas tank to make my fuel more potent.
There are well documented cases of cures through homeopathy where “modern medicine” has failed constantly.
Kevin Kane: the notion that we have made incredible advancements in medicine is largely hogwash. Yes, we sterilize today… and yes, we certainly do make a pile more cash, but do we solve any more than we did fifty years ago?
Craproo to you… hogwash.
I would rather try homeopathy than go to an allopath. Surgery, surgery, surgery… and so on.
all hogwash…
homeopathy is absolute bullshit
Why? “The more you distill the remedy, the stronger it gets”
That is their mantra, and they believe in vibrations of plants and the spirit of the plant getting into the water.
All you’re drinking is alcohol and sulfites, it’s potential lethal.
Hi Mark
When you wrote “Just look at the research. When the patient and doctor both know who’s getting what, homeopathy works. When the doctor (but not the patient) knows, homeopathy works. When it’s subjected to double-blind tests, it fails.” you summed up the whole argument.
Homeopathy doesn’t work. But the therapist-client liaison may work, and suggestion may work.
My complaint is against therapists who use smoke and mirrors in treatment instead of proven strategies.
When we use proven strategies within a good therapist-client liaison, the outcomes are much better. Why settle for snake oil?
And I’d really like to debunk the whole testimonial thing. For example, there are people who have used hynosis to give up smoking and it’s worked for them. However studies show that this rate is actually less than 1%, about the same rate as people who try to give up smoking just by willpower.
Really enjoyed this thread.
Christine Sutherland
Of course you’ve heard about the patient who forgot to take his homeopathic medicine and died of an overdose?
ZACH# May 30th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
“Of course you’ve heard about the patient who forgot to take his homeopathic medicine and died of an overdose?”
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! Good’un, Zach!
How do you respond to products like Native Remedies, http://www.nativeremedies.com
They provide much research and references to back up their products. I personally used one for my son and even the teacher at school noticed a difference. Take a look. I’d love to hear WHY it won’t work and how you fault all the findings they cite.
Also, what about allergy shots? That is the philosophy behind those and those made a remarkable difference in my life. I went from using my inhaler several times daily (allergen and exercise induced asthma)to not even having an inhaler. It took about a year for the shots to have that effect, but I stopped about 6 months later and I still don’t have to have an inhaler and it’s been 10 years since I’ve taken any shots.
The Principle of Homeopathy: the less substantive a theory, the greater its predictive power.
My 3 year old girl’s glue ear got treated successfully only through homeopathy after our NHS GP gave up.
Placebo? On a three year old girl? Yeah, right.
Mark, sorry but in this article you sounded precisely like those nutritionists who claim grains are good.
You want to win arguments? Sure, go ahead. I know who I’ll call next time my girl has glue ear again.
Sorry to disappoint, PB, but the “homeopathic” treatments for ear glue that actually work are at 6X, a dilution that still has a small amount of the original herbal still left in it. True homeopathy would be at a 60X solution. Trouble is, they don’t work at this dilution. Homeopathic believers had to lower their dilutions in order to pass double-blind studies. Your daughter benefited from herbal medicine, not homeopathy.
Ailu
You win. I lose. Happy?
Ailu: it’s not anywhere near so personal as you received that. You are not your point.
Also, why wouldn’t placebos work on a person who believes nigh anything their parent tells them? It stands to reason it’d have more of an effect than normal.
MacDog, based on the context, I’m thinking your comments may have been directed at PB and not me. Correct me if I am wrong.
PB, my goal is not to win, but to share information on an issue that might not have taken into consideration. Sorry if I offended you in the process, that was not my intention. I will work to frame my posts in a kinder way.
Ailu,
Thanks for your comments. Peace.
Take care.
As for “It worked for the cousin of a friend of a coworker of my aunt” stories, remember one principle: The plural of anecdote is not data.
This is one thread that never stops giving
In a world where I see pharmaceuticals introduced that barely exceed the effectiveness of a placebo, and I see all the naysayers lined up against unconventional medicing, I am left wondering why?
I suspect it’s the lack of “millions of dollars of research” and white clothing.
In my personal experience, everything is as effective as you believe it to be. I don’t have the study to reference, but there was a good one comparison on knee surgery – where there were three groups – two types of invasive surgery, one who received the cut and no surgery. They were equally effective – including the folks who had no surgery at all, but believed that they had surgery. I find that pretty fascinating in this argument about the 60x dosages.
It’s a dangerous game, and it goes far beyond the conversation of homeopathy vs allopathy.
I still don’t think that you did this one justice Mark… unless you were just aiming to stir the pot, which you may well have been doing
Peace all.
Clinton,
“I don’t have the study to reference, but there was a good one comparison on knee surgery – where there were three groups – two types of invasive surgery, one who received the cut and no surgery. They were equally effective – including the folks who had no surgery at all, but believed that they had surgery”
This kind of thing happens all the time in conventional medicine. The point is though that if the result holds up then conventional medicine stops doing this type of surgery. Homeopaths on the other hand keep right on going.
Well, if only that were true, then the entire “conventional medical system” would be largely out of business, but it isn’t.
It’s a business, big business.
And you can rest assured – despite the fact that the surgery was useless, it has not slowed the number of invasive knee surgeries… full speed ahead.
And they make the homeopaths look like a bunch of rookies, if we look at the dollars paid versus success.
Horrible, but true.
did you hear about the homeopath who forgot to take his medicine?
he died of an overdose
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