Homeopathy has been around for quite some time now, in India and abroad. Whether it a neighborhood aunty or a helpful relative, every one of us has been once advised to get homeopathy to cure a malady.
But, how effective is it?
The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia found ‘no evidence’ that Homeopathy is effective. In 2010, the UK House of Commons Science and Technology committee published a report which concluded that there is no credible evidence of the efficacy of homeopathy.
We don’t have arguments in favor of Homeopathy, but we do have arguments against it:
1. A LOT of famous personalities, such as James Randi, have gone to the extent of taking in the entire dosage of a bottle full of Homeopathic sleeping pills to prove that Homeopathy is a fraud. Surprisingly, and yet not so shockingly, nothing happened to them at all.
2. Dr Shantanu Abhyankar, an Indian allopath and former homeopath, couldn’t take up allopathy earlier because of his class 12th scores. Unsatisfied with what was being taught in his Homeopathic course, he decided to re-do his class 12th and get into allopathy. He openly calls Homeopathy “Unscientific, Pseudo-scientific and even anti-scientific”.
3. One report said that Homeopathy had clinical benefits in rheumatoid arthritis patients over a period of six months when taken along with conventional medicine.
Homeopathy has a unique consultation method, and the individual and undivided attention given by Homeopaths is something that modern medical setups fail to provide because of the queue and rush.
Obviously, that’s what helped the rheumatoid patients when they consulted Homeopaths along with taking the conventional dosage.
Samuel Hahnemann, a German Physician came up with Homeopathy in the 18th century when medicine was very different and much more difficult on patients than what it is today.
It lured the patients then because it was painless as compared to painful bloodletting and other medical solutions of that era.
Let’s see why some people so rightly proclaim that Homeopathy is a bogus that we buy:
Homeopathy is based on three basic fundamentals:
1. LIKE CURES LIKE:
Basically, to cure insomnia, homeopaths would give minute dosages of coffee, which actually keeps a person awake longer. If you have an itchy burn, you would be given a solution containing drastically little amounts of a mixture containing bee venom.
In other words, one’s ailment is cured by the means causing the ailment. Interestingly, the word Homeopathy itself is derived from “Homeo” and “pathy” meaning “like suffering”.
ALSO READ: Can Caffeine Overdose Kill You? Don’t Stride Upon The Cusp Of Caffeine Intoxication (Video)
2. POTENTIZATION:
Homeopaths also somehow believe that the more diluted the medicine is, the more effective it will be. To cure fever, for example, they would use belladonna (which also causes fever) and mix it in distilled water or alcohol.
They would then take a part of this mixture, and dissolve it in nine parts of water. This would give them 1X potency, further dissolving one part of this solution into nine parts of water would give them 2X potency. A 20x potency is like dropping an aspirin into the Atlantic, it doesn’t make sense.
Similarly, to obtain a 1C potency, one part of the mixture is dissolved in 99 parts of water, and so on for larger ‘C’ potencies.
Usually, Homeopathic medicines are diluted up to 30C or even more. However, science has today proved that no molecule of the original ingredient (belladonna in this case) is left after solutions of 13C potency. Therefore, to cure something, we must not take any medicine at all, as that is the utmost dilute it can get.
This just proves that Homeopathy simply provides EMPTY SUGAR PILLS and it is nothing but the Placebo effect that cures the patients following Homeopathy.
We cannot blame Hahnemann, there was no knowledge about atoms and molecules then, however now that we know, why still flock to the con?
Homeopaths further argue that succussion (vigorous shaking of the solution) removes toxic factors and brings about a spirit like essence of the original ingredient. Putting it another way, water REMEMBERS what was once put in it, which is actually the third fundamental.
3. WATER RETAINS THE MEMORY OF THE EXTRACT:
Now, this is plainly absurd. If water were to remember what was once put in it, then all the water that is recycled and reused would have unpredictable effects if consumed accidentally.
A kid peeing on the other side of the beach would still affect my side of the beach because it is highly diluted, and thus more potent.
The best aspect of homeopathy is that you are harmlessly spending on empty medicines which have no side effects (of course). On the worst side, you are avoiding actual medication and in case of serious diseases such as cancer, this may highly complicate your medical process later.
Take the hint and make your call.
Sources: The Economist, TED talk, Daily mail
Image sources: Google Images
