Homoeopathy

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The mother tincture (1x) is infrequently administered. So are potencies higher than 200x, while potencies of the order of 500x, 1000x or 2000x are used extremely rarely.

THE LAWS OF HOMOEOPATHY

        Hahnemann extensively researched the toxicological literature of his day and experimented, on healthy volunteers comprised of a group of doctors and himself, substances from minerals, animals and plants. He aimed his system to be a complete scientific method based on demonstrable Laws and Principles, the most important of them being:

THE LAW OF SIMILARS

THE LAW OF DIRECTION OF CURE

THE LAW OF SINGLE REMEDY

THE LAW OF MINIMUM DOSE

 INDIVIDUALISATION

        Homoeopathy has been shown to be of tremendous value in reversing diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, bronchial asthma, epilepsy, skin eruptions, allergies, etc., especially if applied at the on set of the disease and before tissue damage takes place (Vithoulkas, 1983). It also gained reputation for lasting cures, and in several conditions as an effective preventive medicine.

        Homoeopathy is ‘modernising’ and getting into using electronic and other diagnostic gadgetry and clinical tests. It is being integrated with other systems, as for example, Acupuncture where the Acupuncture needle is dipped into a homoeopathic drug, a practice called ‘homoeopuncture’ with encouraging results, even in plant pathology. Such efforts, however, drew criticism from the fundamentalists of Homoeopathy.

        All systems of medicine have critiques, both within and outside. Some even have questioned whether the whole of medicine is a science at all. Homoeopathy has had its own share of criticism, right from day one. At the 35th World Congress of Alternative Medicines, in November, 1997, at Colombo, two critical handouts on Homoeopathy were released. One was prepared by team of western homoeopaths (Anonymous, 1997) and the other was by Jayasuriya and Mehmke (1997). These two articles are identical on the issues raised. A summary of these is given below, with my own comments indicated by an asterisk (*):

a) Even today, homoeopathic practice is still based on the principles and practices enunciated by Hahnemann and his students, two centuries ago. Very little effort, by way of research or thinking, has been devoted to update the system and relate it to modern scientific practices. The findings of Hahnemann and his school, have never been confirmed by others, particularly in this century. Replication is the essence scientific methodology.

*Generally true. Research needs to be conducted on several aspects of homoeopathy in the light of current advancement in medical science. Nevertheless, there have been persistent researchers. For example, Reilly et al., (1986) posed the question if Homoeopathy is a placebo response and the same team (Reilly et al., 1994) found evidence that homoeopathic medicine gave positive results in 81 out of 105 cases of allergic asthma. But, by and large, research to validate homoeopathic remedies has been inconclusive (Linde at al., 1997; Van den Brouk, 1997; Longman, 1997).

b) Hahnemann conducted his research on Germans. Since we now know that different ethnic groups in the world differ from each other in physical, physiological and psychological constitution, can the two century old results of Hahnemann be considered valid for all ethnic groups?

*In view of so many psychosomatic responses peculiar to geographical and ethnic populations, this aspect needs to be studied intensely.

c) Hahnemann created therapies for the Europeans of his day, in relation to their life style, environment and the diseases of that time. Since Europe and the world have changed so much in these two centuries, the same theory and practice of Homoeopathy may not be as relevant today. To consider just one of several factors, the food of today has pollutants, in the form of a) chlorine and heavy metals in water, b) synthetic colouring material, flavour enhancers like monosodium glutamate and chemical preservatives in food, c) fruits, vegetables and grain contaminated by pesticides, d) hormone treated chicken, e) fish preserved in formalin, f) synthetic soft drinks and a myriad others, any or all of which may have antidoting or aggravating effects on the homoeopathic medicine, and may affect the constitution and resistance to disease, of vast human populations in different parts of the world, in different ways. Populations of the developing world, also have changed life styles and may find Homoeopathy much less effective today than earlier. These issues need to be examined critically, and suitable policy modifications be introduced.

d) The totality of symptoms of disorders considered by Homoeopathy is a narrow and restricted way of looking at treatment, and the system totally ignores symptomatology borne out of modern diagnostics like laboratory tests, x-rays, scans, etc., that have been of great support in Allopathy.