Homeopathy: Real Medicine or Modern Day Voodoo?

Before I start talking I want to remind you that good scientific research does not take sides, it does not have self-interests, nor does it have feelings; science’s only goal is to show what is true and what is not. With that said let’s start talking about whether or not homeopathy works. When people mention the word homeopathy sometimes they are referring to something entirely different. Homeopathy does not refer to all “natural” treatments, nor does it refer to all herbal remedies. In our discussion it will be very important to clearly identify what homeopathy is.

Homeopathy is a medical practice that seeks to treat patients with diluted substances that are given orally. For those of you that are not aware dilution means to make a solution thinner or weaker by adding water. Homeopathy is founded upon two main philosophies. The first is that “like heals like” and the second is “ultra-dilution”. “Like heals like” refers to the belief that a substance that causes a symptom given in a diluted form will help treat that same symptom. So if your rash is caused by poison ivy, if you give poison ivy in a diluted form it will make the rash go away.  “Ultra-dilution” states that the more diluted a substance gets the more potent it becomes. This increased potency is aided by a specific method of shaking the solution called “succession”. These practices are what I will be referring to when I discuss homeopathy.

When you consider any medical practice it is good to discuss if the ideas behind it are plausible. “Like heals like”, does not make any sense when considering what we know today.  If you are suffering from arsenic poisoning it would not be logical to take more of it, even if it is in a diluted form. The idea of “ultra-dilution” seems a little silly to me. Think of it this way, if I have some chocolate syrup and a bag of milk, the way to make it chocolatier is to add more syrup (making it more potent). However under the principle of “ultra-dilution” my milk should get chocolatier with less syrup. That is not the case in the real world. With all that being said, even if we don’t understand why it works, it could still help. If you can show that it helps it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how it works. This is the case with many anesthetics; we know that they do reduce pain but we are not totally sure how they work. So now let’s discuss the efficacy of homeopathy.

Similar to acupuncture there is a great deal of conflicting evidence out there. In fact there are scientific journals out there called homeopathy, in which the scientists are looking for evidence that supports it. So this means once again we need to look critically at the literature. We need to look at the experiments that have been done and determine if they are done correctly. If you do this you will find that many of the studies in support of homeopathy have major methodological flaws. This is why properly conducted meta-analysis are so necessary. If properly done they can look at all the studies out there and filter out the bad ones to determine what the truth is. The UK Science and Technology committee did just that. They compiled a report that looked at all the scientific evidence out there and came to the conclusion that it simply does not work.

There is so much evidence out there showing that homeopathy does not work and yet the industry continues to grow.  In 2012 it was estimated that the homeopathy industry in the US is worth 339.9 million dollars and that the annual growth is 7.2%. In 2006 it was estimated that 4.8 million people in the US used homeopathy and that number is only expected to grow. This is sad, so many people literally wasting their money on treatments that are totally ineffective.

Homeopathy does not work; it’s as simple as that.

References

1.   House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/45.pdf

2.      Shang A, Huwiler-MÃ1⁄4ntener K, Nartey L, JÃ1⁄4ni P, al e. Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects? comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy. The Lancet. 2005;366(9487):726-32.

3.      Ernst E. Homeopathy: What does the "best" evidence tell us? Med J Aust. 2010;192(8):458-460.