Homeopathy: Con or Cure?

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Homeopathy: Con or Cure?

 

by RORY CLEMENTS, Daily Mail

femail.co.uk - 14th June 2003

Health Secretary Alan Milburn is looking at moves to regulate herbal medicine

and complementary therapies and bring them into the mainstream. Homeopaths will,

no doubt, be delighted. But what exactly is homeopathy, and could it really

work?

Homeopathy is Greek for 'similar suffering'. The idea is to give patients

minuscule doses of something that causes symptoms similar to those they are

already experiencing.

So if you have insomnia, you might be given a tiny amount of coffee which in

larger quantities would make it even harder for you to get to sleep.The theory

is that this minute quantity will stimulate your body's own healing powers

without side effects.

The remedies usually come in doses that have been diluted many times over.They

are given in tablets or powders which you dissolve in your mouth, or in liquid

form. Many conventional doctors believe the dilution of the remedies is so great

that they can't have any effect.

But a team of scientists in South Korea recently found by chance that dissolving

a substance in water and then adding more and more water can actually make it

more potent. Conventional wisdom has always been that the molecules simply

spread further and further apart until none are left. But the new finding is

that the molecules tend to cluster together when more water is added. Upon

further dilution, the clusters form into even bigger groups.

CON

Michael Hanlon, Daily Mail science writer.

Let's get one thing straight about homeopathy. If it works, and, more precisely,

if it works in the way its proponents say it works, then almost everything we

believe to be true about the science of chemistry is wrong.

We might as well ditch the accumulated scientific evidence of the past 300 years

and go back to alchemy.

This is maybe an exaggeration, but it is close to the truth. Homeopathy

allegedly 'works' on the principle of 'imprinted memory'. When a substance is

dissolved in water, and then diluted, homeopaths say, its effects are magnified.

Thus a few drops of some herbal extract in a vial of water will have little

effect; but dilute this tincture a thousand times - to the point where there may

be not a single molecule of the dissolved substance remaining - and the

homeopath will say the potion is now at its maximum potency.

This breaks an important principle in chemistry - that the more concentrated a

dissolved substanceis, the more effect it will have. The saltiness of brine

depends directly upon the amount of salt dissolved in it. The stronger the

medicine the more powerful it becomes. Homeopaths don't believe this. They

believe the opposite.

In 1988, a French scientist, Jacques Benveniste, conducted an experiment that

appeared to back up the homeopathic ideas.

He claimed, in Nature magazine no less, that water could contain 'ghostly'

imprints of a substance it used to contain.

Never mind that no one has managed to replicate his results. Homeopaths have

latched onto this finding like a man hanging onto a twig as he plummets down the

cliff.

Now another experiment appears - at first reading - to give more power to the

homeopathic elbow.

It was recently reported that scientists in Korea have found that some

substances seem to 'clump together' when dissolved, effectively reducing the

effects of dilution.

I'm still not convinced, I'm afraid. It seems that all this experiment shows is

that some very dilute solutions are not as dilute as we thought they were.

Remember, homeopaths think that the most powerful medicines are diluted to such

a fantastic degree that they cannot contain anything - clumped or not.

It remains a sad fact that the homeopathic industry sells large quantities of

what is no more than distilled water, at a high price, to large numbers of

gullible women (males are outnumbered severalfold in their take-up of

alternative medicines). The fact that this therapy is available on the NHS is, I

believe, a scandal. Doctors might as well prescribe eye of newt or a little

light voodoo for all the good it will do.

CURE

Simone Plaut, 43, is a freelance health and safety trainer who lives in West

Hampstead, London.

Three years ago I suffered a bout of something my doctor called nervous

exhaustion. I had been studying for exams and working extremely long hours. It

was all far too much - and when I woke up one morning I couldn't get out of bed.

My GP's reaction was 'here's a medical note - stay off work for two weeks. Are

you sleeping? Have these sleeping pills. If it's not better come back and see me

in a fortnight'.

I ended up being off work for five weeks.

Then, last month, I realised I was heading that way again. I was very, very

tired and I was beginning to cancel work.

I knew a homeopath professionally and he had given me a useful tip about a

remedy for jetlag. It was so successful that when I flew to Malaysia on a work

trip I didn't have problems going there or coming back. So I decided to try him

for my exhaustion, though I admit I was a bit sceptical.

He asked me some strange questions about whether I had food cravings and about

my interest in philosophy, religion and spiritual matters. It was a broad range

of questions and he made notes throughout. Obviously, these were important

because he consulted several dusty books and then said: 'Yes, I know exactly

what you need.' And he mixed up some little tablets and gave them to me.

As we continued to talk, it was astounding. I could feel my brain clearing, my

mental processes speeding up and I started feeling my energy coming back. I've

felt better ever since, apart from the odd day when I've been a little tired.

Without his help I don't think I would have been able to work for the past few

weeks. Being a health and safety practitioner, I'm always wary of medication. If

I'm prescribed anything I always look it up in my Which? Medicine book to see

what the side effects are - and some of them are horrendous. When I asked the

homeopath about side effects, he said: 'There aren't any. The dose we give you

is so minute that there could be no side effects.' He explained that the

preparation you are given doesn't actually fix what is wrong with you; it simply

nudges the body into doing the work itself, so you don't need huge doses of

chemicals. It made good sense to me.

I certainly wouldn't go to a homeopath if I was in a car accident or needed

major abdominal surgery, but I think the chronic 'don't-feel-terribly-well' type

of illnesses can benefit from that kind of treatment. I'm a qualified

radiographer. I've worked in the NHS for a long time and I'm not knocking

conventional medicine. It saves many thousands of lives every year, but I think

it's time we opened our eyes to complementary medicine - it has a very important

role to play.

 

 

 

 

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©2003 Associated New Media

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

In the case of " homeopathic HGH " growth hormone it's clearly a con

propagated by the manufacturer.

 

I checked it with a homeopath who said that it doesn't meet the

criteria for either of the two types of homeopathy, and what we were

getting was " heavily watered down HGH " not " homeopathic " .

 

Not only that but the claims are false too. Although it does achieve

placebo effect in some people (they feel great), the phony stuff

fails to drop inches from their midsections, cholesterol, and blood

pressure, and pounds from their weight like the real thing does.

 

Of course I knew that; the medical analyses are pretty specific that

actual molecules of HGH are required conversion into active IGF-1,

and HGH does not absorb though the mucosal tissue or the bowel

anyway, even in its pure form. If it did, the doctors would write a

scrip for oral HGH rather than shots.

 

But people who fall for " homeopathic HGH " are similarly suffering

indeed so perhaps there's an element of truth to it after all

 

Duncan Crow

 

 

> Homeopathy is Greek for 'similar suffering'. The idea is to give

patients minuscule doses of something that causes symptoms similar to

those they are already experiencing.

> So if you have insomnia, you might be given a tiny amount of coffee

which in larger quantities would make it even harder for you to get

to sleep.The theory is that this minute quantity will stimulate your

body's own healing powers without side effects.

> The remedies usually come in doses that have been diluted many

times over.They are given in tablets or powders which you dissolve in