Homeopathic medicine
Homeopathic medicine (homeopathy) takes its name from the Greek terms “like” and “suffering.” The underlying premise of homeopathic medicine, “like cures like,” originated in Egypt and ancient Greece. In the late 18th century, German physician Samuel Hahnemann read that quinine-containing Peruvian bark (chinchona) could heal malaria. Hahnemann took a dose of Peruvian bark and became hot, tired, exceedingly thirsty, and agitated, all of which are indications of malaria. Hahnemann began to explore further and developed his hypothesis of like cures like, also known as the Law of Similars: that if a chemical causes a particular symptom in big doses, it can treat such symptoms in small doses.
Homeopathic treatments can be made using herbs, minerals, snake venom, and other things. They are diluted repeatedly and “succussed,” or aggressively shaken, in between each dilution. The process of sequential dilution and succussion is known as potentization.
What is the difference between herbs and homeopathic remedies
Herbal treatments and holistic medicine frequently mix with homeopathic medicine. The latter becomes particularly problematic when homeopathic remedies originate from botanicals that share a common nomenclature. Nonetheless, homeopathic medicine differs in both toxicity and therapeutic paradigms, with significant consequences for use and future studies.
Many studies have shown an increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) over the last decade. Manufacturer promises of extraordinary benefits for nutritional and herbal supplements have helped to feed this growing use since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was passed in 1994. Unfortunately, patients sometimes lack the sophistication to assess the quality of the evidence for these recommendations, and doctors usually lack the time or inclination to investigate papers documenting these possible benefits in obscure publications. Doctors are growing more conscious of possible herb-drug interactions in the hospital environment, especially during the perioperative phase. They also study the sporadic toxicity reports on the use of herbs. Under these circumstances, doctors could find it easy to write off the whole field as useless and dangerous. This disregard of the field raises the possibility of patients not sharing information regarding the supplements they use. Under the presumption that “natural” implies “safe,” this increases the likelihood that patients would utilize drugs improperly, leading to potentially disastrous results. This is illustrated by a case study.
Jones and Lawson reported in 1998 a concerning case of neonatal congestive heart failure (CHF) related to the mother’s use of blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), an herb that is also used in homeopathy. Despite ruling out other obvious causes of CHF, the supposed causal agent remains unknown. Jones and Lawson say the mother took three tablets daily instead of the advised one for three weeks and that the tablets originated from a store offering “naturopathic products.” New Zealand doctors responded to their study, pointing out another case with a similar result.
On the other hand, the author, an obstetrician, has given homeopathic preparations of Caulophyllum many times. One patient, gravida para, had two prior Caesarean sections following failed inductions at 43 weeks. Her cervix stayed hard, long, and closed at 40 weeks for her third pregnancy, indicating that a similar result was probably in store. Every three days, she received one dose of Caulophyllum 1M (a concentration of 10−1000). After receiving three dosages, she gave birth to a healthy baby three hours into her labor at 41 weeks.
Jones and Lawson do not state the source or dosage of the Caulophyllum preparation utilized nor whether the preparation was chemically tested following the discovery of the problem. The study thus leaves unclear if herbal or homeopathic Caulophyllum was consumed, was a standardized extract, was manufactured under good manufacturing standards (GMP), or may have been contaminated. The need to elucidate these problems is the main emphasis of this paper.
How Homeopathic Remedies are Manufactured
Herbs, minerals, or even animal byproducts are the building blocks of homeopathic medicines. Prior to storage, these materials are mechanically ground and dissolved in a liquid, typically grain alcohol or lactose. You may call this type of mixture the “mother tincture.” Afterwards, homeopaths add more alcohol or lactose to the tinctures, either 1 part to 10 (or “x”) or 1 part to 100 (or “c”). You can get a 1x or 1c dilution by shaking these tinctures. Homeopaths can further dilute the tinctures by factors of two, three, and so on. Professional homeopaths frequently use much larger dilutions because they believe the substance’s healing abilities improve with dilution.
Homeopathic medicines work by triggering the body’s innate healing processes. Physical symptoms (like feverishness), the patient’s present emotional and psychological condition (like worry and restlessness), and the patient’s constitution are all part of a homeopathic diagnosis since, according to homeopaths, mental and emotional aspects are often involved in physical sickness. A person’s physical sensitivity, stamina, initiative, attention, tenacity, and inventiveness are all parts of their constitution. All of these factors are considered when determining the best treatment for a patient, which means that every diagnosis and treatment plan is unique.
What Form of Homeopathic Remedies is Better? Is it better to use tablets or drops?
There is a wide variety of effective methods for administering homeopathic treatments.
Homeopathic practitioners typically administer most therapies as small, round sugar pills or liquid drops, but they also use tablets, sprays, lotions, and powders.
Liquids have certain benefits over pills, but they taste more like water and aren’t as sweet. However, pills, which are derived from sucrose or lactose and taste like sugar, are easy to consume and enjoyable for children and adults alike.
One way to modify the strength of a liquid medicine is through succussion, which involves tapping the bottom of the container against your palm to stir the contents. Due to the invariability of the dry pill’s efficacy, such an adjustment is not possible.
Every dose of the cure works slightly more thoroughly than the last one, and there’s less chance of irritation because the potency is adjusted just by succussion.
The procedure allows for more frequent dosing of the liquid medicine without the negative side effects that would result from using the same method with dry pills, provided that the dosage is not excessive. This means your symptoms will go away faster.
To avoid upsetting the sensitive, it’s best to take dry pills only after treatment has stalled. This brings us to the second benefit of liquids: they can be repeated to promote a better reaction when improvement is slow.
Some people are very sensitive and react excessively to even the most innocuous stimulus, such as repeated doses of a dry tablet, regardless of whether or not the effects of the pill have plateaued. These annoyances aren’t harmful and won’t last forever, but they’re nonetheless superfluous.
Liquids dilute and soften the action of remedies, allowing people with extreme sensitivity to receive them without exacerbating their symptoms.
What then, oral or intravenous fluids? While both options are effective, a liquid solution is preferable if you want to regulate increased sensitivity or speed up the rate of healing.
Use of Homeopathic medicine Across the globe
Homeopathic medicine is utilized by more than 200 million individuals worldwide on a consistent basis. Homeopathic medicine has been utilized by six out of ten individuals in 16 countries that were surveyed, and 55% of the global population intends to use it in the future.
Homeopathic medicine is incorporated into the national health systems of numerous countries, including Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, Pakistan, and Switzerland.
EUROPE
About 29% of the EU’s population, or 100 million EU citizens, use homeopathic remedies in their daily healthcare. Homeopathic medicine is implemented in 40 of the 42 European nations.
INDIA
India is the country with the highest number of individuals utilizing homeopathic medicine, with approximately 1.2 billion individuals (83% of the Indian population) relying exclusively on homeopathic medicine for their medical care.
Currently, there are more than 200,000 registered homeopathic physicians, with an additional 12,000 being added each year.
UNITED KINGDOM
In the United Kingdom, approximately 32 million individuals, accounting for 49% of the population, utilize homeopathic medicine.
Conventional medicine and alternative remedies, including homeopathic medicine, are regarded as complementary by 77% of the UK population.
UNITED STATES
About 193 million people in the United States, or 58% of the population, use homeopathic medicine. Ninety percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with their homeopathic treatment.
Scientific Reports, Research, and Studies
People in the public eye, from politicians to comics, often say strong things against homeopathic medicine. But it’s difficult to find people who know the truth about what they’re saying. We closely examine the most significant news stories:
- The March 2022 BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine study brings up a well-known issue that affects all medical research: “reporting bias.” This can change the general evidence for how well a medical treatment works, usually by overstating the benefits. Media stories based on this study didn’t say that there is bias in news in all areas of clinical research.
- Homeopathic medicine and the antidepressant fluoxetine were both determined to be effective therapies for women suffering from menopausal depression in the prestigious Macías-Cortés 2015 study, which was carried out at a research hospital. Even though they didn’t offer any satisfactory explanations, the editors of PLOS ONE shockingly decided to remove this high-quality work from the journal on April 23, 2020, five years after it was published.
- The 2011 Swiss report, prepared for the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health, detailed the results of a seven-year evaluation of evidence regarding homeopathic medicine. The study concluded that homeopathic medicine, as implemented in Switzerland, demonstrates clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and safety. Homeopathic medicine has been integrated into the Swiss national healthcare system, making it accessible to the public.
- The 2010 UK ‘Science & Technology’ report, authored by Members of Parliament, is frequently cited as representing the UK Government’s stance and is regarded as definitive scientific evidence that homeopathic medicine is merely a placebo. Only four Members of Parliament voted on this non-academic report: three in favor and one abstained due to concerns with the ‘balance of witnesses.’ We established an ‘Early Day Motion’ as a public record to document the concerns regarding the execution of this ‘Evidence Check.’ Seventy members of Parliament signed it. The Department of Health rejected the report’s conclusions.
- Menopause Depression: A recent randomized placebo-controlled study looked at how well individualized homeopathic treatment and fluoxetine (also known as Prozac) worked for women who were going through menopause who were depressed and had moderate to severe symptoms.
Researchers found that both treatments were safe and significantly outperformed a placebo. Homeopathic medicine helped patients with depressed symptoms more than fluoxetine did. It also helped them with menopause symptoms, which fluoxetine did not.
This study at a public research hospital in Mexico City involved 133 women. Besides comparing homeopathic medicine to a sugar pill, they also compared fluoxetine (known as Prozac) to a sugar pill.
A drug for depression is said to have “significant clinical benefit” by NICE if it improves the “Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression” by three points more than the placebo it is being tried against.
After six weeks of treatment, homeopathic medicine worked better than a sugar pill on the Hamilton Scale by five points. Fluoxetine worked better than the sugar pill by three and a half points. - Diarrhea: Each kid with diarrhea gets a unique homeopathic treatment. Jacobs et al. (2003) looked at three randomized, placebo-controlled studies and found that homeopathic treatment shortened the length of diarrhea (p=0.008).
- Otitis media: Two studies found important results for treating ear infections in children in a way that is specific to each child.
- Vertigo: German complex homeopathic remedy Vertigoheel had been tested for patients with dizziness and unsteadiness. These studies suggest that homeopathic medicines hold interest and warrant further investigation. The success rate of treatment with this particular remedy was higher than the use of traditional Western meclizine. This remedy might also benefit more people.
Philadelphia Homeopathic Clinic—The #1 Homeopathic Center in the City of Brotherly Love
For two decades, Philadelphia Homeopathic Clinic has administered classical homeopathic therapeutic philosophy to individuals with various medical conditions. Victor Tsan, MD, is a homeopath, hypnotherapist, and acupuncturist with over 40 years of clinical and academic experience. He received his homeopathic education from the Academy of Classical Homeopathic Medicine in Kyiv, Ukraine, the foremost homeopathic institution in the world. Doctor Tsan’s qualifications are acknowledged by the World Education Services in New York, NY.
For more information about our clinic and to schedule an appointment with Dr. Victor Tsan, contact us at (267) 403-3085
References
- Prasad R. Homoeopathy booming in India. Lancet, 2007; 370:1679-80 | Full Text
- Homeopathic medicinal products. Commission report to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Directives 92/73 and 92/74 | Full Text
- Survey conducted by Toluna Harris Interactive. Summary published on Harris Interactive 17 July, 2024, in French and English | Link
- Ghosh AK presents a brief account of the evolution of homeopathic medicine in India. Homeopathic medicine, 2010;99(2):130-6 | PubMed