Overview: Homeopathy or Homeopathic Medicine
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According to the latest statistics by the National Health Interview Survey, "an estimated 3.9 million U.S. adults and approximately 900,000 children used homeopathic medicine."
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) website revealed ʺmore than one in three adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). For women and older Americans, those numbers are even higher—two out of five report using CAM.ʺ
Homeopathic medicine, also known as homeopathy, was first developed in Germany in the 1800s. Homeopathic medicine was introducted to the United States in the late 1800s or early 1900s.
According to the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, ʺhomeopathy is based on the idea of treating ‘like with like’. Medicines which can produce an illness matching the one from which the patient is suffering are prescribed, aiming to stimulate the body’s own healing.ʺ
The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine website stated ʺthere are several key features of homeopathic medicine.ʺ
• Minimum dose. Homeopathic medicines range from concentrated tinctures to extremely dilute medicines, some so dilute that the original substance may not hold a trace of the original substance. It is thought that the water and alcohol mixture in which the dilutions are made retain a ‘memory’ of the substance.
• Idiosyncrasy. What is unusual or atypical about you or the health problem from which you are suffering?
• Constitution. The type of person, including build, personality, general physical features, for instance, a tendency to feel the heat or the cold.
• Holism. Described as treating the person, not the disease. Questions about your lifestyle, eating habits and preferences, sleep patterns and state of mind all help build up a complete picture.
Homeopathy treatment can be used alone or to complement traditional medical treatments. For example, one friend of mine who is a cancer survivor uses traditional chemotherapy treatments but also applies homeopathic treatment to curb his nausea.
We value and respect the experiences of all of our HERWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.
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There are no side effects of Homeopathic medicines.
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January 19, 2012 - 2:37amThis Comment
That's because there are no effects of any kind of homeopathic medicine. It's a placebo!
January 19, 2012 - 6:55amHomeopathy is a 200-year-old system of medicine used successfully by more than 250 million people worldwide. A large number of high-quality scientific and clinical studies have documented its effectiveness and safety.
Anyone wanting to learn how to use homeopathy to treat acute conditions like sore throats, coughs, ear infections, flu, stomach bugs, the morning sickness of pregnancy and more should consider membership with the National Center for Homeopathy. For just $4 a month - you can learn how to use this great system to treat your family, For more information on homeopathy and the extensive research supporting its efficacy, please visit http://www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org/articles-research
January 19, 2012 - 6:56amIt's not a system of medicine it is at best some scientifically illiterate witch-doctors thinking they're helping by pedalling sugar pills (but actually risking the health of their patient), and at worse a sinister scam taking money from the most vulnerable and desparate in soceity.
The most comprehensive studies have shown it to be no more effective than a placebo (such as shang et al)
If you stack the studies up the better ones ALWAYS show it to be no better than its control.
This is before we even get into the bizaare rutuals used to create it, and no level of popularity can change these facts!
January 19, 2012 - 9:07amDear Anonymous....
January 19, 2012 - 12:19pmFacts matter in science - and the facts are on homeopathy's side. Your comment about the research and your citation of Shang is incorrect. The Shang study has been ridiculed for years by scientists across the globe (see papers by such authors as Aickin, Bell and others), And to say there is no basic science, pre-clinical and clinical research showing it works is pure bunkum.
Dare to know...
Care to explain or quote the "science" behind it? I'm always up for a laugh!
January 20, 2012 - 10:17amThe latest (2011) Health Technology Assessment Report by the Swiss Government has not only concluded that Homeopathy is not only an effective form of medicine, but cost-effective as well.
January 19, 2012 - 5:34pmIt is indeed Medicine for the 21st Century. People have had enough of iatrogenic disease from toxic drugs that patently cannot cure anything.
The Shang study in 2005 has been debunked as a violation of basic science principles. In fact, the Swiss HTA indicates that Shang violated the terms of his original study funding altogether, and confirms he violated basic principles in refusing to state exactly which studies of Homeopathic treatment he chose! No bias here huh?!
Health technology is not science, by the way, however there are a lot of medically unsophisticated armchair critics who waste people's time with their idiotic rants about Homeopathy.
There is no such thing as "scientific illiteracy". You are either capable of reading or not, hence literate or illiterate. Get a dictionary and read it.
The real scammers are those who post anti-Homeopathy nonsense on blogs and forums claiming to have some sort of scientific authority which they do not.
The Swiss report didn't even comment it's efficacy. Read it first, then comment. Of course it's cost effective, it's cheap to make and the patients don't need expensive real medicine.
No matter how dangerous real medicine is it doesn't impact on the effectiveness on the "alternatives"
If you'd like to debunk shang, I'd like to hear it! Rather than claim it, provide your citation. and please try to put together a more coherent arguement.
January 20, 2012 - 10:16amThe HTA report you're talking about is over 5 years old, and Shang has been debunked at extraordinarymedicine.org and elsewhere so go read it for yourself.
January 20, 2012 - 11:19amHomeopathy is real, evidence-based medicine despite what a miniscule but mouthy bunch of armchair critics have to say.
Reading someone else's "science blog" and coming up with pseudo-philosophical notions about Homeopathy isn't going to impress anyone but your cronies.
Please attempt to think for yourself and spend more than 5 minutes "studying" Homeopathy.
A quiet typical homeopathic reponse. Assuming I haven't studied it & tried it and criticising on that basis.
extraordinarymedicine.org certainly tried to debunk it, but remember those same writers were fine with the admission criteria before publication because it seems they truly belived it would come down on the side of homepathy. Then when it didn't they were outraged by the studies ommited. Studies ommited by the very criteria they thought would back them up. Same goes for D.Ullman.
None of these people (with the possible exception of Dr Peter Fisher) will enter into a debate of the flaws of shang. Fisher (although I don't agree with him) at least has a try at constructive debate, even if his hasn't performed well.
January 20, 2012 - 11:30am