So how does homeopathy work?!
Over the 15 years I have been a homeopath I’ve got used to the awkward pauses and glazed eyes when I tell some people what I do. I’ve given up trying to convert the disbelievers – everyone is entitled to their own opinions and it is unfair to foist my principles and views on others. But when I get out-and-out antagonism and people foisting their views on me it would be really handy to be able to explain exactly how homeopathy works. There is plenty of research proving its curative effect: an estimated 600 million people use homeopathy worldwide and there are over 1,200 research paper proving its efficacy. But HOW does homeopathy work?! Sue Leach, one of The Hub’s homeopaths, is pleased to share some exciting new scientific findings that offer an explanation…
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I have no beef with people who can’t get their head around homeopathy. It is a method of treatment that, if you’ve been indoctrinated with conventional medical beliefs, can be pretty hard to fathom. But when they point the finger at homeopathy, saying it is nothing more than placebo, I admit I get hot under the collar.
The power of placebo
Placebo is a powerful force… think you’ll feel better and you will often feel better. There are many conditions in which a placebo can produce results even when people know they are taking a placebo. Studies show that placebos can have an effect, for instance, on depression, pain, sleep problems, IBS and menopausal symptoms. In a study of asthma sufferers people using a placebo inhaler did no better on breathing tests than sitting and doing nothing – but when researchers asked for people’s perception of how they felt, the placebo inhaler was reported as being as effective as medicine in providing relief.
So let’s not dismiss placebo, in either conventional or complementary medicine. Mind over matter and all that!
How homeopathic remedies are made
The problem for the doubters is the way homeopathic remedies are made:
- We take a substance (such as a plant) and add it to pharmacy-grade ethanol.
- One drop of this tincture is then added to 99 drops of distilled water and the vial vigorously shaken (called succussing).
- To make different potencies of remedies we simply repeat this dilution/succussing process a different number of times.
- Once the substance has been through dilution/succussing 12 times it reaches a point known in chemistry as Avogadro’s number, where no molecules from the original remain.
How on earth, people ask, can a remedy have any effect then when it doesn’t contain any trace of the original substance from which it was made? There are several research projects looking into exactly that: the healing mechanism behind homeopathy…
- Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles are advancing science and medicine in numerous ways, especially in electronics and biomedicine, and it looks as if the action of these microscopic particles could play a part in how homeopathy works. Research by Dr Iris Bell in the States shows that nanoparticles of an original substance remain in homeopathic medicines past Avogradro’s number – they seem to become trapped in bubbles created during the dilution process when the solution is agitated.
It is thought that homeopathic remedies contain nanoparticles that act as low-level ‘stressors’ to cells that ‘maladapt’ due to an illness. The nanoparticles are too small to have pharmacological effects (hence the well-documented fact that homeopathy produces few side-effects), but they are highly reactive and can stimulate reversal of a maladapted process. So a homeopathic remedy is a nano-sized stimulus to a healing process.
A homeopathic remedy is a nano-sized stimulus to a healing process
- Coherence domains
Researcher, scientist and homeopath Dr Alexander Tournier is exploring the concept of coherence domains. His works shows that when a substance is place in a liquid it can affect that liquid, even after the physical substance has been removed.
It is thought that during the production of homeopathic medicines the original substance creates water molecule clusters that mimic that substance. In other words, the process of dilution/succussion imprints information from the active ingredient (such as a plant) into the water. So, despite dilution until there are no longer any molecules left of the substance, its characteristics remain in the water.
Despite dilution water retains a ‘memory’ or imprint of the original substance
- Morphic resonance
Biochemist and author Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance could also be significant. This works on the theory that there is an inherent memory in nature. If rats learn a trick in one place rats all over the world should be able to learn it more quickly – it creates a sort of ‘collective memory’.
Homeopathy is based on the ‘law of similars’: if someone’s symptoms are similar to those produced by arsenic poisoning, then arsenic is a substance in nature that will have resonance with that illness. As the body is so highly sensitised to this similar substance by morphic resonance, administering a minimal dose will prompt a response from the body’s immune system.
Morphic resonance could explain the homeopathic principle of the law of similars
- Solvatrochromic dyes
Solvatrochromic dyes detect the presence of substances through subtle changes in their colour. In a study conducted by Prof Bonamin in Brazil solvatrochromic dyes showed that, when the homeopathic remedy phosphorus 30c was added to one end of a series of connected lakes, the remedy spread throughout the whole lake system of two million litres in a matter of minutes and then slowly declined over 72 hours.
Dyes show the dispersal of a homeopathic remedy through water within minutes
Conclusion
Science is now advancing at such a rapid pace that we are now moving on from the laws of physics propounded by Newton three centuries ago My hunch is that it is only a matter of time before scientists provide us with a full explanation for how homeopathic remedies work.
Adapted from an article by Mani Norland, principal of the School of Homeopathy, in the summer issue of New Homeopath magazine
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