Over 100 million Indians spend money on homeopathic medicines, far more than anywhere else in the world. Who’s being fooled ~ we, or the rest of the world? There’s no conclusive evidence that homeopathy has any medical value.
We also have hundreds of homeopathic colleges and research centres, though the money might be better spent on modern methods of treatment ~ or at least decent funerals for some who refused to seek it.
Homeopathy literally means ‘similar suffering’. It is based on the principle that ‘like cures like’, or that small amounts of poison and disease-causing substances can cure your illness. Like it or not, they must be greatly diluted: the second principal principle says ‘less is more’; or the higher the dilution, the more effective is the medicine.
Many homeopathic ‘medicines’ are so diluted that not a single molecule of the original substance is left. Yet homeopaths believe that the ghost or ‘spirit-like essence’ of the substance remains in the diluent, which is good enough to do the job. This reminds me of the kind of talk one hears from people on spirits of a stronger sort.
Comparison with vaccines is invalid, as these elicit no antibodies in such infinitesimal amounts nor are any use after you develop a disease. It has been pointed out such dilute products contain less of the intended substance than of contaminants like dust particles and insect faeces, which cannot be kept out even in cleanest manufacturing conditions. So if the remedy had any effect, how could we say the credit shouldn’t go to some incontinent insect that took a bathroom break at the right moment?
Nowadays attempts are being made to defend the ‘spirit-like powers’ claimed for such medicines by resorting to the theory of relativity, and declaiming that ‘subatomic fields’ do the work after the substance is gone. You don’t have to be Einstein to see these are not the world’s greatest scientists. As for the big scientists themselves, they are repeatedly warning against homeopathy.
Most recently Britain’s chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, said: "There is not one jot of evidence supporting the notion that homeopathic medicines are of any assistance whatsoever. Therefore, I would say they are a risk to the population because people may take them expecting they are dealing with a serious problem."
Some people may argue that we should not listen to snooty voices coming from the West (especially from someone who is both Sir and King). They forget the home of homeopathy was the West ~ at a time when the West was undeveloped. Now they’re developed, and are shutting their homeopathic colleges. Perhaps it’s time for us to catch up.
If you use homeopathic medicines, your best hope is either that you are gullible enough for your system to be tricked into accepting the placebo or sugar pill, and making you better (if the malady is minor), or that the doctor has cheated by adding a non-homeopathic medicine, as often happens when false claims of success are made.
So is homeopathy mere quackery? I prefer to duck the question. There’s always a small chance that it will one day be proved right. There’s also a chance we’ll discover the earth is flat, or that global warming can be cured by more of the same; but unless cap costs go through the roof I won’t worry my head about it.
n www.roughgang.c