Medical Self-Care: What Is Homeopathy?

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Many allopaths scoff at the high dilution of homeopathic remedies. Critic Dr. Stephen J. Barrett, author of The Health Robbers, concedes that the remedies are safe, but adds, "That's because they're too weak to have any effect at all." Homeopaths counter that their remedies produce few, if any, of the side effects that are brought on by many allopathic drugs.

Meanwhile, over the years allopathic medicine has quietly adopted some homeopathic approaches. The vaccination theory developed by Edward Jenner and Louis Pasteur was clearly an application of the homeopathic law of similars: Vaccines use tiny doses of ac tive ingredients, often produce the symptoms of the illness they are used to prevent, and stimulate the body's own disease resistance. Constantine Hering, known as the Father of American Homeopathy, introduced nitroglycerin as a treatment for angina pectoris. It is prescribed routinely by allopathic physicians today.

Research Stalemate

Despite considerable historical and testimonial support for homeopathy, many orthodox physicians automatically dismiss such "anecdotal reports" unless they're corroborated by rigorously controlled studies. This has led to something of a stalemate. Orthodox physicians have not investigated homeopathic remedies ...in part because of the AMA position that they have no value, and in part because the major funders of medical research—the government, foundations, and drug companies—do not give such research much priority. Most homeopaths, on the other hand, believe that stringent scientific studies are not necessary. They are as satisfied with their remedies as acupuncturists are with their meridian-based healing.

Recently, however, some substantial research has been conducted. In a British doubleblind study, researchers gave arthritis patients their usual medication plus either a placebo or the appropriate homeopathic remedy. Twenty-two percent of those who received the placebo showed improvement, but 80 percent of the homeopathic group improved. And William Tiller, of Stanford University, has advanced theoretical explanations for the law of similars and homeopathic dilution that reach to the very frontiers of the new physics.

The International Foundation for the Promotion of Homeopathy, and other homeopathic organizations, are presently waging legislative battles in several states to establish licensing criteria for homeopaths. They are also attempting to set up homeopathic schools in Florida and Arizona. Jonathan Harger, newsletter editor for the American Center for Homeopathy in Arlington, Virginia, estimates that as many as 5,000 U.S. allopaths and osteopaths practice homeopathy "to varying degrees."

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