Firstly, what is homeopathy?
From the SOH website:
Homeopathy is a system of medicine which is based on treating the individual with highly diluted substances given in mainly tablet form, which triggers the body’s natural system of healing.
The key phrase there is "highly dilute". Common sense tells us that when we dilute something that it gets weaker: think adding a cola to your JD; it doesn't taste as strong and it takes a greater volume to get you drunk than if you left the cola out. Why would we want to dilute the medicine? Luckily, the SOH foresaw that question...
Still from the SOH website:
If they are so dilute, how can they work?
After each dilution the mixture is vigorously agitated in a machine that delivers a calibrated amount of shaking. This is called succussion. It is thought that this process imprints the healing energy of the medicinal substance throughout the body of water (the diluent) as if a message is passed on. The message contains the healing energy. Even in ultra-molecular dilutions, information specific to the original dissolved substance remains and can be detected.
"Succussion"? Just because you make up a word for it, doesn't make it make any sense. Lets hope there was no agitation anyhwere previously (sewage treatment works, anyone) to imprint the water with the wrong sort of energy and pass on that message. If there is, we'll never get rid of it; even diluting it won't work. Given how long the water on earth has been going around the cycle, just imagine what messages it has picked up? It would be a wonder if the message of the healing energy would even be able to be heard over the rest of the messages? And just how does the body hear the message anyway? The SOH don't seem to have foreseen these questions. Oh well, moving on...
So how do the homeopaths pick what medicine to dilute in the first place?
It works on the principle of “like cures like” - that is, a substance that would cause symptoms in a healthy person is used to cure those same symptoms in illness. For example, one remedy which might be used in a person suffering from insomnia is coffea, a remedy made from coffee.
Have another coffee to help me sleep? I think their example speaks for itself: utter nonsense.
Logic and common sense are both failing me here, maybe there is some research to back up their claims. Although lots of studies have been done (just type homeopathy research into google), a meta-analysis of many of these studies conluded:
There is some evidence that homeopathic treatments are more effective than placebo; however, the strength of this evidence is low because of the low methodological quality of the trials. Studies of high methodological quality were more likely to be negative than the lower quality studies. Further high quality studies are needed to confirm these results.
In essence, no, there is no research to back up their claims.
To summarise, homeopathy makes no sense and does not stand up to scientific scrutiny. So please, raise awareness of homeopathy, and perhaps save someone's time, money and health from this sorry excuse for healthcare product.
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