Daily Times

As a medical specialist, I believe homeopath is a person who dishes out sugar pills till the patient either dies or is cured by nature. However, there are thousands of qualified and unqualified people, including friends and relatives, who practice homeopathy sincerely and millions claim to have ‘benefitted’ from it. Since science is the best way to understand the world, for any set of observations, there is only one correct explanation. That which can be destroyed by the truth – should be.

Homeopathy is supposed to be a system of alternative medicine invented by Samuel Hahnemann in 1791. It is based on beliefs including ‘like cures like’ and the miasms(phenomena) which cause symptoms of a disease in healthy people, also cure those symptoms in sick people. Homeopathic preparations are manufactured using a process of dilution in which a substance is repeatedly diluted in alcohol or distilled water, each time with the containing vessel bizarrely bashed against an elastic material (a leather-bound book).Dilution is believed to continue past the point where no molecules of the original substance remain.

Ironically, a desire to take medicine is perhaps the great feature that distinguishes man from other animals. Homeopathy came into being when medicine (and scientific method) was stuck with supposed facts that did less to advance life, but more to invent ways to shorten it through procedures like bloodletting and purging. Homeopathy had completed its shelf life by the early 20th century when the Nazi Germany heavily invested to resurrect it for national pride. Its use peaked in the 1970s as a part of New Age movement and it is still around in the name of healing through natural products. Homeopathy remains prevalent in poor countries, which lack adequate education and health care facilities, while its use in the West is disappearing. The US Food and Drug Administration fell short of banning homeopathy in 2016 – manufacturers are forced to carry warnings on the packaging stating there is no scientific evidence that they work.

Homeopathy came into being when medicine (and scientific method) was stuck with supposed facts that did less to advance life, but more to invent ways to shorten it through procedures like bloodletting and purging

Homeopathy is pseudoscience. No scientific base or proof exists to support the bizarre theory that ‘like cures like’. The extreme dilutions in homeopathic preparations leave not one molecule of the original substance in the final product. Homeopaths also wrongly believe that water has a memory. No evidence of stable clusters of water molecules was found when homeopathic preparations were studied using nuclear magnetic resonance. Whatever subjective benefit a patient gets from sugar pills is due to placebo effect, simultaneous use of other medications, natural healing and/or cessation of other unpleasant treatment with side effects. Multiple systematic reviews have confirmed that ‘positive results’ seen in homeopathic clinical trials were due to chance, reporting bias and flawed study designs. It is time our minds open by wonderrather than remain closed by belief.

It is also a myth that homeopathic sugar pills do not cause any harm. Some preparations contain poisons including Belladonna, arsenic, and poison ivy; and despite dilution, the original ingredients are present in detectable levels. Serious adverse effects including seizures and death have been reported or associated with some homeopathic preparations.

Homeopaths live on a different planet without any understanding of how dangerous and irresponsible their actions can be. For example, a group of them tried to enter Liberia in 2014 to use their sugar pills on people with Ebola virus. Thankfully, the WHO intervened and refused to let them near any sick people and they were left kicking and screaming. Not long ago, one of them appealed to other homeopaths to drop some homeopathic remedies into the sea to ‘heal the oceans’ If they were not close to a sea, she advised them to drop the remedies in the river. Alternatively, they were asked to flush them down the toilet. Apparently, it is best to do it with ‘pure love and intention’.

A review conducted in 2010 of all the ‘best evidence’ studies produced by the Cochrane Collaboration, failed to demonstrate that homeopathic medicines have effects beyond placebo. Scientific tests at the BBC’s Horizon and ABC’s 20/20 programmes could not differentiate homeopathic dilutions from water even by using tests suggested by homeopaths. The UK National Health Service has banned the provision of homeopathic medicine because it is a misuse of resources. The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council conducted the most comprehensive independent evaluation in the 200-year-long history of homeopathy and concluded that people who choose homeopathy put their health at risk, as there is no good evidence for its safety and effectiveness.

Homeopathy is likened to the idea that we just cured the world of terrorism by dumping Osama’s corpse in the ocean. A ban on fizzy drinks in Punjab schools gives me hope that the day is not far when the same would apply to homeopathy. The best we can hope at present is public awareness regarding its uselessness.

The writer is a Consultant Psychiatrist & Visiting Professor based in London. He tweets @AamerSarfraz

Published in Daily Times, September 2^nd 2017.