Homeopathy is a type of quackery. The thought that some patients choose homeopathy instead of medical treatments is very worrying. In many cases these people lose the opportunity to relieve their symptoms, to be cured or to stay alive.
Some people say that they only use homeopathy for minor health problems, and that when they have a disease they undergo diagnostic methods and follow the treatments of scientific medicine1. Fortunately! So it seems that not being well at all, but without being really sick, makes certain people look for something that they think will help them to treat the disorders which they feel. In these cases, there may be no need to worry, because they are drinking water, as described below.
But when sick people, instead of following a treatment whose efficacy has been demonstrated to relieve symptoms or cure the illness, use homeopathic products, they are depriving themselves of the opportunity to get better. And no physician or pharmacist should allow this, still less encourage it.
The philosophy of homeopathy was proposed in the eighteenth century and is based on a Hippocratic aphorism: ‘similia similibus curantur’ (like cures like). We should remember that Hippocrates was a Greek physician who lived between the fifth and fourth centuries BC, and is credited with several dozen books, but, in fact, nobody knows who wrote them, and they were the basis of medicine developed by Galen in Rome between the second and third centuries after Christ. Galenic medicine was used in Europe during mediaeval times until the Renaissance, when the development of modern, scientific medicine began.
So homeopathy is a philosophy, not a science, that considers that what produces a symptom or a disease, administered in very, very small quantities, infinitesimal, can alleviate the same symptom or cure the same disease. That is, a homeopathic product is a very diluted substance that in its undiluted form causes the symptom that we want to eliminate. For example, if a substance is known to cause a headache, following the principle of homeopathy, by administering that substance in a very small concentration to a person with a headache, this will disappear. How does this happen? Nobody knows. You have to believe it because it has never been proven.
The effectiveness of homeopathy has never been scientifically proven in the different situations in which it has been applied, either in basic or clinical experimentation. It is a practice that attributes healing faculties based on the sensations of those who use it: “It’s useful for me”, “It’s good for me”, “It works for me”. This is all that we find when we investigate the effectiveness of homeopathic products.
For example, Oscillococcinum® is a patented homeopathic product which is made from an extract of heart and liver of duck heated to a high temperature, and then diluted many times in water. It is sold to cure and prevent the flu. The person who invented this product, in 1925, before it was known that the flu is produced by a virus (the influenza virus was isolated in 1933), said that his extract of duck viscera contained the same substance as the ‘bacterium’ that he believed caused the flu. And that, according to the principle of homeopathy, using very small amounts, his product served to cure and prevent the flu. This man said that he had found this bacterium, which he called Oscillococcinum (like the current homeopathic product) in people who had had the flu. Nobody has ever isolated such a bacterium. But this extract of duck viscera continues to be produced, sold and used for the flu. In the studies carried out, Oscillococcinum® has never been shown to cure or prevent the flu2. Not surprising. Why is this extract made from liver and heart of duck and not from cow kidney or pig pancreas? Perhaps because the person who invented it had easier access to a duck to eviscerate. We don’t know.
The results of health surveys conducted in Spain between 2011 and 2017 show that most consumers of homeopathic products use them only as a complement to conventional medical treatments. But it is observed that among the most frequent uses of homeopathy is the treatment of malignant tumours, which is very worrying; and also that a high percentage of homeopathic consumers refuse to receive vaccines1. The latter is really surprising, because if the theory of ‘like cures like’ has any meaning, it is the mechanism of action of the vaccines, which has indeed been demonstrated (unlike the mechanisms of action of homeopathy that remain unvalidated theories): a small amount of the germ (one or several proteins) that causes the infectious disease stimulates the production of antibodies and immune cells in the vaccinated person, and, if this germ then enters their body, these antibodies and immune cells will destroy it, preventing infection. I repeat, this has been proved, but it is not homeopathy, it is the mechanism of action of vaccines.
No homeopathic treatment has shown efficacy in comparative and reproducible clinical trials. Despite this, homeopathy is widespread throughout the world, and there are medical schools, clinics and hospitals where it is taught and practised. In many countries homeopathic preparations are regulated and considered as medicines, and their prescription is an act restricted to medical professionals. Specifically, the directive of the European Union (2001/83 / EC) that regulates medicinal products for humans includes homeopathic products as medicines3, and it seems that the European authorities have no intention of changing this extraordinary attitude.
Incidentally, no efficacy has been shown in tests performed on animals either, but in some veterinary clinics homeopathic treatments are given. But scientific veterinarians, like medical scientists, warn that homeopathy should not be used to treat sick animals4,5.
Homeopathy is not medicine. However, it constitutes a huge business, that of homeopathic products.
To give just one example, the website of the British Homeopathic Association6 shows a list of all the homeopathic products that can be used for childbirth, indicating at what time or for what symptom they should be used. Some of them are also recommended during a period before delivery (so the pregnant woman uses them for a longer period): Cimicifuga, Caulophyllum, Gelsemium, Viburnum opulus, Arnica montana, etc., up to 34 different products. None of these homeopathic products has proved effective for any of the recommended situations. Pregnancy and childbirth are very delicate situations, in which urgent and specific medical interventions may be necessary to preserve the health and life of pregnant women and newborn babies, and it is not acceptable that homeopathic products, in other words, water, may be administered in these situations.
There are thousands of examples. Each homeopathic product has a history without any scientific basis, often an absurd history. Each one is indicated for one or several situations, and all of them without demonstrated effectiveness. But homeopathy is big business with many interests, some of them visible and some less so. If the authorities responsible for human health are not capable of confronting those interests, all that remains is for each person to individually learn what homeopathy really is, so that they can decide rationally, regardless of marketing pressure.
Dr. Ana M. Cerro. PhD and Immunologist.
References
1. Pinilla J, Rodriguez-Caro A. Differences in healthcare utilisation between users and non-users of homeopathic products in Spain: Results from three waves of the National Health Survey (2011-2017). Tsuzuki S, editor. PLOS ONE. 2019;14(5):e0216707.
2. Mathie RT, Frye J, Fisher P. Homeopathic Oscillococcinum® for preventing and treating influenza and influenza‐like illness (Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews [Internet]. 2015;(1). Available from: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001957.pub6/full?highlightAbstract=withdrawn%7Chomoeopathy%7Chomoeopathi%7Chomeopathy%7Chomeopathi
3. Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medical products for human use [Internet]. 2001. Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-137-54482-7_45
4. Whitehead M, Jessop M, Gough A, Taylor N, Atkinson M, Hyde P, et al. Support for Defra’s position on homeopathy. Vet Rec. 2018;182(17):489–90.
5. Doehring C, Sundrum A. Efficacy of homeopathy in livestock according to peer-reviewed publications from 1981 to 2014. Vet Rec. 2016;179(24):628.
6. Labour and childbirth [Internet]. British Homeopathic Association. 2013. Available from: https://www.britishhomeopathic.org/charity/how-we-can-help/articles/womens-health/labour-and-childbirth/