Homeopathy (also homœopathy or homoeopathy; from the Greek ὅμοιος, hómoios, "similar" + πάθος, páthos, "suffering" or "disease") is a form of alternative medicine first defined by Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century.Homeopathic practitioners contend that an ill person can be treated using a substance that can produce, in a healthy person, symptoms similar to those of the illness. According to homeopaths, serial dilution, with shaking between each dilution, removes the toxic effects of the remedy while the qualities of the substance are retained by the diluent (water, sugar, or alcohol). The end product is often so diluted that it is indistinguishable from pure water, sugar or alcohol. Practitioners select treatments according to a patient consultation that explores the physical and psychological state of the patient, both of which are considered important to selecting the remedy.
Claims for efficacy of homeopathic treatment beyond the placebo effect are unsupported by scientific and clinical studies. While advocates point to positive results reported in high-impact journals as evidence for its efficacy, the number of such high-quality studies is small, the conclusions are not definitive, and duplication of the results, a key test of scientific validity, has proven problematic at best. Homeopathy is scientifically implausible and claims for pharmacological effect at many common homeopathic dilutions violate fundamental principles of mainstream science: For instance, above about 12C or 24X potencies, the level of dilution is greater than the number of molecules present in the original tincture. Claims that these could still have a pharmacological effect greater than placebo violate, among other things, the Law of Mass Action, a fundamental principle of chemistry.The lack of convincing scientific evidence supporting its efficacy and its use of remedies without active ingredients have caused homeopathy to be regarded as pseudoscience; quackery; or, in the words of a 1998 medical review, "placebo therapy at best and quackery at worst."
Homeopathic remedies are generally considered safe, with rare exceptions,although homeopaths have been criticized for putting patients at risk by advising them to avoid conventional medicine, such as vaccinations, anti-malarial drugsand antibiotics. In many countries, the laws that govern the regulation and testing of conventional drugs do not apply to homeopathic remedies. Current usage around the world varies from two percent of people in the United Kingdom and the United States using homeopathy in any one yearto 15 percent in India, where it is considered part of Indian traditional medicine. In the UK, the National Health Service runs five homeopathic hospitals, and in the 1990s, between 5.9 and 7.5 percent of English family doctors are reported to have prescribed homeopathic remedies, a figure rising to at least 12 percent in Scotland.In 2005, around 100,000 physicians used homeopathy worldwide, making it one of the most popular and widely used complementary therapies.
Claims for efficacy of homeopathic treatment beyond the placebo effect are unsupported by scientific and clinical studies. While advocates point to positive results reported in high-impact journals as evidence for its efficacy, the number of such high-quality studies is small, the conclusions are not definitive, and duplication of the results, a key test of scientific validity, has proven problematic at best. Homeopathy is scientifically implausible and claims for pharmacological effect at many common homeopathic dilutions violate fundamental principles of mainstream science: For instance, above about 12C or 24X potencies, the level of dilution is greater than the number of molecules present in the original tincture. Claims that these could still have a pharmacological effect greater than placebo violate, among other things, the Law of Mass Action, a fundamental principle of chemistry.The lack of convincing scientific evidence supporting its efficacy and its use of remedies without active ingredients have caused homeopathy to be regarded as pseudoscience; quackery; or, in the words of a 1998 medical review, "placebo therapy at best and quackery at worst."
Homeopathic remedies are generally considered safe, with rare exceptions,although homeopaths have been criticized for putting patients at risk by advising them to avoid conventional medicine, such as vaccinations, anti-malarial drugsand antibiotics. In many countries, the laws that govern the regulation and testing of conventional drugs do not apply to homeopathic remedies. Current usage around the world varies from two percent of people in the United Kingdom and the United States using homeopathy in any one yearto 15 percent in India, where it is considered part of Indian traditional medicine. In the UK, the National Health Service runs five homeopathic hospitals, and in the 1990s, between 5.9 and 7.5 percent of English family doctors are reported to have prescribed homeopathic remedies, a figure rising to at least 12 percent in Scotland.In 2005, around 100,000 physicians used homeopathy worldwide, making it one of the most popular and widely used complementary therapies.
