The Effectiveness of Homeopathy

Samuel Hahnemann in the 1800s first experimented with a Peruvian tree bark, curious about how it could cure malaria. What he discovered was that this Peruvian tree bark caused symptoms that were similar to malaria, from this observation he concluded that like could cure like. He believed that by diluting substances into water or alcohol, the solvent would still contains healing abilities even when the substance itself is long gone. Hahnemann went on to experiment with all kinds of substances, from this he invented a new system of treatment called homeopathy. Water memory is the claimed ability that water has "memory" of substances that have been previous diluted in it. This theory was proposed by Jacques Benveniste, in an effort to explain how homeopathic remedies work. Homeopathic remedies are prepared by diluting solutions to a certain degree that when the final remedy is complete not a single molecule from the original substance is present. If this is so, do the remedies work at all? And if they do, how? There are many controversial arguments amongst the scientific communities about whether this healing technique is at all effective.

James Randi, a famous scientific skeptic challenges the effectiveness of homeopathy. He claims that the practice of homeopathy is all 'shi-na-ni-gans' and pharmaceutical companies simply cell these remedies at prices that are much too high to make money. Randi says that it is impossible for a substance to be diluted into water as many as twenty-five times and still have an effect on the patient taking the remedy. Contradicting Randi's skepticism, many homeopathic pateints have taken remedies and have been cured of a diseases. But this system of treatment does not work in any ordinary scientific way. Many homeopaths have conducted experiments and failed to show scientific proof that homeopathic remedies actually work, and that it is merely a placebo pill.

In the past few years, I have been prescribed a few homeopathic remedies and with all honesty I have to say that these remedies had no significant effect in treating my symptoms. But my mom, who was also prescribed homeopathic remedies, insist that these remedies have had great effects in treating the medical symptoms that she has been having. To settle the dispute going around the house, we decided to feed a few of the sleeping remedies to my dog (a very unreliable way to settle a dispute), and to my surprise he was fast asleep within minutes. One good thing about taking these remedies is that no uncomfortable side-affects can occur, no matter how many you take.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G9U - James Radin video on homeopathy