Herbal Self-Treatment: Homeopathic Humbug

Herbals have been the basis of self treatment since the time of Shen Nong, the divine farmer who is revered in China as the discoverer of herbal medications (Bivins, 94). They have been the remedy of choice for almost all ailments for almost four thousand years; that is before western medicine discovered new scientific techniques to isolate active compounds and create more potent drugs. But, even before these scientific discoveries came into play, new theories about herbals have arisen from the ashes, one of them being the theory of homeopathy. Homeopathy is a two hundred year old practice that has countless followers and adversaries to match. Even though homeopathic medicine is still in wide use across the world, its practices are non-beneficial, false, and outdated and its use in medicine should be discontinued.

The word Homeopathy comes from the Greek word homois meaning similar and pathos meaning suffering. Its theories first originated in print in 1807 by a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann (Crellin 86). He viewed sick people as having a dynamic disturbance in vital energies which can be cured by the 'law of similars'. He spent most of his life working on this theory and had investigated many different substances which came from many different sources, such as animal, plant, mineral, or synthetic substances. He experimented with sodium chloride, opium, thyrodinium or thyroid hormone, poisons such as arsenic, mercury and belladonna, herbals such as rhubarb, and elements such as Antimony (Crellin 87).

Hahnemann lived in a time where conventional medicine did more harm than good, in a time of leaching and humor theory, where antibiotics and the germ theory of infectious disease were not yet invented. Surgical procedures did not involve anesthesia and the sterile environment that the western world is so accustomed to was non-existent, "It is safe to say that people went to the hospital to die rather than get better" (Novella). It is no wonder he spent most of his time searching for new ways to benefit mankind, and through his research he was quite unsuccessful until he made an amazing observation about cinchona bark; Cinchona bark contains the chemical quinine, now a drug used to treat malaria. Hahnemann took this bark in a small dose and began to develop the symptoms of malaria. "From this observation he developed homeopathy's first law, "similia similibus curentur," or let likes be cured by likes. In other words, drugs which cause specific symptoms can be used to cure diseases which cause the same symptoms" (Novella).

As homeopathy became more and more popular, new laws began to evolve out of its origins. The law of infinitely-small doses today is often thought of as the primary characteristic of homeopathy. "This law states that when drugs are diluted in either water or alcohol, they actually increase in potency. Today, serial dilutions of 1:100 repeated six or thirty times are commonly used. Between each dilution the substance is violently shaken, which is thought to be necessary to activate the properties of the drug" (Novella). He also created his own theory about disease, called miasm theory. "According to this theory there are three miasms which are responsible for all human disease, and homeopathic remedies are directed towards treating these offending miasms" (Novella). The word miasm means a cloud or fog that resides within the being (Morrell).

The three miasms include Sycosis, Syphilis, and Psora. Sycosis is "held to be responsible for many sexual disorders, urinary disorders, and disorders affecting the joints and mucous membranes" (Morrell). The Syphilis miasm is said to be "responsible for many diseases of the nervous system, the blood and skeleton as well as a range of psychological disorders, including alcoholism, depression, suicidal impulses, insanity, loss of smell and taste, blindness, deafness and ulcerations" (Morrell). And the Psora miasm tends to be responsible for "diseases of a chronic nature, all skin diseases, most mental illness other than syphilitic ones, allergies, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and most dysfunctional diseases of organs and systems" (Morrell). This miasm theory was the basis and still continues to be the basis of all homeopathic diagnostics and remedy regimens.

Hahnemann's theories are still in use today, about 3.5 percent of the US population uses it, as stated by the National Institutes of Health survey (Novella). Schools have even opened up explaining, supporting, and teaching his findings. For instance, New Haven's School of Homeopathy hands out real degrees to its students who complete its program. But this isn't the only school out there; Farrington Homeopathy School in Pittsburg Pennsylvania and Hahnemann's School of Homeopathy in Richmond California are just additional examples. There are many other schools across the entire United States also supporting Hahnemann's theory (Rappaport).

Ironically, when this theory was created two hundred years ago, its main adversaries had come from the physicians of the western world; notably the American physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. A physician by profession and very famous poet who in 1842 said that "Homeopathy and its Kindred Delusions continue to be revered" (Crellin 87). Even today, Dr. Steven Novella a writer for the New England Skeptical Society, believes the theory is "bunk, and in a perfect world it would have vanished over a century ago, gone the way of phrenology (divining personality from the bumps on one's head) and leaching". Many physicians and medical professionals disapprove of this theory, but why?

First off, the facts which come from homeopathic medications are over two hundred years old and unregulated by the Food and Drug administration. Unregulated means they are not supervised by the food and drug administration, and test or studies have not been conducted to these herbal compounds and theories. The food and drug administration is responsible for regulating food, dietary supplements, drugs, biologics, cosmetics, medical devices, radiation emitting devices, and blood products in the United States.

The food and drug administration first became publicly recognized and accredited in 1937 when a sulfa compound marketed by the S.E. Messengill Company killed over 100 people. The compound contained the solvent diethylene glycol, a chemical normally used in antifreeze, which is known to be poisonous to the human body (Ballentine). The sulfa incident was named the Elixir Sulfanilamide Tragedy of 1937 and led to the introduction of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act of 1938 which gave the FDA the power to pre-approve all new drugs introduced into interstate commerce. Unfortunately, this act overlooked the regulation of all natural products, homeopathic preparations included.

In addition, the theory of homeopathy interferes with the basic principles of chemistry and physics. Goodman and Gillman's: the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics is a book which contains these basic principles of chemistry and physics and applies them to pharmaceutical compounds. This book, which was written by over fifty healthcare professionals, contains over two thousand pages of regulated pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, it contains the mechanisms of action, adverse effects, dosage forms, half-lives, and uses of each medication embodied within its literature. Although these facts are interesting, its main position in the opposition of homeopathy and Hahnemann's theorem is incorporated in its pages on the therapeutic index.

The therapeutic index is in essence a graph which incorporates the concentration in blood plasma of a xenobiotic verses time. A xenobiotic, which is defined as a chemical or substance which is foreign to an organism or biological system, is presented on the abscissa or x-axis and time is incorporated on the ordinate or y-axis. In order for a drug to stimulate its desired effect, a certain amount of it needs to be administered and absorbed by the body; this dose is termed the effective therapeutic dose. At high drug doses the drug begins to cause toxic effects to the individual, this dose is termed the lethal or toxic dose. In between this effective dose and toxic dose is the therapeutic index. The goal of any given drug is to reach a blood plasma concentration that is within the therapeutic index so as to prevent lethal bouts of intoxication in the individual while stimulating the desired therapeutic effect. This is a factual statement that is used by every doctor, pharmacist, and medical professional in the United States and most of the world.

The other main idea behind his herbal stratagem is that 'likes cure likes' or the 'law of similars' which was mentioned earlier. Homeopathic users believe that the use of infinitely small amounts of an herbal will have the opposite effects than if the herbal was used in large doses (Crellin 86). So if the caffeine that embodies starbucks coffee, which is made from natural Columbian coffee beans, and is used to increase wakefulness, alertness, and mental activity in normal doses was to become incredibly diluted, it should bring bouts of sedation and be used as a sleep aid, following the homeopathic rules of 'likes cures likes'. If this were in fact true, Starbucks would be a paradoxical franchise, providing both the substance that wakes and that which enables slumber and its stock would surely skyrocket past that of IBM or even Microsoft.

So in essence, with this information, Hahnemann's Homeopathy is in fact false. The infinitely-small doses which is used in homeopathy tends to be so diluted that they hardly contain any herbal drug, "Homeopaths today use dilutions of substances which essentially remove all traces of the substance from the final dilution", this would cause no therapeutic effect on an individual (Novella). The 'law of similar' rule which is another main theory of homeopathy has also been disproved by the simple beverage that is ubiquitous to the world. As for the miasm theory, countless years of researched medical advancements in microbiology and immunology have shown that allergies are caused by auto-immune responses of the body rather than the Psora miasm. It also does not take a medical profession to realize that alcoholism, blindness, and insanity are not caused by Syphilis. At the end of the day, it is important to remember the true medical professionals in the world that dedicate much of their time to helping mankind overcome their ailments. Hahnemann was also a physician and should be respected for that, but as for his Homeopathic theory, it should be flushed down the toilet, just like a freshly used piece of toilet paper.

Works Cited

Ballentin, Carol. "Taste of Raspberries, Taste of Death, the 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide Incident." FDA Consumer Magazine. June 1981. gov/oc/history/elixir.html>.

Bivins, Roberta. "The Body in Balance." Medicine: A History of Healing. Ed. Roy Porter. New York: Barnes and Noble Inc., 1997. 94.

Brunton, Laurence L., John S. Lazo, and Keith L. Parker, eds. Goodman and Gilman's the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 11th ed. New York: The

McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 2006.

Crellin, John. "Herbalism." Medicine: A History of Healing. Ed. Roy Porter. New York: Barnes and Noble Inc., 1997. 68-93. Morrell, Peter. "Hahnemann's Miasm Theory and Miasm Remedies." Articles on Homeopathy. 1996 .

Novella, Steven. "Homeopathy." The Connecticut Skeptic 1.3 June 1996 http://www.geocities.com/skepdigest/Homeopathy.html>.

Rappaport, Karen, ed. "USA Training Schools." Homeopathy Home. 2006. 5 Dec. 2006 http://www.homeopathyhome.com/directory/usa/training_colleges.shtml.