Is Homeopathy Real or Quackery?
The medical practices of the late 1700's weren't pretty or kind to the body. Blood letting was by far one of the more popular methods of healing. In fact, if removing a pint of blood from the victim helped (or for that matter, didn't help) the doctor would remove two or three.
Leeching was another name for bloodletting. Doctors also practiced blistering and purging. In blistering, they burned the skin with caustic chemicals to form a blister with the expectation that it would draw the illness or toxins to the surface of the skin and eliminate them from the body.
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Purging, involved giving the patient something that purged the system either orally or rectally. Sometimes it was a high dose of mercury. Of course, the patient might recover from the illness naturally but die from the toxic cure.
No Standardized Scientific Methods
Samuel Hahnemann was a German physician at the time. He could not abide by these less than civil methods of curing patients. Because of this, he developed a complicated system for preparing drugs that followed the laws of similars. This means that you cure a patient from a disease or toxin by administering a small amount of a substance that would elicit the same symptoms if the person took an excess amount.
There were no standardized scientific methods of the day in the late 1700's except to report anecdotal stories. He drew the basis for his theory of homeopathy for malaria using quinine. The quinine caused the same type of symptoms as the malaria. By reducing the amount of active ingredients, he theorized that it increased the strength of the medication. He tested these on other people.
Traditional Medicine and Homeopathy
Is Homeopathy real? Today, scientists and traditional medicine does not believe in the effectiveness of homeopathy. They believe that the amounts of the active ingredients in homeopathic cures are far too miniscule to cure anything or make any type of difference in the individual's health.
In many cases, the concoction of the homeopathic cure follows rigorous steps that involve adding a specific amount of diluting ingredient, shaking a specific number of times and then adding more. The creator of the homeopathic cure performs the steps a number of times to dilute the active ingredient or ingredients in the solution. Each homeopathic cure takes on the aspects of a magic potion with the ritualistic creation.
Is there Proof that Homeopathy Works?
There is no tangible proof homeopathy works. In fact, the FDA does not impose the same requirements on homeopathic medicine as it does on other types of drugs or remedies. The reason is that there is so little active ingredient in the medication. In fact, homeopathic drug manufacturers are not subject to the rigorous rule of requiring less that 10 percent alcohol. Homeopathic drugs do not have to list all the active ingredients in drug they create. This goes back to the lack of a significant amount of the active ingredients in the medication.
The AMA neither supports nor denies the benefit of Homeopathy. When asked, "Is homeopathy real?" A representative for the AMA simply stated doctors should be aware of alternative treatments and use them whenever the situation requires it. They take the position on all safe forms of alternative medicine.
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