Homeopathy

 Is Homeopathy… a science or magic?

It depends on how we choose to define science. If we define science as the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena, Homeopathy will get a higher score than modern medicine. People who have read Hahnemann’s ‘organon of medicine’( A book written by Hahnemann in the form of aphorisms which describes in detail the philosophy of Homeopathy)will vouch for the fact that it has one of the most diligent and  detailed description of health, disease, case taking, choice of medicine, order of cure, obstacles to cure, prognosis and restoration of health. Hahnemann’s cinchona bark experiment and subsequent experiments, drug proving, detailed records of his observations in the book materia medica pura point to a mind that had a strong scientific temperament.

   On the other hand if we define science, through a materialistic perspective, that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things including mental states and consciousness are results of material interactions of material things, then… Homeopathy qualifies as unscientific or…MAGIC.

  Homeopathy is a medicine of experience. The theories that form the foundation of Homeopathy were lived experiences for Hahnemann and subsequently for generations of Homeopaths. In spite of being branded unscientific, quackery, placebo, and dangerous (definitions, which by the way contradict each other), there are millions of people around the world who are benefited by Homeopathy and the number of people who want to study this system of medicine is also steadily increasing. Which means….people have experienced significant improvements in their health for them to trust homeopathy. Can we discount person specific evidence because science says so? There are numerous things in our universe for which science has no conclusive explanation….like composition of dark matter. If we can admit that there are spatiotemporal singularities, for which, science in the present form has no explanation, why can’t we take the same attitude towards Homeopathy or any energy based therapies?

A medicine that can be seen, measured in grams, which is tested on rats and guinea pigs, its action physiologically explainable, the effects reproducible is preferred and considered safer over energy based medicine. Uncertainty is relatively higher in energy based healing systems and uncertainty can be scary. The fact that the medicine is highly diluted, and not a single medicinal molecule can be detected under a microscope, goes against all known laws of science. However, when we see it work, it is magical. Strangest of symptoms, both mental and physical disappear and a state of wellbeing ensues. The medicines work exactly like how it has been described in Organon and material medica. It is like seeing something work which should not be working according to science. Ideally, this should trigger curiosity and push us towards enquiry and experimentation and that is what science is all about. It might open up a whole new concept of health and healing .This threat to status quo shouldn’t scare a scientist. Especially when we are dealing with health, anything that seems to work must be considered and never dismissed without due diligence just because it doesn’t fit our present knowledge. Instead of acting like adversaries, we, the healers of different systems of medicine can act like cobelligerents, in an exploration and see where it leads to. There is always a chance that we might discover something totally new and beneficial. Just like how physics evolved from Newtonian physics to what it is today, medicine might also open up to the possibility of using energy as a mode of healing.

  Interestingly, most people who look down upon Homeopathy would not have taken the pains to read Organon, or Materia Medica, which are the important literature through which Homeopathy can be understood. No meaningful discussion can be had if it is based on hearsay. Some of the legendary Homeopaths were actually Allopaths who started practicing homeopathy after glancing through organon out of curiosity.  Some of them studied these books so that they could debate against   Homeopathy. They were so taken by the logical reasoning that they gave up the socially approved method of medical practice and started practicing Homeopathy. Those of you who are interested, can read about Constantine herring, Kent, and Boeninghausen  to name a few.

    Allopathic or modern medicine which is approved by science has not had an easy, blemish free run either. Many prescriptions and procedures defy logic. Lab reports get more importance than the subjective suffering experienced by the patient. Side effects of some drugs are worse than the disease for which they are prescribed. Dangerous drugs like opioids, were prescribed for decades, with the approval of science, while scientists were busy defaming Homeopathy as quackery. Articles were published in Medical and science journals against Homeopathy, calling it a dangerous placebo (If it is a placebo how can it be dangerous?) which needs to be banned, while the same journals were super quite about opioids. While scientists attack Homeopathy left right and center, in a language which is unhinged and condescending, they are surprisingly soft and lenient on modern medicine. It makes one wonder what other things could be influencing science. Are scientists immune to the lure of money, fame, approval and unearned moral superiority that is granted when you are politically correct? Time and again scientists have fallen for these traps. The latest example is, handling of the covid pandemic. From the enquiry into the origin of covid to medicine protocol to vaccines everything was a mess.  Yet, no one was held accountable for these blunders. The covid pandemic is a wakeup call for Science to work without bias and hold itself to high standards. The only way forward is to assimilate the best of modern and alternate therapies so that the world will benefit by it.

Is Homeopathy infallible?  No. For that matter, no system of medicine can claim to be perfect. Just like any other closed system, there is stagnation of ideas. There is lack of adaptation to changing times. Archaic ideas are going unchallenged. Allopathy has come a long way from the days of bloodletting to stem cell therapy only because of the support and resources provided by the scientific community. Homeopathy never got that privilege. Hence, opening up Homeopathy to the scrutiny of the broader scientific world would help Homeopathy. Questioning of redundant ideas and practices, flow of new ideas, modification and fine tuning of existing practices, awareness of conditions where Homeopathy works well and where it doesn’t, resources for research are some of the things which are needed to make Homeopathy better. For this to happen, the scientific world needs to shed its inhibitions, rise above the influence of money, political correctness and open its arms to this unique healing system. Homeopathy and in turn mankind will benefit from it.

Back to where we began…is Homeopathy science or magic? The following quote answers it.

“Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet”-Arthur.c.clarke

Why do Homeopaths ask so many questions?

Describe your problems in detail.. how is the quality of sleep?, which weather do you prefer?  What type of food do you crave? Are you troubled by nightmares? Do you also suffer from migraine? Describe the pain...What makes it better? What worsens it?...phew..so many questions and more for a simple case of hypothyroidism?! Isn’t the lab report sufficient to prescribe? NO. It isn’t. It shouldn’t be if we consider symptoms and signs as the true indicators of disease.  Then every sign and symptom becomes important to get a true picture of the disease.

   How do we know that we are sick? It is through signs and symptoms. Symptoms are the body’s way of letting us know that not everything is running smoothly. Some symptoms are felt by the patient, some remarked by those around him, and some observed by the physician. A lab report is another sign of illness and not the be all and end all of the problem. It helps in diagnosis, and prognosis( how well the disease is responding to treatment), but it’s the change in signs and symptoms that prove to be the litmus test.

  Through experience, we know that, be it an acute infection like throat infection or a chronic problem like Arthritis, our whole being suffers. We get irritable, we might sleep more or become sleepless, our food preference changes, our digestion might go haywire…. All these constitute the disease picture of that particular individual. Even when a family of 3 suffer from the same bacterial throat infection, the father might feel dull, sleepy, tossing and turning, sipping hot water might make him feel better, mother might get weepy, overwhelmed, feels better out in the open air and might have zero thirst, colour of the phlegm might be yellowish with a blocked sensation in the ear.  The kid might throw tantrums, talk constantly, with a flushed face and high fever with very little or no discharge from  the nose and itching in the throat. We see that each of us react differently to the same type of infection. For a Homeopath it is this peculiarity of reaction which helps in prescription. The name of the bacteria doesn’t matter to a Homeopath, but how a person reacts to it is what is important. All three people in the above mentioned case will receive a different remedy although all of them might be suffering from the same bacterial infection.

In chronic cases, like arthritis for example, patient would have made peace with less bothersome symptoms and focus would be on current problematic symptom alone, like pain. Yet, on questioning, we can see that his sleep, energy level, mood, reaction to weather, thirst, appetite, bowel movement also would have altered. Even a relatively minor symptom is sacrosanct for a Homeopath. The medicine which we prescribe should not only reduce the pain but also restore all the other altered symptoms back to health.

In some cases, there will be presence of symptoms when none of the tests and lab report will indicate any abnormality.  A detailed collection of all the symptoms will give us a clear picture of the problem and that is sufficient for a Homeopath to prescribe. We don’t need to name the disease to find a medicine. Classic example is a deranged digestion, where there will be decreased appetite, bloating, coated tongue, flatulence etc, yet it doesn’t qualify as food poisoning, ulcer or gastritis. All tests come out clean but the patient keeps suffering.

People, who are used to the modus operandi of modern medicine, wouldn’t have paid attention to their symptoms. Sometimes the symptoms are so peculiar that, people feel stupid to even talk about them. Sudden feeling of acute hunger at 11 am, all symptoms worse after sleeping, menstrual cramp better by vigorous movement….are some examples of symptoms which are felt by patient yet they find it too weird to express.  An allopath might find it nonsensical, yet for a homeopath such symptoms are priceless. In fact common symptoms have little value in our prescription. It is like the stars in the sky. Not all stars make up a constellation. The symptoms that individualize, are like stars in a constellation and careful gathering of all those symptoms will help us draw the picture of the disease.  If we fail to gather these symptoms that individualize, our prescription will not be effective. So every Homeopath takes a leaf out of Sherlock holmes and tries to master the art of questioning and application of deductive logic. Taciturn patients are a Homeopath’s worst nightmare.

  Once patients visit a Homeopath and go through the process of case taking they become more aware of their symptoms and start paying attention to it. Kids, especially, get very good at describing their distress once they realize that we are interested in knowing about all their symptoms.   

“A case well taken is half cured’’ is a famous statement among Homeopaths, which is why a barrage of questions can always be expected in Homeopathic consultation.