Homeopathy is a type of therapy based on the idea that disease can be treated with minute doses of drugs that are thought to be capable of producing the same symptoms in healthy people as the disease itself. It was invented by German physician, Samuel Hahnemann during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It became both refined and popularized courtesy of James Tyler Kent, an American physician .
Homeopathy is based on the idea that every naturally occurring element, plant, and mineral compound, when ingested or applied, will result in certain symptoms. Hahnemann believed that diluting the substances in a standardized manner, it was possible to reach the true essence of the substance. He described the process of dilution as “potentizing” the substance. The diluted amounts could then be used to treat the very symptoms they were known to produce.
Hahnemann and his students approached the treatment in a holistic way, in other words the whole of the body and spirit is dealt with, not just the localised disease. Hahnemann spent extensive periods of time with his patients, asking them questions that dealt with their particular symptoms or illness, aswell as questions about their daily lives. It is thought that homeopathy is a response to the violent forms of medicine used at the time.
Homeopathy teaches that symptoms are to be encouraged, by prescribing a “remedy” in minuscule doses that in large doses would produce the same symptoms seen in the patient this is because homeopathy is based on the idea that the symptoms are the body’s way of fighting disease, it is believed that the treatment is designed to simply stimulate the immune system to help cure the disease.
However there are those who think that homeopathy is useless and suggest that it is a load of nonsense, these views are quite clearly expressed in “Needed – irresponsible idiots to work with aids in Botswana”. This article is particularly good as it shows a case which homeopathy does seem rather ridiculous rather than just simply dismissing it they use the case study to support their argument. Further support that homeopathy is not a cure was recently in the news, Homeopathy not a cure.
So it would seem that there is alot of evidence to support the argument that it is useless. Some people use it as an alternative to conventional medicine while others use it as a last resort. The question is the people who claim it works is it simply psychological? The same could be argued for any form of treatment could all forms of treatment simply be placebos used to trick the brain into fighting diseases? Whatever your take on this these questions must crop up and there is no consistent answer it depends on the individual, although you will find that the vast majority will dismiss the idea that all forms of treatment are placebos purely on the basis that people who receive treatment don’t want to believe that the treatment is essentially useless.