It is commonly assumed that homeopathic medicines are composed of extremely small doses of medicinal substances. And yet, does anyone refer to an atomic bomb as an extremely small dose of a bomb? In actual fact, there is a power, a very real power, in having atoms smash against each other.
Homeopathic medicines are made through a specific pharmacological process of dilution and vigorous shaking. However, when skeptics say that there is nothing but water in homeopathic medicine, they are proving their ignorance, despite the incredible arrogance in which they make these assertions. Dr. Martin Chaplin, a respected British professor who is one of the world's experts on water, has verified that "homeopathic water" and "regular water" are not the same, and his review of almost 2,000 references to the scientific literature on water (!) confirm this fact (Chaplin, 2009).
It should be noted that a large number of homeopathic medicines sold in health food stores and pharmacies are made in doses with known physiological doses. In fact, there are several thousand (!) studies in conventional scientific journals showing a wide variety of biological effects from extremely small doses of various substances on specific systems.
Homeopathic medicines can and should be considered to be a type of "nanopharmacology" (Ullman, 2006). Although the word "nano" also means one-billionth of a size, that is not its only definition. In fact, "nano" derives from the word "dwarf," and "nano" is the only word in the English language that is used on common parlance as denoting extremely small AND yet extremely powerful. Homeopathic medicines are both extremely small in dose and yet extremely powerful in their therapeutic effect.
For 200 years now, millions of physicians and hundreds of millions of homeopathic patients have observed and experienced the power and effectiveness of homeopathic medicines
The Power of Nano-doses
Precisely how homeopathic medicines work remains a mystery, and yet, nature is replete with mysteries and with numerous striking examples of the power of extremely small doses.
For instance, it is commonly known that a certain species of moth can smell pheromones of its own species up to two miles away. It is no simple coincidence that species only sense pheromones from those in the same species who emit them (akin to the homeopathic principle of similars), as though they have developed exquisite and specific receptor sites for what they need to propagate their species. Likewise, sharks are known to sense blood in the water at distances, and when one considers the volume of water in the ocean, it becomes obvious that sharks, like all living creatures, develop extreme hypersensitivity for whatever will help ensure their survival.
That living organisms have some truly remarkable sensitivities is no controversy. The challenging question that remains is: How does the medicine become imprinted into the water and how does the homeopathic process of dilution with succussion increase the medicine's power? Although we do not know precisely the answer to this question, some new research may help point the way.
The newest and most intriguing way to explain how homeopathic medicines may work derives from some sophisticated modern technology. Scientists at several universities and hospitals in France and Belgium have discovered that the vigorous shaking of the water in glass bottles causes extremely small amounts of silica fragments or chips to fall into the water (Demangeat, et al., 2004). Perhaps these silica chips may help to store the information in the water, with each medicine that is initially placed in the water creating its own pharmacological effect. In any case, each medicinal substance will interact with the silica fragments in its own idiosyncratic way, thereby changing the nature and structure of water accordingly.
Further, the micro-bubbles and the nano-bubbles that are caused by the shaking may burst and thereby produce microenvironments of higher temperature and pressure. Several studies by chemists and physicists have revealed increased release of heat from water in which homeopathic medicines are prepared, even when the repeated process of dilutions should suggest that there are no molecules remaining of the original medicinal substance (Elia and Niccoli, 1999; Elia, et al., 2004; Rey, 2003).
Also, a group of highly respected scientists have confirmed that the vigorous shaking involved with making homeopathic medicines changes the pressure in the water, akin to water being at 10,000 feet in altitude (Roy, et al., 2005). These scientists have shown how the homeopathic process of using double-distilled water and then diluting and shaking the medicine in a sequential fashion changes the structure of water.
One metaphor that may help us understand how and why extremely small doses of medicinal agents may work derives from present knowledge of modern submarine radio communications. Normal radio waves simply do not penetrate water, so submarines must use an extremely low-frequency radio wave. The radio waves used by submarines to penetrate water are so low that a single wavelength is typically several miles long!
If one considers that the human body is 70-80 percent water, perhaps the best way to provide pharmacological information to the body and into intercellular fluids is with nanodoses. Like the extremely low-frequency radio waves, it may be necessary to use extremely low (and activated) doses for a person to receive the medicinal effect.
It is important to understand that nanopharmacological doses will not have any effect unless the person is hypersensitive to the specific medicinal substance. Hypersensitivity is created when there is some type of resonance between the medicine and the person. Because the system of homeopathy bases its selection of the medicine on its ability to cause in overdose the similar symptoms that the sick person is experiencing, homeopathy's principle of similars is simply a practical method of finding the substance to which a person is hypersensitive.
The homeopathic principle of similars makes further sense when one considers that modern physiologists and pathologists recognize that disease is not simply the result of breakdown or surrender of the body but that symptoms are instead representative of the body's efforts to fight infection or adapt to stress.
Using a nanodose that is able to penetrate deeply into the body and that is specifically chosen for its ability to mimic the symptoms helps to initiate a profound healing process. It is also important to highlight the fact that a homeopathic medicine is not simply chosen for its ability to cause a similar disease but for its ability to cause a similar syndrome of symptoms of disease, of which the specific localized disease is a part. By understanding that the human body is a complex organism that creates a wide variety of physical and psychological symptoms, homeopaths acknowledge biological complexity and have a system of treatment to address it effectively.
Although no one knows precisely how homeopathic medicines initiate the healing process, we have more than 200 years of evidence from hundreds of thousands of clinicians and tens of millions of patients that these medicines have powerful effects. One cannot help but anticipate the veritable treasure trove of knowledge that further research in homeopathy and nanopharmacology will bring.
Nobel Prize-winning Scientist on Homeopathy...
Brian Josephson, Ph.D., (1940-) is a British physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for work he completed when he was only 22 years old. He is currently a professor at the University of Cambridge where he is the head of the mind-matter unification project in the Theory of Condensed Matter research group.
Responding to an article in the New Scientist (October 18, 1997) that expressed skepticism about homeopathy, Josephson wrote:
Regarding your comments on claims made for homeopathy: criticisms centered around the vanishingly small number of solute molecules present in a solution after it has been repeatedly diluted are beside the point, since advocates of homeopathic remedies attribute their effects not to molecules present in the water, but to modifications of the water's structure.Simple-minded analysis may suggest that water, being a fluid, cannot have a structure of the kind that such a picture would demand. But cases such as that of liquid crystals, which while flowing like an ordinary fluid can maintain an ordered structure over macroscopic distances, show the limitations of such ways of thinking. There have not, to the best of my knowledge, been any refutations of homeopathy that remain valid after this particular point is taken into account.
A related topic is the phenomenon, claimed by Jacques Benveniste's colleague Yolène Thomas and by others to be well established experimentally, known as "memory of water". If valid, this would be of greater significance than homeopathy itself, and it attests to the limited vision of the modern scientific community that, far from hastening to test such claims, the only response has been to dismiss them out of hand. (Josephson, 1997)
Later, when Josephson was interviewed by the New Scientist (December 9, 2006), he chose to emphasize that many scientists today suffer from "pathological disbelief"; that is, they maintain an unscientific attitude that is embodied by the statement "even if it were true I wouldn't believe it." Sadly, such scientists are simply showing evidence of an unscientific attitude.
Quantum Medicine
Quantum physics does not disprove Newtonian physics; quantum physics simply extends our understanding of extremely small and extremely large systems. Likewise, homeopathy does not disprove conventional pharmacology; instead, it extends our understanding of extremely small doses of medicinal agents. It is time that physicians and scientists began incorporating both Newtonian and quantum physics into a better understanding of what healing is and how to best augment it.
The founder of homeopathic medicine, Samuel Hahnemann, MD, rewrote and updated his seminal work on the subject five times in his lifetime, each time refining his observations. Homeopaths continue to refine this system of nanopharmacology. While there is not always agreement on the best ways to select the correct remedy or the best nanopharmacological dose to use, the system of homeopathic medicine provides a solid foundation from which clinicians and researchers exploring nanopharmacologies can and should explore.
Dana Ullman, MPH, is America's leading spokesperson for homeopathy and is the founder of www.homeopathic.com. He is the author of 10 books, including his bestseller, Everybody's Guide to Homeopathic Medicines. His most recent book is, The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy. Dana lives, practices, and writes from Berkeley, California.
References:
Chaplin, Martin. 2009 (updated regularly) http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index2.html
Demangeat, J.-L., Gries, P., Poitevin, B., Droesbeke J.-J., Zahaf, T., Maton, F., Pierart, C., and Muller, R. N. Low-Field NMR Water Proton Longitudinal Relaxation in Ultrahighly Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Silica-Lactose Prepared in Glass Material for Pharmaceutical Use, Applied Magnetic Resonance, 2004, 26:465-481.
Elia, V. and Niccoli, M. Thermodynamics of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1999, 879:241-248.
Elia, V., Baiano, S., Duro, I., Napoli, E., Niccoli, M., and Nonatelli, L. Permanent Physio-chemical Properties of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Homeopathic Medicines, Homeopathy, 2004, 93:144-150.
Josephson, B. D., Letter, New Scientist, November 1, 1997.
Rey, L. Thermoluminescence of Ultra-High Dilutions of Lithium Chloride and Sodium Chloride. Physica A, 2003, 323:67-74.
Roy, R., Tiller, W. A., Bell, I., and Hoover, M. R. The Structure of Liquid Water: Novel Insights from Materials Research; Potential Relevance to Homeopathy, Materials Research Innovations, December 2005, 9(4):577-608..
Ullman, Dana. "Let's have a serious discussion of nanopharmacology and homeopathy". FASEB. 2006;20:2661.
Follow Dana Ullman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HomeopathicDana
Dana Ullman: How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really?
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Likewise, please again offer the following: 1. Those old papers by Stephenson
2. Bill Gray's excellent but ill-fated medical journal;
3. THE GERMAN JOURNAL OF HOMEOPATHY
4. Full issues of HOMEOTHERA
5. The CLASSICAL HOMEOPATHY QUARTERLY;
6. Reproducti
I primarily post at www.OtherH
God bless!
As good as it is, I’m significan
1. James H. Stephenson
2. Shui Yin Lo’s astonishin
3. William A. Tiller’s brilliant papers arguing for deltrons being responsibl
http://sci
The article does a sloppy job of summarizin
(1) homepathic remedies are distinguis
1) - in its infancy. Montagnier
2) - see my 'first-han
2 - your "first hand" experiment is a joke and the protocol wouldn't get past a high school science project, let alone the rigors required by modern scientific methodolog
http://www
Very crude summary:
-compariso
placebo-co
-inability to re-analyze study due to poorly described selection methods
-obvious bias on the part of publisher and authors
-poorly defined usage of homeopathi
-no published aim of the study
and apologies, the entire issue is not devoted to refutation
Take a little time and read at least some of these?
An exchange between the water memory scientist and someone at another UK University
http://haw
Science often quoted as supporting homeopathy
http://www
What all this memory of water stuff actually means:
http://www
Basically you can't look for an explanatio
Just hoping that a few people sat on the fence might read just a little of this. I agree with the earlier poster Dyson that you don't actually need any current science to see why it doesn't work just consider that if it did, then that would be then end of any need for medical research as we would have cured everyone of everything by now anyway.
Who wants to go to a bartender who serves Cosmopolit
A 12 C martini would have 60% chance of one molecule of alcohol in it, but should be more potent than a normal cosmo.
Of course, it goes without saying that a homeopathi
.-)
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http://www
If proponents are to be believed, it is capable of miraculous cures. Anecdotes suggest nothing is beyond it's scope. Yet where is the documented scientific evidence for any clinically repeatable effect? Studies should easily be able to verify these astounding events, but the best homeopathy seems to be able to do is come up with poorly designed trials which are poorly executed showing marginal improvemen
Questions: Why is it that only the self-limit
Why is it that the explanatio
What evidence would make a homeopath accept that homeopathy doesn't work?
Can we get a chiropract
No-one is convinced, Christy.
As I've said throughout these pages, you are free to use any system of medicine you like. You are free to hold any opinion of homeopathy you like. Your opinion could not possibly change my mind or others' minds about what we've experience
We use it to treat our animals for their itchy flea bites, cuts and infections and boils. It works just as well for them as it does for us.
I could not recommend homeopathy more highly. It's wonderfull
You know, when I feel a cold coming on, when I just don't feel right getting up in the morning, I take a hot shower and put on my green Diesel sneakers heading out the door, it always works! Never once did I get a cold since buying those shoes!
How is your evidence different in any way that my green shoe anecdote?
(sorry for the rip off mc)
Can you not see the obvious problems with ascribing your healing examples here to homeopathy
"The idea of introducin
Homoeopath
One is that homeopathy is true. This would invalidate much of the informatio
The other is that homeopathy is a placebo effect and there is no measurable effect of homeopathi
Carl Sagan said, "Extraordi
A dissertati
One side demands proofs, but only within a framework set up by its own camp. All we on the other side can say is we don't understand how that works, but, have our own proofs that it does. Which we're happy to share, but really don't care whether it 'convinces
Nor will quoting Carl Sagan further any argument, when even Einstein and Hawking can't reconcile their feelings about God? The ultimate unknowable
So I'm off now, really, and my last words here are of my own proofs. Lifelong allergy sufferer. On asthma meds. Loss of lung function due to chemical exposure.
A one time series of intramuscu
Some 'placebo' effect. Homoeopath
Happy holidays and holy days to everyone!
They don't like the studies, they disagree with the hypotheses presented, then worse of all say "their questions haven't been answered" Sheesh, their dislike of homoeopath
And don't blame me if Barrett himself testified in court that he'd allowed his certificat
Nor has it been answered where he got the substantia
I could then you to quackpotwa
Darwin's letters show that he dismissed homeopathy as worthless. He thought it defied common sense and what we see when he look at how the world works.
He went to a doctor who was a homeopath not because he wanted homeopathi
Whether homeopathy worked or the water treatments worked or anything else or nothing else worked we just don't know.
Here's another take: "US Judge Rules Against Compulsory Vaccinatio
www.irepor
www.blissp
Novartis swine flu vac contains polysorbat
http://pre
The federal government has only suggested to the drug companies that these ingredient
- Ambrose Bierce
Obviously Atomic Bombs work by BLASTEBO effect - the small amounts of enriched Uranium in the bomb could not possibly cause the widespread damage that they do. Also, has there been any double blinded laboratory controlled experiment
Let us apply some more sceptical "good common sense" to some modern medical theories - it is clear that the H Pylorii Bacteria explanatio
Oh darn, then science really does work and the arguments against a theoretica
James Pannozzi
Atomic theory and atomic bombs are also based in science. There are nuclear equations that explain why it all works. Are there any equations that even begin to explain homeopathy
I would suggest that you take the time to actually understand science prior to trying to make sarcastic comments about how it actually works.
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Evolution is often described as the central organizing priniciple of biology. And it is pointed out over and over again, that if evolution didn't occur much of what we know in sciences beyond biology would have to be false.
I'd like to see a list of all the parts of science that would have to be wrong for homeopathy to work.
Here's my contributi
H1N1 Vaccinatio
A brief answer would be that other aspects of biology and medicine would be thrown into chaos, as the evidential basis upon which all molecules interact to exert effects on receptors/
I am not a physicist, but am sure there is plenty of scope in that field.
Biology and physiology would have to be be completely changed as you have cellular effects not mediated by receptors, proteins, lipids, etc. The law of simliars would also cause a great deal of changes here.
The difference here is that there actually are pheremone molecules available for the moth to smell, there actually are blood molecules for the shark to smell...on
If homeopathy is right then modern chemistry'