Improving Your Health

Patients frequently ask me, "How does this stuff work?" There is a natural curiosity in a world where science has dominated for centuries. I encourage you to read on with a healthy skepticism, and if so inclined obtain the studies mentioned and continue to learn how science is catching up to the potent pellets of homeopathy.

In 1833 disease was still thought of in many conventional medical circles as an imbalance between humors of the body: yellow and black bile, phlegm, and blood. The therapeutic agents of choice even during the era of "hospital medicine" in France were leeches for bloodletting. Forty million leeches were imported that year for bloodletting; the health of the average person went unchanged.

However, what and whose science does we count on for accurate and reliable information? Samuel Hahnemann based his medicine on observable or empirical studies of his patients, not the so-called science of the day that would later prove it to be unsubstantiated fanciful theories without medical merit.

During the nineteenth century, physicians and scientists continually were in conflict over the causes of disease and the most appropriate way to treat it. It’s no wonder that homeopathy came under heavy criticism despite its undeniable clinical effects. The basic sciences of biology, anatomy, chemistry, and physics were in their infancy. It is only recently that a growing body of scientific evidence has mounted to begin explaining and even to prove the theories that homeopathy have witnessed in their patients for the last 200 years.

The Cluster Theory

One of the challenging aspects of homeopathic theory has been that continual diluting and adding kinetic energy (the energy of motion) through shaking of medicines has a viable effect on the solution that is created. Dr. Shui-Yin Lo, senior research scientist with American Technologies Group of Los Angeles and visiting associate professor in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, presented breakthrough research in 1997 at the Homeopathic Research Network meeting held in San Francisco.

Dr. Lo’s research found that when a solution is diluted, placed in water, and shaken, as in homeopathic preparations, the water surrounding the solution begins to harden and form crystals or even ice at room temperature. He found the "IE clusters" (I for "ice" and e for "formed through electromagnetic forces rather than by temperature") of water measured by quantum electrodynamics’ calculations were not formed by simple dilution or shaking alone. Only the combination of these two actions, which are similar processes in which homeopathic medicines are prepared, yielded the unique cluster formations. Dr. Lo went on to find that if the solution is further diluted and vigorously shaken, the concentration of the solid water clusters increases.

The "electromotive force" of water can be measured by putting two identical stainless steel electrodes in water and measuring the potential. Normal water shows no potential, while IE water shows an electromotive force.

Dr. Lo went on to say that if the solution is further diluted and vigorously shaken, the concentration of the solid water clusters increases.

For the last two centuries homeopaths have argued that each remedy has a unique action and effect on our body. Dr. Lo has been able to prove that the original substance that was put into chemical solution determines the unique shape of the concentration. This is one of the first studies that I am aware of that demonstrates the validity of many of the homeopathic principles that have governed its practice during the last 200 years.

In 1997 the Homeopathic Medicine Research Group established by Directorate Commission XII E of the European Union Commission published a comprehensive report on a two-year study of homeopathic research. They concluded there was sufficient evidence of effectiveness to continue to develop more research into homeopathy.

More research will certainly be coming from Dr. Lo, but if seeing is believing, then we’ve all got the first glimpses of what may prove many of the homeopathic theories of how a remedy can be diluted and still be active.

Homeopathic Human Studies

Homeopathic remedies are first tested on humans during a rigorous analysis called proving The last two decades have seen an increased interest in homeopathic research due to its nontoxic, cost-effective potential. The British Medical Journal 302 dated February 9, 1991, included a review of 25 years of clinical research on homeopathy. As Dana Ullman points out in Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants (Ullman 1992), of the 107 controlled clinical trials, 81 showed successful results from homeopathic medicines, which suggests promising possibilities for treatment.

Ninety women in their last month of pregnancy were given a combination remedy of five homeopathic medicines. The women given this mixture spent 40 percent less time in labor and had a 25 percent reduction in complications during birth as compared to the women given a placebo (Ullman 1992).

Homeopathic medicines treat a variety of complaints as shown by the collection of research outlined in Dr. Bill Gray’s recent publication, Homeopathy: Science or Myth? Dr. Gray’s review includes a study on acute pediatric diarrhea in Nicaragua by Jennifer Jacobs, M.D., and M.P.H. The story was published in Pediatrics, 1994; 93; 719-725 and shows dramatic reduction of symptoms well beyond random chance. The test protocols gave patients an individualized selected homeopathic remedy, and the results were qualified to meet conventional scientific standards.

I’ve given you a brief introduction to an expanding body of homeopathic research that will reassure the many individuals and families that rely on homeopathic care.