Homeopathy/What is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a pseudoscience and so-called "alternative medicine", whose practitioners are called homeopaths.

Some common ailments for which patients seek homeopathic care include eczema, asthma, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, allergic disorders, arthritis, hypertension, Crohn's disease, premenstrual syndrome, rhinitis, and more. Homeopaths also see patients with serious diseases, including multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and AIDS.

Basic beliefs

Homeopathy, as proposed by its founder Samuel Hahnemann, relies on two basic principles—those of similars and of potentization.

Principle of Similars

The principle of similars, often simply referred to by the saying "like cures like", argues that homeopathic treatments for a disease should derive from substances that cause symptoms similar to the initial disease.

Potentization

Potentization states that the substance(s) used in homeopathic treatment should be serially diluted, shaking well during each dilution, in order to transmit a supposed curative essence. High dilutions are referred to as "high potency", though this is a misleading term due to the extremely low concentration of the original "mother tincture" in the final product.

Appeal

Much of the appeal of homeopathy comes from the limitations of modern medicine. Patients often come to homeopaths with long-term problems for which evidence-based medicine has not yet found successful, widely effective treatments. For example, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, anxiety and depression, some autoimmune and neurological disorders, and some cancers, do not have universally effective treatments and/or cures—as such, those suffering from these disorders may turn to homeopathy in search of relief.

Homeopathy may also appeal to those who cannot afford medical treatment or those who simply do not trust medical doctors for a variety of reasons, including religion or prior negative experiences with the medical system.

Lack of evidence

No generally accepted scientific study has shown homeopathy works at all. Critics also object that the number of high-quality studies that support homeopathy is small, the conclusions are not definitive, and duplication of the results, a key test of scientific validity, has proven problematic at best. The lack of convincing scientific evidence supporting its efficacy and its use of remedies without active ingredients have caused homeopathy to be regarded as pseudoscience; quackery; or, in the words of a 1998 medical review, "placebo therapy at best and quackery at worst."

Chemistry and pharmacology

Common homeopathic preparations are diluted to the point where it is statistically unlikely that any molecules from the original solution are present in the final product; the claim that these treatments still have any pharmacological effect is thus scientifically implausible and violates fundamental principles of science, including the law of mass action.