Homeopathy – An Evidence Based Therapy by Steve Scrutton

Homeopathy is everywhere under attack by people who say that there is ‘no evidence’ that homeopathy works. Conventional ‘scientific’ medicine, we are told, is ‘evidence-based’. Homeopathy is not. And of course, those people who attack homeopathy are in the business of defending conventional medicine – including the drugs regularly introduced as ‘wonder’ cures, but later found to be ineffective or unsafe.

So whilst the ‘evidence base’ supporting conventional medicine regularly leads to the prescription of dangerous, sometimes lethal drugs, what is the ‘evidence base’ for homeopathy?

The first ‘evidence’ available is that people who have tried homeopathy have found it to be both effective and safe. This is how homeopaths get new patients – a friend has been treated successfully and they decide to try it themselves. It is the best sort of evidence. “I was sick. I tried homeopathy. I am better”.

Actually this is the only ‘evidence’ that interest sick people! But it is not good enough for ‘scientific’ medicine. So people who get well after homeopathy find themselves discounted as mere ‘anecdotes’. Their personal experience is not valuable – medical ‘scientists’ demand ‘double-blind’ trials. Or perhaps the experience is dismissed – it is just ‘the placebo’ effect that has made them better.

So why are there no double-blind trials on homeopathy? Well, there are; plenty of them. But even if there were lots more, conventional health lobby would still insist that ‘there is no evidence’. The debate on homeopathy is not concerned with rational, logical discussion. It is about strong, powerful vested interests determined not to permit any evidence that runs contrary to their financial interests.

Yet more important, perhaps, double blind trials are not directly relevant to homeopathy. For instance, we could conduct a trial to see if the remedy Bryonia treated heart palpitations successfully. Control groups could be set up to compare the outcome with groups taking placebo, and Beta Blocker drugs. We could do everything that ‘scientists’ want us to do. And the result would be very poor.

Why? Homeopathy does not treat heart palpitations (or any other conventionally diagnosed disease) – it treats people who have heart palpitations – quite a different matter. Bryonia has recently treated my heart palpitations successfully - but it treated me and not my palpitations!

If you look at the Homeopathic Materia Medica there are about 350 remedies for heart palpitations – Bryonia is just one of them. So any homeopath who gives Bryonia to every patient with heart palpitations would be quite mad (and very unsuccessful). And any scientist who thinks he is testing homeopathy by comparing a remedy with placebo, or a remedy with a conventional drug is also quite mad – or just does not understand the principles of homeopathy!

So what is the evidence base for homeopathy? It is the evidence of 200-years plus research. The evidence is based on the primary principle of homeopathy – that “Like cures Like” – that a substance that causes symptoms in a well person will cure those symptoms of illness in a sick person. So each substance is ‘proved’. This involves taking a substance, giving it to a healthy person, and noting the symptoms that develop as a result. These are then noted in the Homeopathic Materia Medica. About 350 substances have been ‘proven’ to develop the symptoms of palpitation. So the task of the homeopath is not to discover what remedy best fits heart palpitations, but the best match for a particular individual! When do they happen, morning, afternoon, evening? What triggers them? How does the patient feel during a palpitation? What other symptoms are there? When these questions are answered there are no longer 350 remedies, but perhaps just a handful.

So why was I given Bryonia? I am an awful, insufferable patient! I hate being ill! Nursing me is a nightmare! I am bad-tempered and bearish! I want to be left alone! It is the classic Bryonia picture. So as the symptom picture of Bryonia matched my symptoms – it worked.

And the fact that remedies work constitutes the second part of homeopathy’s evidence base, and is added to the Homeopathic Material Medica. For the last 200 years homeopaths have been clarifying and expanding remedy characteristics.

Do remedies work merely because of the placebo effect? I wish it were so! Most homeopaths, including myself, would say that about 20% of patients are not treated successfully. If all we had to do was to get patients to ‘believe’ in homeopathy it would make life much simpler! Homeopaths would not need to have done all that training to learn the material medica, and the process of repertorising an individual case.

Homeopathy works because the principle of treating ‘like with like’ works – it is really as simple as that. People get better using homeopath because they find a ‘similar’ remedy. People who do not get better have not found a ‘similar’ remedy.

So the evidence base for homeopathy lies in the many ‘provings’ done on remedies, and the clinical experience gained in using them with sick people. What ‘scientific’ medicine does not like about homeopathy is not the lack of an evidence base – it is the ability to help people get well – and perhaps even more important, we can do it safely. Whereas ‘science’ has a long record of ‘scientifically’ testing drugs, marketing them, and withdrawing them (so much for science), homeopathy continues to use remedies proven for over two centuries. They have not had to be withdrawn because they are ineffective or unsafe.

Homeopathy has a record to be jealous about – and ‘scientific’ medicine is certainly jealous! And threatened too! So what can be expected to happen in the future?

Will there be more attacks on homeopathy from the conventional medical establishment? There is no doubt about this. Our media will continue to pass on the message – ‘there is not evidence’ – ‘homeopathy is not scientific’ – ‘it is merely placebo’ – or just ‘mumbo jumbo’!

Will there be an increasing number of people trying homeopathy to treat their sickness? This has been the experience in recent decades, and given the ongoing failures and inherent dangers of conventional medicine, this seems likely to continue.

Copyright 2008 Steve Scrutton. DI Hom, MARH
www.stevehomeopath.co.uk | steve@a-r-h.org
Steve is a practising homeopath in Northamptonshire, and Registrar and board member of the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths.

For a registered homeopath in your area, visit http://www.a-r-h.org/FindMembers/find.php