Homoeopathy
by Dr George Lewith MRCP MRCGP

Homoeopathy is a system of medical treatment which stimulates the body's own capacity to heal and balance itself.

Homoeopathy is the treatment of illness by giving very diluted medications derived from plant, animal and mineral sources. Homoeopathy was founded by Samuel Hahnemann (1755 - 1843) based on a chance discovery while translating an English herbal into German. He noted that cinchona bark produced the symptoms of malaria; this herbal remedy was also utilised to treat malaria. Hahnemann had discovered an experimental method that would systematically yield specific information about individual substances. This procedure was called 'proving', a sort of testing which was applied to a large number of remedies. Hanhemann assembled a number of provers, who would take various substances and would record in great detail any symptoms occurring. Then the principle medically was to match the patient's symptoms to a homoeopathic drug picture, and give that drug in a very dilute or 'potentised' form. Clinically this seemed to work and Hahnemann attracted an increasing number of doctors to his ideas.

'Potentisation' is a combination of dilution and shaking of the substance. It appears that anything which produces a circular motion with the medicine is sufficient to cause potentisation to occur. The way this is carried out in a plant such as cinchona (china) is that the plant is macerated and dissolved in alcohol. One part of this so-called 'mother tincture' is mixed with nine parts (for a 'decimal potency' or D) or 99 parts (for a 'centesimal potency' or C) in 90% alcohol. It is the vigorously shaken. This process can be repeated many times, resulting in very high dilutions. Potencies of 24D or 12C and higher do not contain even a single molecule of the mother tincture.

Homoeopaths claim that the higher potencies (that is, the more dilute potencies) work more powerfully than the lower potencies. Using the 'simillimum', which is the name given to the principle of fitting the disease symptoms to the substance which produces similar symptoms, the use of unusual or uncommon symptoms, which frequently do not fit the condition as described by conventional medicine, are often considered as major pointers to the right remedy. Therefore homoeopathy is a highly individualised treatment, resulting in different prescriptions for patients who would normally receive an identical treatment in conventional medicine.

At first the very fact that homoeopathy can have an effect is bizarre, and indeed counterintuitive. Many doctors reject the whole concept of homoeopathy, because it simply 'can't work' if they are to believe their conventional training in chemistry and pharmacology. Nevertheless, the evidence for homoeopathy having a powerful clinical effect is growing. An increasing volume of research demonstrates that homoeopathy may well be effective in common allergies, such as hayfever and asthma. Studies have looked at the effect of homoeopathy in the test tube and in experimental models involving animals; these are also convincing, and indicate that homoeopathic or 'infinitesimal doses' may well have a far bigger effect on biological systems than we at first thought. Homoeopathy, as practiced by Samuel Hahnemann has been adapted and modified over the last 200 years, and now we not only try to find the exact simillimum, but there are also homoeopathic doses of viruses, bacteria and a range of other toxic chemicals that can be used to treat ongoing chronic problems. Homoeopathy is a broad clinical discipline, which is becoming increasingly popular in the UK. Many chronic diseases are amenable to treatment with homoeopathy, but this needs to be carried out in a judged and careful manner, as individuals with chronic problems will often be receiving concurrent conventional medication.