About Homeopathy What Is Homeopathy? Is Homeopathy Right for Me? How Do I Choose?

Glossary Treatment Applications Types of Homeopathy Credentials

What Is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a form of medicine that treats illness through the administration of highly diluted herbs, animal substances, and chemical compounds.

The premise of homeopathy is that illnesses can be cured through the use of tiny doses of substances that would normally produce symptoms analogous to those being treated. Hence the term homeopathy: the word comes from the Greek homeo meaning "similar," and pathos meaning "suffering." A substance that would typically produce the symptoms of the illness under treatment is believed to stimulate healing. The substance in onions that causes watering eyes and runny noses, for instance, could be used to treat allergies. Malaria, whose symptoms include anxiety, dehydration, aches, and chills, can be treated with cinchona, a South American tree bark that produces identical symptoms. Samuel Hahnemann, the German doctor who developed homeopathy in the late 18th century, called this principle--which he described as treating like with like--the Law of Similarities.

Homeopathy has been controversial from its outset. Homeopaths view symptoms as the body's natural reaction to fighting an illness, whereas conventional medicine considers symptoms to be part of the illness and aims to suppress them.

Even more contentious is Hahnemann's Law of Potentization—the idea that homeopathic medicines grow stronger as they become more dilute. It contradicts basic laws of chemistry. Homeopathy is premised on a process called serial dilution, in which a drug is added to water or alcohol, then shaken, then diluted with more water or alcohol, then shaken, and so on. Homeopaths believe that the shaking at each stage of the dilution, called potentization, removes negative side effects of the substance while retaining its curative properties. The process results in solutions so dilute—typically around one part remedy to one-quadrillion parts water—that not a single molecule of the original substance remains in any given dose. Homeopaths believe that the “memory” of the substance remains, and that this “imprint” produces a therapeutic effect. Critics contend that any healing resulting from homeopathic treatment is merely a placebo effect.

In 1991, Dutch epidemiologists analyzed 105 studies of homeopathic treatment from 1966 to 1990. Eighty-one studies found patients had benefited from homeopathy, prompting the conclusion that "the evidence is to a large extent positive. It would probably be sufficient for establishing homeopathy as a treatment for certain conditions."