What is Homeopathy?
Brief history of homoeopathy
In the 18th century, Western medicine experienced a period that was influenced by new discoveries and increasing scientific medical knowledge (Wood 2000:33), which replaced the humoral principle of Greek medicine, based on the Greek physician Hippocrates in the 5th century BC (Lockie & Geddes 1995:10, Rose & Scott-Moncrieff 1998:10). Medical practice became increasingly invasive by employing dangerous methods such as bloodletting and purging or by prescribing extremely toxic materials as means of cure (Lockie & Geddes 1995:11, Wikipedia 2008c online), also known as ‘heroic medicine’ (Wood 2000:33). The German physician, linguist and chemist, Samuel Hahnemann, also referred to as the founder of homoeopathy, rejected such methods and began to experiment with other forms of treatment (Rose & Scott-Moncrieff, 1998:10). After making fundamental discoveries, which are further described in section 4, he devoted his whole life working out a new system of medicine which was based on the theory of Hippocrates and Paracelsus, that ‘like cures like’ (Griggs 1997:171). Over fifty years of work he refined his basic idea of homoeopathy and taught it to a wide number of students (Wood 2000:35).
Hahnemann’s treatment worked successfully in cases where regular medicine did not, such as the typhoid fever, and therefore attracted a large number of patients and doctors that had become dissatisfied with the practice of orthodox medicine. Ullmann (1991:xxix) suggests that homoeopathy became popular in Europe and the United States because of its efficiency in treating various infectious diseases at that time. However, by 1813, homoeopathy spread through Germany and the rest of Europe. By 1825, Hahnemann’s teachings were established in the US by Hans B. Gram, who opened the first homoeopathic practice in New York (Griggs 1997:172) and by Constantine Hering who founded the first Homeopathic College (Haller & Haller 2005:53). Homoeopathy in the US expanded so quickly that in 1844 the American Institute of Homeopathy was founded, which became America’s first national medical society (Ullmann 1991:37). But while homoeopathy became very popular, it also happened to become a threat and the object of ‘vigilant opposition from orthodox medicine’ (Ullmann 1991:33) for many reasons. Besides the successful treatment and the threat to the pharmaceutical industry (Ullmann 1991:37), homoeopaths, unlike herbalists or midwives of that time, could not be criticised because of their medical training as they went to the same medical school as regular physicians (Ullmann 1991:36). With the rise of the American Medical Association as an opposition to the American Institute of Homoeopathy, regular physicians discouraged any type of association with homoeopathy, leading to a gradual decline of homeopathy throughout America (Haller & Haller 2005:xi) With the reformation of educational standards that was oriented on a mechanical model of the body, also known as the Flexner report in 1909 and 1910, many schools were eventually forced to close down (Halle & Haller 2005:xii).
The development of homoeopathy in Australia at around the same time was influenced by immigrants between 1840 and the early 1850’s, who brought along their domestic homoeopathic remedies. Among them was Dr. Stephen Simpson, Australia’s first homoeopath, who arrived in 1840. In 1876, Australia’s first homoeopathic hospital was opened in Melbourne, although in 1880, the British Medical Association, which serves the interest of allopathic medicine, took over the various Australian associations. By the early 20th century, the practice of homoeopathy was excluded from their code of ethics, leading homoeopathic hospitals to employ physicians of orthodox medicine. It was not until 1973, that the Australian Institute of Homoeopathy formed the first course in Sydney (Armstrong 2008 online).
Today, homoeopathy is used worldwide with a clinical experience of 200 years. Additionally, it is recognised by the WHO as a valid form of health care and has a wide acceptance especially throughout Europe (Australian Homoeopathic Association n.d. online). Although it was replaced in the late 19th and early 20th century by medicines such as antibiotics, there is an increasing interest in homoeopathic treatment since the 20th century. However, the major arguments against homoeopathy remain present until today (World Wide Web 2008 online). Practitioners of orthodox medicine and scientists claim that substances are diluted so much, they do not exist in a solution such as 200C potency (Ullmann 1991:xvii), which marks homoeopathy as an unscientific or even ‘quackery’ kind of medicine (Ullmann 1991:36).
Definition and description of homoeopathy
Homoeopathy, from the Greek ‘homoion’ and ‘pathos’, meaning ‘the cure is like the disease’ (Wood 2000:35), describes a complete system of medicine, which is based on the principle of ‘let likes cure likes’ (Australian Homoeopathic Association n.d. online), the totality of symptoms, the minimum dose, the single remedy and the direction of cure (Treacher 1996:8). The principle of ‘let likes cure likes’ is based on the concept, already recognised by Hippocrates, that disease can be treated with substances which are thought capable of producing the same symptoms in healthy individuals as the disease itself (Rose & Scott-Moncrieff, 1998:10). Homoeopathy aims to treat the patient as an individual, taking his personal constitution, his lifestyle and personal history into account (Australian Homoeopathic Association n.d. online).
By treating the whole person, rather than an isolated condition, the concept of healing in homoeopathy, like in other natural therapies, is based on stimulating the body’s ability to heal itself, so that all systems can function at their best rather than suppressing symptoms (Kayne 2002:5). This ability is also referred to as vital force, which reacts and adapts to internal and external causes (Wikipedia 2008c online) and is believed to become disordered when a person falls ill (Rose & Scott-Moncrieff, 1998:10). Treacher (1996:6) describes the vital force as the energy that animates all life and speaks of an electro-magnetic energy field around the body that vibrates at a certain speed, depending on the vitality of the person. In order to restore a person to his particular state of wellness and stimulate his vital force, homoeopathic remedies have to match this specific vibration of the energy field (Treacher 1996:6) on the mental, emotional and physical level (Kayne 2002:84).
Additionally, homoeopathic treatment is based on the use of a single remedy which is chosen after careful consideration of all present symptoms in a person, in an adherence to minimal doses in order to avoid aggravation (Haller, 2005:xi). Results from employing only one single remedy are predictable while two or more substances might alter each other’s action upon the vitality (Treacher 1996:9). The last principle, the direction of cure, established by Constantine Hering, illustrates how the vital force organises protection and healing in a logical and predictable way by symptoms of an illness moving from the inside to the outside, from important organs to less important organs and in the reverse order in which they appeared (Treacher 1996:9).
Homoeopathic remedies are derived from plant or animal products as well as mineral sources and are proven and tested on healthy persons until symptoms occur to determine which remedy could be used to treat which disease (Morrell 1995 online). This person’s experience is kept in a record and is eventually incorporated into the materia medica (Treacher 1996:8). They are usually taken in small white pills, which are then dissolved under the tongue but can also be obtained as tinctures and powders and might be used in the treatment of chronic or acute conditions or minor accidents (Australian Homoeopathic Association n.d. online).
The substances are prepared by a process of repeated dilution and vigorous shaking, also called succussion, for a specific number of times that produces a specific potency scale (Treacher 19961996:11). The decimal scale or ‘X’ and the centesimal scale or ‘C’ stand for 10 and 100 dilution or succussion processes while the Fifty Millesimal Scale or ‘LM’ has a dilution ratio of 1:50 000 (Wikipedia 2008c online).
Important contributors to homoeopathy
As already mentioned, homoeopathy was discovered by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a translator, chemist and physician, who disagreed with the general medicine practice of his time (Griggs 1997:171). When translating William Cullen’s ‘Treatise of the Materia Medica’ in 1790, he questioned the medicinal effect of Peruvian bark the author was writing about and started to experiment upon himself. The effects he experienced from ingesting the bark were similar to those of malaria what led him to the conclusion that the cure proceeds through similarity. Hahnemann found that the given remedy must be able to produce the symptoms of the diseases for which they were used as a treatment in a healthy individual. Through further experiments, which he called ‘Prüfung’ or provings, he conceived the existence of a law that became the fundamental principle of homoeopathy, the concept of ‘like to treat like’ or the ‘law of similar’ (Haehl 2001:38, Kayne 2002:83, Wikipedia 2008c online). Besides the ‘law of similar’, Hahnemann also introduced the principle of the single remedy (which was outlined in section 3) and the principle of the minimum dose, which he established after he developed a method of diluting or ‘potentizing’ (MedTerms dictionary 2004