Homeopathy is among the worst examples of faith-based medicine that gathers shrill support of celebrities and other powerful lobbies in place of a genuine and humble wish to explore the limits of our knowledge using the scientific method.
Homeopathy is based on the like cures like principle and the concept of the memory of water. The like cures like principle holds that if a substance causes certain symptoms in healthy volunteers (eg, onions cause a runny nose), then this substance constitutes an effective treatment for conditions associated with those symptoms (ie, an onion cures a common cold). The second principle posits that serial dilution in combination with vigorous shaking of a substance—“potentation”—does not render that substance less but more powerful. Thus the most “potent” homeopathic medicines are so highly diluted that they no longer contain a single molecule of the original substance.
These axioms are not only out of line with scientific facts but also directly opposed to them. If homeopathy is correct, much of physics, chemistry, and pharmacology must be incorrect. To put it more strongly, in the parallel universe of homeopathy, life, as we know it, would be inconceivable, and the alien creatures that might dwell in that hostile environment are hard to envisage.
Homeopathy is among the worst examples of faith-based medicine that gathers shrill support of celebrities and other powerful lobbies in place of a genuine and humble wish to explore the limits of our knowledge using the scientific method.
To have an open mind about homeopathy or similarly implausible forms of alternative medicine (eg, Bach Flower remedies, spiritual healing, crystal therapy) is therefore not an option. We think that a belief in homeopathy exceeds the tolerance of an open mind. We should start from the premise that homeopathy cannot work and that positive evidence reflects publication bias or design flaws until proved otherwise. If not, we must believe that water has a selective memory, recalling the 1 × 10−9 molecule of the mother tincture in favor of the multitude of molecules that are likely to be present in concentrations orders of magnitude greater.
So far homeopathy has failed to demonstrate efficacy in randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews of well designed studies.
Homeopathic physicians seem to clutch onto the straws of a series of poorly designed or underpowered studies to retain their credibility or claim that the randomized controlled trial is an inappropriate methodology to assess their belief system in the name of post-modern relativism.
We wonder whether any kind of evidence would persuade homeopathic physicians of their self-delusion and challenge them to design a methodologically sound trial, which if negative would finally persuade them to shut up shop. This is not a double standard; as the authors have been involved in studies that have challenged our favored remedies and the practice of our specific disciplines.
