Healthy Living

Homeopathy is not a new 'discipline'. It has been around since the end of the 18th century and was developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann.
The word 'homeopathy' is derived from the Greek 'homoios' which means 'similar' and 'pathos' which means 'disease' or 'suffering'. This immediately unravels one of the most important principles of this 'alternative treatment method' for physical and psychological complaints: the principle of similarity.
But what about the credibility of the homeopathic approach? What is fact and fiction? What label do you stick on these drops, 'granules' or capsules?

'How does homeopathy work?' versus 'Homeopathy doesn't work'

It's a story of believers and non believers: the fervent adherents of homeopathy on the one hand and the skeptics who take it away as your purest quackery on the other. Whichever of the two camps takes 'average John', who often does not know what homeopathy is and what this doctrine is based on.
A word of explanation about this is certainly appropriate.

Hahnemann's homeopathic treatment method is based on two principles:
1. the principle of similarity or the similia rule and
2. the principle of individualisation,
and they claim the following:

1. A specific substance that can cause certain symptoms in healthy people can also cure patients with those same symptoms if administered in extremely diluted doses that were potentiated or disaltered at each dilution stage by shaking them. Potentizing is a term that homeopathic adherents often use in the mouth and it means as much as: by shaking the active substance vigorously and intensively at each dilution phase, its potency or healing power is transferred to the solution. That substance becomes even more powerful the more diluted it is.
   In human language: a (toxic) substance that evokes certain symptoms of disease in a healthy person can cure the same phenomena in a sick person if administered extremely diluted.
   For example, an ultra-thind solution of sabadilla, the 'sneeze', is prescribed for hay fever. This hyper-dilution of the active substance aims to activate the body's self-healing ability.
2. The homeopathic method of treatment is based on the patient's reaction as an individual rather than on the disease he/she exhibits. A homeopathic doctor should therefore take into account all the specific symptoms of the patient and test them on the therapy he prescribes. That is why there is usually no indication on the packaging of homeopathic remedies. In human language: homeopathy treats a 'sick' instead of a 'disease'. The underlying idea is: People differ from each other and therefore react differently to the active ingredients of homeopathic products. It may therefore be that two persons suffering from the same disease benefit from a different homeopathic product. For example: the homeopathic remedy that cures a strep throat in person A does not necessarily work for a strep throat in person B.
   
   These principles are still at the basis of the homeopathic treatment method in 2020.
   According to the Dutch Homeopathy Association, this alternative discipline can be defined as 'a holistic medicine that stimulates and activates the self-healing capacity of the body. The human as a whole is central. If his body and mind are not balanced, he may become ill or have ailments'. That is why the homeopathic doctor always asks a whole host of questions during the consultations. Thus, he can form an image of the physical, mental and emotional health of his patient.

What are the arguments of the skeptics and non believers?

• Academia is generally very sceptical about homeopathy because it is at odds with or even contrary to the principles that modern medicine subscribes to, namely that of evidence-based medicine based on evidence.
  Evidence-based means as much as:
  • a logical link between cause and effect is sought,
  • the examinations must be able to be repeated identically and give identical results under identical circumstances,
  • treatment is done with a proven effective therapy.
  And that's exactly where homeopathy is missing. 'It skips the classic diagnosis and is remedy-oriented,' Skepp is quoted as saying. According to academia, no scientific evidence has been found so far that homeopathic products are effective and that they work. So, except as a placebo and in that context, they can be of some use.
  The Association of European Science Academies (EASAC) also came to this conclusion in 2017. He added that the supposed effect of homeopathic products is incompatible with the usual 'scientific concepts' and that the patient is often not sufficiently aware of the possible risks of homeopathic treatment. The same advice applies to homeopathy in animals.
• A second tricky point are the extreme dilutions of (toxic) substances used in homeopathy. The dilution process often goes so far that, chemically speaking, there can no longer be an active substance in the solution, that it no longer contains molecules of the diluted substance.
  The dilution rate shall be indicated by a letter and a digit. A D or DH (decimal Hahnemann dilution), a C or CH (centimal Hahnemann dilution) and there is even an MC value (diluted 1000 times 1in 100). After the letter is a number that shows how many times the product was diluted and shaken. For example, C200 or CH200: that means that the drug was diluted 200 times to 1 in 100.
  For example, a dilution of C6 would correspond to 1 drop dissolved in the water of 20 Olympic swimming pools.
• Another thorn in the side is that homeopathic products are given the predicate 'medicine' although they are not subject to the same efficacy, quality and safety requirements as the recognised classical medicines. In that context, according to the skeptics, they are misleading to the patient and get much more aura than they deserve. Homeopathic remedies are prepared on the basis of a so-called primordial tincture of animal, plant, mineral or chemical origin. This primal tincture is first dissolved in alcohol and then further diluted with water. According to EASAC, such products should only be given the predicate 'medicinal product' if their efficacy can be demonstrated on the basis of evidence from sound scientific research carried out.

What are the arguments of the believers?

• Despite the scepticism of academia, its adherents continue to believe in the effects of homeopathy because they benefit from it or because they see results. According to the annual report of Echamp, the European Coalition for Homeopathic and Anthroposophical Medicines, the homeopathic industry has a turnover of almost 1.5 billion euros per year. So there are quite a few of these globules and granules swallowed... 46% of Belgians have already used homeopathic remedies in their family, half of which have been doing so for more than five years (2019 figures).
  The placebo effect laughs off the believers by arguing that homeopathic remedies also work in babies and young children and even in animals. Homeopathy Belgium Industry Association adds that a number of Randomized Placebo Controlled Trials do prove the effective effect of homeopathic medicines. Such trials show that the treatment tested actually has a clinical effect and does not act as a placebo.
• It is a fact that homeopathic medicines are indeed bound by strict standards. They must be manufactured by licensed companies or by a pharmacist and they may only be sold in pharmacies. Before they enter the Belgian market, they must be approved and registered by the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products. Homeopathy Belgium Industry Association (whose member laboratories are represented on various committees of the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products or FAGG) says that no distinction is made: homeopathic medicines must meet the same quality standards as other (conventional) medicines and can only be prescribed by health professionals.
• According to the Homeopathy Association netherlands, more than 50 reliable studies have shown the specific effect of high dilutions in homeopathy. They refer, among other things, to a study at the University of Bern. Only the question of how homeopathy works remains unanswered. The Dutch Medical Association for Integral Medicine (AVIG) also says that there is indeed evidence that homeopathy is effective and claims that the EASAC relies on unreliable and even fraudulent reports. Moreover, all studies would show that homeopathy is also safe and has no side effects.
  
  According to Homeopathy Belgium Industry Association, it is mainly the hyper-dilutions of the maternal tincture (the active ingredient) that cause controversy. The so-called technique of '1 drop of water in the ocean'. But according to their findings, these extreme dilutions work in a completely different way from conventional medicines: several laboratory studies show that homeopathic medicines with a very high dilution rate have biological effects that would not be observed if they consisted of 'only water' or 'only sugar'. However, further quality research on these mechanisms of action is.
• Another sound that is emerging within this 'camp' is that quantum physics is close to the scientific discipline that homeopathy could (already) explain. According to that theory, the homeopathic remedy is much more than its physical appearance, it is mainly energy. The active substance that is administered extremely diluted enters into an energetic fusion with the energy of humans and that exchange does the work. The physical means (the drops for example) is no more than a 'vehicle'. They claim that homeopathy works through the field of etheric substances and that science is not yet there to make that scientifically demonstrable.
• Wereldwijd zijn er 42 landen die homeopathie wettelijk erkennen als een individueel geneeskundig systeem. In België (waar homeopathie eveneens wettelijk erkend is als niet-conventionele geneeskunde) kunnen alleen gezondheidsprofessionals zoals opgeleide artsen, tandartsen en vroedvrouwen ‘homeopaat’ worden. Spijtig genoeg bestaat er momenteel geen enkele universitaire basisopleiding voor deze discipline en moet de opleiding gebeuren via bij- en nascholing.
  Homeopaten beschouwen hun discipline als een complementaire benadering die haar plaats heeft naast de allopatische of conventionele behandeling. Het is trouwens een feit dat de geneeskunde steeds meer opschuift richting Evidence-based practice (EBP). Dat is een multidisciplinaire aanpak die rekening houdt met de input en aanpak van alle gezondheidsprofessionals (ook verplegers, kinesisten…) en meer focust op de eigenheid en situatie van de individuele patiënt (de reactie van de patiënt als individu).
  Naast de homeopaten kunnen ook andere huisartsen, specialisten en dierenartsen homeopathische geneesmiddelen voorschrijven.