The word homeopathy is derived from the Greek words homoios = similar, pathos= suffering, sickness which means “similar disease”.
It was invented by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann who is rightly called as the father of Homoeopathy 200 years back.
It is based on the principle of “Similia Similibus Curatur” which means “Like cures Like”. It means that the same medicine is capable of curing the symptoms which it can produce in the human body.
Homoeopathy is based on the principle of Dynamization which is also called as potentisation.
It the process by which the latent dynamic curative powers of the drug are aroused into activity, those which are latent in their crude for.
For example- Common salt does not contain any medicinal property. But when it is potentized as per homoeopathic principles, we get the Homoeopathic medicine Natrum Muraiticum which can treat symptoms which are caused by excess or deficiency of common salt in the body.
It is because of this process of potentization, that there is no particulate matter present in homoeopathic medicines.
Many efforts have been made to understand the mechanism of action of homoeopathic medicines but in vain. Since no particulate matter is present in the medicine, it becomes extremely difficult to explain how do these homoeopathic ultra-high dilutions act.
Many have even claimed that Homoeopathy is nothing but placebo effect.
Despite of plethora of evidence suggesting the role of homeopathic formulations in the management of a variety of diseases in clinical practice, its mode of action remains unclear.
Therefore, the time has come to show to the scientific community the exact mechanism of action of homoeopathic medicines which should be supported by objective evidence to refute their claims that Homoeopathy is the placebo effect.
What Dr. Samuel Hahnemann wrote 200 years back is still being blindly followed even in the 21st century without any advancement being made.
Evidence-based medicine is the need of the hour!!! It is our moral responsibility as the torchbearers of homoeopathy to provide evidence-based homoeopathic education to budding students of homoeopathy.
Only then will they be confident to practice Homoeopathy scientifically and evidence based.
Many students ask the question- “How do we prove the mechanism of action of homoeopathic medicines when there is no material quantity of the drug remaining beyond Avogadro’s number corresponding to 12C or 24X Potency?
Most of our homoeopathic medicines are well beyond Avogadro’s number.
This is a very valid question that needs to be addressed. Randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials will help prove the efficacy of our homoeopathic medicines.
But are they capable to exhibit the mechanism of action of our medicines? No. Also, what research models are available and ready to be used for the same?
The answer is pretty evident - preclinical research studies in the form of phytochemical analysis, animal studies, and cell line studies.
Then the question arises which one of the above is more feasible and reliable?
The phytochemical analysis will answer the question regarding the active principles. But they failed to address the main question - how do these medicines act?
Animal studies can to some extent answer this burning question. But what is true in animals may not be true in humans.
Since we are going to treat patients, we are more interested in the mechanism of action of our homoeopathic medicines in human beings.
Therefore, the Stem cell model is one of the favourite upcoming research models which can be employed as an evidence-based model to prove the mechanism of action of our homoeopathic medicine.
Human mesenchymal stem cells are normal cells that exist in the human body. So, this model exactly depicts what is happening inside the human body.
This model can be used to prove the mechanism of action of our homoeopathic medicines as immunomodulators as well as their osteogenic, hepatogenic, and chondrogenic action.
Another least explored preclinical research model for homoeopathy is the chick embryo model.
It is very simple, feasible, and reliable to prove the action of our homoeopathic medicines as angiogenic or anti-angiogenic. Furthermore, it does not require any ethical clearance.
To conclude, many research models are available at our doorstep to be used effectively to show evidence of the action of our homoeopathic medicines.
It is up to us how we make use of them to help propagate homoeopathy as an evidence-based science and not just a placebo effect.
This mindset should change, and we should be the change-bearers. No outside messiah is going to come to our aid other than us.
Insufficient evidence does more harm than no evidence. It is rightly said -
“If I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.”
— William Kingdon Clifford, The Scientific Basis of Morals (1884), 28
So, let us all abide by this above principle and help Homoeopathy attain new heights as an evidence-based system of medicine.