Homeopathy research. What are homeopathic medicines made from? Are they harmless to children? Is homeopathy occult?

Homeopathy is a whole industry alternative medicine, created by Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century, in which it is believed that all diseases are cured by several principles.

• Like is cured by like.
• Need minimum doses medicines.
• It is not the disease that needs to be treated, but the person.

This is the theory on the basis of which they make homeopathic medicines.

In the 18th century, the popularity of homeopathy was understandable because official medicine at that time, she was not far from her, and the treatment process was more like torture and experiments than helping the patient. But for some reason, they still believe in it.

How are homeopathic medicines prepared?

A substance is taken that causes symptoms similar to those of the disease. After all, like should be treated like. Important: the symptoms that the person himself experiences are taken as the basis, the tests have nothing to do with it. For example, a symptom is a cough. Need to find the stuff coughing. Ordinary book dust will do just fine with this.

So, we take conditional book dust. To turn it into a homeopathic pill, you need to perform several rituals. To begin with, it must be diluted.

In homeopathy, particularly high dilutions are used. X stands for tenfold dilution, C stands for hundredth. We take the standard dilution of 30C. It means that book dust must be placed in a test tube with water in a ratio of 1: 99. Then take a drop from the resulting solution and place it again in a test tube with water (or alcohol, which is a little more fun), where there are already 99 drops. And so 30 times.

Shake each tube 10 times. It is too obligatory part ritual, without which the medicine will turn out wrong.

The final solution will be water and nothing else. Not a single molecule that was in a lump book dust, will not be in a test tube. In the 18th century, when Hahnemann invented homeopathy, this was already known. After the discovery of atoms, the guesses were confirmed.

Where does the active effect come from if there are no molecules of the substance?

There are also studies that talk about the benefits of balls and solutions. It is only when they are tested that it turns out that they do not meet scientific standards.

Individual approach also plays a role here. It is very convenient to say that homeopathic treatment cannot be tested. evidence-based medicine, because homeopathy is not for statistics, it is individual medicines (which does not prevent manufacturers from churning out and selling hundreds of drugs in pharmacies that supposedly will save everyone).

Is homeopathy harmful?

For your wallet. It is impossible to harm yourself with something that does not exist.

Homeopathy can harm only in two cases.

• If you refuse official treatment in favor of sugar grains soaked in the "memory of water".
• If homeopaths decide not to breed active substances to the desired condition and the ingredients were in tablets in large quantities.

Why is homeopathy so popular?

Because it is money and there is a demand for it. Medicine does not help everyone and not always, simply because it is impossible otherwise. But people want to believe that it will come kind doctor, will sew the legs torn off by the tram, like Aibolit, and we will again jump like bunnies.

A real doctor can't do that.

And then a homeopath appears on the scene, who says that these doctors do not know anything, they treat one thing and cripple another (in the latter, homeopaths are right: medicine is far from perfect). But the homeopath will cure you according to a specially designed magic recipe.

In general, there is a lot of magic in homeopathy, because it is impossible to explain without magic how starch and sugar can cure a person.

But there are herbs!

Sometimes added to homeopathic medicines herbal ingredients in therapeutic doses. And this is no longer homeopathy in the strict sense of the word. Sometimes in pharmacies there are separate shelves for homeopathic preparations, on which both homeopathy and preparations with herbal extracts are located.

This is a deception that only plays into the hands of homeopaths. The logical chain is activated: with herbs - it means natural; means harmless; It means it will help and not hurt. There are many holes in this chain (not all herbs are equally useful, and their uncontrolled intake can kill, herbal medicine is generally more difficult than chamomile tea). But the main thing is that quite a working herbal medicine is mixed with absolutely insane homeopathy.

Some homeopathic preparations were officially supported by our Ministry of Health. This is also not a reason to pay for them.

And it helped me!

We congratulate you. You strong organism who coped well with the disease. Or your case is a manifestation of the placebo effect, which still exists.

And in double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, there are people in the placebo group who are cured. You are one of those.

What's the hack?

Nothing, we just don't care.

We are read by adults who can decide for themselves whether to take homeopathic remedies or not. But for some reason, it is homeopathy that is advised as a medicine for children.

While on the playground, parents will say that they refused vaccinations because the homeopath advised so, they will take their children to church, not to the hospital, and kill them with fashionable diets, we will talk about it.

Homeopathy is one of the most discussed medical methods, which has both its devoted supporters and equally fierce critics.

"The author drank poison"

The history of homeopathy began in 1791, when its author, Samuel Hahnemann literally "drank yada". Not the most successful doctor with a difficult fate, he traveled around Europe for a long time, learned several languages, worked as a librarian for a Transylvanian baron, taught languages, accompanied doctors during their practice, but recognition did not come to him.

While translating medical books, he came across a reference to the symptoms of cinchona bark poisoning. Quinine in small doses at that time was just beginning to be used to treat malaria. Hahnemann, on the other hand, drew attention to the fact that cinchona poisoning is very similar in symptoms to malaria.

Then Samuel decided to try large dose quinine on yourself. Everything fit together: trembling without chills, thirst, dullness of the senses, stiff joints, numbness - all these symptoms were also present in malaria, which Hahnemann himself had once contracted. So he went out to the ancient medical principle treatment of like with like. He decided that the same substance in different proportions can both heal and cripple.

It is worth saying that Hahnemann was not a pioneer in this, both Hippocrates and Paracelsus were guided in their practice by the same principle. However, it was Hahnemann who managed to develop this principle to the point that he created an entire branch of alternative medicine on its basis.
On quinine, Hahnemann did not stop and began to try different poisons on himself. He tried on himself 60 various substances, which were later included in his four-volume "Pure Pharmacy".

Homeopathy today cannot be considered a full-fledged component modern medicine, since it does not have a serious evidence base, does not meet the requirements of an educated, thinking, analyzing doctor of any practice. (V.A. Chipizubov, neurosurgeon) The principle of ultra-low doses, discovered by Hahnemann, is perceived with great skepticism by today's medicine. The thing is that the substance is diluted in such proportions that not a single molecule of the original substance remains in the final composition according to the Avagadro number. Homeopaths have only one answer to these arguments: the memory of water.

It is difficult to go against such an argument, convincing in its unprovability, although it is not entirely clear why water should “remember” exactly the original substance, and not thousands of other impurities and chemical elements, carried in the air or once in the water supply (let's imagine for a second the "purest" water supply early XIX century). By the way, experiments conducted in 2005 by Dr. Cowan showed that water molecules can indeed form a molecular metastructure, but it lasts much less than a second.

Birth of a cult

Nevertheless, Hahnemann's technique eventually began to acquire the features of a real cult. Traditional doctors, whom Hahnemann contemptuously called allopaths (from a combination of the words "other" and "disease") Hahnemann hated. Pharmacists also hated him. This is not surprising - both of them lost considerable profits from the appearance of homeopathy. The hated Hahnemann with a bag full of poisonous substances began to wander around Europe.

The effectiveness of homeopathy was demonstrated by Hahnemann during the epidemic of cholera and typhus that swept through Europe. Hahnemann was on horseback. In his clinic, each patient was welcomed kind word, asked about life, children and the weather - Hahnemann was sure that each patient needed an individual approach, therefore he was both a psychologist and a brother for the sick. Of course, crowds of people went to his clinic. The alternative was to go to traditional doctors who treated with bloodletting, harsh laxatives, mercury, and red-hot forceps.

Now homeopathy is the destiny of people who are either afraid of doctors, or disillusioned with classical, university medicine, or simply desperate (V.A. Chipizubov, neurosurgeon)

Healthy skepticism and the Russian nobility

Traditional medicine even today refers to homeopaths as sectarians, even despite the fact that homeopathy was not given due credit by the most last people. AT Russia XIX centuries, Hahnemann's teaching was not even a fashion, but a craze, albeit not without its persecutors. Representatives of the upper classes of Russian society were delighted with the obscure language of homeopathy, all these flies and flying ointments, which then seemed to be the secret language of alchemy. A perennial family practice homeopathic treatment emphasized a kind of belonging to secret circles.

In "War and Peace" there is a lot of evidence of the addictions of the Russian nobility to homeopathic medicine. Even Tolstoy's eternal ideological opponent Dostoevsky paid attention to her. “Homeopathic parts, after all, can be the strongest,” the writer says through the mouth of one of his heroes. The path from the persecutor of homeopaths to their most faithful supporter was Vladimir Dal, who cured even eye diseases with homeopathic methods.

But homeopathy cannot be completely dismissed and forgotten. There are many, albeit scattered, cases when people recovered after treatment with homeopathic remedies. placebo? - Maybe. Taking into account the fact that any product must be at least non-toxic, when recommending homeopathy, the doctor follows the minimum, but at the same time the main principle of medicine - do no harm. Here is such a "convenient thing" - homeopathy. (V.A.Chipizubov, neurosurgeon).

Homeopathy remains a mystery. Doctors are convinced that it's all about the placebo effect, children love homeopathy for the possibility of healing with small sweet peas, and adults who are convinced of their life experience that the world is not always the abode of logic and common sense, they simply believe in a miracle.

Homeopathy is a whole branch of alternative medicine, created by Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century, in which it is believed that all diseases are treated with several principles.

• Like is cured by like.
• Minimal doses of drugs are needed.
• It is not the disease that needs to be treated, but the person.

This is the theory on the basis of which homeopathic medicines are made.

In the 18th century, the popularity of homeopathy was understandable, because at that time official medicine was not far from it, and the treatment process was more like torture and experiments than helping the sick. But for some reason, they still believe in it.

How are homeopathic medicines prepared?

A substance is taken that causes symptoms similar to those of the disease. After all, like should be treated like. Important: the symptoms that the person himself experiences are taken as the basis, the tests have nothing to do with it. For example, a symptom is a cough. We need to find a substance that causes coughing. Ordinary book dust will do just fine with this.

So, we take conditional book dust. To turn it into a homeopathic pill, you need to perform several rituals. To begin with, it must be diluted.

In homeopathy, particularly high dilutions are used. X stands for tenfold dilution, C stands for hundredth. We take the standard dilution of 30C. It means that book dust must be placed in a test tube with water in a ratio of 1: 99. Then take a drop from the resulting solution and place it again in a test tube with water (or alcohol, which is a little more fun), where there are already 99 drops. And so 30 times.

Shake each tube 10 times. This is also an obligatory part of the ritual, without which the medicine will turn out to be wrong.

The final solution will be water and nothing else. Not a single molecule that was in a lump of book dust will be in a test tube. In the 18th century, when Hahnemann invented homeopathy, this was already known. After the discovery of atoms, the guesses were confirmed.

Where does the active effect come from if there are no molecules of the substance?

There are also studies that talk about the benefits of balls and solutions. It is only when they are tested that it turns out that they do not meet scientific standards.

Individual approach also plays a role here. It is very convenient to say that homeopathic treatment cannot be verified by evidence-based medicine, because homeopathy is not for statistics, it is individual medicines (which does not prevent manufacturers from churning out and selling in pharmacies hundreds of drugs that supposedly will save everyone).

Is homeopathy harmful?

For your wallet. It is impossible to harm yourself with something that does not exist.

Homeopathy can harm only in two cases.

• If you forego official treatment in favor of sugar grains soaked in "memory of water".
• If homeopaths decided not to dilute the active ingredients to the desired condition and the ingredients turned out to be in tablets in large quantities.

Why is homeopathy so popular?

Because it is money and there is a demand for it. Medicine does not help everyone and not always, simply because it is impossible otherwise. But people want to believe that a good doctor will come, sew the legs torn off by the tram, like Aibolit, and we will again jump like bunnies.

A real doctor can't do that.

And then a homeopath appears on the scene, who says that these doctors do not know anything, they treat one thing and cripple another (in the latter, homeopaths are right: medicine is far from perfect). But the homeopath will cure you according to a specially designed magic recipe.

In general, there is a lot of magic in homeopathy, because it is impossible to explain without magic how starch and sugar can cure a person.

But there are herbs!

Sometimes herbal ingredients are added to homeopathic medicines in therapeutic doses. And this is no longer homeopathy in the strict sense of the word. Sometimes in pharmacies there are separate shelves for homeopathic preparations, on which both homeopathy and preparations with herbal extracts are located.

This is a deception that only plays into the hands of homeopaths. The logical chain is activated: with herbs - it means natural; means harmless; It means it will help and not hurt. There are many holes in this chain (not all herbs are equally useful, and their uncontrolled intake can kill, herbal medicine is generally more difficult than chamomile tea). But the main thing is that quite a working herbal medicine is mixed with absolutely insane homeopathy.

Some homeopathic preparations were officially supported by our Ministry of Health. This is also not a reason to pay for them.

And it helped me!

We congratulate you. You have a strong body that coped well with the disease. Or your case is a manifestation of the placebo effect, which still exists.

And in double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, there are people in the placebo group who are cured. You are one of those.

What's the hack?

Nothing, we just don't care.

We are read by adults who can decide for themselves whether to take homeopathic remedies or not. But for some reason, it is homeopathy that is advised as a medicine for children.

While on the playground, parents will say that they refused vaccinations because the homeopath advised so, they will take their children to church, not to the hospital, and kill them with fashionable diets, we will talk about it.

Homeopathy is a system of treatment that consists in stimulating one's own healing powers organism and based on the law that like is treated with like, namely, the symptoms indicate the means for recovery and the remedy potentially causes the same symptomatology.

If a traditional medicine tries to suppress the manifestations of the disease, homeopathy, on the contrary, is aimed at stimulating them. Let's say you have a runny nose and watery eyes from a cold. The homeopath will advise you not to antihistamine, weakening these manifestations, and, say, onion extract (Allium sulfur) with the opposite effect. Homeopathic preparations are purely natural: they are prepared from plant, animal and mineral raw materials.

Better less is better

On the packages of homeopathic medicines, next to the name of the remedy, its potential (strength) is indicated - numbers with the letter "C" or "M", which mean how many times the dilution was carried out 100 or 1000 times. For example, “60 corresponds to 100 to the sixth power, that is, a concentration of 1 trillionth (1 ten billionth of a percent). This amount of the original substance in the preparation is often impossible to determine even the most sensitive laboratory methods.

With each dilution, the solution is vigorously shaken. This process, called succussing, is considered necessary for the release of its energy from the homeopathic substance, and the more dilutions and succussions, the more effective medicine. How does the substance work if it is practically absent in the preparation? Homeopaths believe that it is not the molecules themselves that are important, but their energy, which, when shaken, charges the solution, then the granules impregnated with it, and ultimately the one who swallows them. This explanation confuses many doctors and scientists, and they deny the direct effect of homeopathic remedies on the body.

However, they relieve the symptoms of some ailments, including migraines and seasonal allergies(hay fever).

Last news

Here is an example of a trial whose results show that homeopathy is not reducible to the placebo effect, according to at least with some diseases. Patients with chronic hay fever(51 people) were divided into two groups: daily for a month, 24 people received a homeopathic remedy, and 27 - a placebo. Everyone regularly wrote down their symptoms (the intensity of the runny nose, etc.). Neither the subjects nor the researchers knew who was in which group (double-blind). As a result, it gave an improvement in 28% of cases against only 3% when using a placebo. Unfortunately, the small number of groups reduces the statistical significance of the data obtained. In particular, it is alarming complete absence placebo effect, which in principle always takes place.

A competent approach, since there are practically no biologically active molecules in homeopathic remedies, they can be considered absolutely harmless even for children: swallowing a whole package of granules will certainly not poison you. In this regard, they are suitable for self-treatment of mild disorders. However, the difficulty is that the choice of drug depends on individual symptoms. An experienced homeopath takes into account not only the specifics of the ailment, but also general state and lifestyle of the patient. He will certainly ask you in detail both about specific complaints and about prevailing moods, energy levels, interests, favorite foods, urination patterns, etc., which will allow you to draw up complete picture physical and mental characteristics organisms, which should be affected by the prescribed agent. A homeopath can also check some objective indicators, for example arterial pressure or muscle tone. Please note: a homeopathic remedy may initially make you worse, since it is intended not to weaken, but to increase the symptoms, thereby mobilizing internal reserves organism. Skeptics see this as a sign of the ineffectiveness of homeopathy: it only "sticks" to the natural course of diseases that pass without any treatment.

The path to maximum benefit

It is believed that the effect of homeopathic remedies is highly dependent on conditions. environment and is leveled, for example, by the following factors.

• Strong odors. Aromas of coffee, camphor, perfumes, spices, and even cooking food neutralize homeopathic remedies.
• Light. Bright sun, fluorescent and halogen lamps destroy the energy of these drugs. Store them in dark places in opaque packages.
• electromagnetic fields. homeopathic remedies"discharge" at long-term exposure nearby electrical appliances, including computers, heaters, metal detectors, clock radios, etc.
• Warm. These items deteriorate when high temperature, for example, in the summer in the car. Cold and even freezing are not harmful to them.

Homeopathy research Homeopathy research, homeopathic mechanisms, information packs

Homeopathy was created 200 years ago by Hahnemann (1755-1843). This, of course, is not 5000 Chinese experience of acupuncture, but there is much in common in the recommendations and individual approach there is between them. It is purely empirical and it was observed what this or that effect depends on, how the time of the month and day affects, under what conditions and age there is an effect, and much more. But it has only become so in recent times.
At first, Hahnemann thought that homeopathic remedy causes a small disease that drives out a large one. BUT minor illness occurs when a drug is used that has properties to cause disease, but in small concentrations so that the disease is small. And in this direction, I concluded that the greater the dilution, the more effective the action.
The laws of chemistry were discovered after him, and Hahnemann did not know that with homeopathic dilution, less than 1 molecule of substance remains in one ball. These ideas turned out to be very clear and close to the general direction of thinking at that time and took root in the form of homeopathy. In general, any other -pathy could have been created, not at all based on breeding, but with the same results.
After 200 years have passed, no one takes the original theoretical justifications seriously. They are transformed into new ones, but so far there is no theory that could plausibly justify homeopathy. What makes you still use homeopathy? Does she help at all? Let's try to figure it out by looking at examples of existing theories, evidence, research.
Looking ahead, I will say that I am sure, yes, homeopathy helps. How does acupuncture help? But ONLY when used very an experienced doctor, who possesses the entire incredibly huge amount of empirically their information, largely verified by their own experience, about the many conditions for individual exposure and confidence in the composition of drugs. Why - at the very bottom of the conclusions.