What is it and how does it work?

Homeopathy is a therapy that has the ability to relieve physical and moral pain, treats and cures many pathologies.

Samuel Hanhnemann 1755-1843 médico e quimico, retomou a frase latina de Hipocrates   “Similia similibus curentur”  _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_The like must be cured by the like to illustrate his discovery, according to which substances given in low doses, allow the organism to cure affections that these same substances cause in high doses. This medical system he founded he called Homeopathy. According to this principle known by the law of similars, any substance  that given to healthy individuals and susceptible to triggering symptoms, can help the cure of sick individuals afflicted with similar symptoms. In this context Hanhnemann concluded that mercury, which was widely used by his contemporaries to treat syphilis, triggered the appearance of syphilitic ulcers. And the silver nitrate, argentum nitricum, applied in  high doses in ocular inflammations generated suppurations and severe irritations. Homeopathically administered in tiny doses, it treats and cures eye irritations such as conjunctivitis.

Hanhnemann and fellow physicians, his collaborators began experiments using the principle of the law of similars, taking high doses of the substances themselves, many of them toxic and heavy metals used by physicians at that time in their patients, pointing out the symptoms caused by said substances and then took infinitesimal doses of the same substance to get rid of the symptoms caused by the high doses. A  Homeopathy thus has the advantage of being tried on humans without causing suffering to animals.

Hanhnemann and his colleagues have experimented with about a hundred of these substances and, up to our days, about 2000 substances have been experimented with. In homeopathic clinical practice only a few hundred homeopathic remedies are used.

Hanhnemann, after discovering the principles and laws of homeopathy, classified them, systematized them and transformed them into a clinical practice similar to the one we have today.

The set of symptoms caused by these substances are listed, collected and published in two books: “Materia Medica” and “Repertório”.

How are homeopathic medicines prepared?

By diluting the original substance by successive steps,  followed by suction. In short, we will have the dilution of the substance and suction or vigorous agitation. These two operations alone give the homeopathic medicine all its power, with the obvious condition that the specific symptoms of the product are similar to the symptoms of the patient.

What are the scientific foundations of homeopathy?

Homeopathy has been called into question due to lack of scientific foundation and its effect considered only a placebo. How can it have a placebo effect if it works equally on animals and plants, so-called non-rational beings who will not be aware that they are taking homeopathic medicine.

Homeopathy as a therapy has been used clinically for at least two hundred years in Europe, India and the United States of America, Brazil, etc...

Hahnemann used a method (“proving” in English) that consists of daily administering to a healthy person small doses of a certain substance until the symptoms appear. Through this proving method, it is possible to learn which manifestations each substance experienced causes, and in virtue of the law of similars, which symptoms it cures. These “provings” allow the practitioner to select remedies based on the patient's symptoms.

There are many critics in relation to the principles of Homeopathy and its functionality, however we will have to distinguish those who have interests in which it does not compete with allopathic or conventional medicine and the critics who claim that by applying the methods of scientific analysis, homeopathy does not resist this analysis.

We, for our part, ask whether the current scientific method has the necessary and sufficient tools to analyze issues such as homeopathy given its specificity of energetic medicine. There are many areas of human knowledge that scientific analysis is currently unable to analyze. And that's not why we're going to deny them. The problem lies in the insufficiency of the method. In fact, what we believe to be true today, tomorrow the new data may contradict. What Hahnemann has captured science may not have access to with current scientific analysis instruments.

How can we explain the application of the placebo effect in animals?