Does homeopathy work? That's like asking if God exists

Why do scientists spend time and energy debating if homeopathy works or not? Can't different systems of healing be all out there for us to pick and choose?

I really don't know if homeopathy works or not. I just know that my grandmother never went to bed without her nightly dose of nux vomica. And that she always fell asleep as soon as the lights went off. She lived up to 95, without ever encountering heart disease, high BP or diabetes. Was nux vomica the secret to her amazing health and longevity? Quality sleep is statistically linked to both.

Bad science

Nonsense, scientists would scoff: Like other alternative systems of healing, homeopathy is pseudoscience, implausible, fraud and downright dangerous, they would say. Why? Because homeopathy is based on the idea of "like cures like"; because, it believes that dilution of a medicine renders it stronger; because, it works like a placebo (beneficial psychologically); because, it cannot be proved by randomised double blind studies, gold standard in the hierarchy of quality of evidence.

That's exactly what the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia's top body for medical research, said on March 11. After reviewing 225 research papers, it declared that "there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective." Not just. "People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk" by rejecting or delaying allopathic treatments, they have added.

Pill pathos

When Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician first coined the word in 1796 from Greek "homoios" (meaning similar) and "pathos" (meaning suffering), little did he know that his system of medicine would suffer so pathetically one day at the hands of an infant system of medicine he had named allopathy ("allo" in Greek stands for difference) in 1810 and which consisted primarily of bloodletting.

In the century that followed - an era of extraordinary scientific curiosity - allopathy emerged as mainstream "modern medicine", crushing all other systems of healing. What made it successful was its different focus: Unlike other systems of healing, modern medicine explores the inside of our body (think X-Rays, CT-scans, MRIs). It's also the most brutal to the body - something that French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault described in his 1973 classic The Birth of the Clinic: From surgery, transplants, autopsy, radiation, to very strong drugs, that often play havoc with the body.

Gentle touch

In contrast, other systems of healing - traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, ayurveda, homeopathy, naturopathy, reiki etc - are gentle, focused on fluid and energy systems of the body, premised on mind-body approach. They use herbs and body manipulation, yoga and meditation, massage and hypnosis, self-healing, and gentle physical contact. Millions in India believe in these: If on average, over 27,000 patients visit allopathic doctors in a year in India, nearly 25,000 go to homeopathic clinics. If the average yearly expenditure incurred per patient per visit is Rs 77 in an allopathic clinic, it is Rs 15 for homeopathic.

Common cold

There's more: Despite years of intense research and drug designing, modern medicine has not been able to find cures for long-term, chronic conditions: heart disease, asthma, hepatitis or cancer. Scientists often gloss over the fact that some of the most recommended allopathic treatments, sold over-the-counter, are as devoid of evidence as alternative medicine. What about all the medicines being sold to treat or prevent common cold? All those analgesics, antibiotics, antihistamines or cough suppressants, most of which have no effect and may actually harm - especially children.

Being stupid

Does God exist or not? No one quite knows. You either believe or you don't. Astonishingly, for a science that "doesn't work", homeopathy has become the second largest system of medicine in the world (WHO). At least, ten to 12 crore Indians use it. Are we then saying to the billions of people around the world that they are so unintelligent that they get better (or feel better) on medicines that do not work on them? Let's just accept that even in an age when science is the new God, there is much more to life than what we can see, explain or prove.