Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine created by a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann. At the end of the eighteenth century he came up with the idea of homeopathy with the founding principle of like cures like, believing that the cures of the era did more harm than good. Common treatments of the era were leeching, blood draining and the like which often times were as dangerous as the disease. Due to Samuel's work and successful treatment with patients, homeopathy grew in popularity.

Further review of his methods from the current day lead credence that homeopathic treatment is nothing more than a placebo. His success was more a result of people recovering from their illnesses and not being killed by the cures of the age. Clinical trials and studies performed to test the validity of homeopathy found that homeopathy did not have any noticeable effect. Any benefit is purely the placebo effect. Some clinical trials have shown marginal success though reviewing procedures used during the trials revealed ineffective controls and other deficiencies that indicate the studies were flawed and unreliable.

Whether homeopathy works or not, the principles are fascinating. Samuel found in a book that Peruvian tree bark could treat Malaria and it generated the same symptoms as Malaria. He used the idea that "like cures like" or that a natural substance that causes the same symptoms in a healthy person as exhibited by the sick person is the cure. His next step was to dilute the substance as oftentimes it could be toxic in high doses.

The reason why scientists are skeptic of homeopathy is due to the treatment often being diluted to such an extent that no trace of the original substance remains. A third key principle was that there is only one remedy that cures all the symptoms. They treat the patient as a whole. The symptoms are a manifestation of the body's strength fighting the disease and should not be suppressed like traditional Western medicine does. These original ideas of Samuel Hahnemann are still practiced today.