Homeopathy
pronunciation: 
i/ˌhoʊmiˈɒpəθi/; (Hindi=होम्योपैथी); (Arabic=معالجة المثلية); (Bengali= সদৃশবিধান); (Bulgarian= хомеопатия); (Chinese: 顺势疗法, 順勢療法); (Danish= homøopati); (Filipino= homyopatya); (French= homéopathie); (German= Homöopathie); (Greek= ομοιοπαθητική); (Gujarati= હોમીયોપેથી); (Irish= hoiméapaite); (Japanese= ホメオパシー); (Korean= 동종 요법); (Latvian=homeopātija); (Macedonian= хомеопатијата); (Persian= علاج بمثل); (Russian= гомеопатия); (Serbian= хомеопатија); (Spanish= homeopatía); (Tamil= ஹோமியோபதி); (Telugu= హోమియోపతి); (Ukrianian= гомеопатія); (Urdu= معالجہ المثلیہ); (Vietnamese= vi lượng đồng căn); (Yiddish= כאָומיאָופּאַטי);
i/ˌhoʊmiˈɒpəθi/; (Hindi=होम्योपैथी); (Arabic=معالجة المثلية); (Bengali= সদৃশবিধান); (Bulgarian= хомеопатия); (Chinese: 顺势疗法, 順勢療法); (Danish= homøopati); (Filipino= homyopatya); (French= homéopathie); (German= Homöopathie); (Greek= ομοιοπαθητική); (Gujarati= હોમીયોપેથી); (Irish= hoiméapaite); (Japanese= ホメオパシー); (Korean= 동종 요법); (Latvian=homeopātija); (Macedonian= хомеопатијата); (Persian= علاج بمثل); (Russian= гомеопатия); (Serbian= хомеопатија); (Spanish= homeopatía); (Tamil= ஹோமியோபதி); (Telugu= హోమియోపతి); (Ukrianian= гомеопатія); (Urdu= معالجہ المثلیہ); (Vietnamese= vi lượng đồng căn); (Yiddish= כאָומיאָופּאַטי); Also spelled homoeopathy or homœopathy) is a form of alternative medicine.
Practitioners treat patients using highly diluted preparations that are believed to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient. The collective weight of scientific evidence has found homeopathy to be no more effective than a placebo.
In the context of homeopathy, the term remedy is used to refer to a substance which has been prepared with a particular procedure and intended for patient use; it is not to be confused with the generally accepted use of the word, which means "a medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieves pain".
The basic principle of homeopathy, known as the "law of similars", is "let like be cured by like." It was first stated by German physician Samuel Hahnemannin 1796. His "law of similars" is taken on his word as an unproven assertion, and is not a true law of nature based on the scientific method.[9] Homeopathic remedies are prepared by serial dilution with shaking by forceful striking on an elastic body, which homeopaths term succussion. Each dilution followed by succussion is assumed to increase the effectiveness. Homeopaths call this process potentization. Dilution often continues until none of the original substance remains. Apart from the symptoms, homeopaths examine aspects of the patient's physical and psychological state, then homeopathic reference books known as repertories are consulted, and a remedy is selected based on the totality of symptoms.
While some individual studies have positive results, systematic reviews of published trials fail to demonstrate efficacy. Furthermore, higher quality trials tend to report results that are less positive, and most positive studies have not been replicated or show methodological problems that prevent them from being considered unambiguous evidence of homeopathy's efficacy.
Depending on the dilution, homeopathic remedies may not contain any pharmacologically active molecules, and for such remedies to have pharmacological effect would violate fundamental principles of science. Modern homeopaths have proposed that water has a memory that allows homeopathic preparations to work without any of the original substance; however, there are no verified observations nor scientifically plausible physical mechanisms for such a phenomenon. The lack of convincing scientific evidence to support homeopathy's efficacy and its use of remedies lacking active ingredients have caused homeopathy to be described as pseudoscience, quackery, and a "cruel deception". Homeopathic remedies are safe at high dilutions recommended by Hahnemann, since they likely contain no molecules of the original substance, but they may not be safe at lower dilutions. Homeopathy has been criticized for putting patients at risk due to advice against conventional medicine such as vaccinations, anti-malarial drugs, and antibiotics.
The regulation and prevalence of homeopathy is highly variable from country to country. There are no specific legal regulations concerning its use in some countries, while in others, licenses or degrees in conventional medicine from accredited universities are required. In several countries, homeopathy is covered by the national insurance to different extents, while in some it is fully integrated into the national healthcare system. In many countries, the laws that govern the regulation and testing of conventional drugs do not apply to homeopathic remedies.
Physical, Mental, and Emotional state examination; Repertories
From these symptoms, the homeopath chooses how to treat the patient. A compilation of reports of many homeopathic provings, supplemented with clinical data, is known as a homeopathic materia medica. But because a practitioner first needs to explore the remedies for a particular symptom rather than looking up the symptoms for a particular remedy, the homeopathic repertory, which is an index of symptoms, lists after each symptom those remedies that are associated with it. Repertories are often very extensive and may include data extracted from multiple sources of materia medica. There is often lively debate among compilers of repertories and practitioners over the veracity of a particular inclusion.Homeopaths generally begin with detailed examinations of their patients' histories, including questions regarding their physical, mental and emotional states, their life circumstances and any physical or emotional illnesses. The homeopath then attempts to translate this information into a complex formula of mental and physical symptoms, including likes, dislikes, innate predispositions and even body type.
The first symptomatic index of the homeopathic materia medica was arranged by Hahnemann. Soon after, one of his students Clemens von Bönninghausen, created the Therapeutic Pocket Book, another homeopathic repertory. The first such homeopathic repertory was Georg Jahr's Symptomenkodex, published in German (1835), which was then first translated to English (1838) by Constantine Hering as the Repertory to the more Characteristic Symptoms of Materia Medica. This version was less focused on disease categories and would be the forerunner to Kent's later works. It consisted of three large volumes. Such repertories increased in size and detail as time progressed.
Some diversity in approaches to treatments exists among homeopaths. Classical homeopathy generally involves detailed examinations of a patient's history and infrequent doses of a single remedy as the patient is monitored for improvements in symptoms, while clinical homeopathyinvolves combinations of remedies to address the various symptoms of an illness.
Materia medica is a Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medicines). The term 'materia medica' derived from the title of a work by the Ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century AD, De materia medica libre. In Latin, the materia medica literally means "medical material/substance" and was used from the period of the Roman Empire until the twentieth century, but has now been generally replaced in medical education contexts by the term pharmacology.
"Active" Ingredients :
The list of ingredients seen on remedies may confuse consumers into believing that the product actually contains those ingredients. According to normal homeopathic practice, remedies are prepared starting with active ingredients that are often serially diluted to the point where the finished product no longer contains any biologically "active ingredients" as that term is normally defined. The list of ingredients normally refers to the ingredients originallyused in their preparation. Following is a demonstrative example:
Zicam Cold Remedy is marketed as an "unapproved homeopathic" product. It contains a number of highly diluted ingredients that are listed as "inactive ingredients" on the label. Some of the homeopathic ingredients used in the preparation of Zicam are galphimia glauca, histamine dihydrochloride (homeopathic name, histaminum hydrochloricum), luffa operculata, and sulfur. Although the product is marked "homeopathic", it does contain two ingredients that are only slightly diluted, zinc acetate (2X = 1/100 dilution) and zinc gluconate (1X = 1/10 dilution),
which means that both are present in a concentration that contains biologically active ingredients.
In fact, they are strong enough to have caused some people to lose their sense of smell, a condition termed anosmia.
This illustrates why taking a product marked "homeopathic",
Scientific skeptics highlight the lack of active ingredients in homeopathic products by taking large overdoses - examples include James Randi and the 10:23 campaign groups. None of the hundreds of demonstrators in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA were injured and "no one was cured of anything, either". Some marketers of remedies state that one "cannot overdose on homeopathic medicines".
