Homeopathic remedies are made by succussion, which is nothing but repeated shaking-albeit following some directions. An extract or a compound or an element believed to have remedial property(ies) is diluted 1:100 with water or alcohol that act as inert carriers. The first round of succussion that is marked 2C ends in a 100-fold dilution of the starting material. Successive 1:100 dilutions make 3C, 4C and 5C and so on and so forth. For a homeopathic remedy marked 30C, the dilution is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000 (one followed by 60 zeroes). Remedies that are marked 200C are sold as those possessing more potency. There are other systems for marking potencies and dilutions, but they all follow the same logic- dilution of the original material into an inert carrier. Remedies are sometimes titurated, prior to succussion. Tituration is nothing but grinding of the remedy with sugar of milk (lactose).
The stated objectives of succussion are mainly three. One, through friction and dilution with an inert vehicle, the remedial properties in the original material-referred to as mother tincture, is transferred to the inert vehicle. Two, by reducing the quantity of the original material by dilution with the inert vehicle, the side effects of the original material are avoided. Three, the remedial properties in the “crude state” become awakened in this process. Apparently, all this lead to potentisation, essentially causing more diluted concoctions of the remedial material to become more potent with respect to the beneficial effects and less potent with respect to the side effects. Therefore one test for the fundamental working principle of homeopathic remedies is whether more and more diluted concoctions of the remedial material actually show more and more increased responses attributable in some way to the starting material present in mother tincture.
The most potent dilutions such as 30C do not contain even a single molecule of the starting material in a homeopathic remedy. Thus, chemically the remedies are composed entirely of inert carriers. Therefore, a test for another working principle in Homeopathy is whether the inert carriers used to make Homeopathic remedies, can by any chemical means:
1. Accept and store specific properties of a remedy in the time scales necessary for pharmacological use.
2. Amplify and store the signal it acquired from the mother tincture through successive rounds of dilution.
3. Selectively acquire the desirable qualities of the mother tincture from a mix containing both desired and unwanted side effects.
4. Retain the integrity of the acquired signal during ingestion and translocation to sites of action within our bodies.
5. Transfer the signal with specificity to molecular targets that reside within different locations in our bodies.
Since the inert carriers used are water and alcohol, it provides us with a firm foundation to answer the above questions.
It is alleged that Homeopathy and immunization works on similar principles. They do not. One, in immunizations, you need at least a few molecules of the immunogen to be present to trigger a response against the immunogen. The homeopathic equivalent of a vaccine will be 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 diluted immunogen in adjuvant. Such a mixture would not elicit any response from our immune system other than one against just the adjuvant. Even a million fold dilution of an immunogen would not elicit a useful immune response against an immunogen, simply because sufficient amounts of immunogen would not be present in the diluted mixture. Two, in immunizations, the response elicited by a 1:1000000 dilution of an immunogen will be lesser than that elicited by a 1:100 dilution of the same immunogen. Contrary to this, a 1:1000000 dilution of a homeopathic remedy is believed to be more potent than a 1:100 dilution of the same remedy due to potentisation of the remedial properties during the dilution process.
Homeopathy holds that the interactions of the remedies are “not in any way material or mechanical”, and instead attributable to some “dynamic energy”. Therefore, it prompts us to seek answers beyond chemistry we normally are acquainted to. Is it possible that energy transactions as opposed to transactions mediated by exchange of matter is the mystery behind Homeopathic remedies? Possible. Therefore, one could ask whether water or alcohol can accept any kind of specific ‘signals’ or ‘signatures’ from a remedy in the form of some form of energy during this process, store it and later on release it with specificity to a target located within our body. Irrespective of the mechanism, the more potent dilutions of homeopathic remedies SHOULD still show increased responses attributable in some way to the starting material present in mother tincture.
Therefore, the key to asking whether Homeopathic remedies can work as proposed or by some hitherto unknown mechanism is to figure out if we can formulate a potential mechanism based on known and measurable properties and behavior of matter and energy. If not, we can invoke the involvement of mysterious forces science has not discovered yet. Irrespective of the underlying mechanism, the more potent dilutions of homeopathic remedies SHOULD still show increased responses attributable in some way to the starting material present in mother tincture to be accepted as science.
On the contrary, if Homeopathy is entirely dependent on the use of placebos, its practitioners should clearly state so. An explanation that if placebo is effective, use extra strength placebo without stating as much, amounts to medical fraud. This is because in this scenario, the highest dilutions of homeopathic remedies that are supposed to be more potent would NOT show increased responses attributable in ANY way to the starting material present in mother tincture. The bare minimum requirement for using a specific remedial composition in a recommended dose for a specific ailment that could support the medical use of homeopathic remedies would not be met. If this is the case, we have sufficient reason to call Homeopathy bogus and not belonging to the realm of science.
Syam Prasad Anand, PhD
Founder, Mainline Intellectual Property LLC
Ardmore, Philadelphia, USA
This work by ClubSciWri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
