FAQ 05 – Why does homeopathy not work?

Homeopaths ascribe the effect of homeopathy to the homeopathic remedies (globules or drops, tablets or other dosage forms). They therefore rely on a specific medicinal effect which can be attributed solely to the homeopathic method. We are certain that homeopathy can bring about changes, but that these cannot be due to the theoretical explanations Hahnemann devised 200 years ago. We consider a specific effect of homeopathy to be excluded.

Why?

1. The principle of similarity does not work

Similarity is a human way of thinking and perception. Nature doesn’t know similarities. What is similar for humans is by no means a healing principle. Analogies are not scientific criteria either.

2. Homeopathic medicine tests are humbug

Drug tests are not carried out in a standardised manner. Sick drug examiners come to different results than healthy drug examiners. The interests of the drug examiners play a role. The different, possibly limited reactivity of cell tissue plays a role. The “results” are completely subjective, which is additionally proven by the constantly growing list of symptoms (materiae medicae) of homeopaths.

3. The dilutions are too high

Efficacy is impossible when there is no substance left. Molecules are single structures, they cannot be diluted arbitrarily. If there is only 1 molecule left in the solution, then after the next dilution there is no molecule left in the solution – if there is, a dilution has not taken place. The “disappearance limit” of the substances is related to a natural constant (“Avogadro Number”, which is 23X (1 : 10^23 = 1 : 100 trillion). In homeopathy, much higher dilutions are usually used: 30C (= 60X) or 200C (= 400X).

4. Potentiation of substances does not work

That a 200 year old ritual, using only tools known at the time, should be able to separate any “spiritual effects from matter” is a mere assertion. That is impossible from a scientific point of view, exactly this impossibility is proven by quantum mechanics and not the opposite.

5. water cannot store any information

You can’t write in water. If you do it anyway, you cannot read what you have written. The idea of “molecular clusters” does not help: The decisive hydrogen bonds change a trillion times every second. Quantum physics does not help either. Where there is nothing, nothing can work.

6. Separation of effect and side effect is not possible

It can’t be explained that from a mixture of substances only the effective substance is potentiated, but all other ineffective interfering substances are not. It also can’t be explained that the active substance only potentiates the effect desired by humans, but not the side effect undesired by humans. How can substances know what we want?

7. Homoeopathy is not suitable for curing deficiency diseases

If the body lacks substances, then the substance must be supplied in the required dose and not in a homeopathic dose.

8. Homeopathy is not suitable for curing poisonings

If the body is overdosed with a toxic substance, any additional administration of the toxin will result in additional exposure. A relief by additional poison doses is not possible. This has always been an unsolved problem for homeopaths.

9. “Holistic” cannot be achieved

Nobody is able to grasp all aspects and all details of a human being. “Holistic” is a buzzword. Every responsible physician strives to understand his patient beyond the symptoms described and therefore works “holistically”. In addition, homeopathy is an explicit symptom therapy.

10. Imaginative, but abstruse explanatory models

The disease models underlying homeopathy originated before the scientific age. Postulated forces such as “life force”, “life energy”, “miasms”, “nosodes” are non-existent fantasy structures. The actual causes of disease such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, carcinogenic substances, toxins or deficiency symptoms (hormone deficiency, vitamin deficiency, mineral deficiency) are not accepted by homeopathy as the cause of disease.

11. Future generations of scientists will not be able to find a mode of action either

If we were merely ignorant, homeopaths could hope for future insights. But we are not ignorant, we apply the scientific method. It gives us knowledge that contradicts and refutes homeopathy. What is already refuted today cannot be declared “proven” tomorrow.

Would you like more details? An even more detailed presentation by the American neurologist and science blogger Steven Novella can be found under this link.