Homeopathy is a form of alternate therapy that is gaining in popularity in recent years. The basic premise behind the practice of homeopathy is the concept of "like treats like", often called the "law of similars", which means that disorders can and should be treated by using the essence of the same thing that caused the disorder in the first place. Treatments used in homeopathy are exceedingly dilute solutions of a substance that can cause the symptom being treated when taken in a non diluted form. For example, nausea would be treated by mixing a tiny amount of a nausea producing agent in water. Indeed, treatments used in homeopathy are so very dilute that it is statistically unlikely that even a single molecule of the treating agent is actually present in the dose that is taken.
Homeopathy is based on the curious notion that the strength of the curative power of a substance is directly proportional to its dilution which runs counter to the fact that the potency of most substances is proportional to its concentration and inversely proportional to its dilution. In homeopathy, remedies are typically first mixed with water in some fixed proportion (typically one part in ten or one part in one hundred). The original solution is then further diluted with water using the same concentration. These dilution steps can occur thirty times or more. Following traditional homeopathy remedy preparation techniques, it is estimated that one would have to consume somewhere between twenty five to fifty tons of the remedy to ingest even a single molecule of the active agent. This means that it is virtually guaranteed that any homeopathy treatment is nothing more than pure water.
Proponents of homeopathy are not deterred by such mathematical arguments since they believe that the potency of the original curative substance is imprinted into the water and only strengthens with each dilution. Opponents counter that water must have come into contact with nearly every substance imaginable at some point or another and therefore every drink of water we take should already contain every possible homeopathic remedy. Homeopathy practitioners assert that the precise mixing technique is what gives the remedy its power, not random encounters.
Scientific experiments designed to test the efficacy of homeopathy have not proven either that the treatments are or are not effective. Some studies claim one way while others the converse, while others still are inconclusive. Regardless of the outcome, the people on either side of the argument tend to claim that experiments that favor the other side are somehow biased or flawed. This is a fairly common situation when alternative therapies are tested. The real issue is faith as it is unlikely that western science will ever accept the methods of homeopathy barring some earth shattering and completely unexpected developments in the fields of physics, chemistry, and/or biology.
