Homeopathy - Medical Miracle or Hocus Pocus?

Dear Dr. Jody:  Our breeder has recommended a homeopathic remedy for our dog’s chronic itchy skin.  What is a homeopathic remedy, and will it help relieve his itching?

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that alleges to treat diseases with minute doses of drugs that, if given to a healthy person or animal, would produce symptoms similar to those of the disease.  The word is derived from the Greek homoio meaning “similar”, and pathos meaning “suffering”. 

The basic tenet of homeopathy is the “Law of Similars”, which is “to let like be cured by like”.  The concept was first developed in the late eighteenth century by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician.  In essence, the idea is that irritants and poisons that would normally cause unwelcome symptoms can actually cure diseases if given in small enough doses.  In conducting my research for this article, I came across a veterinary homeopathic product to combat itchy skin in dogs.  This product contains tiny doses of substances normally known to cause itching in dogs, such as ground-up fleas, poison oak, and stinging nettle.  The theory is that, in giving tiny doses of these itch-causing irritants, the body will be strengthened to fight off the original cause of the itching.  I found a homeopathic dewormer for puppies that contains miniscule amounts of poisons that would normally cause stomach and intestinal upset if given in larger quantities, such as strychnine, arsenic, and naphthalene (a major component of old-fashioned mothballs).  In very small doses, it is believed by homeopathic practitioners that these products will strengthen the body to enable it to rid itself of the gastrointestinal parasites. 

Homeopathic remedies are prepared by serial dilution; a process that involves dissolving the ingredients in distilled water, sugar, or alcohol, and mixing the solution after each dilution by forceful striking, or “succussion”, on an elastic object.  Each dilution and succussion is believed to increase the effectiveness of the remedy through a process known as potentization.  The dilution often continues until none of the original material remains in the solution.  In fact, these final solutions are often not chemically distinguishable from the pure water or alcohol in which they are dissolved. 

Homeopathic remedies typically report the concentration of their ingredients in “C” notation such as 6C, 30C, or 200C.  Each “C” represents a dilution of one hundredfold.  For example, 2C would be a 1/100 dilution, 3C would be a 1/10,000 dilution, and so on.  Most of the veterinary homeopathic remedies I found indicated that the ingredients were present in dilutions of 30C.  This means that, in order for the patient to consume just one molecule of active ingredient, they would need to consume 10⁶⁰ molecules of the product.  How much product is that?  Roughly ten billion times the volume of the Earth.

Homeopathic practitioners acknowledge that the likelihood of even one molecule of the original ingredient being present in the proprietary product is infinitesimally small.  The concentration of arsenic, the active ingredient in the puppy dewormer I mentioned, is 520 times less than the allowable concentration of arsenic in drinking water in the United States, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency.  So how can an active ingredient that is so incredibly diluted possibly do any good?  Practitioners of homeopathy claim that water has “memory”.  They state that water molecules that once came into contact with the active ingredient will retain the properties of that original ingredient and therefore will exert the ingredient’s benefit on an ailing patient, even if there are no active ingredients remaining in the solution.

Oscillococcinum is an over-the-counter homeopathic flu remedy available at most pharmacies.  The word “Oscillococcinum” was coined by a French physician named Joseph Roy who attended to victims of the 1917 Spanish Influenza epidemic.  Roy believed he saw oscillating bacteria in the blood of the flu victims when he examined their blood under his primitive microscope.  He searched for the bacteria in several other animals until he stumbled across what he believed to be the same organism in the liver of a duckling.  The modern preparation of Oscillococcinum is therefore a highly dilute (200C) concoction of Muscovy duck entrails dissolved in sugar water.  Mathematically, in order to obtain one molecule of active ingredient (I use the term “active ingredient” loosely since duck liver has not yet been proven to protect against the flu), the patient would be required to consume a volume of medication roughly 10³²¹ times the size of the  entire known universe.  In 2008, the Princeton University Press reported that Oscillococcinum is a $15 million per year industry in the United States alone.

So the question remains – does homeopathy work?  In all of my research in preparation for this article, I was unable to find any blinded, controlled clinical trials that support the claims of homeopathy.  In order for a research study to be considered meaningful, most experts agree that the study must be “blinded”.  Because patients enrolled in the study might believe they feel better if they are told they are being given the test drug, reputable studies do not tell the participants whether they are being given the test drug or a placebo.  This is a process called blinding, and blinded studies demonstrating the efficacy of homeopathic remedies are conspicuous by their absence.

The website for the veterinary homeopathic remedies I investigated indicates that their clinical trials are available for viewing on their web page.  I was unable to find these documents on the website, and the messages I have left for the company have so far been unanswered. 

The theory that water has “memory” contravenes the very basic laws of physics and chemistry.  And the idea that a toxic substance provided to a patient in undetectable amounts can bring about healing is not a concept I can endorse.  In many cases, these products are nothing more than distilled water or alcohol with preservatives and flavorings added.  The products are likely harmless, but not particularly helpful.


***UPDATE***
I finally received a reply from the HomeoPet company.  I had asked them to direct me towards their published controlled clinical trials that were advertised on their website (yet seemingly absent).  The "controlled trials" are actually only ONE trial.  It is published in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour, volume 6, pages 21-30.  Interestingly, the summary of this paper states that the homeopathic remedy tested in the study was ineffective in treating the condition!