Is Homeopathy Really Effective? Homeopathy has no scientific prove that it truly works. Besides, homeopathy does not really work in state hospitals and there is a little interaction between doctors and homeopaths.

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Is Homeopathy Really Effective?

The word ‘homeopathic’ is from the Greek words ‘homeo’ which means "similar" and the word ‘pathos’ which means "disease" or "suffering". Homoeopathy has been in popular use in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America and many other countries for over 200 year and some of homoeopathy were also in use by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians (What is Homeopathy?, 2009). Homeopathy was discovered by a German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, in 1769 ,which he started the theory “law of similar” or what it is normally known as “like cures like” treatment or the treatment that can cure sick people by using what causes the similar illness to the healthy ones (Natural treatment (homeopathy), 2009). Thus, homeopathy is “a system of therapy based on the concept that disease can be treated with drugs (in minute doses) thought capable of producing the same symptoms in healthy people as the disease itself” (Definition of Homeopathy, 2009). It is a system of medical therapy that uses very small amounts of medicines, or remedies and most of the remedies are prepared from substances found in nature. Moreover, homeopathy is not similar to herbal medicine, so people should not be confused with them because these two systems are very different. Herbal medicine uses simple quantities of substances in the same way that allopathic medicine uses pharmaceutical drugs. On the other hand, homeopaths use micro-doses made from plants, minerals or any other substance found in nature (What is Homeopathy?, 2009). For example, when you peel an onion, you will feel burn in your eyes or feel itch and may be feeling crying and you might also have a runny nose and begin to sneeze. Therefore, if you had similar symptoms during a cold or allergy attack, such as a runny nose, watery eyes and sneezing, “a homeopathic micro-dose of the remedy red onion would help your body heal itself” (What is Homeopathy?, 2009). Basically, homeopaths believe that symptoms are the body's way of fighting diseases or the body's healing power (INTRODUCTION: What is homoeopathy?, 2009). However, I would like to discuss some of the reasons why homeopathy is ineffective.

First of all, Homeopathy has no scientific prove that it truly works. Besides, homeopathy does not really work in state hospitals and there is a little interaction between doctors and homeopaths. Moreover, most doctors are skeptical of homeopathic medicine. The most passionate argument against homeopathy is that its action is thanks to the placebo effect which works its magic on sensitive minds. The argument against homeopathy continues by saying it only works in those who have blind faith in it and that its efficiency is proportional to belief that it will work. In addition, on August 27th 2005, the Lancet, the first-class medical Journal, published a study which they said, proves that homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo effect, but the study was ended up opposite (Proof against Homeopathy, 2009). Although, according to a discussion board from a website www.toytowngermany.com, there is a man claimed that he had met a woman once who had been injured for years by the effects of her celiac disease with very severe dietary limits. She had been to lots of numbers of experts of all type and a friend of her told her to go to a homeopathic doctor. Thus, she went but ended with no good results. Later on, the same friend told her to try another doctor because ‘the homeopathic doctors don't always match you properly’. Therefore, she went to another homeopathic doctor and following the treatments. After a few treatments she was facing with the awful side effects and had suffered for years. She had been unable to work or to leave the house for any real extent of time. Nevertheless, the lady is able to work now and she is moving to Eastern Europe to work. Furthermore, even the Boots store, the largest high street chemist stores in the UK, even claimed that “we sell homeopathic remedies because they sell, not because they work" (Boots the chemists, 2009).

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Additionally, from the article by Jon Donnis about Professor Edzard Ernst, the first Professor of Complementary Medicine in the United Kingdom, who has investigated and tested different types of alternative medicines for years in which now he is willing to give £10,000 to the first person who can show homeopathy is better than a placebo in a ‘scientifically controlled trial’ and he has told supporters of homeopathy and the practitioners to “finally 'put up or shut up', and stated that there was still no strong evidence that homeopathy was effective in any way more than a simple placebo” (Professor Edzard ...

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