In conventional medicine, new medicines (sources are mostly chemical/synthetic) are constantly being created, tested in test-tubes, sick persons, or animals (rats), and going in and out of market every few years once their side effects become obvious to the general public. How many conventional drugs of yesterday can be found on the chemists' shelves today? They all had their day, and their alluring names have faded into oblivion (because they are declared ineffective or dangerous), only to be replaced by newer drugs.
Homeopathic medicines (prepared from many natural substances such as herbs and minerals) used in the times of Dr. S. Hahnemann (200 yrs back) are used even today because of their efficacy. They have been tried and tested on healthy human beings. They are known, trusted, and reliable.
Sorry Dr. Malik, but you seem to be misinformed. Taking herbs and minerals is not called homeopathy; it's called Alternative Medicine. Homeopathy is drinking water -- that's right, nothing but water -- and claiming that there are herbs and minerals in it.
I am not joking!!!
I thought the title of the piece meant the article would address the fact that homeopathy breaks the laws of physics and chemistry but for some reason homeopaths like to ignore this fact when they are promoting this worthless pre- science cult therapy.
The suggestion that the "conventional drugs of yesterday" are no longer on the shelves is, of course, arrant nonsense. The conventional drugs of yesterday are still there and, unlike homeopathy, they save millions of lives. Homeopathy is a relic of two centuries ago and - along with other unscientific interventions like blood-letting and leeches - it should have stayed there.
I'd probably say that the medicine that takes the most recent advancements in scientific knowledge to be the most "scientific"
Homeopathy ignores, among many others, the follow scientific discoveries:
the Germ Theory of Disease
Watson and Cricks discovery of the structure and functionality of DNA
E=MC2
Evolution and Natural Selection
Vaccination
I could get more pedantic and bring out less well known discoveries but that should suffice.
By the way.. In case you didn't know.. EVERY single one of those discoveries was made AFTER every single tenant of "Homeopathy" was codified. Meaning Homeopathy has ignored the science that has disproven it.
Maybe you can't fault the inventor for not knowing these facts of the universe, but you can dfinitely fault people like this author for ignoring them.
A major component of Science is that it changes over time.. for something to remain static despite all the changes in our knowledge base (from genetics to chemistry) makes it rather suspect.
There is NO Scientific basis for the claims made by homeopaths.. dilution is just that, the dilution of a substance past the point where it is statistically unlikely that even one atom of the original substance remains in a given dose.
Homeopathic cures don't change over time because they don't do anything.
And died of an overdose.
Credit for joke goes to Martin Gardner I think?