Is homeopathy scientific?
In the opinion of this homeopath, homeopathy is the most scientific of the healing arts. That is because it has (1) an organizing therapeutic principle (the Law of Similars) and (2) drug trials that are the most scientific in the field. Homeopathic trials are called “provings.” Provings start with healthy subjects who take a remedy until they feel symptoms. The subjects and their proving supervisors record all symptoms as they occur. These records are then compiled by the proving administrator and submitted to the homeopathic community for use in matching the characteristic effects of that remedy to the characteristic symptoms of individuals under homepathic care. The strength of the homeopathic proving model lies in its use of a healthy pool of subjects who have not been vetted. As suggested by a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the practice of culling trial subjects based on criteria chosen in advance by the researchers has the potential to introduce large biases
Homeopathic philosophy has taken every type of disorder into consideration while formulating tenets for prescription. There are clear rules about classification of disorders, the plan of treatment once the disorders have been classified, rules for prescription, rules for changes in prescription, rules for changes in remedies, interpretation of symptoms AFTER the medicines are prescribed, rules for the first and subsequent prescriptions and rules for prescribing for terminal disorders.
