In the more than 200 years since homeopathy was invented, no one has been able to prove that homeopathy can actually treat anything with a drug that has no active ingredients. However, its reputation has changed significantly in the meantime. It has been funded by public health services in countries such as France, but in 2021 its activities were discontinued. Early in this century, its use increased among those seeking alternative medicine, as did many years of scientific activity against this pseudoscience. Slightly tighter regulations led to a decline in sales.
To understand this phenomenon, EL PAÍS reached out to key players such as pharmaceutical company Boiron, a leader in the field. Spanish Association of Homeopathic Pharmacists and Spanish Association of Homeopathic Physicians. If there is no response from all three, experts who are more critical of the field will provide explanations.
In general, it dates back to the beginning of the last decade. There was a growing movement of skepticism denouncing that the principles underlying homeopathy were not only headless, but also that they had produced no hard evidence of anything improving. This was reflected in an editorial titled end of homeopathy Appeared in lancet In 2005, the journal suggested that society stop wasting time and money proving the effectiveness of treatments that have been unproven for two centuries. “The thinner the evidence for homeopathy, the more popular it seems to be,” the editorial sarcastically notes.
The authors were alluding to the very foundation of pseudoscience, that if you highly dilute something that causes symptoms with water, you can cure the same thing. First, this is unproven (except allergies, in a way). Moreover, the formulations they sell are so dilute that it’s like throwing a drop of the substance into every ocean on Earth. Homeopathic medicines do not contain any active ingredients.
Many people taking homeopathy didn’t even know this was true. Fernando Fries, one of the activists who worked to undermine the field’s remaining prestige, said when he was told that compounds were being sold that diluted the Berlin Wall to overcome feelings of oppression and insecurity. , recalls that people did not believe. In fact, this product was commercialized on the premise that “similar things cure similar things.” “A lot of people assumed it was just a natural remedy and that we made it up to attack it,” Frias said. He and other popularizers participated in homeopathic suicide by ingesting large doses of alleged sedatives without any consequences.
Despite everything, the sale of homeopathic remedies is widespread. You can find these at drug stores, health food stores, and online retailers. The law allows it. In fact, there has been much debate about how to regulate drugs whose only supposed effect is the placebo effect. In 2001, the European Parliament issued a directive targeting the use of homeopathy in countries with a homeopathic tradition. Sources say this is due to pressure from both industry and governments in countries such as France (where Boiron is headquartered) and Germany, where pseudoscience is deeply entrenched, and where pseudoscience consumption is much higher than in other countries. explained what happened. Spain.
“Given the unique characteristics of these homeopathic medicines, such as the very low levels of active ingredients contained in these medicines and the difficulty of applying conventional statistical techniques associated with clinical trials, It is desirable to provide a special and simplified registration “procedure for homeopathic medicinal products placed on the market without therapeutic indications in formulations and dosages that do not pose a risk to the patient,” the Directive states.
This is not the first time homeopathy has lost ground in its more than two centuries of history. Still, Frias cautions, it can’t be ruled out that something will come along that will make it popular again. “Look at the example of chemtrails [the condensation trails left by airplanes that some conspiracy theorists believe are a way of poisoning the population from the air]. It seemed like no one remembered them anymore, but now they’re back,” he says. Quoting astrophysicist and popularizer Javier Almencia, Frias says that faith is like a rubber duck that will rise no matter how deep it sinks. “Especially if you have the money,” he added.
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