-Caveat Lector-
Alternative Medicine and the Laws of Physics
The mechanisms proposed to account for the alleged efficacy of such methods
as touch therapy, psychic healing, and homeopathy involve serious
misrepresentations of modern physics.
Robert L. Park
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So-called "alternative" therapies, mostly derived from ancient healing
traditions and superstitions, have a strong appeal for people who feel left
behind by the explosive growth of scientific knowledge. Paradoxically,
however, their nostalgia for a time when things seemed simpler and more
natural is mixed with respect for the power of modern science (Toumey 1996).
They want to believe that "natural" healing practices can be explained by
science. Purveyors of alternative medicine have, therefore, been quick to
invoke the language and symbols of science. Not surprisingly, the mechanisms
proposed to account for the alleged efficacy of such methods as touch
therapy, psychic healing, and homeopathy involve serious misrepresentations
of modern physics.
The No-Medicine Medicine
Homeopathy, founded by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), is a
relative newcomer. Homeopathy is based on the so-called "law of similars"
(similia similibus curantur), which asserts that substances that produce a
certain set of symptoms in a healthy person can cure those same symptoms in
someone who is sick. Although there are related notions in Chinese medicine,
Hahnemann seems to have arrived at the idea independently. Hahnemann spent
much of his life testing natural substances to find out what symptoms they
produced and prescribing them for people who exhibited the same symptoms.
Although the purely anecdotal evidence on which he based his conclusions
would not be taken seriously today, homeopathy as currently practiced still
relies almost entirely on Hahnemann's listing of substances and their
indications for use.
Natural substances, of course, are often acutely toxic. Troubled by the side
effects that often accompanied his medications, Hahnemann experimented with
diluting them. After each successive dilution, he subjected the solution to
vigorous shaking, or "succussion." He made the remarkable discovery that
although dilution eliminated the side effects, it did not diminish the
effectiveness of the medications. This is rather grandly known as "the law of
infinitesimals."
Hahnemann actually made a third "discovery," which his followers no longer
mention. "The sole true and fundamental cause that produces all the countless
forms of disease," he writes in his Organon, "is psora." Psora is more
commonly known as "itch." This principle does not seem to involve any laws of
physics and is in any case ignored by modern followers of Hahnemann.
By means of successive dilutions, extremely dilute solutions can be achieved
rather easily. The dilution limit is reached when the volume of solvent is
unlikely to contain a single molecule of the solute. Hahnemann could not have
known that in his preparations he was, in fact, exceeding the dilution limit.
Although he was contemporary with the physicist Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1856),
Hahnemann's Organon der Rationellen Heilkunde was published in 1810, one year
before Avogadro advanced his famous hypothesis, and many years before other
physicists actually determined Avogadro's number. (Avogadro showed that there
is a large but finite and specific number of atoms or molecules in a mole of
substance, specifically 6.022 x 1023. A mole is the molecular weight of a
substance expressed in grams. Thus, a mole of water, H2O, molecular weight 2
+ 16 = 18, is 18 grams. So there are 6.022 x 1023 water molecules in 18 grams
of water.)
Modern day followers of Hahnemann, however, are perfectly aware of Avogadro's
number. Nevertheless, they regularly exceed the dilution limit -- often to an
astonishing extent. I recently examined the dilutions listed on the labels of
dozens of standard homeopathic remedies sold over the counter in health
stores, and increasingly in drug stores, as remedies for everything from
nervousness to flu. These remedies are normally in the form of lactose
tablets on which a single drop of the "diluted" medication has been placed.
The "solvent" is usually a water/alcohol mixture. The lowest dilution I found
listed on any of these bottles was 6X, but most of the dilutions were 30X or
even, in the case of oscillococcinum, an astounding 200C. (Oscillococcinum,
which is derived from duck liver, is the standard homeopathic remedy for flu.
As we will see, however, its widespread use poses little threat to the duck
population.)
What do these notations mean? The notation 6X means that the active substance
is diluted 1:10 in a water-alcohol mixture and succussed. This procedure
(diluting and succussing) is repeated sequentially six times. The
concentration of the active substance is then one part in ten raised to the
sixth power (106), or one part per
