Homeopathy branded weak

Southern Cross University Academic, Cathy Avila highlights the importance of studying Homeopathy in universities.

HOMEOPATHY has been slammed by a parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom, which has branded it ‘theoretically weak’ and ‘scientifically implausible’.

However, Southern Cross University academic Cathy Avila said the homeopathy, which is taught at the university, works.

“It definitely does work,” Ms Avila said.

The committee said ‘systematic reviews and meta-analyses conclusively demonstrate that homeopathic products perform no better than placebos.’

Ms Avila said she agreed that traditional clinical trials had failed to produce ‘clinically valid results’.

The reason is, according Ms Avila, homeopathy does not fit within the traditional approaches to evaluating its efficacy.

“The real challenge is to develop a rigorous methodology to investigate homeopathy,” she said.

“It must be sufficiently rigorous.”

Ms Avila said she did not shy away from the evidence in terms of clinical trials and agreed homeopathy needed to be critically evaluated.

Homeopathy was first proposed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796. It attempts to treat patients with heavily diluted preparations.

Homeopathic remedies are prepared by serial dilution with shaking by forceful striking, which is called ‘succussion.’ After each dilution the strength of the solution is said to increase. Homeopaths call this process ‘potentisation’. Dilution continues until none or almost none of the original substance remains.