Definition

Homeopathy (also spelled homœopathy or homoeopathy) from the Greek words, hómoios (similar) and, páthos (suffering), is a form of alternative medicine that attempts to treat "like with like." The term "homeopathy" was coined by the German physician Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) and first appeared in print in 1807,although he had previously outlined his axiom of medical similars in a series of articles and monographs commencing in 1796.

Homeopathy rests on the premise of treating sick persons with extremely diluted agents that - in undiluted doses - are deemed to produce similar symptoms in a healthy individual. Its adherents and practitioners assert that the therapeutic potency of a remedy can be increased by serial dilution of the drug, combined with succussion or vigorous shaking. In common with conventional medicine, homeopathy regards diseases as morbid derangements of the organism. However, homeopathy states that instances of disease in different people differ fundamentally. Homeopathy views a sick person as having a dynamic disturbance in a hypothetical "vital force," and so rejects the standard medical diagnoses of named diseases.

Critics of homeopathic medicine frequently describe it as pseudoscience and quackery. The theory of homeopathy is inconsistent with known laws of chemistry and physics, since it states that extreme dilution makes drugs more powerful by enhancing their "spirit-like medicinal powers." Placebo-controlled clinical trials have given both negative and positive results, but most trials have methodological problems, and better-quality trials are more likely to give negative results. Additionally, cases have been reported of life-threatening complications resulting from attempts to treat serious conditions solely with homeopathic remedies.

Homeopathy is particularly popular in Europe and India, although less so in the USA, where such therapies have been subject to tighter regulation. Stricter European regulations have also been implemented recently by the EDQM.

Excerpt from article "Homeopathy" by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Reference Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Theory_of_disease