History and principles of a traditional medical practice:

One particular department of AYUSH which is discussed below, i.e. homeopathy, which is, in some cases, successfully used to treat diseases and a comparison against the modern medical practices evidently suggests how different its principles and mechanism of action can be.

In the 17th century, Samuel Christian Hahnemann, a German physician unable to find answers with the limited understanding of modern medicine as it existed then, invented Homeopathy. This invention was before the systematic pharmacological study of drug safety and efficacy existed, before the knowledge of anatomy and physiology in its present form, microbiology and the germ theory of disease, before the invention of general anaesthesia (chloroform was discovered in 1831) or aseptic techniques and their uses in surgery.

After multiple failed experiments, he stumbled upon quinine containing cinchona tree bark discovered before 1570s as a muscle relaxant. He later used it to treat malaria and developed malaria like symptoms, oblivious to the other side effects and contraindications of this drug he developed the first law of homeopathy.

The Law of Similia Similibus Curentur (Let likes be cured by likes)

Also called the Law of Similitude: drugs causing symptoms that mimic a specific disease can be used to treat diseases that causes the same symptoms.

  1. The Law of Single Remedy states that a prescription shouldn’t be given of more than one remedy at one point of time. If that doesn’t work, one should move on to the next remedy. If multiple treatments are given at the same time, it becomes difficult to conclude which one treated the condition.

  2. The Law of Minimum Dose states that one should take the smallest dose to nudge one’s vital force to start the healing process. Hahnemann believed that healing should be “rapid, gently and permanent.” To use too much of a remedy frequently causes an aggravation of symptoms before any improvement is seen, thereby putting the individual off the modality

  3. The Law of Direction of Cure states that If a disease is left untreated it moves in the opposite direction

  4. The Law of Infinitesimal Doses

image-result-for-serial-dilution-1100

Under this law, homeopathy claims that when drugs such as an extract from the chinchona tree bark is diluted in water or alcohol, they increase their therapeutic potential. This is conducted by a serial dilution process such that a 1:100 dilution, i.e. one mL of drug per 100 mL of water or alcohol is repeated from 6 to 30 times to produce the most potent drug. In between each such dilution process, the liquid is agitated violently- a process that claims to activate the drug properties.

By this law, the minimum amount of potent homeopathy drug in the diluted liquid will be 1:100 ration repeated 6 times that will yield a maximum drug content with the ratio of 1:1000000000000

This means that a batch of 10,00,00,00,00 Litres of drug will contain only 1 mL of the actual drug compound, while the rest will be either water or alcohol.