Health And Pseudoscience
Written by Shirley Gay, retired pharmacist & homeopath
Many people over the last two centuries have disregarded homeopathy but why is this? Why do they also disregard the recent discoveries regarding the redox cell signaling?
At the start of the 20th century, homeopathy was flourishing in the United States (See UCSF Manuscript Materials on the History of Homeopathy). There were over 100 dedicated hospitals. Rumour has it that the orthodox medical profession didn’t like this new form of medical treatment, after all, it was not evidence based, and it took years to become an accomplished homeopath. Also there wasn’t the income to be made and the kudos attached, so it gradually was ridiculed and diminished in popularity. Modern medicine is the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry. Why use that time consuming practice of homeopathy when at the touch of a button on the keyboard a pharmaceutical drug can be prescribed?
Health is so much more than prescribing drugs to suppress symptoms. Health is about dealing with all aspects of the body as was discussed in the previous article.
In the 20th century, little was known about redox science and yet recent discoveries have shown it to be one of the most important breakthroughs in medical science. Never heard about it? If we search for “medical research redox”, we see there are a lot of studies being done on redox cellular signaling including many medical programs in highly prestigious universities worldwide. There are also worldwide annual conferences that focus on redox science such as by Society for Redox Biology and Medicine and the Oxidative Stress Reduction, Redox Homeostasis, & Antioxidant in Paris.
Edward Jenner developed the vaccine, and Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Both of these discoveries have proved to be tremendously beneficial in the last 70 years, but let’s not forget that real health relates to the totality of the body, not just its individual systems. Science has not worked out yet why homeopathic remedies work, but practical evidence shows that it does. Science is an evolving discipline. We may not know the truth today, but maybe we will tomorrow.
