The mysteries of healing
Homeopathy is a widely used and widespread therapy in the world. On the other hand, scientific studies have not been able to find objective evidence that certifies the effectiveness of homeopathy, which, among other things, generates strong contradictions about this therapy. In order to better understand both positions and the arguments of these positions, we interviewed two people who have
a very different opinion about homeopathy.
Delia Yarnoz is a well-known homeopath. He is a cardiologist of study and is currently a member of the European Commission of Homeopathy. Juan Ignacio
Pérez is a professor of physiology, although he is best known for being a former rector of the University of the Basque Country. Homeopathy has no scientific basis. What
is homeopathy and what is the difference between homeopathy and medicine?
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: What is homeopathy? That's a big question. In short, homeopathy is a therapeutic method, that is, a method that serves to heal and achieve health. We take care of people, not sections. We take into account each and every symptom. I would ask you what medicine is: it is the same medicine.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: Medicine, without adjectives, is based on scientific knowledge. And therefore, this means that tests must always be done to test the drugs and demonstrate the effectiveness of the drugs. And they are marketed after these tests have been passed, otherwise this is not done. In the case of homeopathy, on the other hand, no tests are carried out, nor does the law require anything from them. They can simply be sold.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: It is true that for some we will not be very scientific. I don’t know what other people are doing, I know how I research and work. And I'm in the proving team at the European Council of Homeopathy, where we're fucking accurate.
The origin of illnesses is not always purely physical, but often emotional. There is at least one point of agreement in this. This is why homeopathy treats the patient as a whole and individually, and not only treats diseases.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: We are a whole, physical, psychic and emotional. Today anyone admits that we have to find in the whole what happens to us in ourselves.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: The origins of the diseases are varied. But it is true that, apart from this, the human being is very complex. And we know that the mind influences general health or general well-being, to put it better.
Homeopathic medicines are based on the so-called parity law, according to which the substance itself that produces a certain symptom in a healthy person can cure that symptom in a sick person.
But homeopathic products have another basis: the law of infinitesimals. That is, the less substances are present in a solution, the more effective the result will be. From the point of view of current chemistry, homeopathy drugs are diluted so much that it is more likely that none of the molecules of the remedy will appear in the drugs purchased.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: It is debated, but the case of the vaccine is on the same basis. And it is true that our Cartesian learning may not be followed by this. But now it is accepted by Gaia and other physicists and physicists who are different scientists, and that is the line in which scientific research goes. Try to move the body, touch what is wrong, on the energy level, the mitochondria of the cells and give such a little touch for a certain new balance in these other cellular information.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: It would be rare, very unlikely statistically, for even one molecule to be present in a homeopathic drug. However, what those who support it argue is that water has a certain memory, and that it has the memory of the homeopathic product that has been there, which generates the effect. If this were true, in this water there would not be only that of the drug, there would be memories of all the other molecules that the water has had throughout its history—and it is a long history. That would include all the metals that have been in contact, the molecules extracted from all the rocks that have passed, etc. And that has no legs and no heads.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: It's not a belief, this is a science, like the others. The patient knows very well that if it works well, it will continue. We do serious things.
Proponents of homeopathy highlight the shortcomings of conventional medicine. In fact, they say that if the discomfort due to emotional symptoms is not treated in time, it can become a physical problem; and they claim that to find the origin of the diseases, it must be done in a warm way and approaching the patient.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: It's okay to treat patients well. In addition, we know that when patients are given a placebo, they often recover. And then we know that the issues that happen there are very complex and that the mind has a lot to say. But the logical leap that takes place there is too great, and in reality there is no logic in what follows.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: I also have a lot of doubts. You always have to ask yourself what you’re doing. I’m not a physicist, I would often like to get into this mitochondrial or DNA information to see what happens. The British Journal of Homeopathy reports 22,000 cases of cancer, protocol. Things are not of any kind, and it has been shown to be effective at tropismo and other levels.
In contrast to those who claim that efficacy refers to the placebo effect, proponents of homeopathy argue that the positive results that homeopathy achieves in children cannot simply be due to the placebo effect.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: On the one hand, we do not know how this placebo effect differs in children and adults. Children, it depends and how they are, they can be aware. That on the one hand. Then, on the other hand, the diseases heal on their own. After all, that’s what we have an immune system and various mechanisms for.
In any case, homeopathy moves billions of euros around the world and, unlike in the Basque Country, homeopathy has official status in several European states.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: If you want to heal, today, you can do it the way you want. In France or Germany it is free to choose a doctor. Then someone, power or someone else will give you back the money, but what happens there, in that act that is so serious, people know it.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: The unofficial always has a charm, right? An attraction, which is an alternative. Especially in today’s society. Alternatives are presented for everything, and medicine could not be an exception: I think so.
A skeptic named James Randi challenges homeopathy by a million dollars. Thus, to those who scientifically prove the difference between a homeopathic medicine and ordinary water, Randi will give a million dollars out of his pocket. Although there have been some attempts to overcome the challenge, the prize has not yet been distributed.
JUAN IGNACIO PEREZ; PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY: What science cannot prove will not be proved in any other way. And there have been thousands of opportunities, that’s for sure. So far, nothing has been proven, and from now on, either. Randi will keep his money safe, without spending it on it at least. This is clear.
DELIA YARNOZ; MEDICAL HOMEOPATH: Our late president responded perfectly: we have a lot of things to do and I don’t have time to fall for that kind of evil. I have no illusions about falling into illusionisms like this, because I have other illusions.
It seems that the debate will continue for a long time, as long as there is no objective evidence. Following one treatment or another will be a decision that one must make in the face of the mysteries of healing.
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