Whether or not homeopathy works is something that’s guaranteed to divide people big time. On the one hand medical experts bound to evidence-based information say there’s absolutely no proof that there’s anything in it, while those who’ve tried homeopathy and found it works for them argue for its effectiveness. Me, I’m somewhere in the middle – as in, don’t completely write off things you don’t completely understand.
So I was intrigued to find a study that suggests homeopathy does work against the common cold. Published in the Journal of Immune Based Therapies and Vaccines, the study was carried out at the Dr Glatthaar Laboratory in Reutlingen, Germany, where researchers performed in-vitro tests under controlled laboratory conditions. They infected epithelial and blood cells with cold viruses, and noticed that the cells that had been treated with homeopathic medicines released more interferon than the cells that hadn’t been treated. And that’s interesting because interferon type I (IFN-I) is a substance that’s thought to be involved in stimulating the body’s immune system to fight viruses.
As far as I’m aware, cells aren’t normally thought to be influenced by external factors – they can’t know or believe they’re being treated or not, as in the way the placebo effect is thought to work – so what’s making them produce a greater amount of interferon after they’ve received homeopathic treatment?
Very interesting, I think you’ll agree. Could homeopathy work by triggering the body’s innate healing system perhaps?
As I said, it doesn’t pay to write off things we don’t fully understand. Right?