American Homeopathy Research Articles

Findings from Clinical, Historical, and Educational Research Conducted at the HOHM Foundation Office of Research

Background: This presentation provides an overview of the research work at HOHM Foundation and the most inspiring results from the last 5 years, highlighting important findings from our numerous published and ongoing research projects. Methods: HOHM Foundation officially launched its Office of Research (HOHM Research) in 2017 in keeping with the mission to enrich and support homeopathy, and an overarching aim to build infrastructure whereby rigorous outcomes-based research supports the deepening and expansion of the discipline of Homeopathy. Results: Recent peer-reviewed publications include five papers on the education of complementary and integrative medicine practitioners, as well as three observational case series of selected COVID-19 cases from the HHN Clinic. Additional papers based on the 5000+ dataset of acute cases from the Homeopathy Help Network (HHN) clinic are currently being prepared. From the Practitioner Generated Research Network (PGRN) – an organization promoting practice-based, patient-focused, practitioner-generated research that potentizes the profession of homeopathy and expands it into the larger scientific and integrative medical communities - a paper exploring attitudes to and uptake of repertory software in homeopathy clinical practice was published in Homeopathy in 2023. Current papers from the PGRN in the publication phase include an observational clinical case series using MYMOP 2017-20, and an observational clinical case series using MYCaW 2020-22 data, both collected from clients who attended the Academy of Homeopathy Education (AHE) chronic clinic. Other current research work focusses on artificial intelligence in Homeopathy, on the characteristics, demographics and perceptions of users of homeopathy in the US, the 2022 North American homeopathy education surveys, the 2023 North American workforce survey, and a clinical trial on Homeopathy in the management of Silicosis taking place in Brazil. Discussion: HOHM Research produces robust, relevant publications, and bring awareness of the effectiveness of homeopathy through real-world, outcomes-based research, focusing on clinical, historical, and educational research outputs.

American Homeopathy, Neuropathological Research and Reform Aspirations at the End of the 19th Century: The Case of Westborough State Hospital (MA)

The United States’ second homeopathic asylum, Westborough State Hospital (MA), opened its doors to the public in 1886. It soon became a space of dialogue between the unconventional movement of homeopathy, innovative research in neuropathology and aspirations toward reform. In Westborough, homeopaths promoted not only alternative therapeutics based on mild medicines and patientcentred care, but also a wide range of therapies borrowed from conventional medicine. They also developed extensive laboratory research to better understand mental illnesses and provided training and job opportunities for people from marginalised groups. It was in this context that Solomon Carter Fuller (1872-1953), the first African American psychiatrist and leading authority on Alzheimer’s disease, trained and worked.

Sugar Pills? Investigating Humphreys’ Homeopathic Specifics: Utilizing Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry for an In-Depth Look at Nineteenth-Century American Homeopathy

Frederick K. Humphreys (1816-1900), founder of Humphreys Medicine Company, appeared at the rise of both greater acceptance and popularity of the homeopathy in the United States, as opposed to more orthodox medicine. Although bolstered by the relatively high cost and low success rate of traditional medicines, homeopathic remedies soon became a source of controversy due to the largely unknown ingredient lists and contradictory claims of effectiveness. Tandem mass spectrometry analysis (MS/MS) was used to pinpoint the ingredients of four “specifics” in Humphreys’ Homeopathic Remedies. Generated spectra showed similar base peak ions for each pill, leading to the hypothesis that each remedy contained the same basic ingredients. Further MS/MS analyses identified these base peak ions as adducts of sucrose (m/z 365, 381), its related ions (m/z 433, 203, 185), and apigenin (m/z 271). When placed into a historical context, the application of chemical analyses to study these early remedies can provide insight into the question of validity that evoked arguments during the late nineteenth century.

High Potency Machines for Remedy Preparation in American Homeopathy

Today, heated discussions result from debates about the curative effect or efficacy of homeopathic remedies. Regardless of that debate, however, it is informative to examine a special chapter in the history of pharmacy: the preparation of high homeopathic potency dilutions by the means of different

High Potency Machines for Remedy Preparation in American Homeopathy

Today, heated discussions result from debates about the curative effect or efficacy of homeopathic remedies. Regardless of that debate, however, it is informative to examine a special chapter in the history of pharmacy: the preparation of high homeopathic potency dilutions by the means of different

The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care (review)

Reviewed by: The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care Mike Saks John S. Haller, Jr. The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009. xiv + 191 pp. $49.95 (978-0-8135-4583-7). This detailed and well-written book by John Haller, a renowned historian of alternative medicine, charts the changing fortunes of homeopathy in the United States over the past century. In so doing, it traces its development from a system based on medical practitioners condemned by Abraham Flexner and the American Medical Association in the early twentieth century to an alternative medicine associated with lay practitioners and linked to the emergence of holistic healing today. This is an important area, not only because of its scholarly interest but also because of increasingly high public demand for homeopathic treatment. Chapter 1 of the book covers the striving of a significant number of leading practitioners of homeopathy to become a specialty within conventional medicine and its subsequent betrayal and demise—culminating in the post-Flexner closure of homeopathic colleges, hospitals, and clinics in the 1920s and 1930s. Chapter 2 discusses the various theories underpinning homeopathy and their relationship to its vitalist underpinnings, while chapter 3 outlines the growing role of the laity in shaping the development of homeopathy, including in its expanding domestic practice with the decline of trained homeopathic physicians. In chapter 4 the postwar expansion of homeopathy is documented, along with its further move away from medical orthodoxy, including its association in the 1950s and 1960s with Eastern concepts of life, death, sickness, and health. In chapter 5, meanwhile, the current challenges faced by homeopathy with increasing numbers of unlicensed lay practitioners are considered—not least in terms of its legitimacy. Finally, chapter 6 examines whether the present nonmedical belief system of homeopathy is consistent with the original nineteenth-century formulation by Hahnemann as well as the consequences of abandoning peer review and the scientific method. A key achievement of this intriguing book is in capturing the shifting and diverse nature of homeopathy itself, which Haller depicts as having developed from an empirical science to a religious belief system—in addition to recording the responses of physicians and the laity to it. In so doing, Haller encompasses the complexity of the development of homeopathy within a cogent narrative. As [End Page 159] such, the book largely avoids the partisan approach of both its supporters and detractors—even if occasionally the language it employs of "rational" medical science and "cultist" and "metaphysical" homeopathy could be seen as loaded. More critically, greater attention might have been given to homeopathy in other national contexts; even though the book is self-consciously focused on the United States, more comparative analysis would have shed greater light on the distinctive case of American homeopathy. Having said this, comparisons are made to Europe—not least in relation to its early development and the more spiritual view of healing taken by contemporary American homeopathy in repudiating orthodox medical reductionism and randomized controlled trials. However, although at times reference is made to its constituent countries, greater awareness is needed of the dangers of treating Europe as a homogeneous whole. Another potential criticism of the book is that it effectively starts its journey at the beginning of the twentieth century, thereby skating over the rich American history of homeopathy from the mid- to late nineteenth century. However, the key features of this period are outlined, and, placing the book in its wider context, this account is a sequel to John Haller's other seminal text published in 2005 titled The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935. Both well-researched volumes deserve to be standard works on this subject, which is relatively little explored in this depth in the literature. They have much to offer readers interested in both orthodox and alternative medicine since their histories are so intertwined. Mike Saks University Campus Suffolk Copyright © 2011 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Making Cancer History: Disease and Discovery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (review)

such, the book largely avoids the partisan approach of both its supporters and detractors—even if occasionally the language it employs of “rational” medical sci-ence and “cultist” and “metaphysical” homeopathy could be seen as loaded.More critically, greater attention might have been given to homeopathy in other national contexts; even though the book is self-consciously focused on the United States, more comparative analysis would have shed greater light on the dis-tinctive case of American homeopathy. Having said this, comparisons are made to Europe—not least in relation to its early development and the more spiritual view of healing taken by contemporary American homeopathy in repudiating orthodox medical reductionism and randomized controlled trials. However, although at times reference is made to its constituent countries, greater awareness is needed of the dangers of treating Europe as a homogeneous whole.Another potential criticism of the book is that it effectively starts its journey at the beginning of the twentieth century, thereby skating over the rich Ameri-can history of homeopathy from the mid- to late nineteenth century. However, the key features of this period are outlined, and, placing the book in its wider context, this account is a sequel to John Haller’s other seminal text published in 2005 titled

John S. Haller, Jr, The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care

John S. Haller, Jr, The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care

The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Care

The History of American Homeopathy: From Rational Medicine to Holistic Care

The history of American homeopathy: from rational medicine to holistic health care

The history of American homeopathy: from rational medicine to holistic health care

The History of American Homeopathy from Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care

The History of American Homeopathy from Rational Medicine to Holistic Health Care

A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy (review)

A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy (review)

A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy

A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy

The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935 (review)

Reviewed by: The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935 Norman Gevitz John S. Haller, Jr. The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820-1935. New York: Pharmaceutical Products Press (Haworth Press), 2005. xiv + 444 pp. Ill. $59.95 (cloth, ISBN-10: 0-7890-2658-7; ISBN-13: 978-0-7890-2659-0); $39.95 (paperbound, ISBN-10: 0-7890-2660-0, ISBN-13: 978-0-7890-2660-6). Over the past dozen years John Haller has written four separate volumes covering overlapping but different aspects of botanical medicine in America. Having at last exhausted this subject, he has moved on to examine another important alternative medical movement in America—homeopathy. Unlike the botanical tradition, the "academic" side of homeopathy had previously been well covered: in 1971, Johns Hopkins University Press published Martin Kaufman's path-breaking Homeopathy in America: The Rise and Fall of an American Heresy, and in 1998, Rutgers issued Naomi Rogers's excellent Making An Alternative Path: The Making and Remaking of Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia. In writing a new history of homeopathy, Haller notes that he is seeking to build on existing scholarship by "studying the manner in which academic homeopathy developed [End Page 772] during medicine's introspective age of doubt and the emergent period of scientific reductionism" (p. 3). This volume, which covers homeopathy up through 1935, is far lengthier than Kaufman's book; it is organized into nine chapters, and contains two rich appendices that give brief information on all the known homeopathic journals and colleges in America in this period. The book begins with a short, well-crafted biography of homeopathy's founder, Samuel Hahnemann, and a concise description of the development of concepts and theories that formed the core of homeopathic thought. These included the notion that the drug that causes symptoms in a well person is the ideal medicine to give to a sick individual who manifests similar symptoms (like cures like); that the more infinitesimal the dose, the stronger the effect; that the shaking or titrating of a drug unleashes its dynamic or spiritual power; that disease represents a derangement of the body's vital force; and that almost all chronic diseases are caused by the miasm known as "psora." In the second chapter the story shifts from Europe to the United States, and Haller provides a brief region-by-region history of homeopathy's spread throughout the country. In his third chapter, he examines the division within homeopathy between low and high dilutionists, the latter "attenuating" their medicines to incredibly infinitesimal amounts. He follows with a chapter on the use of statistics by European and American homeopaths and regular practitioners, each group trying to prove that patients with specific problems did better with their respective therapeutic management. In the fifth and longest chapter, Haller finally turns to education. The first homeopathic school was established in 1835, and by 1880 there were eleven homeopathic colleges awarding M.D. degrees. Haller provides portraits of all the schools, examining their moves and internal politics. These colleges and the graduates they produced did not escape the notice of the American Medical Association, state societies, and leading orthodox physicians, and their pointed intellectual attacks and political activities against homeopathy are addressed in the sixth and seventh chapters. In chapter 8, Haller deals with self-help guides, the increasing use of lay homeopathy, and the therapeutic fads that some homeopaths introduced or with which they were associated. The final chapter, entitled "Biomedicine's Triumph," charts the institutional demise of the movement through the first four decades of the twentieth century. Overall, this book is an excellent overview of the first hundred years of homeopathy in the United States. Haller provides great detail—sometimes too much, particularly with respect to the internal dynamics of the colleges—and sometimes loses focus, chapter 8 in particular having too many disparate themes. Nonetheless, Haller's fine volume, especially with Martin Kaufman's book out of print, is likely to become the leading source on the early development of homeopathy in the United States. Norman Gevitz Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine Copyright © 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press

The History of American Homeopathy, the Academic Years, 1820–1935

The History of American Homeopathy, the Academic Years, 1820–1935

The history of American homeopathy: the academic years, 1820-1935

The history of American homeopathy: the academic years, 1820-1935

A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy. By Anne Taylor Kirschmann. New Brunswick (New Jersey): Rutgers University Press. $62.00 (hardcover); $23.95 (paper). xv + 230 p; index. ISBN: 0–8135–3319–8 (hc); 0–8135–3320–1 (pb). 2004.

Previous articleNext article No AccessHistory, Philosophy & EthicsA Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy. By Anne Taylor Kirschmann. New Brunswick (New Jersey): Rutgers University Press. $62.00 (hardcover); $23.95 (paper). xv + 230 p; index. ISBN: 0–8135–3319–8 (hc); 0–8135–3320–1 (pb). 2004.Hughes EvansHughes EvansPediatrics, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama Search for more articles by this author Pediatrics, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AlabamaPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 79, Number 3September 2004 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/425753 Views: 4Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Steven L. Chown, Jennifer E. Lee, Justine D. Shaw Conservation of Southern Ocean Islands: invertebrates as exemplars, Journal of Insect Conservation 12, no.3-43-4 (Mar 2008): 277–291.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-008-9151-8 Steve Morris and André Vosloo Animals and Environments: Resisting Schisms in Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry S. Morris and A. Vosloo, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 79, no.22 (Jul 2015): 211–223.https://doi.org/10.1086/499997

A vital force: women in American homeopathy

A vital force: women in American homeopathy