Homeopathy no more effective than placebo drugs, says scientist

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine is known to be the safest treatment for any ailment. Many people swear by its effectiveness.

However, if claims of a leading scientist are to be believed, homeopathic medicines are no more effective than placebo drugs.

In a controversial statement, Professor Paul Glasziou, a leading academic in evidence based medicine at Bond University called homeopathy “a therapeutic dead-end”.

The professor who made the claims, was the chair of a working party by the National Health and Medical Research Council which was tasked with reviewing the evidence of 176 trials of homeopathy to establish if the treatment is valid.

According to the Times of India, a total of 57 systematic reviews, containing the 176 individual studies, focused on 68 different health conditions - and found there to be no evidence homeopathy was more effective than placebo on any.

TOI also quoted NHS saying that, “Practitioners believe that the more a substance is diluted in this way, the greater its power to treat symptoms. Many homeopathic remedies consist of substances that have been diluted many times in water until there is none or almost none of the original substance left.”