Homeopathic high potencies still contain atoms or molecules of the original substance
In a study conducted at the renowned Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), they unexpectedly found that homeopathic high potencies still contained atoms or molecules of the parent substance. Prashant Satish Chikramane, Akkihebbal K. Suresh, Jayesh Ramesh Bellare and Shantaram Govind Kane analyzed six metallic homeopathic remedies in the potency levels C6, C30 and C200. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), spectral acoustic emission spectroscopy (SAED) and atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), the Indian researchers were able to demonstrate that above the C6 potency level, nanoparticles with a relatively stable concentration of 80 to 4000 picograms per milliliter were present in the medicines – meaning that no further dilution occurred. While the study has yet to be independently replicated and leaves important questions unanswered. However, it is already foreseeable that it may lead to a significant reorientation of homeopathy research. Scientists must now investigate whether hormesis phenomena could also explain the widely divergent study results in homeopathic efficacy research.
Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: a nanoparticulate perspective” – Prashant Satish Chikramane, Akkihebbal K. Suresh, Jayesh Ramesh Bellare, Shantaram Govind Kane – Homeopathy, Volume 99, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 231-242 – doi: 10.1016/j.homp.2010.05.006
Iris Bell of the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA, is a psychiatrist, homeopathic physician, university professor, and author of numerous publications on complementary medicine. She is known for innovative approaches in which she explores homeopathic concepts in modern research designs.
In several articles, she has recently presented a complex model to explain the effects of homeopathic remedies, integrating in it numerous findings from physiological and homeopathic research. Due to its complexity and scope, Ms. Bell’s ‘Nanoparticle-Cross-Adaption-Sensitization Model’ (NPCAS) will be presented in a series of posts on our blog.
In this first part, an overview is provided, and subsequent parts will explain the individual building blocks of the model in more detail.
Overview of the ‘Nanoparticle Cross-Adaptation Sensitization Model’ (NPCAS).
A crucial piece of the puzzle in Bell’s model is the study by Chikramane [5], in which he was able to demonstrate that homeopathically prepared remedies still contain nanoparticles of the parent substance. Bell takes up this finding and analyzes in detail the current knowledge on nanoparticles with regard to their production, properties and effects on living organisms. Interactions of the parent substance with silicon nanoparticles that have dissolved from glass walls during the manufacture of homeopathic remedies also play an important role.
Because nanoparticles are evaluated by organisms as stressors in the sense of currently accepted stress concepts, far-reaching autoregulatory adaptive responses are possible. Bell presents ideas on how nanoparticles, as a specific stressor, can initiate an adaptive counter-response to the organism’s “allostatic load” accumulated over time and resulting individual propensity to disease. She then discusses in detail nonlinear phenomena such as hormesis, cross-adaptation, time-dependent sensitization, and cross-sensitization as important physiological processes for the action of homeopathic remedies.
What is impressive is the detail with which Iris Bell discusses each piece of the puzzle of her model based on the current state of research. Iris Bell sees her model as a theoretical basis for further research in the field of the effects of nanoparticles and homeopathic remedies in living systems.
In the next part of the series ‘Nanoparticle-Cross-Adaption-Sensitization Model’, Iris Bell’s thoughts on nanoparticles and their relation to homeopathic remedies will be presented. New aspects of the procedures of homeopathic remedy preparation and the corresponding considerations of Samuel Hahnemann become clear.
Website of Iris Bell, MD, PhD
Literature
[1] Bell IR, Koithan M. A model for homeopathic remedy effects: low dose nanoparticles, allostatic cross-adaptation, and time-dependent sensitization in a complex adaptive system. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012 Oct 22;12(1):1912:
Abstract > , Full Text pdf >
[2] Bell IR, Schwart G. Adaptive network nanomedicine: an integrated model for homeopathic medicine. Frontiers in Bioscience (Scholar Edition) 2013; 5(2):685-708.
Abstract >
[3] Bell IR, Koithan M, Brooks AJ. Testing the nanoparticle-allostatic cross-adaptation-sensitization model for homeopathic remedy effects. Homeopathy. 2013 Jan;102(1):66-81.
Abstract >
[4] Bell IR. Homeopathy as Systemic Adaptional Nanomedicine: the nanoparticle-cross-adaptation-sensitization model. American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine Autumn 2012; 105 (3):116-130.
[5] Chikramane PS, Suresh AK, Bellare JR, Kane SG. Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: a nanoparticulate perspective. Homeopathy 2010 Oct;99(4):231-42.