Answer:
Homeopathy is alive and well in the United States, according to new research from Massachusetts General Hospital, and it is thriving elsewhere. A health practice with no scientific underpinning and unconvincing clinical evidence that is used by millions of people around the world amounts to a mockery of evidence-based medicine. I am part of a group of experts who want to counterbalance the misinformation on this topic.
Homeopathy is a practice that treats disease with vanishingly small — usually nonexistent — doses of substances that in larger amounts would cause the very condition that is being treated. It is used mostly to treat self-limiting conditions ranging from the common cold to allergies, insomnia, muscle strains, nausea, and the like, but alarmingly it is also promoted for serious conditions like heart disease and cancer.
Homeopathy traces its roots back to Germany with the work of physician Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700s. The country has embraced this practice from its early beginning and has supported it over the years. The Nazis, for instance, tried to prove that homeopathy worked, and postwar government officials continue to support its use. In 2013, Germans spent almost 500 million euros for homeopathic remedies! So it is both fitting and long-overdue that a new effort to debunk homeopathy should be launched from Germany.
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