Safety of Medicines
Safety of Medicines
Homeopathic medicines
There is a lot of misinformation or lack of information in patients regarding the sources and preparation of homeopathic medicines. This article will help you understand homeopathic medicines.
Homeopathic medicines are unique in the way they are prepared and used. Presently there are more than 3000 homeopathic medicines for the treatment of simple fever to cancer.
Sources of homeopathic medicines:
a) Plants or its parts: A Majority of homeopathic medicines are prepared using plants or its parts such as leaves, roots, fruits, berries, seeds, leaves and roots combined, etc. Varieties of plants are used for the preparation of homeopathic medicines such as benign, poisonous, etc.
Common homeopathic medicines derived from plants are-
- Pulsatilla nigricans prepared from the flower (also known as wind flower). Plant belongs to Ranunculacea family
- Coffea cruda is prepared from coffee beans.
b) Animal products: Few medicines are prepared from animal products in very minute doses without harming them.
Few medicines in this group-
- Lachesis is prepared from Viper.
- Bufo is prepared from a toad.
c) Minerals: About one-fourth of medicines are prepared from minerals including metals and nonmetals.
- Alumina and Ferrum are prepared from naturally occurring minerals like aluminum and iron respectively.
- Arsenic album and Plumbum met are prepared from poisonous minerals like arsenic and lead respectively.
d) Disease tissues and micro-organisms: These types of medicines are called as nosodes. Few medicines are prepared from tissues containing microbes.
- Carcinocin is a medicine prepared from disease tissues from cancer.
- Diphterinum is prepared from diphtheria bacteria.
e) Healthy tissues or hormones: These types of medicines are called Sarcodes. Healthy tissues or secretions are used for this purpose.
- Thyroidinum is prepared from thyroid secretions.
f) Imponderabilia: Very few medicines are prepared from electromagnetic and other energy sources such as x-ray, radiation, etc.
Different methods of preparing homeopathic medicines
Going through the sources of preparation one might think are these medicines safe; to answer that homeopathic medicines are 100% safe and non-toxic. The original medicinal substance is used in extremely minute quantity to prepare any homeopathic medicine.
IIT Mumbai has recently proved that homeopathic medicines contain nano particles and works on the principal of nano technology hence it may be termed as nano medicines.
The method of preparing homeopathic medicines is termed as Potentisation. The first step is trituration, a very small amount of original medicinal substance is ground well with milk sugar. This triturated material is repeatedly diluted and shaken vigorously (succussion) depending upon potency or strength of medicines. This process of trituration and succussion is called as Potentisation.
Potentised medicines are now available in liquid form to which a misnomer "dilutions", is applied. For better palatability; these liquids are added into small white globules made of lactose.
Standard homeopathic potencies are 30c, 200c, 1000c, 10K, 50K etc.
In view of more and more complex diseases coming up, the homeopathic system is dealing in updating and preparing new medicines. At My similia, we are playing an active part in preparing new and advanced medicines hence our patients are at the advantage of getting research-based medicines.
A Nanotechnology:
Homeopathy is a time-tested two-century-old system of healing.
It is proven to have nanoscience mechanism of action of homeopathic medicines.
To prove it as nanotechnology and not merely a placebo medicines an experiment was carried where Ultra-pure samples of medicines were prepared and were examined under scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) along with selected area nano diffraction (SAD) and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Also, trace element analysis (TEA) for silicon was performed.
Results showed that Homeopathic medicines exhibited nanoparticles and conglomerates of them, which had crystalline nature and were rich in silicon.
Conclusions were made that during the violent strokes involved in potentization ( the art of preparing homeopathic medicines), information arising from the serially diluted starting substance is encrypted by epitaxy on silicon-rich crystalline nanoparticles present in the resulting homeopathic medicine.
The size of the information encrypted on nanoparticles varies with the degree of dilution. As homeopathic medicines exhibit healing effects, these nanoparticles along with the interfacial water on their surface carry this information - which biological systems are able to identify. As various forms of silica are known to interact with proteins and cells of the immune system, homeopathy represents a nanomedicine system.
It was even proved that Homeopathic medicines in different potencies exhibit different effects and properties. As homeopathic medicines have both the size of the information of the diluted away starting substance and the carriers needed to convey this information - which biological systems are able to identify - to the target, they qualify as nanomedicines.
Nature, composition and surface features of the crystalline material (along with interfacial water) present in homeopathic medicines have paramount importance.