Is Homeopathic Medicine Really That Implausible?
Homeopathic Remedies kh1234567890 via flickrWe look into the mathematics of alternative medicine The new British minister of health has recently become the target of scorn and mockery, after a science writer with The Telegraph noted that he supports homeopathy, a branch of alternative medicine most health experts view as quackery. But just how quackish is it? Quick as Western doctors are to equate alternative medicine with utter nonsense, there's a difference between something that hasn't been proven to work and something that couldn't possibly work. The tools available for understanding the body are largely blunt, and some alternative theories have gained traction as those tools sharpen. Improvements in brain imaging technology, for example, have shown that meditation-a practice long dismissed by Western doctors as pure mysticism-can improve both the structure and function of the brain. The form of alternative medicine known as Homeopathy was developed by a German physician around...