As scientist, we are taught to be
skeptical: we ask questions about how things work and we only believe things
when we see scientific data from properly executed experiments. We want to
understand how things work and often don’t believe that it works if we don’t
understand the mechanism (although a lot of current day medication has been
found serendipitously and was prescribed before science understood its
mechanism of action). So I was surprised when about 10 years ago one of my
undergrad professors (a virologist) suggested that I should go see a
homeopathic doctor when I was suffering from migraines and allergies that
modern medicine could only relieve but not prevent. I had 2-3 migraine attacks
each month that I could most of the times treat effectively with an injectable
triptan, but whenever that medication didn’t work I would lay in bed nauseous
for about 72 hours. When the medication did work I was still pretty drowsy and
sleepy for another day because of that medication. I was also allergic to
pollen, dust and animal dander and took antihistamines every day.
So I found a kind lady who was an MD
but specialized in homeopathy. She had bookshelves full of medical books and a
cabinet full of homeopathic pills: little sugar balls that contained substances
that were diluted so much that there was probably not a molecule left but
sugar. She took the time to get to know who I was and what kind of things I did
and liked. Unlike the average family doctor that spent about 5 minutes to
diagnose and write a prescription, appointments with her lasted 30-40 minutes.
She was very attentive and tried to figure out why I was suffering from these
migraines and allergies. At the end of every session she gave me one of the
tiny sugar pills that I had to melt under my tongue. She always looked me in
the eye and said that she could see in my eyes that she choose the right pill. I
never really felt anything and was skeptical that she could see something
happening. What struck me though, was that I also got small patches of rash at
different sites on my body after every session and she could usually predict
where the rash would be next time.
After about a year of seeing her
about every 2 months I didn’t need to take antihistamines every day anymore. I
still have allergies, but it’s by far not as bad as it used to be. And before I
started seeing her I had at least one migraine attack every time I had my
period, and after that year the miraculous thing happened: I had my period
without having a migraine attack. I visited her less frequent and until I moved
to the US I only occasionally went to see her if I felt like my migraines were
getting worse again.
So for the past ten years I wondered
how this is possible: did I just ‘outgrow’ my migraines and allergies? I doubt
it. Or did I learn to live a more balanced life which caused me to have less
migraine attacks? Maybe. Does it just help if someone pays attention and
listens to your story and could I just as well have gone to see a therapist
instead of a homeopath? Perhaps. Or was it all placebo effect? Possibly.
I know that in science an n=1 doesn’t
really count. And whenever people review the literature on homeopathy they find
that it doesn’t work. But I can imagine that it is extremely difficult to find
study the effect of homeopathy because it requires every individual to get a
different treatment based on their complaints and their personality. Similarly,
antidepressants and antipsychotics often hardly work better than placebo, because
some work for one person but not for the other.
I
guess I should add a disclaimer here saying that I don’t encourage people to go
to a homeopath instead of to a regular doctor.
