“It requires quite an effort to believe that so little a thing, so small of a dose of medicine, could effect the least thing in the human body. I do not demand that anyone should comprehend it. Neither do I comprehend it. It is enough that it is a fact and nothing else.”
Samuel Hahnemann, The Chronic Diseases
Inscribed on the Hahnemann Monument is Washington D. C. are these words, Die milde macht ist gross, which means Gentle Power is Great. The gentle power of the infinitesimal dose of a homeopathic remedy is indeed great. But the use of an infinitesimal dose in homeopathy is a principle that is rejected by those who embrace conventional medical thinking. As Hahnemann himself wrote in his book Chronic Diseases, “It requires quite an effort to believe that so little a thing, so small of a dose of medicine, could effect the least thing in the human body. I do not demand that anyone should comprehend it. Neither do I comprehend it. It is enough that it is a fact and nothing else.” However, homeopathy is not based on blind faith but on the results of scientific experimentation and observation that have been confirmed clinically for over 200 years. Other natural laws confirm the gentle power of the minimum dose.
In 1746, Maupertius, a French mathematician, proposed the Principle of Least Action which states, “The quantity of action necessary to affect any change in nature is the least possible; the decisive amount is always a minimum, an infinitesimal.” In other words, the universe and everything in nature operates and moves optimally, in the most efficient way, with a minimal of effort. The Principle of Least Action is a fundamental and unifying principle in modern physics and mathematics and is applied in the fields of quantum mechanics, particle physics, thermodynamics, and Einstein’s theory of relativity.
In 1888, Rudolf Arndt, a German doctor, and Hugo Paul Freidrich Schultz, a German pharmacologist observed relationships between a toxic dose and the adaptive response of an organism. To their surprise, they discovered that minimal doses of a drug stimulate, medium doses inhibit or suppress, and large doses destroy cellular activity. The Arndt-Shultz law was indirectly confirmed in 1943 by C. M. Southam and J. Erlich who called this dose-response phenomenon hormesis, which means “rapid motion, eagerness, excite.” Hormesis is the ability of small amounts of dangerous substances to excite an organism’s defense systems, thereby making it healthier than it would be otherwise. This “low-dose stimulation and high-dose inhibition” is an expression of homeostasis, the innate self-regulating process by which a living organism maintains internal conditions that are in a state of dynamic equilibrium.
It is important to understand that the infinitesimal dose is not the result of dilution alone. The substance must also be potentized. In The Organon, Hahnemann gave detailed instructions on how to prepare medicinal substances by trituration, followed by serial dilutions alternating with succussions. Succussion refers to the vigorous agitation of a diluted mixture to stabilize and increase its effectiveness. Three scales are used for diluting substances – X with a ratio of 1:10, C with a ratio of 1:100, and LM or Q with a ration of 1:50,000. Through the process of potentization, a substance is systematically diluted and dynamized to amplify its energetic potential. Thus, a homeopathic remedy acts as a stimulus to the organism and empowers a healing response.
Research articles:
When Less is More: Hormesis Against Stress and Disease
The Scientific Coming of Age of an Old Concept: Hormesis It is ironic that while this article gives an accurate history of hormesis and positive examples of it, the author dismisses homeopathy as a pseudoscience.
Boiron Manufacturing Process video
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