Research - Homeopathy / Hormesis
Exploring Possible Mechanisms of Hormesis and Homeopathy in the Light of Nanopharmacology and Ultra-High Dilutions
Dana Ullman
Abstract
Serially diluted succussed solutions of a suitable drug/toxic substance can exhibit physicochemical and biological properties even far beyond Avogadro’s limit defying conventional wisdom. They can show hormesis, and homeopathy uses them as medicines. Many studies confirm that they can have an impact on gene expression different than controls. Water in the exclusion zone phase can have memory but for a short period. However, the nanoparticle as the physical substrate can hold information. Nanoparticle and exclusion zone duo as nanoparticle-exclusion zone shell can provide a prolonged memory. The Nanoparticle-Exclusion Zone Shell Model may be an important step toward explaining the nature and bioactivity of serially diluted succussed solutions used as homeopathic medicines. This model may also provide insight into the workings of hormesis. Hormesis is the primary phenomenon through which homeopathic phenomenon may have evolved exhibiting the principle of similars. Hahnemann exploited it to establish homeopathy. The nanoparticle-exclusion zone shells present in the remedy, selected on the principle of similars, can be patient-specific nanoparticles in a symptom syndrome-specific manner. They can carry the drug-specific information for safer clinical applications in an amplified form for high yielding. It suggests homeopathy is a type of nanopharmacology.
Source : Dose-Response
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Hormetic effects of extremely diluted solutions on gene expression
Andrea Dei, Simonetta Bernardini
Highlights
- •Microarrays provide suggestions about response of organisms treated with microamounts of drug.
- •The action of drugs is not quenched by ultra-high dilution.
- •The action of drugs proceeds through modulation of gene expressions.
- •Hormetic mechanisms can be demonstrated by comparing drug effects at different dilutions in microarrays.
This paper summarizes the results of investigations showing how molecular biological tools, such as DNA-microarrays, can provide useful suggestions about the behaviour of human organisms treated with microamounts of drugs or homeopathic medicines. The results reviewed here suggest firstly that the action of drugs is not quenched by ultra-high dilution and proceeds through modulation of gene expressions. The efficacy of drug solutions seems to be maintained in ultra-highly diluted preparations, a fact which constitutes a challenge to the dogma of quantization of matter.
The second and more important result is that the different gene expression profiles of cell systems treated with the same drugs at different dilutions suggest the existence of hormetic mechanisms. The gene expression profiles of cells treated with copper(II) sulfate, Gelsemium sempervirens and Apis mellifica, are characterized by the same common denominator of the concentration-dependent inversion of gene expression, which can justify at a molecular level the concept of simile adopted in homeopathy.
The main conclusion we draw from these results is that these procedures provide new kinds of information and a tool for disclosing the mechanisms involved in hormetic effects. The application of these effects to modern medicine may allow researchers to conceive unprecedented therapeutic applications or to optimize the currently used ones in the framework of a low-dose pharmacology based on a reliable experimental platform.
Source : Journal Homeopathy
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Cell sensitivity, non-linearity and inverse effects
Paolo Bellavite , Andrea Signorini, Marta Marzotto, Elisabetta Moratti, Clara Bonafini, Debora Olioso
Abstract
Highlights
•The opinion that the homeopathic principles conflict with scientific laws could be revised.
- •Cell and molecular mechanisms underlying the inversion of drug effects are discussed.
- •Several models have been suggested in the framework of hormesis and paradoxical pharmacology.
- •Low doses or high dilutions of drugs interact with enhanced sensitivities of regulatory systems.
- •A new conceptual model of the ‘Simile’ based on allosteric drug action is presented
Source : Journal Homeopathy
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Hormesis and its relationship with homeopathy
Paolo Bellavite, Salvatore Chirumbolo and Marta Marzotto
Abstract
Homeopathy is an ancient and complex therapeutic method that is rediscovering its scientific foundations.
Hormesis is a frequently observed phenomenon that has been rigorously reported with precise dose response curves. The therapeutic method based on the principle of ‘like cures like’ should not be confused with hormesis, which has several different implications from those of homeopathy. Yet, because both these approaches to nature and medicine are very broad in scope, they do end up having some points of contact.
Thus, the well-established and consolidated field of hormesis can help cast light, through its ideas and research methods, on the possible mechanisms of action of remedies in ultra-low doses.
Source : Human and Experimental Toxicology 29(7) 573–579._
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