Is homeopathy harmful, as suggested by Indian-born Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, questions Madan lall Manchanda
Indian-born Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan — a distinguished biologist and current president of the United Kingdom’s National Academy of Science — while delivering the Har Gobind Khorana lecture, ‘Nobody’s word, evidence and modern science’, at the Punjab University recently, termed homeopathy as a useless and harmful practice.
“They, homeopaths, take arsenic compounds and dilute it to such an extent that just a molecule is left; it
will not have any effect on you. Your tap water has more arsenic. Nobody in chemistry believes in homeopathy. It works because of placebo effect,” he had said during the lecture.
Differing substantially from the views of the Nobel laureate, Dr Govind Ram Sharma, gold medalist, (Calcutta University), and a research scientist of distinction, has laid a counter claim. His experiments on herbs and snake poison resulted in the formulation of homeopathic remedies for curing diabetes, tuberculosis, plague, which on further trials were found effective by Dr Guy Buckley, president of New York Homeopathic Research Foundation, who wrote him several mails of appreciation.
Response within India was also quite encouraging, and Dr Sharma was invited to contribute a 19-page chapter in a book of international importance titled Indian Herbs with Homeopathic Potentialities.
Dr Sharma believes whatever cures is the best remedy, whether it is based on ayurveda, Unani, village remedies that have evolved over centuries and alleviated human sufferings, as also allopathy, which has a universal following.
It is, however, true that research in other systems have not kept pace as in the case of allopathy, which is far ahead. This apart, Dr Sharma is convinced of music’s therapeutic effect in lifting human emotions. Even milch cows gave more milk under music’s soothing influence.
He lays emphasis on regular exercises, in particular yoga, for stretching and toning muscles, flexing of spine and massage. Above all, diet; as according to Gita, various forms of food affect tempers differently, noises and harsh voices upset the stomach. He considers pure and balanced diet an elixir of life.
Dr Sharma has firm faith in homeopathy and fully supports its founder Samuel Hahnemann’s treatment by drugs usually in minute doses, as Hahnemann, Director of Public Health in Germany, was wary of the side-effects of allopathic medicines.
As for the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines, Dr Sharma asserts that its high potency medicines derived especially from snake poison could be lethal as to cause instantaneous death. He advocates due caution in administering homeopathic medicines and only under expert guidance, and also warns against their indiscriminate use by quacks.
Countering the claim of the Nobel laureate, he argues: “How could an atom bomb, deriving its destructiveness from its disintegration and partial conversion of energy, wipe out Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and bring World War II to an endIJ And more importantly, concerning the concept of nuclear medicine how does a single dose suffice to obviate the need of a complete courseIJ”
These are some of the discomforting questions left by Dr Sharma to be answered by the non-believers of homeopathic remedies.
madanlallmanchanda@gmail.com