Paolobellavite

Our updated (2011) working hypothesis on the pharmacological action of homeopathic drugs could be summarized as indicated in the following points:

• 1. The “similia” (or similarity) principle holds that the medicine capable of regulating a diseased organism (individualized homeopathic therapy) is the same medicine which is capable of inducing a similar pattern of symptoms in a healthy organism. Homeopathic pharmacopoeia is grown with careful experimentation of hundreds of substances on healthy people to detect their specific and global perturbing power.
• 2. The therapeutic similarity of drug action may be fundamentally based on the widespread phenomenon of inversion of biological effects dependent on the dose (in homeopathic terms, dilution and “dynamization”) and/or on the physiological state of the receiver organism. Stressed living systems my have opposite reactions to the same drug as compared with normal systems.
• 3. The medicine that has been chosen according to the similia principle may be perceived by specific regulatory systems - that have a crucial role in the dynamic of the diseaseas - a heterologous “similar” signal. The heterologous similarity is with endogenous signals which lost their regulating capability due to blocks of homeodynamics and attractor changes. The specific signal may trigger a homeodynamic reaction that shifts the global dysequilibrium of the ill person toward a new dynamical attractor, proximal to the healthy state.
• 4. Specificity of information may be based on the sensitization (priming) of the receiver due to biological stress, on the use of ultra-low doses/high dilutions of medicines and on the complexity of the remedy actions at various levels.
• 5. In acute diseases, homeopathic regulation may be regarded as homeodynamic regulatory feedback, in chronic disease as “unblocking” of pathologic adaptation and orientation towards correct responses.
• 6. The clinical application of the similia principle (symptom analysis in the complex field of the whole person) may allow the identification of specific remedies even in the lack of detailed knowledge about the single molecular mechanisms of disease and of drug action.
• 7. The homeopathic clinical methods proceeds from fine semeiotics to fine pharmacology ( nanopharmacology), thus bypassing the knowledge of single mechanisms and even the current nosological diagnosis. Of course neither analytical mechanisms nor the diagnosis should be ignored by the homeopathic physician but should be accounted for in a integrated approach.
• 8. The pharmacological information of homeopathic medicines may have either chemical nature (ultra-low-dose, with still presence of molecules of active principle) or physical nature (high-dilution/dynamization, where information is carried by the solvent), or both.
• 9. The physical nature of homeopathic medicines is not in the domain of our direct expertise but there is a number of working hypotheses and evidence related. For a synthetic but comprehensive overview we have reportes our synthetic view in the paper on the effects of highly diluted histamine in basophils ( whole text). We also suggest the lecture by prof MaeWan Ho.
• 10. Individualization of care is the key of success of homeopathy; however, homeopathic medicines may work as curative drugs of specific symptoms even in the absence of full individualization of prescription. In any case, their use should be prescribed and followed-up by expert physicians.

Brief history

Our research group has been involved in the scientific research on a variety of topics and on the homeopathic medicaments since 1990. The first paper was published in "Annals of Superior Institute of Health" (in Italian), then we published several papers that are described in this website and are reported in Pubmed, and the major research book.
The homeopathic "simile" was worked out in 2007.
We were obviously skeptical until we directly verified the pharmaceutical activity of dilutions beyond the Avogadro constant. After 21 years of studies in this field, in 2010 I eventually became convinced that homeopathy can not be explained on the basis of the "placebo effect" only. In fact we obtained experimental evidence that both IN VITRO on cellular system and IN VIVO on animal systems (see figure below) that information of medical substances is transferred into the water-alchool solvent at dilutions/dynamizations also beyond the Avogadro-Loschmidt constant . We are among the few scientific teams showing so clearly the phenomenon through conventional validated methods.

Please quote this website or the below references when reporting these items.

• Bellavite, P, Andrioli, G., Lussignoli, S., Signorini, A., Ortolani, R. and Conforti, A. (1997) Scientific reappraisal of the "Principle of Similarity". Medical Hypotheses 49: 203-212 ( PDF)
• Bellavite, P., Signorini, A. (2002) The Emerging Science of Homeopathy. Complexity, biodynamics, and nanopharmacology. 2nd ed North Atlantic, Berkeley (CA). ( >>Link)
• Bellavite, P. (2003) Complexity science and homeopathy: a synthetic overview. Homeopathy 92: 203-212 ( >>Link)
• Bellavite, P., Conforti, A., Piasere, V., Ortolani, R. (2005) Immunology and homeopathy 1. Historical background. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2: 441-452 ( >>Link)
• Bellavite, P., Ortolani, R., Pontarollo, F., Conforti, A., Pitari, G. (2007) Immunology and Homeopathy. 5. The Rationale of the ‘Simile’ Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 4(2)149–163 ( >>Link)
• Vedi anche la " Trilogia omeopatica" pubblicata nel 2004 sul "Il Medico Omeopata" (in italiano)

ANOTHER RELEVANT AND SYNTHETIC PRESENTATION OF THE RATIONALITY OF HOMEOPATHIC PRINCIPLES (WITH CITATION OF OUR WORK):
Homeopathy Works: The Why and the How
By Robert Tondo. MONTGOMERY COLLEGE STUDENT JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & MATHEMATICS, Volume 2, September 2003