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Ullman counters that "there are many things that we don't fully understand in theory -- anesthesia, for example. We don't entirely understand how it works in theory, but I've never heard anyone going into surgery question the theory behind it. Most homeopaths don't bother with theory. They use homeopathy because it works. They're clinicians."

Numerous research studies, including double-blind and placebo tests done in conjunction with large health institutes, tend to support Ullman. Many of these studies are used by manufacturers of homeopathic products to counter dissent from the traditional medical community. There are a few manufacturers in the States -- Standard Homeopathic, Nature's Way (for whom Ullman formulates remedies) and Boericke & Tafel -- but none of them produces the sheer volume that the French laboratory Boiron does.

Founded in 1932 in Lyon by twin-brother pharmacists, Boiron is the world leader in homeopathic products. Every year it manufactures 100 million tubes of 1,500 different homeopathic medicines and delivers 8 million specially prepared homeopathic remedies for individual prescriptions filled by 23,000 pharmacies around France. Its biggest seller is a cold and flu remedy called Oscillococcinum, which is used regularly by 5 million French and recently became the most commonly used homeopathic flu remedy in the United States. (U.S. sales of Oscillococcinum jumped 40 percent between the 1997 and 1998 flu seasons.)

Oscillococcinum is made from the heart and liver of Barbary ducks, but you won't find any traces of feathers here. Almost all homeopathic products look exactly alike: tiny, translucent white pellets the size of fish eggs that bear no trace whatsoever of their original source.

Boiron uses 1,250 different plants, 1,800 natural substances of chemical or mineral origin and 300 biological strains. Much if not all of the plant material is found by medicinal plant harvesters like Régis Buffière. Every year Buffière journeys through the upper valleys of the Forez, Jura and Pyrenees mountains in search of wild plants; he returns with 10 to 12 tons of material. The transformation of homeopathic medicine from its raw organic forms -- be they Barbary duck livers or exotic-plant roots -- to the sterile pellets is a complex, high-tech process that involves things like laminar air hoods, vacuum chambers, hydraulic presses, demijohns, filtration cartridges, air purification systems and centralized guidance systems, along with the sciences of thin-layer chromatography, densitometric interpretation, micropulverization, triple impregnation and thermoluminescence, to name just a few.

Homeopathic medicines are, in fact, the end products of sequential deconcentrations of basic substances, in which each operation is followed by thorough shaking known as "succussion." In some cases, the resulting substance is so diluted that no molecule of the original substance remains in the medicine. This extreme form of dilution is precisely why many conventional doctors associate homeopathic medicines with placebos: The doses are so exceptionally small that, logic would suggest, no curative properties exist.

Ullman, however, sees no contradiction here. "There are many phenomena in nature in which extremely small doses of something can create powerful, even very powerful, effects," he says. "One certainly cannot say that the atomic bomb is a placebo just because some extremely small atoms bump into each other."

Jim LaValle, a pharmacist, homeopath and author of several books on alternative medicine, puts it differently. "The activity of hormones in the body commonly can occur in parts per million or less. An animal can change behavior with the scent of a single pheromone from several miles away. There have been several well-designed studies that reported that these high dilutions somehow have a physiologic effect. Some scientists feel that the dilution in water somehow holds a memory of the agent."

The manufacture and sale of homeopathic medicines are regulated by the FDA. (The Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States was written into federal law in 1938 under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.) Most of the medicines are available without prescription and several insurance carriers cover them. They are often cheaper and usually safer than conventional drugs. "Homeopathy is curative, truly curative," says Ullman, who predicts that major drug companies will soon seek to purchase or form joint ventures with homeopathic companies.

Homeopathy is not used only by homeopaths and physicians; there are 700 homeopathic veterinarians in France and 17 student chapters of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association among the 27 U.S. veterinary schools.

With the future of homeopathy looking bright in America, the French continue to do what they've been doing for more than 200 years. "I can't even begin to assess how much money I've saved and how many potential negative side effects I've avoided using homeopathy in my home," says Buot. "I have three teenage sons. They're rarely sick." When asked what she thinks about doctors who claim that homeopathy is essentially a placebo, she shrugs. "If you don't understand homeopathy or have never used it regularly, you can't have any idea what it's all about. Of course conventional doctors deny the efficacy of it. It counters the very basis of pharmaceuticals, which are effective for certain things but not for everything. When I think about my son's serious ear infection, I have all the proof I need. Granted, the doctor who prescribed the antibiotics would have told you that homeopathy is only psychological in its effects. But I promise you, there's nothing psychological about ear mucus. Homeopathy works."
salon.com | March 16, 2000

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