GENERAL SECRETARY REPORTS

GENERAL SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH
Dr. Alexandra N. Delinick

As each year passes, more information and scientists are forthcoming with more information and experiments that demystify the age old question of what is the true nature of the homeopathic remedy and how it works.

Many scientists around the world are dealing with different research problems in Homeopathy. As an introduction I mention a few groups around the world dealing with basic research. Basic research in Homeopathy deals with answering the questions of:

1. How does the homeopathic plant, mineral, or organic substance convey its information to the water or ethanol in which it is dissolved?
2. How is it possible to maintain this information even after diluting beyond Avogadro's number?
3. At what level of the organism does the homeopathic remedy act upon?
4. What kind of model (cybernetic, chaos theory, etc.) could explain such phenomena?

The experiments on the measurements of the homeopathic remedies have come to a close at the National Technical University of Athens and there will be forthcoming articles in various journals and a book forthcoming with these measurements and conclusions as to the nature of the homeopathic remedy.

Other groups active all over the world in basic research in Homeopathy are:

1. Emilio del Giudice, Giuliano Preparata - Dept. of Nuclear Physics INFN University of Milano. Involved in theoretical basis of how information is passed from the homeopathic substance to the water or ethanol molecules - Quantum Electrodynamic Coherence and Superradiance.
2. F. A. Popp, International Institute of Biophysics, Technology Center, Kaiserslautern, Germany. Involved in explaining the role of phontons or biomagnetic information in homeopathic science.
3. Paolo Bellavite and Andrea Signorini, experiments in a book "Homeopathy - A Frontier in Medical Science" review the physics and up to 1995 research dealing with Homeopathy.
4. Massimo Citro and colleagues, Institute of Research Alberto Sorti - IDRAS, Italy. TFF, (Pharmacological Frequency Transfer) Biophysics explanation for the homeopathic remedies.
5. G. S. Anagnostatos, Water clathrates "clusters" Demokritos, Nuclear Physics Institute, Athens, Greece.
6. Others mentioned in book Ultra High Dilution - Physiology and Physics edited by P. C. Endler and J. H. Schulte, Kluwer Academic Publishers 1994.

Physiology Research. Lab experiments with animals

1. W. Pongratz and P. C. Endler Amphibia and Homeopathy - effect of potentized thyroxin on growth of tadpoles.
2. Immunological research: M. Baside, Unov. of Montpellier, France, J. Benveniste
3. R. van Wijk and Fred Wiegant, the Netherlands - Changes in galvanic skin response, effects of potentized high dilution of sulphur, etc.; Stimulation of cellular self-recovery by application of the Similia principle.

Double blind clinical trials

1. David Reilly - Scotland. The Lancet. "Is Evidence for Homeopathy Reproducible?" Dec. 10, 1994 344: 1601-06.
2. Brigo, Serpelloni, Italy. "Homeopathic Treatment of Migraines: A randomized double blind controlled study of sixty cases." The Berlin Journal on Research in Homeopathy, Vol. 1,
   No. 2, March 1991.

Test on human subjects:

1. Cyril Smith - Experiments cited in book The Biomagnetic Man Effects of homeopathic remedies on water via hypersensitive patients.

You will notice that some research, papers, books were not written in 1996-97. Nevertheless this is a good summary of the work going on worldwide to further our understanding of homeopathy and the homeopathic remedy. If I have not included many key people, I apologize to them, but this is only a brief summary.

The ECH Research Subcommittee Meeting was held in London along with a two day International Conference on Clinical Verification of Homeopathy. This was held at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital in London and my views on meetings like this was published in the previous LIGA letter. The Homeopathic Dictionary has come out thanks to everyone involved but especially to the efforts of its coordinator Jeremy Swayne.

Also one of my duties as General Secretary of Research is to raise funds or cut costs where I may for the benefit of the LIGA members. To this end a "new" journal devoted to good scientific papers will be published by a Greek publishing company and I invite the LIGA as Editor in Chief of this journal to accept my invitation and insert the LIGA's letter in its pages with no extra cost to the LIGA.

The Lancet Correspondence

It was brought to my attention that an article entitled: "Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? A Meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials" Klaus Linde, et. al., was published in the Lancet, vol. 350, Sept, 20, 1997. After reading this article which was neither positive or negative in its assessment of these trials, two letters were published in the same issue of the Lancet. The Lancet is a British medical journal widely read by physicians.

The first letter was written by Jan P. Vandenbroucke and was entitled "Homeopathy trials: going nowhere" (Lancet, Vol. 350 Sept. 20, 1997. p. 824) and the second letter was written by MJS Langinan and was entitled "Homeopathy trials: reason for good ones but are they warranted?" (page 825.) Both letters made the point that what good are clinical trials in homeopathy when basic research has not proven the existence of the homeopathic remedy past Avogadro's number, in other words what do we care about homeopathic trials since we are only talking about placebos or "charlatan" medicine. As Gen. Secretary of Research for the LMHI it is my duty to inform the public of what is going on in homeopathic research and to set certain things right when people do not know of the work being done in this field, as apparently these two physicians did not.

If the Lancet had been fair to its readers and to the medical world in general and treated all of its medical practitioners with a bit of fairness and justice it would have printed my letter as a show of fair play on their part to show all sides of the picture and not only the side they want to promote in detriment to the truth and to fair play. So one must ask the question "How much does conventional medicine fear alternative medicine and in particular Homeopathy?

My letter is printed below and the answer I received from the Lancet is printed after. I would like all the numbers of the LMHI to be aware of this and of the tactics used by many "upstanding" journals to give a false picture and review of homeopathic research and therapy. There are many reasons why it would be to the detriment of the Lancet to publish my letter and then if it had maybe it would have found out that it would have been also very positive. We will never know because the Lancet did not publish my letter.

Basic Research Proves that the Homeopathic remedy IS NOT a Placebo

In Jan P. Vandenbroucke's "Homeopathy trials: going nowhere" (Lancet, Vol. 350 Sept. 20, 1997. p. 824) a commentary on Klaus Linde, et al article entitled "Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? A Meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials" published in the Lancet, vol. 350, Sept. 20, 1997, he states that, "The problem with homeopathy is that the "infinite dilutions" of the agents used cannot possibly produce any effect. A randomized trial of "solvent only" versus "infinite dilutions" is a game of chance between two placebos," He continues with this statement, "In following Bayesian reasoning, an investigator would not start any trial on homeopathy because of the lack of a credible prior hypothesis and the possibility that just by chance the results might turn out to be at odds with established chemical and physical bases of pharmacology - that prospect would be too high a price to pay. Bayesian investigators will remain unimpressed by the results of homeopathy trials; when there is no convincing theory underlying a trial, the results will remain uninterpretable.

On page 825 of the same Lancet volume MJS Langman in his commentary letter "Homeopathy trials: reason for good ones but are they warranted?" writes "However, the scientist must question whether the diversion of significant resources to support these trials can be justified when a rational basis for choice of homeopathy or any particular modality of it, is lacking."

So we see that from these two Commentary letters sent in by people in the medical field that a large number of people in the medical scientific community are unaware of research going on in other fields of science that try to explain or support the premise that homeopathic medicines are not placebos and that information is still maintained in dilutions well beyond Avogadro's number. Unfortunately research in the medical field has not afforded great strides in basic homeopathic research and the reason is that simply this field does not have the proper tools, machines and informational background to answer certain questions posed by the homeopathic remedy. There are basically three such questions that we have to deal with. The first is how does the homeopathic remedy (plant, mineral or organic substance) convey its specific information, and in what form to the ethanol or water molecules it is dissolved in? Second, how does this occur even beyond Avogadro's number and, third, on what level or levels of the organism does the homeopathic remedy act upon.

All these questions cannot be answered by research going on in the medical field at this time because simply the nature of the answer to these questions lies elsewhere, in other fields of science. The above three questions, especially the first two, can be answered by research going on in Quantum Physics, Biophysics, Particle Physics, Quantum Electrodynamics and Electrical Engineering. [Note references I to 10 and books A and B.] The third question may be answered only if the medical field accepts a much more complex model of the organism and its pathology - one conducive to obeying the laws of nature, following non-linear thermodynamics, privy to chaos theory, fractals, self organization phenomena, the understanding of microtubules, etc. [Note references 11 - 14 and book C.]

So let me just cite where most of this information/research may be found. Two books have been published that will introduce these subjects to you and they are:

1. Endler PC, Schulte J, (eds.) Ultra High Dilution: Physiology and Physics, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994.
2. Bellavite P, Signorini A, Homeopathy: A Frontier in Medical Science. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1995

These books especially the first one gives an overview of what is going on in other fields of science able to answer the first two questions posed on the homeopathic remedy. But because of its publication date it is missing major articles published after this date and which I will cite for you.

One of the main stumbling blocks in basic research of the homeopathic remedies has been that the information supposed to have been passed on from the homeopathic substance to the water or ethanol molecules up till this time hasn't been able to be measured. Unfortunately biochemical, biological or chemical methods used by the medical scientific community in order to measure the homeopathic information, potency, etc. has not been successful and this has been due rather to the type or nature of information that we are trying to measure. We have managed via electrical engineering technology to make a machine at the National Technical University of Athens that measures changes in electrical resistance, conductivity, etc. in the homeopathic dilutions and thus measure the different potencies and different homeopathic remedies. In this sense - via the measurements - we can deduce certain pertinent information about the nature of the homeopathic remedy and the way it is made - the so called "potentization process." The articles/abstracts [References] I cite below have been published in journals in other scientific fields as well as in medicine and they are apt to explain the first two questions posed.

References:

1. P.D. Bourkas, C.G. Karagiannopoulos, A.N. Delinick. "Identification of Water Dilutions through Electrical Measurements." IWKO- International Measurement Confederation, IMEKO TC - 4 Technical Committee on Measurement of Electrical Quantitites. Proceedings of 9th Int'nal Symposium on Electrical Instruments in Industry. (eds. McGhee, Henderson and Wilkie) Sept. 8-9 1997, Glasgow Scotland, Pp. 213-216.
2. P.D. Bourkas, A.N.Delinick, C. G. Karagiannopoulos. "Experimental Evaluation of the Potentization of Homeopathic Remedies." European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics - Special Issue. Proceedings of I st Int'nal Meeting on Scientific Basis of Modern Pharmacy. Athens, Greece June 8-11 1994. Vol. 19, 1994. No, 2 Supplement. Gorrod, Avgerinos (eds.) Medecine et Hygiene Publishers - Geneva, Switzerland. P. 68
3. A.N. Delinick A.N,, P.D. Bourkas, C.G. Karagiannopoulos. "Experimental Evaluation of the results of the Potentization of Homeopathic Dilutions." Abstracts of the 20th Panhellenic Congress of the Medical Society of Athens, Greece, May 1994.
4. A.N. Delinick. "A Possible Explanation why Like cures Like in Biomagnetism." The International Proceedings of Interdisciplinary Congress in Biomagnetism and Medicine, Kefallonia, Greece, May 1993, Pp. 19-24
5. Shui Yin Lo, Angelo Lo, Li Wen Chong, Lin Tianzhang, Li Hui Hua and Xu Geng. "Physical Properties of water with 1. Structures." Modern Physics Letter B, Vol. 10, No. 19 (1996) 921-930. World Scientific Publishing Co.
6. Shui Yin Lo, "Anomalous State of Ice." Modern Physics Letter B, Vol. 10, No. 19 (1996) 909-919. World Scientific Publishing Co.
7. Anagnostatos GS, Paschali D, Viras K, Soutzidou M, Pissis P. "Detection of Clusters in Infinite Methanol-Water Solutions." 8th Int'nal Symposium on Small Particles and Inorganic Clusters ISSPIC 8, Copenhagen, Ju.y 1-6 1996; 3.2 Abstract
8. Pissis P, Anagnostatos GS, Paschali D, Viras K, Soutzidou M. "Multiplication Effect of Water Clusters in Methanol-Water solutions." 8th Int'nal Symposium on Small Particles and Inorganic Clusters ISSPIC 8, Copenhagen, Ju.y 1-6 1996-' 3.2 Abstract
9. Viras K, Soutzidou M, Pissis P, Anagnostatos GS, Paschali D. "Water Clusters in Methanol -Water Solutions." 8th Int'nal Symposium on Small Particles and Inorganic Clusters ISSPIC 8, Copenhagen, Ju.y 1-6 1996; 3.1 Abstract
10. Anagnostatos GS, Pissis P, Viras K. "Possible Water Cluster Formation by Dilution and Succussions." In Anganostatos GS, von Oertzen W, editors Atomic and nuclear Clusters. Heidelberg, Berlin: Springer, 1995:215-217.
    Now as to answering the third question, on what level or levels of the organism does the homeopathic remedy act upon, I will mention some articles written in the European Journal of Classical Homeopathy, ed. George Vithoulkas, (please see below) and George Vithoulkas' book (Book C) entitled A New Model of Health and Disease published by Health and Habitat & North Atlantic Books, California, 1991.
11. Delinick AN., "On what primary level of the organism does the homeopathic remedy act upon?... A Hypothesis." European Journal of Classical Homeopathy, Vol. 1. No. 3-4. Fall-Winter 1995. Pp. 42-50.
12. Shepperd J., "Chaos Theory: Implications for Homeopathy." European Journal of Classical Homeopathy, Vol. 11. No. 5-6. Spring-Summer 1996. Pp. 36-41.
13. Delinick A,N., "A Model of Stress Adaptive Response in Cells and Organisms: Part 1." European Journal of Classical Homeopathy, Vol. II. No. 5-6. Spring-Summer 1996. Pp. 42-49.
14. Delinick AN., "A Model of Stress Adaptive Response in Cells and Organisms: Part 2." European Journal of Classical Homeopathy, Vol. II. No. 7-8. Fall-Winter 1996. Pp. 21-30.

I mention all these research papers published in medical and non-medical journals because they were reviewed by other experts in their respective scientific fields and published in their respective publications because they were deemed valid. Therefore I would like to point out to the Lancet readers and to J. P. Vandenbroucke and M. J. S. Langman that there is viable, substantial and noteworthy research on how the homeopathic remedy conveys its information to the water or ethanol molecules. Just because one is not aware of this research and its findings does not mean it does not exist.

Alexandra N. Delinick MD.
General Secretary of Research - International Medical Homeopathic League (Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis)
Research Director. Center of Homeopathic Medicine - Dir. George Vithoulkas. Pericleous 1, Maroussi Athens, Greece 15122.

THE LANCET'S REPLY:

Dear Dr. Delinick

Thank you for your communication on homeopathic remedy, which you sent for publication in our Correspondence columns, I am sorry to say that we will not be able to find room for it; in the face of fierce competition your letter failed to win a place.

Yours sincerely

Stephanie Clark PhD
Senior Editor