Homeopathy/Catalogs
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Problematic terminology
Concept | Terms preferred by homeopaths | Terms preferred by non-homeopath physicians |
---|---|---|
Trained and licensed health professionals who have never heard of Hahnemann. | conventional physicians, allopath | Physician, biomedical specialist, non-homeopathic physician |
Trained and licensed professionals who believe Hahnemann is the greatest healer in history | Homeopath | Alternative practitioner using homeopathy |
Someone who believes that Hahnemann defined an essentially perfect system that needs only minor refinements, and that every case is inherently different | ?? some distinctions as made in types of chiropractic approach | Physician, biomedical specialist, non-homeopathic physician, mainstream medicine' |
Someone who believes that Hahnemann defined a system that was superior to what the other kind of practitioner did in the 19th and early 20th century, but was largely made obsolete by processes that can be defined and measured, yet used with judgment appropriate for the individual, |
skeptic, critic | Biomedical scientist, one trained by the evolved system proposed by Abraham Flexner |
Bodily responses to abnormality (symptoms or signs), for which molecular or other objective mechanisms can be described in substantial detail | ??? | no single term: metabolic homeostasis (biology) (including anabolism and catabolism, mitosis and apoptosis, immune mechanisms (see note below) including cell-mediated [note 1] and humoral immunity [note 2] |
Bodily responses to abnormality (symptoms or signs), for which no formal mechanism is defined | Vital force, natural healing processes of the bodywe also call it symptoms amd signs (see my description of vital force) | ??? |
The thing added to a larger amount of something so the thing can be taken by the patient | similimum | active ingredient; drug |
Guidance on best treatment | (medical training and literature (Note 4), clinical decision support system & materia medica, repertory | (medical training and literature (Note 4), clinical decision support system |
The thing administered to an individual to cause a measurable physiologic reaction | ??? | active ingredient; drug |
The thing administered to an individual to cause a measurable immune response, usually active immunity. There may be immediate symptoms, but producing them is not a goal | vaccine/antigen | vaccine, antigen |
The something to which the small amount of the other thing can be added | water (but there apparently are things that are not water, such as ethanol), or, in the body of the article, lactose. Is water the only something that has memory? | Diluent (water & ethanol), vehicle(lactose) |
Opinion and trust not based on statistical analysis | Popularity | Lay opinion |
Administration of a substance to healthy volunteers to determine its effects [Note ] | Homeopathic proving | Phase I randomized controlled trial |
Note 1: phagocytosis, agglutination as by eosinophils, nonspecific recognition by macrophages
Note 2: changes in immunoglobulins, complement, opsonization
Note 3: terminology conflict: while a homeopathic preparation is considered, by homeopaths, to have the desired effect of producing symptoms, physicians do not necessarily regard symptoms as physiologic changes. signs, clinical pathology results, and changes in diagnostic imaging do indicate change
Note 4: A pair of standard texts such as Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, cross-referenced to Goodman & Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics are regarded as starting points -- but need not be consulted in every case.