The silica hypothesis for homeopathy: physical chemistry

Abstract

The 'silica hypothesis' is one of several frameworks that have been put forward to explain how homeopathic remedies, which often are diluted beyond the point where any of the original substance remains, might still be clinically effective. We describe here what the silica hypothesis says. From a physical chemistry viewpoint, we explore three challenges that the hypothesis would have to meet in order to explain homeopathy: thermodynamic stability of a large number of distinct structures, pattern initiation at low potencies, and pattern maintenance or gradual evolution at higher potencies. We juxtapose current knowledge about silicates with some of the conventional wisdom about homeopathic remedies, to see how well the latter might be a consequence of the former. We explore variants of the hypothesis including some speculations about mechanisms. We outline laboratory experiments that could help to decide it.

Assays of homeopathic remedies in rodent behavioural and psychopathological models

“…39,41,[67][68][69][70][71] So far there is no uniting theoretical explanation for these observations, but recent hypotheses seem to point to organisation of the solvent water on a mesoscopic scale: the nano-heterogenous structure of water can be determined by interactive phenomena such as coherence, epitaxy, temperature-pressure processes during strong agitation, and formation of colloidal nanobubbles containing gaseous inclusions of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon Assays of homeopathic remedies in rodents P Bellavite et al dioxide, silica, and possibly the remedy source material. [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] We have also previously suggested a analogy between this type of non-linearity and a hypothetical fractal-type organisation of water nanoheterogeneities, [80][81][82] due to the iterative process of dilution/succussion.…”

Extremely Low Doses of Arsenic Affect in vitro Pollen Germination

“…Since As 45x is a treatment at a very high dilution level (beyond the Avogadro limit), the probability of the presence of molecules of the original substance is near to 0 [45]: thus the observed biological effects could be triggered in a solute-reminiscent manner [30]. First of all, since in our experimentation treatments were poured in polyethylene bottles and not in glass vials, we can exclude that their effectiveness can be explained by referring to the silica hypothesis [46]; according to this theory, high dilution effects would be mediated by nanoparticles of silica dissolved from the glass walls into aqueous solution during succussion. To understand our results we refer to a previous work [9], where we studied the effects of ELF-MFs on pollen germination, using the absence of Ca2 + in the growth medium as stressor.…”

Hünkâr İskelesi Antlaşması’nın Osmanlı-İngiliz ilişkilerine yansımaları

“…Ponsonby son takririne de Rusların baskılarıyla yanıt verildiğini bildiğinden ne kadar uğraşırsa uğraşsın bu konuda Babıâli'den net cevap alamayacağını anladı 105 . Gizli maddeler ile ilgili yazışmalara son vererek, 12 Ocak 1835'te Hünkâr İskelesi Antlaşması'nın İngiltere aleyhine yapıldığını Londra'ya bildirdi 106 .…”