04/28/2026
As it turns out, homeopathic medicine is becoming increasingly competitive with conventional medicine:
A large survey of licensed health practitioners in France was conducted in 2011-12 drawn from the prescribing habits from the national health insurance database (Piolot, F***t, Rivière, et al., 2015). A total of 120,110 French healthcare professionals (HCPs) prescribed at least one homeopathic drug or preparation. They represented 43.5% of the overall population of HCPs, and further, nearly 95% of general practitioners, dermatologists and pediatricians, and 75% of midwives prescribed homeopathic medicines.
In 2009, 67% (!) the population of Switzerland voted to include homeopathy, acupuncture, and herbal medicine as a part of the nation’s insurance program, and in 2016, the government decided to accept the will (and demand) of its people (Swiss, 2016).
A survey of Mexico medical doctors and biomedical researchers found that homeopathy was the most well-known complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatment, with 100% of people knowing about it. Homeopathy was also the most popular CAM treatment used by interviewees’ family members. Homeopathy was the most popular CAM treatment to which physicians referred patients (16.8%). For the group of researchers, the percentage of CAM recommendations to acquaintances was highest for homeopathy (25%), followed by herbal medicine (19%), and massage therapy (18%). In terms of their own experience, researchers had taken more meditation and yoga courses (6.06%), while physicians had taken more homeopathy courses (12.2%). The survey found that the CAM approaches that researchers and physicians thought should be part of medical curricula were homeopathy (35.3% and 43.7%, respectively). The CAM therapies to which researchers and physicians thought should receive priority in resources for scientific research were also homeopathy (59% and 61.8%, respectively) and herbal medicine (71% and 51%, respectively).
According to the Lancet, about 10% of the population of India, approximately 100 million people, depend SOLELY on homeopathy for their health care (Prasad, 2007). When you consider that this means that Indians use homeopathy for the entire range of acute, chronic, and infectious disease for infants, children, adults, and the aged, it is remarkable that anyone could still consider that these natural medicines act as placebo (any clinic that tried to prescribe only placebos probably wouldn’t last one month, let alone 200 years).
References:
New World Encyclopedia: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Benjamin_Rush
Piolot M, F***t JP, Rivière S, F***t-Campagna A, Debeugny G, Couzigou P, Alla F. Homeopathy in France in 2011-2012 according to reimbursements in the French national health insurance database (SNIIRAM). Fam Pract. 2015 Apr 28. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25921648
Prasad, R. Homoeopathy Booming in India, Lancet, 370(November 17 2007):1679-80. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=18035598
Swiss to recognise homeopathy as legitimate medicine. March 29, 2016. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/complementary-therapies_swiss-to-recognise-homeopathy-as-legitimate-medicine/42053830
Twain, M. “A Majestic Literary Fossil,” Harper’s Magazine, February 1890, 80(477):439-444.
Created by:
DANA ULLMAN, MPH, CCH, received his Bachelor’s degree (1975) and his masters in public health from UC Berkeley (1978). UC Berkeley’s alumni magazine published a feature interview with Dana Ullman here.
Homeopathy, holistic medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine will acquire the same status as conventional medicine by May 2017 when it comes to health insurance. After being rejected in 2005 by the authorities for lack of scientific proof of their efficacy, complement...
