Sceptical views on homeopathy: Do we really need “sceptical” homeopaths?

Dear Editor,

As a physician, specializing in hematology, oncology, clinical pharmacology and ophthalmology, as well as a homeopath, I would like to make some remarks on the paper recently published in your journal, Madeleine Ennis’s sceptical view of “Basophil Models of Homeopathy”.[ ¹ ] Repentance or ‘second thoughts’ are allowed by the democratic attitude of modern science and medicine (but let us please keep separate the two terms). However I suspect, after study of the “Benveniste Affair”, that, at least in that case, modern science and medicine were not as ‘democratic’ as one might hope.

It seems that Prof Ennis, despite having published positive experimental work concerning the activity of infinitesimal doses of histamine on basophil activation in the past: “In 3 different types of experiment, it has been shown that high dilutions of histamine may indeed exert an effect on basophil activity”,[ ² ] has become a sceptic. We also know that Jacques Benveniste did not. Is it by chance that Prof Ennis is still the chief of her laboratory while Prof Benveniste was threatened with dismissal if he continued with his investigations and, when he did so, was indeed dismissed? I believe that Benveniste deserved and might have received the Nobel prize for his discovery of PAF (platelet activating factor),[ ³ ] had he only understood the risk of embracing new theories and models that go against the drug/business-based medicine. We can easily appreciate that because of his work on PAF, he was very familiar with basophil physiology and pathology.[ ^3,4 ]

Finally, it is not necessarily the case that the new is better or truer than the old, but if Prof Ennis prefers or recommends the use of CD203c to improve the reliability of the Basophil Activation Test (BAT), I refer her to my last paper concerning the action of infinitesimal doses of adrenaline on basophils.[ ⁵ ] Adrenaline behaves like histamine at infinitesimal doses and this experiment deserves to be repeated by other investigators.

But I doubt that Prof Ennis would be able to participate in such a study with the serene attitude of an impartial observer. To conclude, let me point out that Prof Ennis opens her paper by saying that it could be exceedingly short because “…when there are no molecules … there cannot be a biological effect…”. What molecules are involved in the placebo effect or in the action of electromagnetic fields on animal tissues?

• References

• 1 Ennis M. Basophil models of homeopathy: a sceptical view. Homeopathy 2010; 99: 51-56.
• 2 Belon P., Cumps J., Ennis M. et al. Histamine dilutions modulate basophil activation. Inflamm Res 2004; 53: 181-188.
• 3 Benveniste J., Henson P.M., Cochrane C.G. Leukocyte-dependent histamine release from rabbit platelets. The role of IgE, basophils, and a platelet-activating factor. J Exp Med 1972; 136: 1356-1377.
• 4 Benveniste J. Platelet-activating factor, a new mediator of anaphylaxis and immune complex deposition from rabbit and human basophils. Nature 1974; 249: 581-582.
• 5 Mannaioni P.F., Mastroianni R., Mastrangelo D. Adrenaline inhibits the immunological activation of human basophils at pharmacological and ultra-low doses. Med Sci Monit 2010; 16 (07) BR227-BR232.