Summary of NCH Web Cast: The Structure of Liquid Water; Novel Insights from Materials Research; Potential Relevance to Homeopathy

The topic of this important webcast is to introduce medical researchers and health care providers in complementary/integrative medicine to concepts in the basic and applied field of materials science, especially as they apply to controversies in fields such as homeopathy.

This webcast features Rustum Roy, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Materials Science at Pennsylvania State University, with commentary and discussion by Iris Bell, MD MD (H) PhD, Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Dr. Roy emphasizes the key point that it is the heterogeneous network structure of water or water - alcohol solvents, not the molecular composition, that can determine the unique properties of colloidal silver (aquasols) or homeopathic remedies. He directly addresses the fallacy of the "absence of source molecules" argument of skeptics against the plausibility of homeopathy at potencies above 12c or 24x. He provides an overview of materials science concepts such as epitaxy, pressure and temperature effects, nanobubble inclusion, radiation of various types, and magnetic and electric field influences in changing water structure, especially involving weak van der Waals forces.

Finally, he presents recent data from his own laboratory on spectroscopic properties of ultradilute colloids and the application to two common homeopathic remedies, Nux Vomica and Natrum Muriaticum. Using convergent findings from more than one technology (Raman spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectroscopy), Dr. Roy's group has been able to distinguish the two remedies from one another and different potencies of a given remedy from one another. He notes that technologies such as NMR spectroscopy and FRIR spectroscopy do not appear sensitive to differentiating remedies on both a practical and theoretical basis.

Dr. Bell concludes the discussion by placing Dr. Roy's findings in context of the debates over the nature of homeopathy and previous evidence using still other technologies (calorimetry, thermoluminescence) that homeopathic remedies prepared with both dilution and succussion differ from plain control solvents. Further advances on the basic science nature of homeopathic remedies will accelerate translational research toward understanding how homeopathy could catalyze healing in living systems such as human beings or animals.

View and listen to the Web Cast Here: Web Cast: from the National Center for Homeopathy

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