Is the Word Homeopathy Used Inappropriately?

Solution 1:

EDIT @John, it's a case of widespread misuse. In the United States, both "homeopathy" and "phytotherapy" have their definitions established by their respective organizations. The regulation of homeopathy, however, varies widely throughout the world and, for this reason, there are quite a few non-standardized definitions. In addition, it's also natural that those who don't know their definitions should confuse all forms of "alternative medicine."

In the US, The Homœopathic Pharmacopœia of the United States defines what is homeopathy and lists the certified homeopathic preparations. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially recognizes the drugs included in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia but "while the FDA has the authority to require the same pre-market demonstrations of safety and effectiveness for homeopathic preparations as it expects for drugs, it has declined to do so". The FDA motto "In God we trust, everybody else must bring data" certainly doesn't apply to homeopathic drugs.

Homeopathy is a pre-scientific practice based on two tenets: "like cures like," which holds that the correct remedy for a patient is a substance that, when given to a healthy person, produces symptoms similar to those of the patient; and "potentization," which holds that serial dilutions and "succussions" (shakings) render a "remedy" increasingly potent. Homeopathic preparations ("remedies") generally begin with minerals, plants, or animal substances that are pulverized, mixed with a water-alcohol solution, and then potentized, usually well past the point at which any of the original substance remains. The resulting diluent is applied to a sucrose pill and allowed to dry. Current evidence finds that homeopathic remedies are no more effective than placebo.

References:

Shang A, Huwiler-Müntener K, Nartey L, et al. Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy. Lancet 2005; 366:726.
Linde K, Scholz M, Ramirez G, et al. Impact of study quality on outcome in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy. J Clin Epidemiol 1999; 52:631.
Ernst E. A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2002; 54:577.
Ernst E. Homeopathy: what does the "best" evidence tell us? Med J Aust 2010; 192:458.

Phytotherapy is the study of the use of extracts of natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents. Phytotherapy medicines differ from plant-derived medicines in standard pharmacology. Where standard pharmacology isolates an active compound from a given plant, phytotherapy aims to preserve the complexity of substances from a given plant with relatively less processing. Phytotherapy is distinct from homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine, and avoids mixing plant and synthetic bioactive substances. Traditional phytotherapy is a synonym for herbalism and regarded as alternative medicine by much of Western medicine. Although the medicinal and biological effects of many plant constituents such as alkaloids (morphine, atropine etc.) have been proven through clinical studies, there is debate about the efficacy and the place of phytotherapy in medical therapies. - from Wikipedia

Solution 2:

It's likely a case where, in trying to use neutral and concise language in their definition, Merriam-Webster comes off seeming disapproving instead.

Here's an excerpt from the definition of homeopathy from WebMD:

Homeopathy, or homeopathic medicine, is a medical philosophy and practice based on the idea that the body has the ability to heal itself. Homeopathy was founded in the late 1700s in Germany and has been widely practiced throughout Europe. Homeopathic medicine views symptoms of illness as normal responses of the body as it attempts to regain health.

Homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like." That is, if a substance causes a symptom in a healthy person, giving the person a very small amount of the same substance may cure the illness. In theory, a homeopathic dose enhances the body's normal healing and self-regulatory processes.

WebMD's second paragraph says much the same thing as Merriam-Webster's definition, but surrounds it with more context that makes the aim of homeopathy much clearer.

Solution 3:

Is this a case of the dictionary being behind the times?

No. The proper term you're looking for is "alternative medicine". Homeopathy is one of many branches of alternative medicine. Acupuncture and partially herbalism you've mentioned, are examples of others branches.

However, at basic conceptual level, most of alternative medicine is allelopathic (directly causing a desirable effect fighting the illness) rather than homeopathic (causing tiny nudge in a wrong direction to mobilize organism to overcompensate and achieve desirable effect indirectly).

The mix up may be exacerbated in English due to similarity of words "home" (as in "homemade") and "homeo-". An example of false friends.

/edit: Please note that allelo- vs homeo- distinctions has nothing to do with modern vs traditional distinction. If we would have a person in fever, allelopathic approach would be to treat him with large (enough to be effective) dose of body temperature lowering drug or herb, while homeopathic approach is to treat him with minute dose of temperature raising drug or herb. Dose so small to be completely ineffective at raising the temperature. At the core of homeopathic thinking whenever the drug is "natural" or "big pharma" is irrelevant.

/edit 2:

Is the word misused?

Yes on the streets, but not in medical journals and acts of parliaments. There is ongoing debate whenever homeopathy should be treated on par with mainstream medicine, and people on both sides adhere to the strict meaning of the word, leaving general (allelopathic) herbalism out of discussion.