Why is Homeopathy Not Popular in the USA?

If you are from India, there most certainly would be a time in your life where you would have taken a homeopathic remedy that was given by a relative who used homeopathy for little ailments, or you would have heard of someone who uses homeopathy, or at least, even though you didn't know what it actually was, you would be familiar with the word and understood that it is a system of medicine. A majority of the people in India are familiar with the term and many use homeopathy regularly, and with the large population that India has, we can only imagine how many people that would constitute.

However, in the US, it is a different story altogether, and there is a reason for this. Homeopathy arrived in the United States (in 1825) a few years earlier than it did in India (in 1829), and it gained popularity quickly in both the countries. By 1900, there were 22 homeopathic medical schools all over the US, including an all women's college in Pennsylvania. See this link for photos of homeopathic colleges and hospitals in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Massachusetts, and Ohio.

Image courtesy Homeopathe International

Homeopathic physicians were most sought after because the overdose of crude drugs by the conventional physicians was slowly being questioned. The first homeopathic medical school was formed by Dr. Constantine Hering (called the Father of American Homeopathy) in 1836, in Allentown, PA, and an association of homeopaths, the American Institute of Homeopathy was formed in 1844 (and still exists today).

In 1847, the conventional physicians of that time formed the American Medical Association (AMA). One of the purposes of the AMA was to destroy the practice of homeopathy in the US. It is now a historical fact that in spite of using homeopathy in their personal lives, both Carnegie and Rockefeller donated millions of dollars to the movement to crush homeopathy. With a lack of funds and changing regulations against homeopathy, all the homeopathic schools gradually shut down by 1923. Thereafter, the AMA and drug companies continued to campaign aggressively against homeopathy in the United States, and this situation has not changed even today.

In spite of all this, homeopathy is still alive and present in North America as well as around the world, and is gaining popularity every year.


References:

Homeopathe International

Homeopathe International - Female Medical College and Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania

Wikipedia

American Institute of homeopathy

Joette Calabrese's blog

AMA

Sue Young Histories