Reporting on the Homeopathic Research Institute’s 2025 Conference in Greece

New clinical studies, animal trials, plant experiments, and cost-effectiveness studies

On June 20-22, 2025, I attended the Homeopathic Research Institute’s biennial conference in Thessaoloniki, Greece. With 250 delegates from over 25 countries, this conference brought together a wide variety of researchers from all over the world.

The Homeopathic Research Institute organizes these conferences every two years, and there is always a significant number of presentations that report significantly “good news” for science and for homeopathy.

Homeopathic medicine is relatively popular in Greece, in part due to the 50+ years of clinical treatment by one of the world’s leading homeopaths, George Vithoulkas, who has successfully treated many of the country’s leading politicians as well as many of its most successful entrepreneurs. This fact, in part, may explain why the conference was welcomed by Dr. George Patoulis, MD, President, Athens Medical Association (the conventional medical association).

(NOTE: Because research conferences like this one in Greece commonly have scientists reporting on NEW research, many of these studies have not yet been published. Therefore, no references are provided for the studies discussed here. Also, this short summary of presentations represent only a small number of the overall talks given at the conference.)

The first presentation at the conference was by Professor Ashley Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), South Africa. Dr Ross reviewed the 200+ year history of “homeopathic provings,” that is, the experimental method of toxicology, whereby homeopathic doses of specific substances are tested in repeated dose for their ability to actually cause their own unique pattern of symptoms.

Besides reviewing the history of these experiments in toxicology, Ross also described many modern “drug provings” and their results in single-blind and double-blind trials. This short review made it obvious that skeptics of homeopathy who claim that there is “no scientific research” on homeopathy are so totally misinformed because the basis for the vast majority of homeopathic medicines derive from these single- and double-blind trials.

Ultimately, the homeopathic “materia medica” (materia medica are books that describe the toxicology of the various “materials of medicine”) and the 200+ years of using homeopathic medicines has confirmed that whatever a substance CAUSES in overdose, that same substance can initiate the healing process for people who have symptoms SIMILAR to those that a substance is found to cause.

A physician and homeopath from Mexico who is presently completing her PhD in Immunology, Maria Fernanda Aguilaer Duenas, MD, reported on her study which was a “drug proving” of one of the classic homeopathic medicine, Belladonna. Traditionally, a drug proving is conducted on healthy subjects because doing so on people who are sick would contaminate the symptoms that the test subjects are experiencing with those symptoms of the people’s diseases.

In this study, the test subjects were found to create many of the common symptoms that Belladonna is known to cause, including fevers, dry skin, facial flushing with redness of mucous membranes, pounding headaches, and multicolor dreams.

What was particularly compelling was that Dr. Duenas also found that Belladonna not only created a variety of symptoms that it is well-known to cause, but in this study, the researcher also tested to evaluate genetic expression, including increased in proinflammatory cytokines (signs of inflammation) as well as Interleukin-6, 8, 10, 12, 18 23, and 33. Researchers found a 55% to 94% increase in these immunological measurements. These measurements enabled to the researcher to have 88% accuracy in predicting which patients were given the real homeopathic medicine and which were given the placebo.

The next speaker was Thomas Ostermann, Chair of Research Methodology and Statistics in Psychology at Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. He reviewed the 21 studies conducted evaluating the cost-effectiveness of homeopathic treatment, with only a relatively small number of these studies to be of a reasonably high caliber. Still, most of these studies have shown benefits from homeopathic treatment, not just for general health issues but also for specific diseases. This presentation highlights homeopathy’s cost-effectiveness in the treatment of recurrent tonsillitis.

Clinical Research

There were a wide variety of presentations on clinical trials testing homeopathic treatment, including:

· One study compared homeopathic, Anthroposophic, and conventional medical treatment of upper respiratory tract infections. This study showed that homeopathic treatment had as good or better results from homeopathy without the use of antibiotics.

· A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled study on people with trigeminal neuralgia.

· The use of homeopathic medicine as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of people with major depression (this unique study compared the results of each subject while were given a placebo (without their knowledge) versus when they were given a real individually-selected homeopathic medicine).

· The use of the famous homeopathic medicine, Oscillococcinum, for influenza and influenza-like syndromes. What was additional unique about this presentation was the evaluation of the ways that this homeopathic medicine influenced CD4+ lymphocytes, also called T-cells or T-helper cells. (NOTE: Many people do not know that Oscillococcinum is made from the heart and liver of a duck. Because ducks are known to carry various flu viruses in their digestive track, ducks are known to not get sick from these viruses...and therefore, it makes sense that the heart and liver of a duck must have certain immunological factors that help human fight flu viruses.)

· Homeopathic treatment of women with cervical cancer

· A multi-center open label randomized comparative trial on the homeopathic treatment of urinary tract infections.

· A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial using individually selected homeopathic medicines as an adjunctive to standard care for improving the symptoms of peripheral diabetic neuropathy.

· The effectiveness of homeopathic treatment of alcohol use disorder

· The use of Eupatorium perf. in preventing dengue fever· One study compared homeopathic, Anthroposophic, and conventional medical treatment of upper respiratory tract infections. This study showed that homeopathic treatment had as good or better results from homeopathy without the use of antibiotics.

· A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled study on people with trigeminal neuralgia.

· The use of homeopathic medicine as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of people with major depression (this unique study compared the results of each subject while were given a placebo (without their knowledge) versus when they were given a real individually-selected homeopathic medicine).

· The use of the famous homeopathic medicine, Oscillococcinum, for influenza and influenza-like syndromes. What was additional unique about this presentation was the evaluation of the ways that this homeopathic medicine influenced CD4+ lymphocytes, also called T-cells or T-helper cells. (NOTE: Many people do not know that Oscillococcinum is made from the heart and liver of a duck. Because ducks are known to carry various flu viruses in their digestive track, ducks are known to not get sick from these viruses...and therefore, it makes sense that the heart and liver of a duck must have certain immunological factors that help human fight flu viruses.)

· Homeopathic treatment of women with cervical cancer

· A multi-center open label randomized comparative trial on the homeopathic treatment of urinary tract infections.

· A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled trial using individually selected homeopathic medicines as an adjunctive to standard care for improving the symptoms of peripheral diabetic neuropathy.

· The effectiveness of homeopathic treatment of alcohol use disorder

· The use of Eupatorium perf. in preventing dengue fever

Animal and Plant Research

There were numerous presentations on the effects of homeopathic medicines on animals, including:

· The use of homeopathic medicines to reduce antimicrobial resistance in turkeys

· The homeopathic treatment of diarrhea in calves.

· The homeopathic treatment of certain parasitical diseases in animals, commonly testing homeopathic doses of individual parasites.

· The use of homeopathic doses of Viscum album (mistletoe) as an anti-tumor agent on rodent melanoma cells.

This year’s HRI conference had numerous remarkable presentations on the use of homeopathic medicines on plants and even crops. Stephen Baumgartner, PhD, professor at the University of Bern (Switzerland), and at Witten/Herdecke University (Germany). He reviewed his 30 years of plant research which has created a collection of 32 original research articles, including seven publications on replication trials that confirmed previous studies.

Leonardo Faedo, PhD, an Agronomist and researcher at Coventry University (England) wowed the HRI conference two years ago where he presented his studies on strawberries when he showed how homeopathic medicines helped to increase crop yield as well as crop nutrition, doing so without use of any pesticides. This year, Dr. Faedo brought his professor, Pedro Boff, PhD, who supervises the masters and doctor works for over 40 students at the University of Santa Catarina State (Brazil).

They both discussed their plans to coauthor of a systematic review of the several dozen studies that test the use of homeopathic medicines on plant health and crop yields. These researchers have not yet completed this review, but they and the entire audience sensed that this new work may take homeopathic medicine to a whole new level. Needless to say, skeptics of homeopathy will be laughed out of any discussion simply because their common assertions that homeopathic medicines are placebo is simply embarrassing now.

I personally am fascinated and excited about this emerging work, and I seriously wonder if this new work will lead to a Green Revolution 2.0, without the many significant problems that the original Green Revolution created.

Exploring the Mechanisms of Action of Homeopathic Nanodoses

There were numerous presentations on compelling explanations for how homeopathic nanomedicines can have their significant physiological and immunological effects, including Alexander Tournier, the co-director of the Homeopathic Research Institute and of the University of Witten/Herdecke, of Germany. He discusses various aspects of water structure, including clathrates and exclusion zone water, nanostructures, chemistry and biochemistry (including stress response pathways, gene expression, and compensatory reactions), hormesis (the exploration of various extremely small doses of certain substances on specific biological systems), biophotons, electrodynamics (electric and magnetic fields and their interaction with charges), and quantum physics (the observation that particles exist in multiple states), and even weak quantum theory (entanglement).

Other Special Benefits of Homeopathic Research Conferences

The special benefit of attending a homeopathic research conference is meeting homeopaths and homeopathic researchers from all over the world. As it turns out, sometimes attending such conferences has led me to meet fellow American homeopaths who I had previously not met.

It was especially remarkable that I had the chance to meet Hakima Amri, PhD., a tenured professor of biochemistry at Georgetown University. She had previous conducted some studies on homeopathy and cancer treatment and wants to do more.

And then, I had the chance of meeting Jelena Vukicevic, MD, a pediatrician and homeopath from Stanford University.

These two professors are planning to collaborate…and I am taking it upon myself to help them give some significant research funds from the new National Institutes of Health.

BIO:

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.

He is one of America’s leading advocates for homeopathy. He has authored 10 books, including The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy, Homeopathy A-Z, Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants, Discovering Homeopathy, and (the best-selling) Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (with Stephen Cummings, MD). Dana also created an e-course How to Use a Homeopathic Medicine Kit which integrates 80 short videos with his famous ebook that is a continually growing resource to 500+ clinical studies published in peer-review medical journals testing homeopathic medicines. This ebook is entitled Evidence Based Homeopathic Family Medicine.

Dana Ullman has also authored chapters on homeopathic medicine that included in medical textbooks published by Oxford University Press, the American Academy of Pain Management, and Mosby.

He is the founder of Homeopathic Educational Services, also known as www.homeopathic.com, America’s leading resource center for homeopathic books, tapes, medicines, software, and e-courses. Homeopathic Educational Services has co-published over 40 books on homeopathy with North Atlantic Books.

Dana previously wrote a regular column for the popular website, www.huffingtonpost.com (to access these articles, click HERE!)