What does homeopathic medicines contain?

Answer 1

Hokum and bullcrap, that's what they contain.

But on a more serious note, homeopathic "medicines" basically just contain WATER. Supposedly, they make extremely dilute solutions of some chemical compound which in higher concentrations would cause whatever symptoms you're suffering from. For instance, if you had Mercury poisoning, they would take a solution of mercury, dilute it with water many, many times over until it's not even one trillionth of it's initial concentration, and then make you drink it.

This might seem like it doesn't make any sense. Well, it really doesn't. Homeopaths believe in something called "water memory," which essentially is the idea that water "remembers" things that it used to have dissolved in it, and preferentially reabsorbs them. So, the IDEA is that by you drinking this water that used to contain mercury, it will "pull out" the mercury in your system into itself.

Now, read this very carefully: WATER MEMORY IS A COMPLETELY WRONG AND DISCREDITED THEORY. Water doesn't "remember" anything, it's just a freaking molecule. The entire practice of homeopathy is nothing but New Age garbage which is only legal to sell because it doesn't cause any active harm to the user. It has NO BENEFIT, and DOES NOT WORK AT ALL.

Source: BS in Biomedical Engineering.