In epidemiology a susceptible individual is a member of a population who is at risk of becoming infected by a disease if he or she is exposed to the infectious agent1. This is in most cases associated with a higher sensitivity of these individuals to a specific exogenous or endogenous substance or a physicalagent. Different fundamental and clinical researches2, 3 have suspected genes, acquired factors, and environment exposures, as well as nutritional factors and their interactions, as eventual causes for the susceptibility.
Therefore, in order to gain more certainty, more research is now being conducted to study mechanisms of susceptibility, molecular epidemiology and functional genomics (identifying genes involved in individual susceptibility). Among these investigations, medical and scientific interests are mostly focused on the genomic aspect and the use of the knowledge gathered from the human genome project, which identified a multitude of polymorphic genes involved in the causation of differences of susceptibility of subgroups of populations.
In practice, the investigation of susceptibility often deals with populations exposed to an agent. The differential risk of a subgroup with a specific polymorphism in certain genes or bearing other inherited or acquired factors is then determined. Some examples of the most recent research are the identification of genetic risk factor for prostate2 cancer, which is the third-leading cause of cancer related death in men or breast cancer3, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women today. This project, which is called "The Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility", is a three year, $14 million initiative that will identify genetic alterations that make people susceptible toprostate and breast cancer.
According to the medical and scientific society, this research will allow new insights into etiology and pathogenesis of human disease and provide the basis for improved strategies for prevention, diagnosis and individualized treatment to combat cancer. This is especially important as many patients sufferfrom chemo- and radiotherapy's side effects. Individualization of radio- or chemotherapy doses or of other medications may decrease their side effects and make the treatment more efficient.
As a scientist, I was, and am, always fascinated with new discoveries and projects for the future. But as a person who has had the opportunity to study homeopathy, I am enthralled to know that conventional medicine with all the sophisticated technologies that it possesses and all high platforms that it uses, has chosen to attempt to individualize medications, something that has been practiced by homeopathy for over 200 years. Therefore, after viewing the definition and understanding of the concept of the susceptibility by the current medical and scientific world, I will attempt to review the concept of susceptibility by investigating homeopathic literature.
