Are healing potions scientifically plausible?
As clarification we're talking about those common fantasy healing potions that recover health over time and their scientific plausibility. Here are some results from my research on the subject:
Modern medicines are pathetic compared to even the weakest of health potions. Medicines reduce the amount of external influences such as bacteria from slowing down healing process unlike health potions which directly increase the regenerative performance.
Law of conservation is rather problematic. Potions could carry construction materials into body, but larger wounds would require tremendous amounts of matter not obtainable from small dozes. This matter could be drawn from surrounding tissues, but would require obscene amounts of food to maintain physical mass and constant drain would cause serious health problems later in life.
Main problem however would be regeneration. I've never heard of anything which would hasten regenerative speed aside from stem cells but even them wouldn't survive digestion and make it into bloodstream intact.
So to summarize: ...if healing potions were scientifically plausible how would they work?
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1 answer
Stem cells
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell. (ref)
The magic part hasn't panned out, but the hope with stem cells is that there will someday be a method of using them to regenerate damaged cells in a targeted way. So far there have been doctors and clinical trials which have showed promise. "There are over 5,000 registered clinical trials involving stem cells research on ClinicalTrials.gov, with new clinical trials in this field being offered every day." A list of trials for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine is available.
Perhaps the most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including macular degeneration, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. (ref)
The potential is there but we don't yet know how to really make them work. It's reasonably to think it's scientifically possible though. Will this be a "healing potion"? Probably to some degree (to a small extent, stem cells already are). Will we have the magic potion you allude to? Probably not, but it's easy to imagine a future where it happens.
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