does it have cure for chronic diseases? There's much more evidence for the credible use of homeopathy in the USA and other countries but this is a start. I haven't seen any of these other guys citing any evidence for their disrespectful remarks so I thought you'd like some credible information. I've put this together for you from several reports. I hope it helps you make an informed decision.
Homeopathy is a branch of medical therapeutics. It is a therapeutic method based on the prescription of drugs derived from the pharmacological principle of analogy, generally used with small or infinitesimal doses.
This therapeutic method of medicine in which very dilute doses of natural active substances (plant, animal, or mineral origins) are administered to a patient to treat symptoms that would be induced in a healthy individual by ingestion of that same substance.
Homeopathy is an approach to health that is quite different from methods that are seen in the pharmacy everyday. Conventional medicine attempts to restore health by killing invading organisms, replacing hormones or enzymes, or interfering with disease processes. Calcium blockers are an example. Homeopathy stimulates the body's own defenses to correct illness and allow symptoms to dissipate. The minute dose of drug substance used in homeopathy does not cause any of the side effects that have become such a problem for the physician, pharmacist and patient.
THE EVIDENCE:
1) What The Lancet says:
"Five large meta-analyses of homeopathy trials have been done. All have the same result: after excluding methodologically inadequate trials and accounting for publication bias, homeopathy produced no statistically significant benefit over placebo."
2) The reality:
鈥?The main conclusions of these five meta-analyses were all positive:
- Kleijnen J, Knipschild P, ter Riet G. Clinical trials of homoeopathy.
BMJ 1991; 302: 316鈥?3 :
"The evidence of clinical trials is positive but not sufficient to draw definitive conclusions"
- Boissel JP, Cucherat M, Haugh M, Gauthier E. Critical literature review on the effectiveness of homoeopathy: overview of data from homoeopathic medicine trials. Brussels, Belgium: Homoeopathic Medicine Research Group.
Report to the European Commission. 1996: 195鈥?10 : "For the 17 eligible comparisons, for each method used, the result is a p-value far below 0.001. This means that, in at least one trial, the null hypothesis of the absence of effect of homeopathy can be rejected鈥he number of significant results is probably not due to chance alone."
- Linde K, Melchart D. Randomized controlled trials of individualized homeopathy: a state-of-the-art review.
J Alter Complement Med 1998;4: 371鈥?8 : "The results of the available randomized trials suggest that individualized homeopathy has an effect over placebo"
- Cucherat M, Haugh MC, Gooch M, Boissel JP. Evidence of clinical efficacy of homeopathy: a meta-analysis of clinical trials.
Eur J Clin Pharmacol 2000; 56: 27鈥?3 : "There is some evidence that homeopathic treatments are more effective than placebo"
- Shang A, Huwiler-M眉ntener K, Nartey L, et al. Are the clinical effects ofhomoeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlledtrials of homoeopathy and allopathy.
Lancet 2005; 366: 726鈥?2 : "21 homeopathy trials (19%) and nine (8%) conventional-medicine trials were of higher quality. In both groups, smaller trials and those of lower quality showed more beneficial treatment effects than larger and higher-quality trials. When the analysis was restricted to large trials of higher quality, the odds ratio was 0.88 (95% CI 0.65-1.19) for homeopathy (eight trials) and 0.58 (0.39-0.85) for conventional medecine (six trials)."
鈥?A sixth major meta-analysis also exists, that curiously was not mentioned in this article even though it was published by The Lancet in 1997, and which also reported positive results:
"The results of our meta-analysis are not compatible with the hypothesis that clinical effects of homeopathy are completely due to placebo."
Linde K, Clausius N, Ramirez G, et al. Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials. Lancet 1997; 350: 834鈥?3
* (The Lancet / 17 nov 2007 / vol 370 / pages 1 672 to 1 673 ; pages 1 677 to 1 680)
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Homeopathic medicines can be used to treat the majority of common illnesses: the flu, chronic and/or acute ear, nose and throat infections, digestive system disorders, stress, and insomnia.
For patients with chronic illnesses, homeopathic treatment aims to reduce the intensity and frequency of episodes and outbreaks, as with allergies or herpes.
Consult your homeopathic physician for more information.
I hope this has helped answer your questions. It depends who you ask.
Those that support homeopathy say it's great and works wonders. There is however no scientific proof that it works and most of the accolades are anecdotal.
Homeopathy works like this. You take some water and add the substrate to it then shake it around. The belief is that this somehow "energises" the water with the aspects of the substrate.
The water is then diluted 10:1, and again and again and again eventually reaching a number like 20, 25, 30 and higher. The problem with this is once you pass number 26 you've literally got less than 1 molecule of the original substrate in 1 litre of water. I'm not kidding, ask any chemist about Avogadro's limit and they'll tell you the same thing.
Homeopathy simply doesn't work as intended. This was demonstrated many times by James Randi who took 48 homeopathic sleeping pills at once in front of congress. The pills warned against an overdose and said that in the case of, contact a poison treatment centre immediately. He waited a full hour and nothing happened. Years later, he's still fine.
All this isn't to say that natural medicines don't work because a lot of them do. I had a cold earlier last week and I took large doses of zinc to combat it. Three days later I was fine. My wife one the other hand that took an over the counter medicine is still sick with it.
What does that tell you? Homeopathy is a scam. It doesn't work, save for placebo effect.
It does not have "cure" for ANY diseases. Homeopathy may or may not "cure" chronic diseases. There are over 2000 homeopathic remedies and the homeopathic practitioner choses one remedy to treat their patients according to intensive interviewing of the patient and choosing one remedy that best matches the totality of the patient's symptoms. The first remedy does not always turn out to be the "right" one and it may take trying another to get the desired cure for the patient.
In other words there is no one remedy for a cold or the flu, for a rash, for arthritis pain, etc.
A homeopathic veterinarian is treating my cat with bladder cancer. That was a confirmed diagnosis by tumors biopsied when removed from his bladder 18 months ago. This is a very aggressive cancer in cats, the fatality rate is close to 100% and even with surgery most cats have the tumors reform within a few months. Ultrasound two months ago showed that my cat has no pathology in his bladder. I delineate that "case" because you can not say it is a placebo effect. Homeopathy does not have a "cure" for cancer. Homeopathy is one of the fastest growing alternative forms of medicine in North America. This form of medicine uses ultra diluted amounts of plant, mineral and animal substances to stimulate the healing systems of the body. Homeopathy is effective for a wide range of conditions and is available in health food stores, pharmacies and shopping centers. Homeopathy is used to strengthen the defense systems of the body and to stimulate healing of mental or emotional imbalances. Homeopathic remedies are an excellent therapy to stimulate or help repair a damaged immune system. since homeopathic medicines are ultra diluted, they are extremely safe for children. (no side effects or toxicity)
Homeopathic researchers are finding that each homeopathic remedy has its own"fingerprint" on the electromagnetic spectrum. It appears that homeopathic remedies work on a vibrational/energetic level. Unlike most pharmaceutical or natural remedies, homeopathic remedies appear to work directly at the electromagnetic level. In some ways, each remedy has a different electromagnetic frequency and thus action, similar to the ve\various actions of different acupuncture points. |
