A Critical Overview of Homeopathy

Homeopathy has been a blessing for me. I really get a smile on my face when I see physicians dismiss what has helped me so much. As someone who couldn't tolerate allergy injections, I decided to find a practitioner who could help me and I had success with homeopathy. I suggest people and especially physicians try it for themselves and/or do more research on this medicine that is over 200 years old and obviously survived for a reason. I'm sure this is why Prince Charles and the Queen of England both swear by homeopathic treatment.

Anyhow, here is a great article on homeopathy that was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine:

A Critical Overview of Homeopathy

http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/138/5/393

[Paxiled]

Homeopathy is considered quack medicine by so many, but I know so many, including myself, that it's helped.  I always see it dissed as not evidence based, as if allopathic medicine is!  

[wonko]

I could have written the above.  Thanks Paxiled for doing the work for me.

[SassyLassie]

I think it is wonderful. My Naturopath specializes in it, and I believe there is a lot to it. The  main-stream docs don't like to recognize it because I don't think it can be patented, they make me so angry, I just despise the sentence "There is no scientific evidence that this works" I say BULL.

[PlateletGal]

You're right. I know there have been studies done, but of course those studies probably aren't going to make the New England Journal of Medicine. ; ^ ) Both my primary care physician and my specialist support alternative medicine and even recommend it to some patients. My concern is watching out for the physicians who have their "quack" websites.... always look at who supports these websites and look at their agendas. These people may just be ignorant, but more than likely... they are greedy. As someone who has benefited from acupuncture and homeopathy... I feel obligated to speak out. I also know that a major university had done a research study with other CFS patients and they felt the same way.... western medicine does not have as much to offer us as "alternative medicine" has to offer.

[Paxiled]

There were some good studies done in France that discovered definite immune system reactions to homeopathy.  In the late eighteen hundreds, homeopathy and herbalism were the main forms of medicine in America.  A group of robber barons, who with their thievings from the railroads they bankrupted to create the great investment houses that recently brought down our economy for the third or fourth time, got together to decide which form of medicine to bankroll in order to maximize their profits.  Obviously, allopathic medicine was the choice since the techniques could be patented, drugs could be patented, the illusion of science applied even where it didn't fit, and with the AMA they launched a campaign against all "alternative" medicine, which was eventually banned.  Only in the last few years has it become legal again thanks to the same pioneers who created the health food movement.  I came a bit late to it, managing small health food stores for 18 years, but Whole Foods has put most of them out of business and organic farming is just another industrial output.  I recently read an article about cow effluence and burping being responsible for ten percent of global warming carbon emissions, but you know the reason?  They feed the cows corn instead of grass.  Cows don't eat corn, it messes up their digestive systems.  Well, farmers, organic farmers no less, who make milk for Stoneyfield discovered that if they fed the cows grass they could greatly lower the carbon footprint of their farms.  What a discovery!

What all this is to say is, we really don't know what works and what doesn't.  In many ways our ancestors were much smarter despite their lack of technology, but in others we're much smarter.  We need to think of what works, not of what makes the most money.  In the health food stores, I saw so many customers with CFS and fibromyalgia and candida and cancer and autoimmune diseases who had been through the ringer with the allopathic community and turned to diet and natural medicine instead, to strengthen a weakened body instead of tearing it down.  They didn't live any longer, but they lived stronger.  I'm pretty objective, and very skeptical; a lot of natural remedies are bogus, particularly newer ones that are really just pharmaceutical products in disguise.  What's needed is a synthesis of all forms of medicine, all forms of learning, and whatever works should be used and recognized.  But I fear that's too logical for Homo sapiens, at least so far.

[PlateletGal]

You may be right about ancestors being much smarter, despite their lack of technology. I've learned not to necessarily trust my physicians... but to TRUST MYSELF and my body. Obviously if something isn't working for me, I'm going to keep searching until I find something that does. And I have found many things from a variety of sources that have helped me a great deal.

[Kaydey]

I had commented on another post about how much homeopathic medicine (herbal) has helped me.

When the herbs are grown and treated correctly, their power of healing and symptom relief is great.    

I do not recommend commercial herbs,etc  because they are not processed correctly.

I am part Native American and learned from my Grandmother the proper way to grow, collect, process herbs to help in healing.  Granted.... not all illnesses can be cured by herbs and there are other natural remedies such as accupuncture, pressure point therapy, etc.  

But we do have to be careful with the homeopathic medicine.  There are a lot of 'snakes' just waiting to take a bite.  

Make sure you do your research!

[Paxiled]

Some companies do very good work with herbs, and have a much wider repertoire than just Native American Medicine.  The issue is knowing which companies where started by herbalists, and which are just in it for the money.  Herb Pharm and Planetary Formulas and Herbalist and Alchemist and Gaia and other companies I can recommend were started by some of the foremost herbalists in the world, and they know herbs from all over the world.  North American is actually not a great source for herbs; there are some good ones, but the better variety are from South America, China, and India.  As the world comes together, we have shared this knowledge with one another, and these companies draw on all cultures for their remedies.  Don't disagree that it's great to grow your own herbs, but don't paint with an overly broad brush about all companies.

As for homeopathy, it's the safest form of natural medicine.  It really can't hurt you, whereas some herbs are toxic if used incorrectly.  It might not work, but it can't hurt you.  Not to say there aren't charlatans in it, but there are charlatans everywhere, even in Native American communities.

[PlateletGal]

BACKGROUND: Homeopathy is a highly debated but often used medical treatment. With this cohort study we aimed to evaluate health status changes under homeopathic treatment in routine care. Here we extend former results, now presenting data of an 8-year follow-up.


CONCLUSION: Patients who seek homeopathic treatment are likely to improve considerably. These effects persist for as long as 8 years.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19091085?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_PMC&linkpos=1&log$=citedinpmcarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed