Safe Effective Affordable Medicine

A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT HEALTH
Most of us are aware that pharmaceutical medicine has serious shortcomings. We accept side effects as the norm. We cross our fingers and hope we’ll be one of the lucky ones. We might complain years after our original diagnosis that we are still suffering the same condition, and maybe some new symptoms we never had before. But most of us will accept that’s the best we can hope for, and carry on.

According to the World Health Organisation, the definition of health is: “A complete sense of well-being, mentally, emotionally and physically.” Based on that definition, how many people can say they are truly healthy? Who gets up in the morning with a joie de vivre, feeling energetic and excited to get into the day?  Sadly not too many.
How have we become so disconnected from what health is, or could be, that we  express shock when someone who was “perfectly healthy” collapsed with a heart attack. If we think about that for one moment, we know it can’t be true. It’s not possible to be truly healthy if our heart is at the point of failing. We separate ourselves from the labels we are given – we describe ourselves as healthy apart from our arthritis, our acid reflux, our migraine headaches. We accept our chronic disease into our definition of healthy. This is how we are taught to think by the dominant medical culture.

We have been taught not to trust ourselves, especially our bodies. We fear that our body will let us down. Symptoms are seen as the disease itself and therefore inherently bad and must be removed as quickly as possible.
Our body is waging a constant battle every day to keep us in homeostasis, in balance, despite the imbalances we impose on it by the lifestyle choices that we make. Eventually we push that process too far and our body “lets us down”, and proves us right.

But what if there was a system of medicine with a completely different perspective? One that has the potential to address our evolving medical problem when it’s still just a ‘sense of something is wrong” – when our tests are still negative but we KNOW that all is not well.  What if we could reset the balance then, before there is any functional change or organ damage? One that enabled us to correct imbalances while they are still minor, or deal with the situation if it is already part of our chronic disease picture. ?

Homeopathy is such a system. It is the second most used and the fastest growing system of medicine in the world, used in more than 65 countries, including 40 countries in Europe.

If you are wondering why you have never heard of it go to these pages:

Why don’t doctors use it?  and  Research

SAFE GENTLE MEDICINE
Homeopathy has had an exemplary safety record for more than 200 years.
Homeopathic medicines are specially prepared to increase effectiveness while at the same time eliminating potential negative effects. The medicine prescribed must also conform to the Law of the Minimum Dose. The homeopath will always use the least amount in the lowest potency required to resolve the condition.
There is a reason it is called the gentle healing art.

The strongest criticism by its uninformed detractors is that patients may waste valuable time consulting a homeopath, when they should be taking “proper medicine”. These armchair critics have refuse to take a look at the research or visit a busy clinic to speak with patients.

It is intriguing that the same people who have spent decades claiming that homeopathy is nothing more than placebo, now try to assert that it is actively dangerous, given that countries from Switzerland to Brazil to India have placed homeopathy on an equal footing with pharmaceutical medicine.

In what was perhaps a desperate attempt to lay the ‘dangerous’ label at homeopathy’s door, one of homeopathy’s main critics, the self-described world expert in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Edzard Ernst co-authored the paper: Adverse effects of homeopathy; a systematic review of published case reports and case series. The paper has been thoroughly deconstructed. [3] [4]

One of the main principles of both homeopathic safety and effectiveness, is the process of potentisation, a process that has been the source of much derision over the years. Finally the science is catching up.

THE HIGH DILUTION ISSUE AND SAFETY
Government regulated pharmacies manufacture homeopathic medicine according to very specific criteria laid down in the British Homeopathic Pharmacopia. The source substances are specially prepared in a process called potentisation producing a safe, gentle yet effective medicine in which all toxicity is removed. There has been solid research by top class material scientists and others into the high dilution issue, and contrary to the assertions of those attached to Avogadro’s Law of chemistry, the scientists have discovered that the potentised medicines still contain the original source material. [4] [5]
The 2018 Water Conference at the Royal Society of Medicine presented some exciting new research showing that water is far more complex than science had imagined, and behaves in ways not previously known.

The definition of science is to be open minded and when confronted by a phenomenon not previously understood, the true scientist would not claim the phenomenon to be implausible, but would ask more penetrating questions.

Professor Madelaine Ennis at Queens College Belfast is such a scientist, confronted by just such a conundrum concerning the activity of high homeopathic dilutions in a biological system. All her education and experience told her that such high dilutions could not possibly be biologically active, but she duplicated the experiment anyway and was forced to admit that she had been wrong. A Pan European research team in four separate labs impeccably repeated the experiments, including an additional series using an automated counting protocol because she refused to believe the first set of results. Finally she was forced to admit: “The results compel me to suspend my disbelief and to start searching for rational explanations for our findings”. [6] [7]

NOBEL LAUREATE LAYS CRITICISMS TO REST ONCE AND FOR ALL
In the summer of 2018 a ground breaking conference took place at the Royal Society of Medicine, host to Darwin, Fleming and other eminent scientists when they presented their world changing discoveries. (Interestingly Darwin used homeopathic medicine himself.)
“New Horizons in Water Science – The Evidence for Homeopathy?” sought to answer the question: does the process of potentisation in the production of homeopathic medicine fundamentally affect the structure of the water and can this explain how the source material persists even after many dilutions? The answer according to the world class scientists, including two Nobel Laureates who presented their work said, “Yes, absolutely”. The latest discoveries in water science supports the concept that there is a significant difference between homeopathic medicines and plain water.  This has confirmed what respected immunologist Dr. Jacques Benveniste reported in 1988 and for which he was pilloried by the scientific community and his illustrious career ruined. Dr Benveniste was a victim of the same closed mind, vested interests detailed here: Why don’t doctors use it?

Homeopathic dilutions can and do affect biological systems.

INDIVIDUALISED MEDICINE – UNIQUE TO YOU
Homeopathy is tailor made for the patient. It takes into account their current complaint and its symptoms, the patient’s overall health, their lifestyle, their medical and family history, as well as fully investigating the underlying cause.
The homeopath’s aim is to resolve the current condition, including its underlying cause so that it doesn’t return. In the process of homeopathic treatment, the patient can expect their overall level of health to improve as well, so that they are less susceptible to any health issues in the future.
In this way the medicine stimulates the patient’s own healing energy to resolve the condition.

LAW OF SIMILARS – PRECISE SELECTION
The fundamental principle of homeopathy that underpins everything a homeopath does, is called the Law of Similars. This is a natural law first identified at least 3,000 years ago. Hippocrates spoke about it. It is mentioned in the Egyptian Papyri and the Hebrew bible, but it was Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who developed the idea into the system of medicine that is homeopathy.
Similibus similia curentur or Like cures Like is the basis of homeopathy.
Hahnemann used the Greek words Homeo meaning similar and Pathos meaning suffering, to create the new science of homeopathy. What will create a set of symptoms in a healthy person will cure those same symptoms when they are found in a sick patient.

As a very simple example, we might drink black coffee to keep us awake on a long drive, and if we drink too much coffee we might experience heart palpitations, feel agitated, and can’t sleep. If as a patient we consult with a homeopath and describe symptoms of sleeplessness, heart palpitations and agitation, then the homeopath may consider suggesting the remedy Coffea Cruda, the potentised homeopathic medicine made from coffee. Like cures like.

Of course in daily practice cases are not always this straightforward. Patients come with complex chronic diseases, often conditions of many years that have not been helped by pharmaceutical medicine.

There is an occasional (accidental) use of the Law of Similars to be found in pharmaceutical medicine. For example the use of the stimulant Ritalin in the treatment of patients diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) which inexplicably (to all but a homeopath) calms the over stimulated patient.

AFFORDABLE MEDICINE
In India homeopathy is referred to as the medicine for the suffering humanity and they strive to make it accessible for all. Following in the footsteps of its founder it should be available to all who need it. It is the medicine of the people. “Homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other form of treatment and is beyond doubt safer and more economical.” Mahatma Ghandi

Homeopathic doctors within the NHS are free to prescribe homeopathic medicines at the point of use like a GP, and the prescriptions compare favourably with the current NHS prescription charge.
Practitioners practising privately and regulated by their own profession body offer a range of services and charges. Some specialise in children, women’s complaints, family practice, the elderly and some are vets specialising in the treatment of animals, both pets and farm animals.
The profession does its best to make homeopathy accessible to all with low cost clinics and sliding scales.
Homeopathic medicines are produced as tablets, liquids, creams and ointments. Most are sold by specialist pharmacies, while medicines for first aid situations can be found in supermarkets and health shops.
If homeopathy was to be fully integrated into the UK NHS, there is the potential to save tens of billions of pounds.

EFFECTIVE – THE EVIDENCE IS OVERWHELMING 
There is a wealth of research showing the efficacy and effectiveness of homeopathic medicine. See our Research page

As just one example, in 2017, after several years of investigation and consultation into effectiveness and cost, the Swiss government decided to place homeopathy on an equal footing with pharmaceutical medicine within the Swiss health care system, and to reimburse treatment costs to citizens.
In the process, the Swiss government also investigated safety, because they would be responsible for compensation should patients be harmed. As you might expect, the investigation was thorough; public money and the health of its citizens was at stake. Not only did the researchers find homeopathy to be effective, it was also found to be safe and affordable when compared with pharmaceutical drugs. Ref

For example, a study into children with upper respiratory tract infections found that those who received homeopathic treatment had fewer recurrences and used less antibiotics than those who were given pharmaceutical medicine.
In another study, of 569 patients with rheumatic disorders were treated with homeopathic medicine. During the study almost one third were able to stop their pharmaceutical medicine, another third could reduce their dependence on pharmaceutical medicine and just 6% chose to increase their pharmaceutical medicines. Given the cost saving potential of this level of effectiveness, the Swiss government incorporated homeopathy into the Swiss health care system. [8]
Switzerland has one of the best health care services in EU along with France and Germany, two more countries where homeopathy is used by large percentage of both the population and medical doctors. REF

Homeopathy is part of the health service in an increasing number of countries  where the government finds it not only effective but affordable

To find a homeopath go here:

If you have been inspired by your treatment and want to train go here:

GENTLE, SAFE, EFFECTIVE, AFFORDABLE MEDICINE

References
[1] https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/news-and-analysis/medication-errors-cost-the-nhs-up-to-25bn-a-year/20066893.article?firstPass=false
[2] Aurélie Colas, Karine Danno, Cynthia Tabar, Jenifer Ehreth, Gérard Duru
Economic impact of homeopathic practice in general medicine in France
Health Economics Review 2015, 5:18
[3]  P. Posadzki, A. Alotaibi, E. Ernst
Adverse effects of homeopathy: a systematic review of published case reports and case series
Int J Clin Pract, December 2012,66, 12, 1178–1188
[4]  https://vonsyhomeopathy.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/edzard-ernst-desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures/
[5] Roy R., Tiller W.A., Bell I., Hoover M.R. The structure of liquid water; Novel insights from materials research; Potential relevance to homœopathy.
Mat Res Innovat 2005;9:559–5767.
[6] Rey L. Thermoluminescence of ultra-high dilutions of lithium chloride and sodium chloride. Physics A 2003;323:67–74
[7] Belon P1, Cumps J, Ennis M, Mannaioni PF, Roberfroid M, Sainte-Laudy J, Wiegant FA. Histamine dilutions modulate basophil activation.
Inflamm Res. 2004 May;53(5):181-8.
[8] Belon P, Cumps J, Ennis M, et al. Inhibition of human basophil degranulation by successive histamine dilutions: results of a European multi-centre trial. Inflamm Res 1999;48:S17-S18.40.
Also reported in The Guardian 15 Mar 2001
[9] Gudrun Bornhöft and Peter F. Matthiessen (eds); Homeopathy in Healthcare – Effectiveness, Appropriateness, Safety, Costs. A  Health Technology Assessment on homeopathy as part of the Swiss Complementary Medicine Evaluation Programme, trans from the German by Margaret M Saar (Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-verlag, 2011).
ISBN 978-3-642-20637-5