Homeopathy/ Homeotherapy

ReSearch

Institutions or Organisations

Education

• British Institute of Homeopathy International - http://www.bihint.com/
• School of Homeopathy - http://www.homeopathyschool.com/
• Council for Homeopathic Certification: Promoting Homeopathic excellence through Certification - http://www.homeopathicdirectory.com/
• Homeopathy School International: Health.Education.Career - http://www.homeopathyschool.org/
• Resonance School of Homeopathy - https://www.resonanceschoolofhomeopathy.com/?nav=home
• Enlightenment Education - http://onlinehomeopathycourse.com/
• Singapore
  • Advanced Homeopathic Clinic - http://www.singaporehomeopathy.com.sg/
• Other Certifications
  • American College of Healthcare Sciences's Certificate in Homeopathy Consulting - https://www.achs.edu/academics/holistic-medicine/programs/certificate-homeopathy-consulting-online-chc

Clinics

• Singapore
  • Ramakrishna Mission's Homeopathy Services - http://ramakrishna.org.sg/rkmsg/index.php/activities/homeopathy/

Veterinary Associations

• International
  • International Association for Veterinary Homeopathy
• UK
  • Faculty of Homeopathy
  • British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons

References

Articles

• How to Become a Homeopathic Practitioner: Career Roadmap - http://study.com/articles/How_to_Become_a_Homeopathic_Practitioner_Career_Roadmap.html

Concepts on Homeopathy

What is Homeopathy?

• System of Alternative Medicine
• Treatment of an illness with a substance similar to the causative agent of the disease
• Homeopathic preparations of substances are of low concentrations (sometimes even not a single molecule)
• A pseudoscience
  • Proven ineffective based on large-scale studies
  • Dogma of drugs, illness, human body, liquids and solutions contradict science
  • Effectiveness only as a placebo effect and normal recovery from illness

What are Some Homeopathic Belief Systems?

• Miasms
  • Underlying causes of disease were caused by miasms
  • Miasms can be acted upon using homeopathics
• Homeopathics/ Homeopathic preparations and Remedies
  • Main Idea
    • Undiluted doses of medicine caused reactions, so preparations be given at lowest possible dose via dilutions
    • Because potency and side effects is reduced, potency is restored by vigorous shaking and sriking on elastic surface
    • NOTE: In science, homeopathic preparations have no objectively detectable active ingredient.
  • Preparation and Manufacture: Dynamisation/ Potentisation
    • A process of continuous dilution and succession
    • Dilution
      • Chosen substance repeated diluted in alcohol or distilled water
      • Dilution Until no molecules of original substance remain
      • Insoluble solids like granite, diamond and platinum are diluted by grinding them with lactose (trituration)
    • Schutteln/ Succession:
      • With each dilution, vessel is bashed against an elastic material (e.g. leather-bound book)
      • This increases safe potency
  • Substances Used in Preparations
    • animal, plant, mineral and synthetic susbstances in their Latin or faux-latin names
      • arsenicum album (arsenic oxide)
      • Natrum muriaticum (salt)
      • Lachesis muta (Venom of bushmaster snake)
      • thyroidinum (Thyroid hormone)
    • nosodes: Made from diseased or pathological products such as feces, urine, respiratory discarges, blood and tissue
    • sarcodes: Made from healthy specimens
    • Imponderables Do no originate from substances but from other phenomenon "captured" by alcohol or lactose
      • X-rays
      • Sunlight
  • Other modes of Preparations
    • Paper Preparations: substance and dilution are written on pieces of paper and pinned to patients' clothing, put in their pockets or placed under glasses of water
    • Radionics: Use of Radio Waves
    • Flower Preparations:
    • Homeopathic Vaccines
      • Use of Isopathy: where nosodes are made from things that cause disease or are products of disease e.g. pus
• Consultation
  • Homeopaths begin detailed examination of patients' history: physical, mental and emotional states, life circumstances and any physical or emotional illness
  • Similum:
    • Translation of information into a complex formula of mental, physical symptoms with likes, dislikes, innate predispositions and body type
    • Creates a totality of symptoms
  • Choice of therapy using Provings
    • by matching a single preparation to the similum
    • In clinical homeopathy: combinations of preparations based on various symptoms of an illness
• Provings
  • A method where the profile of a homeopathic preparation is determined
  • Usually with lengthy records of self-experimentation
  • Uses both Repertories and Materia medica
  • Repertories
    • Reference books where homeopathics are indexed and Selected based on the totality of the patient's symptoms, personal traits, physical and psychological state, life history
  • Materia medica
    • Collection of "drug pictures" organised alphabetically
    • Describe the symptom patterns associated with individual preparations
• How and Why Homeopathy Works (From a homeopathic perspective)
  • Water Memory
    • water 'remembers' the substances mixed in it, and transmits the effect of those substances when consumed.
  • Theoretical Physics: Quantum Entanglement , Quantum nonlocality, theory of relativity and chaos theory
    • Use of abstract concepts in Physics theories to explain how and why the preparations work
• Homeopathic Potency
  • Hormesis: Higher dilutions or higher potency produce stronger medicinal effects
  • BUT: Physicist Robert L Park:
    • " since the least amount of substance in a solution is 1 molecule, in a 30cc solution requires 10^60, a container has to be 30billion times the size of the earth"
    • to get one molecule of substance in 30Xpills, 2 billion pills have to be consumed, which would also contain a thousand tons of lactose

Is Homeopathy Efficacious?

• Explanation of Perceived Effects
  • Placebo Effect: Intensive consultation process and expectations for the homeopathic preparations may cause effects
  • Therapeutic effect of consultation: Care, concern and reassurance a patience experiences with a compassionate caregiver has positive effect on feelings of well-being
  • Unassisted Natural Healing: Time and body's ability to heal itself
  • Unrecognised Treatments: Unrelated food, exercise, environmental agent or treatment for a different ailment.
  • Regression toward the mean: Some disease are cycical and symptoms vary over time, and correct timing of homeopathic visits may attribute homeopathics with improvement
  • Non-homeopathic treatment: Patients may receive standard medical care at same time as homeopathic treatment
  • Cessation of unpleasant treatment: Patients may stop medical treatement like surgery or drugs that can cause unpleasant side-effects.
• "Scientific" Positive results usually the result of
  • chance
  • flawed research methods
  • reporting Bias
• Warnings from health organizations
  • WHO: comes with warning against the use of homeopathy to treat severe diseases such as HIV and malaria
  • US: CFI's (Center for Inquiry) proposal to FDA
    • Testing for homeopathic products The FDA will mandate that all homeopathic products on the market to perform and pass safety and efficacy tests equivalent to those required of non-homeopathic drugs.
    • Labeling for homeopathic products To avert misleading label that the product is regulated by the FDA, all homeopathic products will be required to have prominent labels stating: 1) the products claimed active ingredients in plain English, and 2) the product has not been evaluated by the FDA for either safety or effectiveness.
    • Regular consumer warnings Encouraged by the FDA's recent warning of the ineffectiveness of homeopathic products, CFI urged the FDA to issue regular warning to the consumers in addition to warning during public health crises and outbreaks.
  • Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (March 2015)
    • There is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective for treating health conditions.
    • Homeopathy should not be used to treat health conditions that are chronic, serious, or could become serious.
    • People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness.
    • People who are considering whether to use homeopathy should first get advice from a registered health practitioner. Those who use homeopathy should tell their health practitioner, and should keep taking any prescribed treatments.
  • British National Health and Medical Research Council
  • Swiss Federal Health Office

History of Homeopathy

• 400BC - Hippocrates used small dose of mandrake root to treat mania despite knowing it causes mania in large doses
• 16th Century - Paracelsus declared small doses of "what makes a man ill also cures him"
• 1796 - Coined by Samuel Hahnemann and dogma based on his doctrine of like cures like (similia similibus curentur), First use of the word appeared in print in 1907
• 18th and 19th Century - Mainstream medicine use of methods
  • bloodletting
  • Purging
  • Complex Mixtures: Venice treacle uses 64 substances including opium, myrrh and viper's flesh
• 19th Century - For and Against
  • For Homeopathy: Most popular when homeopathic institutions, colleges and practitioners sprang up in US and Europe.
    • 1835 - First homeopathic school in the US
    • 1844 - The American Institute of Homeopathy was established
    • 1900 - 22 colleges, 15000 practitioners in US
  • Against Homeopathy
    • 1843 - Sir John Forbes (Physician to Queen Victoria) - extremely small doses of Homeopathy are useless and "an outrage to human reason"
    • 1853 - James Young Simpson: "No poison, however strong or powerful, the billionth or decillionth of which would in the least degree affect a man or harm a fly"
    • 1842 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. 's essay: "Homeopathy and its Kindred Delusions"
    • 1867 - French Homeopathic society observed most practitioners were abandoning the practice and no longer defend it.
    • 1920 - Last Homeopathic school in US closed down
• 20th Century - Revival
  • 1938 - US's Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 recognised homeopathic preparations as durgs
  • 1950s - 75 Pure homeopaths
  • 1970s - Sales of homeopathic companies increased 10 fold
  • 2007 - Sales of over the counter homeopathic medicines $2.7 billion

Other Related Treatments and Practices

• Isopathy
  • invented by Johann Joseph Wilhelm Lux in 18302
  • e.g. Nosodes are made from things that cause the disease or are products of the disease such as pus.
  • Used in Homeopathic vaccines
• Flower Preparations
  • Homeopathics are prepared in 'gentler' ways without succusion
  • Placing of flowers in water and exposing them to sunlight
  • e.g. Bach flower remedies
• Veterinary Homeopathy
  • Used by Vets
  • Endorsed in the UK by Faculties of Homeopathy in universities or British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons
• Electrohomeopathy
  • Treatment devised by Count Cesare Mattei
  • different "colors" of electricity used to treate cancer
• Homeoprophylaxis
  • Promotion of homeopathic alternatives to vaccines
• Radionics

Related Ideas with Homeopathy

• Pseudo-Science
• Fringe Science
• Types of Fraud