Homeopathy from Energy Matters

Stop Fluoride being added to drinking water Petition

2009-03-24T11:08:00.002Z

sign the petition to the Prime Minister to Stop Fluoride being added to drinking water, both bottled and taphttp://petitions.number10.gov.uk/AntiFluoridation/

A Farm for the Future - Watch on BBC2 iPlayer

2009-02-21T13:46:00.002Z

A fantastic programme on farming for the future!

Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family's farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key.

With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family's wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year's high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is.

Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low-energy future.

Watch the episode here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hs8zp/Natural_World_20082009_A_Farm_for_the_Future/

Broadcast on:
BBC Two, 8:00pm Friday 20th February 2009
Duration:
50 minutes
Available until:
7:49pm Tuesday 17th March 2009

Mercury pollution treaty proposed

2009-02-21T13:33:00.001Z

World governments have agreed to crack down on mercury pollution.

Environment ministers meeting in Nairobi have initiated a process that should end in a legally binding, international treaty.

The landmark decision was taken by more than 140 countries attending the governing council of the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).

Mercury compounds can be damaging to the central nervous systems of humans and animals.
Unep's Executive Director, Achim Steiner, said: "Unep has, for some seven years, co-ordinated and contributed to an intense scientific and policy debate on how best to deal with the issue of mercury.

"Today the world's environment ministers, armed with the full facts and full choices, decided the time for talking was over - the time for action on this pollution is now."

American position
The key factor enabling ministers to agree a way forward has been the willingness of the new US Obama administration to buy into a treaty.
In his address to the council on Monday, US delegate Daniel Reifsnyder, said mercury was the "most important global chemical issue facing us today", and required "immediate action".
He said that a half of all mercury deposition within the US now came from sources outside its borders, and that only international coordination could address the problem.

The previous Bush administration had steadfastly opposed legally binding measures to control mercury.

The ministers meeting in the Kenyan capital agreed an eight-point interim plan to help curb pollution while awaiting the full treaty. This included:
• Boosting the world-wide capability for nations to safely store stockpiled mercury
• Reducing the supply of mercury from, for example, primary mining of the heavy metal
• Carrying out awareness raising of the risks alongside projects to cut the use of mercury in artisanal mining where an estimated 10 million miners and their families are exposed
• Reducing mercury in products such as thermometers and high-intensity discharge lamps, and in processes such as some kinds of paper-making and plastics production

Mining issue
Mercury is a naturally occurring metal released into the environment from rocks and soils, and in volcanic eruptions. But human activities are continually adding more.
The vast majority of human emissions come from the burning of coal and the incineration of waste materials. And of particular concern down the years has been the use of mercury to mine gold.

Poor gold mine practices have elevated levels of mercury in the environment
Gold particles will stick to mercury when the precious metal is panned. The resulting amalgam can then be burnt to recover the gold.

The practice followed in some developing nations has resulted in huge quantities of the heavy metal being washed into the environment, putting mine workers at risk.

One of the most common ways mercury affects people is in the organic form methylmercury.
Methylmercury attacks the central nervous system: symptoms include numbness and unsteadiness, tiredness, ringing in the ears, and problems with vision, hearing and speech.
It is a particular risk to pregnant women and their foetuses, infants, children, and people whose diet includes a lot of fish.

Animals and birds that prey on fish are also at risk, especially otters, mink, eagles and ospreys.
Mercury levels in Arctic ringed seals and beluga whales have also risen sharply in parts of Canada and Greenland.

Source: BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7902092.stm

Mass Homeopathy Treatment in Cuba

2009-02-03T11:05:00.002Z

An incredible 2.5 million people were treated in Cuba with a homeopathic vaccine against Leptospirosis. The outbreak of Leptospirosis is an annual occurrence following flooding in the region due to hurricanes. The results were amazing say attendees at the Cuban conference at which the results were revealed.

A scientist described Leptospirosis as:
"Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects humans and animals.It is caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira. In humans it causes a wide range of symptoms, and some infected persons may have no symptoms at all. Symptoms of leptospirosis include high fever, severe headache, chills, muscle aches, and vomiting, and may include jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), red eyes, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, or a rash. If the disease is not treated, the patient could develop kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, and respiratory distress. In rare cases death occurs."

The Cuban's have been doing their best to alleviate the suffering that results from the Leptospirosis epidemic in which over 2,000 people get infected and some of whom die. The numbers of infections have been increasing year on year. Because the cost of producing the allopathic vaccine is very high, Cuba only inoculates a small percentage of the people likely to be infected. That still costs them £2.2 million.

As Cuba gets no help from the US it also has the benefit of not being under the grip of the multi national pharmaceutical companies that would normally not allow such a large scale homeopathic programme to go ahead.

By using a homeopathic prophylaxis the entire population of two of the major areas that get affected by Leptospirosis were inoculated. That amounted to 2.5 million people given two doses at a cost of just £130,000.

The results were that "within 2 weeks after Aug 2007, the rising lines literally dropped off the chart to ZERO-Ten infections only! Yes.Near-zero infections, zero deaths from leptospirosis after Aug 2007.And in 2008, no deaths, infections less than 10 a month," said an amazed attendee of the conference as the charts were being revealed on the stage.

Source: http://www.healthypages.co.uk/newsitem.php?news=5951

Vaccination – Protecting our Freedom to choose

2008-06-09T18:11:00.002Z

Keen to have the right to choose whether a child has vaccinations? A Labour MP has recently suggested forcing all children to be vaccinated otherwise they cannot attend school and parents should not receive child benefits. This is such an important health issue – add your signature and pass this link on to friends, family and patients to safeguard our right to choose.

Sign the petition

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/forcedvaccines/

The Truth About Homeopathy - Dispelling the MYTHS that Surround it - Louise Mclean, Editor, Zeus Information Service

2008-05-30T09:51:00.005Z

In this article, I would like to dispel a plethora of myths surrounding homeopathy which have been used to discredit this highly efficacious healing art and science. Homeopaths are given few opportunities in the media to defend their profession, so a lot of misconceptions abound. The medical profession in general presents a fierce and blinkered opposition, yet as Big Pharma is learning of all sorts of amazing cured cases, they are determined to stamp out competition via EU regulation.

Myth No. 1 - Homeopathic medicines cure nothing.
Homeopathy works by stimulating the body's OWN healing mechanisms, through like for like. A substance that would cause symptoms in a healthy person can be used to cure the same symptoms in a sick person by giving a minute, highly potentised dose of that substance acting as a catalyst to jump start their own healing mechanisms. Everyone of us has our own natural innate healing powers. All that is needed is the correct stimulus to kick start it. In healthy people this may just be rest and good food but many people become 'stuck' in their physical, emotional or mental illness and cannot recover. Of course there are different levels of health and the choice of potency given should reflect that. Low potencies are given for very physically ill people and higher for those whose problems are emotional or of the mind. Homeopathy is very successful in treating emotional problems such as stress, anxiety and fears.

Myth No 2 - Homeopathic medicines are just water
Homeopathic medicines are NOT made using only dilution. Dilution alone would do nothing whatsoever. Many homeopaths are getting tired of reading this highly inaccurate reporting in the media. All homeopathic medicines are made by a process of dilution and SUCCUSSION (potentisation through vigorous shaking - 100 shakes between each potency - i.e. between a 1c and a 2c, between a 2c and a 3c potency, between a 3c and a 4c, etc. etc.) Most homeopathic medicines can be bought in either 6c or 30c from Boots or from health shops. Higher potencies of 200c and 1m (1000c) can be obtained only from homeopathic pharmacies. Succussion is nowadays done by machines, originally by hand. Succussion brings out the formative intelligence of the substance and imprints it upon the 60% distilled water + 40% alcohol medium used to make homeopathic medicines - alcohol acting as a preservative.

Myth No. 3 - homeopathic medicines are unscientific
Homeopathic medicines undergo a scientific 'Proving' where a control group of 50+ healthy volunteers ('Provers') are instructed to keep taking a remedy under trial until they develop symptoms which they must record in detail. Substances that have been rigorously tested include nearly everything on the Periodic Table - metals, minerals and gases as well as plants and even things like snake venom.

The Provers are given a bottle of a new remedy being tested in the 30c potency and must keep taking it until they develop symptoms, which must be carefully recorded and then submitted to a database. The Provers must be healthy and symptom-free to start with so that the symptoms they experience are new ones CAUSED by the remedy.

They must keep a careful daily note of what happens and not discuss it with any of the other Provers. Whatever symptoms the Provers all experienced in common become the black type symptoms of the remedy which are then added to the Materia Medica of homeopathic medicines and Homeopathic Repertory (encyclopedia of symptoms). Thus the curative indications of a remedy are obtained for clinical use.

Symptoms have also been obtained through historical records of accidental poisonings, such as Arsenic and Belladonna. For example, poisoning by Arsenic causes vomitting, diarrhoea, restlessness, anxiety and extreme chill. Therefore you might get a patient in this state (possibly after food poisoning) and Arsenicum in a homepathic tablet will quickly alleviate them.
There are more than 4,000+ homeopathic medicines including nearly everything on the periodic table. But of course all of the remedies tested have been diluted and succussed (potentised), so they are not toxic like modern drugs.

The Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory are extremely large books or divided into volumes. The Repertory is divided into sections in this order: Mind, Vertigo, Head, Eye, Vision, Ear, Hearing, Nose, Face, Mouth, Teeth, Throat, External Throat, Stomach, Abdomen, Rectum, Stool, Bladder, Kidney, Prostate Gland, Urethra, Urine, Male, Female, Larynx, Respiration, Cough, Expectoration, Chest, Back, Extremities, Sleep, Dreams, Chill, Fever, Perspiration, Skin, Generals. Obviously some sections are bigger than others!

In the various Repertories, remedies are listed alongside the full range of symptoms (rubrics) in abbreviated form - all information being systematically taken from Provings and clinical practice. Every human state of mind, emotions and body is listed. Symptoms that would mean nothing to a medical doctor can be looked up and the curative remedy found in these huge book. Homeopathy is a study of human nature, endlessly fascinating and how negative states of mind and emotions affect the physical body culminating in illness. Nowadays many homeopaths use computer software programmes which contain all this information.

Myth No. 4 - homeopathic practitioners receive inadequate training
In fact all qualified homeopathic practitioners undergo a four year training course at accredited Colleges, which includes Anatomy and Physiology, as well as Pathology and Disease, Materia Medica, Homeopathic Philosophy and study of the Homeopathic Repertory. Yet medical doctors and nurses treat after much shorter homeopathy courses. To be really good, you need to study intensively for about 10 years. Homeopathy is a lifetime's work and you never stop learning.

Myth No. 5 - there are no studies that prove homeopathy works
In the past 24 years there have been more than 180 controlled, and 118 randomized, trials into homeopathy, which were analysed by four separate meta-analyses. In each case, the researchers concluded that the benefits of homeopathy went far beyond that which could be explained purely by the placebo effect. Another meta-analysis found that 65 of the 89 trials analysed had produced an effect way beyond placebo (source WDDTY http://www.wddty.co.uk/ )
A study of 6500 patients at the Bristol Homeopathic hospital was conducted showing that over 70% of patients reported complete cure or significant improvement of their symptoms. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4454856.stm

A study on the properties of water was performed by Dr. Rustrum Roy. This paper provides an interdisciplinary base of information on the structure of liquid water.

The Structure Of Liquid Water; Novel Insights From Materials Research; Potential Relevance To Homeopathy
Rustum Roy1, W.A. Tiller2, Iris Bell3, M. R. Hoover4
Received: 2 August 2004 Revised: 6 September 2004 Accepted: 14
http://www.rustumroy.com/Roy_Structure%20of%20Water.pdf
http://www.infiniteconferencing.com/Events/nch/051607nch/recording-playback.html
Homeopathy can never be tested properly through conventional trials because each prescription is individualised as every person is unique. Therefore 10 people with arthritis, for example, may all need a different homeopathic medicine. So it is far from ideal to follow the allopathic trial paradigm to test homeopathy. In orthodox medicine trials, all are given the same medicine to be tested. In homeopathy all may be given different medicines!

Anybody who has an understanding of the principles of homeopathy can be left in no doubt that we are dealing with a scientific therapeutic method in the best possible sense: it is based on observation, facts and phenomena and follows the rules of inductive logic that can be tested in daily practice. It is a comprehensive and comprehensible mode of therapy, which in some countries is first line treatment for the whole range of acute and chronic conditions. It has been proven abundantly that it is superior in the treatment of epidemic diseases to allopathy.
It is amazing how people, who like to see themselves on the side of unprejudiced evaluation, can be so blinkered. People pass judgment on homeopathy who have never bothered to study it. Like any science it takes time to learn (especially to learn it correctly) and years of practice to master but the rewards for patients, practitioners and the NHS purse are great. Before those who preach pure science come down on therapies like homeopathy too heavily, they should ask themselves how many of the accepted treatments within the NHS have a scientific evidence base?

With every homeopathic medicine we know exactly the substance it was made from, unlike most modern drugs where we have no clue of the ingredients. This is ironic too as ALL natural health products, whether vitamin, mineral or food supplement must clearly state on the label every single ingredient. When we go to the supermarket or health food shop, we hold up the packet or bottle and read what is in the product, yet people happily swallow prescription drugs with no idea whatsoever what they have taken! They could contain cyanide or any poison and the patient would be none the wiser. With the new class of genetically modified drugs, such as the one used in the Northwick Park drug trial in London, the dangers of a massive allergic reaction, such as the drug testers experienced, are even greater.

Those, who claim to be scientists, should have the ability to at least try to understand different paradigms. If not, they look more like people who have settled on a comfortable view of the world which might soon look very outmoded indeed. As the great musician and conductor Sir Yehudi Menhuin once said: 'Homeopathy is one of the few specialised areas in medicine, which carries no disadvantages but only advantages.'

Regarding the Horizon programme on homeopathy, Prof. Madeleine Ennis was not involved in the Horizon test. The test was carried out by Wayne Turnbull at Guys hospital, London. It has been conceded that the Horizon test was not an exact replica of Ennis' successful trials. Many of his protocols were different. You can read at this link where he added in an ammonium chloride lysis step which would have ended up killing the very basophils that were such an integral part of the test. http://www.homeopathic.com/articles/view,55 Ennis' original test was replicated in 4 different labs in 4 different countries.

Dr. Peter Fisher's article in PubMed discusses the 'End of Homeopathy' editorial and meta-analysis published in the Lancet of 26th August 2005 and how nearly 100 successful studies that showed homeopathy worked were thrown out and only a few that were inconclusive were used. Dr. Fisher is the Queen's homeopathic physician and heads the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. (The vitriolic editorial was caused by the World Health Organisation bringing out a draft report in 2005 which was favourable towards homeopathy!)

"The final analysis which concluded that 'the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects' was based on just eight clinical trials of homeopathy. The Lancet's press release did not mention this, instead giving the impression that the conclusions were based on all 110 trials." "One of the most serious criticisms is the complete lack of transparency: we have no idea which eight trials were included in the final, damning, analysis." "The literature references are not given, nor any information on the diagnoses, numbers of patients, etc., nor can these be deduced from the article. Prof. Egger has refused several requests to disclose the identity of the eight trials. This is not even a matter of scientific method, but of natural justice: the accused has the right to know the evidence against him."

"The Lancet meta-analysis in 2005 of homeopathic trials was said to be based upon 110 placebo-controlled clinical trials of homeopathy and 110 clinical trials of allopathy, which were said to be matched but were in fact reduced to 21 trials of homeopathy and 9 of conventional medicine and further reduced to 8 and 6 trials."

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1375230

Other Responses from the Homeopathic Community on the Lancet Article
http://www.ontariohomeopath.com/Response2.htm

from WDDTY
http://www.zeusinfoservice.com/Articles/ShockingTruth.html

George Vithoulkas' 'Science of Homeopathy' is still considered an excellent exposition of the science.
http://www.wholehealthnow.com/books/science-of-homeopathy.html

More scientific studies:
http://www.vhan.nl/documents/ScientificReportECHNov04.pdf
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/4/1/7
http://www.positivehealth.com/research-list.php?subjectid=134

Myth No. 6 - homeopathic hospitals are a waste of money
There are 5 homeopathic hospitals in the UK - in London, Liverpool, Tunbridge Wells, Bristol and Glasgow. They cost the NHS about £6 million a year. Compare that to the £100 billion for the total 2008 annual NHS budget!! These homeopathic hospitals SAVE money for the NHS as the Smallwood report commissioned by Prince Charles has demonstrated.
http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/christopher_smallwood_s_report_on_integrated_health_180.html
At one of the earliest debates on the NHS Act 1948 the Government pledged that homoeopathy would continue to be available on the health service as long as there were "patients wishing to receive it and doctors willing to provide it". Many people who depend upon it are alarmed at the possibility that Homeopathy may no longer be available on the NHS. Since the passing of the NHS Act in 1948, a provision has always been made for people to be treated at homeopathic hospitals in the UK and until PCTs began to stop referring patients, there had indeed been long waiting lists, some 6 months or more.
See this letter sent out to all Primary Care Trusts in 2006 signed by a group of professors hostile to homeopathy and putting pressure on PCTs not to refer patients to the 5 homeopathic hospitals in the UK. They wrote the letter on NHS headed paper!
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/Baum%20letter.pdf

Myth No. 7 - Cure with homeopathy is simply the Placebo Effect.
When Prince Charles treats his farm animals at Highgrove with homeopathic medicines do they know that a remedy has been put in the water they drink? Farmers successfully use homeopathic medicines for their cows suffering from mastitis. Does a tiny baby know when their fever drops dramatically using Belladonna or Aconite, that they have been given a homeopathic medicine?! As anyone who has treated animals and babies with homoepathic medicines will tell you, homeopathy works even better on animals and babies than it does on adults! If proof were needed, this is it. Not placebo.

Perhaps the most striking research on homeopathy that goes some way to debunking the placebo argument is when homeopathic remedies are tested on live tissue in a petri dish or studies involving animals (mice in this case)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3208528.stm

Myth No. 8 - homeopathic medicines contain no molecules
Any remedy under a 12c or a 24x potency still contains the original molecules of the substance and this is known as Avogadro's number. These low potencies are most suitable for physical illness of long duration as well as to heal specific organs that are not functioning properly.
Myth No. 9 - 'Anecdotal Evidence' does not constitute scientific evidence!

Most medical, surgical procedures and drug usage are not backed by studies - only by anecdotal evidence. According to the US Government's Office of Technology Assessment (Congress of the United States, Office of Technology Assessment: Assessing the efficacy and safety of medical technologies. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1978), only 10-20% of all medical procedures and off-label drug usage are backed by clinical studies.

Strong anecdotal evidence among informed professionals is actually quite reliable - at least as reliable as clinical testing.

Many clinical tests come to diametrically opposed conclusions. You could say that the problem was discovered through anecdotal evidence - and merely confirmed through a peer reviewed study.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/peerReviewUnderTheSpotlight.php
The problem isn't with the use of anecdotal evidence. It's with the double standard applied by the establishment (medical and regulatory) that holds complementary medicine to an absurdly higher standard, allowing medical doctors to do pretty much whatever they want. If informed anecdotal evidence is allowable for 85% of all medical procedure and drug usage, why is alternative health held to an impossible 0% standard?
Millions of people worldwide testify that homeopathy cures their illnesses yet apparently that cannot be construed as 'evidence'.
If a person were to walk out of their house to the town centre and witness someone having their bag snatched or witness a car accident, then when they relay this information to the Police or to their friends and family, it is anecdotal evidence.

If someone go on holiday, stays at a nice hotel, eats delicious food, comes back home and relates the holiday to their friends, that is anecdotal evidence.
Does that mean that the above never happened? According to the detractors of complementary or alternative medicine, yes it does!

Millions of people have been cured of their diseases or afflictions using homeopathy, herbs, healing, vitamin supplements, special diets and on and on. Yet according to orthodox medicine all of these cures are anecdotal evidence and as such do not merit any further investigation, study, or validity. As far as orthodox medicine is concerned, these cures never happened.

Yet what if someone witnessed a car accident and the Police wanted them to make a statement? Would the statement in court be dismissed as anecdotal evidence? Would the police, even if they arrived at the scene of the accident to find the person still there comforting the passengers or trying to help, say they had not been there and their evidence is non existent? I don't think so.
So how for so long have we put up with the top dogs in the medical establishment dismissing our cures as total nonsense, figments of our imagination, placebo cures, or outright lies?

How when millions are cured around the world using homeopathic medicines, can these cures be dismissed as unworthy of attention, simply 'anecdotal evidence'.

Orthodox medicine implies through this that all cures with alternative medicine are untrue or simply imagined. Even when all the evidence is put before them, they become angry and even aggressive, simply refusing to see or to listen.

All the case notes in the surgery show that Mr. A had arthritis for 5 years, had been on anti-flammatory medicines, yet after homeopathic treatment for 6 months, the arthritis is cured. The reaction of the doctor is either disbelief or an attitude where they will not talk about it and do not want to know.

Of course there are some orthodox doctors who practise acupuncture, homeopathy or herbs themselves and who do believe that these therapies cured the patient but they are in the small minority.

It is always the top cancer specialists and professors whose lives and vested interests are the most challenged by the idea that anything other than pharmaceutical drugs or surgical interventions can cure the patient.

Yet pharmaceutical drugs cure nothing. They merely SUPPRESS the symptoms driving them deeper into the body of the patient.
Hence the eczema patient whose skin symptoms have been suppressed, goes on to develop asthma. The arthritic patient whose joint pains are suppressed, eventually will go on to develop heart disease.
The doctor makes no connection whatsoever that their drugs have created these deeper illnesses but just goes on to give the patient more and more powerful drugs, making the patient sicker still. Then when they die, they say, 'We did everything we could'. Yes and you killed the patient!
After homeopathic treatment, careful analysis is taken of the Direction of Cure of the patient's symptoms. Constance Hering was a converted skeptic of homeopathy. As a young man in Germany in the early nineteenth century, Hering had been assigned the task of reviewing Homeopathy because his medical mentor (a fervent anti-homeopath) had been asked by a publisher to write a book exposing homeopathy as unworthy. Having been given this task, Hering conducted a detailed study but concluded the opposite from the requested results! He was the first to talk about the Law of Cure which says that symptoms are cured from above down, from the inside out and in the reverse order of their appearance. This has stood the test of time in clinical experience. A simple example would be after a curative remedy is given for eczema all over the body, we would see the eczema start to move down and when it is only on the ankles, we know it is nearly cured.
The body is always intelligent. That is why the human race has survived. When a baby is conceived, Nature chooses the best genes from both parents in order to create a stronger, healthier human. If the parents are both taking drugs of any kind, whether legal or illegal, the health of the baby will be compromised.
If only doctors and scientists would study Nature, they would find all the answers and instead of going against it, learn from it. There is only one true science and that is the science of Nature.
The human race has survived because we all have an innate healing power in our bodies. In homeopathy for example, this is called the Vital Force. Homeopathy stimulates the vital force to heal the body, through like for like (using a potentised substance that would cause the symptoms but in a tiny dose acts as a catalyst for healing).
So in conclusion, there is no question that dismissing cures as Anecdotal Evidence through the use of natural medicine, is nothing more than a whitewash and a desperate means of suppressing the knowledge of those cures to the public as a whole.

Samuel Hahnemann
Hahnemann was a doctor but gave up his practice because he was appalled at the poisonous side effects of most available medicine. He started experimenting and did something rather novel - he took some quinine, while perfectly healthy. He observed that the effect on him was identical to a malarial attack: alternating fever with heat and chills. This is where homeopathy started: a substance, given to a healthy individual, causes symptoms. If given to someone who suffers those symptoms, it will thus neutralise the sickness.
After his observations on quinine, Hahnemann went on to test hundreds of substances on himself and willing, healthy volunteers, used the tested substances for matching symptoms in his patients and all the while kept accounts of detailed observations.
Of course, Hahnemann had an antecedent, still well-known today because all doctors still swear an oath to him to promise best medical practice: Hippocrates. Hippocrates stated that there were two laws of healing - the law of opposites (allopathy) and the law of similars (homeopathy). A Greek physician called Galen had laid these rules down in about 150 AD. Homeopathic theories are based on fixed principles of the Laws of Nature which do not change - unlike medical theories which are constantly changing! Homeopathy is both a science and an art.
Far from being ideas-based, this is completely evidence-based, empirical medicine an almost unique concept at the time. After some years of practicing like this, Hahnemann was still not satisfied. The substances he was using, while more effective than normal medical practice, were still having side effects. Or, if he reduced dosage too far, there was no effect. This is when he developed the concept of potentisation, the serial dilution that opponents of homeopathy deride.
Treating the Whole Person or Holistic Healing
We are not just a collection of parts to be fixed as doctors treat us but ALWAYS operating as a whole person ALL of the time. In other words medicines are chosen that treat the whole person and not just the part. This may seem strange to grasp and yet doesn't it in fact make total sense? Do we leave our sore throat on the desk of the physician as we leave the doctor's surgery? Or our arthritic knee behind. No, every single tiny function of our body operates as a WHOLE, all of the time. You cannot treat one thing and not affect the rest. That is why pharma drugs are so dangerous as for example, in treating a cancerous tumour, the medicine will affect and disturb the other systems of the body.

We are all energy beings. http://www.workingwithenergy.co.uk/energy_centres.htm
The electricity in our bodies transmits messages to all parts/systems of the body. Illness is caused when these messages are not getting through. All systems of the body are communicating with each other at all times. Water is a great conductor of electricity and it transmits the electrical current. This is how homeopathic mediums work - by communicating a current/pattern/frequency of energy via the whole human body to jump start the body's own inherent healing mechanisms.
Homeopathy treats different sorts of people with distinct characters and personalities as well as different physical looks and natures. It individualises each person and looks at their symptoms AS A WHOLE.

Is it not true that no two people are alike? That every person is unique? This is why you could line up 20 people with asthma and they might all need a different homeopathic medicine. There are in fact about 250 homeopathic medicines for asthma but the correct one for each person must be selected taking into consideration such things as what makes the condition better or worse, what time of day it comes on, whether the person is hot or cold, worse for damp, need fresh air or prefer the windows closed and so on. You would be amazed how each person's symptoms are so different and yet they have all been diagnosed with asthma.

If people want to improve their looks, homeopathy does just that. When you are healthy and well, you obviously look better! Homeopathic practitioners believe in PREVENTION, having treatment can prevent illness rather than leaving it to the surgeon's knife. There are thousands of homeopathic medicines which treat every ailment known to man, truly the most wonderful science on this planet.

Many people buy self help books or think they can treat themselves with over the counter remedies. This is a short term solution. The reason is as stated above. You cannot treat individual symptoms without taking into consideration the rest of you! Only a qualified and experienced homeopath who will spend 1-2 hours taking your full medical history and all of your symptoms can prescribe the remedy that fits best. In other words if you have hayfever, the homeopath will take into consideration all other physical symptoms a as well as your personality, to come to the correct prescription. Itchy, watery, red eyes, worse morning and evening would be Sulphur but only if all the other things about you fit the Sulphur picture. You cannot prescribe for yourself as you cannot take all of it into consideration at once. So if for example you buy Natrum Mur. for your hayfever (which is also an excellent remedy for this), it may work for a bit if you are healthy but the hayfever will come back, will not be cured for good, because it was not the remedy that fitted best.

The only exception to this rule is in the treatment of first aid and even then it often has to be individualised. An example of when it does not is having a molar removed at the dentist. Firstly you would take Arnica for bruising of the gums, secondly Hypericum for the pain as the anaesthetic wears off (will remove pain completely), thirdly Ledum for injection and fourthly Calendula (the remedy not the cream!) for fast healing of the gums (or any other injury). Symphytum is the great healer of broken bones.

Homeopaths believe that illnesses manifest for three reasons: firstly they are genetically inherited from our parents, grandparents, forefathers. Secondly, they can be caused by an traumatic event such as death of a loved one, divorce, job loss - any event that has a serious impact upon the person. Thirdly they can be caused from drugs taken by our parents (passed onto the foetus) or by ourselves. There is also of course accidents and injury.
Inherited disease can be traced back to one or more of what homeopaths call MIASMS - these are syphilis, gonorrhoea, psora (scabies), tuberculosis and cancer. We are all a mix of all of these as especially TB, dates back thousands of years. However one or more of the miasms is uppermost in a person and is an important aspect of the case-taking to determine the appropriate medicines.

So many people are in total ignorance of the VAST amount of study needed to become an expert in this field. Also there are hundreds of homeopathic books only available at specialist bookshops, many printed in India where homeopathy is more popular than orthodox medicine.

Attacks on Homeopathy
After the ever increasing attacks on alternative medicine in the media and in particular homeopathy, once again Professor Edzard Ernst, the 'first professor of complementary medicine' (whose qualifications for the job are still in question) discredits homeopathy. Yet in an interview with Geoff Watts in 2003
http://www.studentbmj.com/issues/04/01/careers/25.php

entitled 'A Scientist in the Alternative Camp', Professor Ernst stated:
"Our family doctor in the little village outside Munich where I grew up was a homoeopath. My mother swore by it. As a kid I was treated homoeopathically. So this kind of medicine just came naturally. Even during my studies I pursued other things like massage therapy and acupuncture."

"As a young doctor I had an appointment in a homoeopathic hospital, and I was very impressed with its success rate. My boss told me that much of this success came from discontinuing mainstream medication. This made a big impression on me."

The truth is that homeopathy is getting ever more popular and the drugs companies are putting out their spin in overdrive through their science and media PR operation outlets to counteract this in any way they can.
The reason there is this incessant assault in the press against homeopathy is because Pharma wields enormous power over the media and because the popularity of homeopathy has been increasing due to side effects of modern medicine. Also, unlike other natural therapies, it is pills and in direct competition.

At leat six million people use complementary treatments each year in the UK, which offers clinically-effective and cost-effective solutions to common health problems faced by NHS patients.

Historical Facts
In view of the highly inaccurate reporting and vitriolic attacks in the recent press coverage on homeopathy, I would like to point out some little known historical facts concerning homeopathy.
The practice of homeopathic medicine flourished in both Europe and the US during the 1800s and early 1900s and was spectacularly popular with European royalty and the British aristocracy, American entrepreneurs, literary giants, and religious leaders.
John D. Rockefeller referred to it as 'a progressive and aggressive step in medicine' and was under homeopathic care throughout the latter part of his life living to 99 years of age. A strong advocate of homeopathy, major grants of between $300-$400 million he intended for homeopathic institutions were instead used for orthodox medical institutions in the early 1900s, under pressure from his son and his financial advisor, Frederick Gates. (Source Dana Ullman)
In the United States in the early 1900s there were 22 homeopathic medical schools and over 100 homeopathic hospitals, 60 orphanages and old people's homes and 1,000+ homeopathic pharmacies. Members of the American Medical Association had great animosity towards homeopathy after its formation in 1847 and it was decided to purge all local medical societies of physicians who were homeopaths. This purge was successful in every state except Massachusetts because homoepathy was so strong among the elite of Boston.

The AMA wanted to keep homoepaths out of their societies and discourage any type of association with homeopaths. In 1855 the AMA established a code of ethics which stated that orthodox physicians would lose their membership if they even consulted with a homeopath. If a physician lost his membership, it meant that in some States he no longer had a licence to practice medicine.

Drug companies were antagonistic towards homeopathy, collectively trying to suppress it. The medical journals they published were used as mouthpieces against homeopathy and in support of orthodox medicine.

At an AMA meeting, a respected orthodox physician said: 'We must admit that we never fought the homeopath on matters of principles; we fought him because he came into the community and got the business.' Economic issues played a major role in what was allowed to be practised.
Homeopathy attracted support from many of the most respected members of society in the US, such as William James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Louisa M. Alcott, Mark Twain, former American Presidents James Garfield and William McKinley. In Britain among its supporters were George Bernard Shaw, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, William Thackarey, Benjamin Disraeli, Yehudi Menuhin. Other famous supporters were Dostoevsky, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Mahatma Ghandi.

Nowadays, celebrities using and supporting homeopathy are many and include among others : Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tina Turner, Whoopi Goldberg, Pamela Anderson, Jane Fonda, Cher, Rosie O'Donnell, Martin Sheen, the Chilli Peppers, Jane Seymour, Lesley Anne Warren, Mariel Hemingway, Lindsay Wagner, Paul McCartney, Axl Rose, Linda Gray, Susan Blakely, Michael Franks, Cybil Sheppard, Dizzy Gillespie, Vidal Sassoon, Angelica Houston, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, David Beckham, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, Cliff Robertson, Jerry Hall, Diane von Furstenberg, Ashley Judd, Naomi Judd, Olivia Newton-John, Julianna Margulies, JD Salinger, Blythe Danner, Pat Riley (coach of the Miami Heat). The list of famous people who supported homeopathy is endless.....

See 'The Homeopathic Revolution' by Dana Ullman MPH http://www.homeopathicrevolution.com/
The aristocratic patronage of homeopathy in the UK extending well into the 1940s and beyond can be easily demonstrated. In the Homeopathic Medical Directories there are lists of patrons of the dispensaries and hospitals. They read like an extract from Burke's or Debrett's.

(See A History of Homeopathy in Britain by Peter Morrell, Honorary Research Associate in the History of Medicine, Staffordshire University, UK.)

www.homeopathyhome.com/reference/articles/ukhomhistory.shtml
Homeopathy is practised nowadays in countries all over the world and is especially popular in France, South America and India where there are around 250,000 homeopathic doctors! In a recent Global TGI survey where people were asked whether they trust homeopathy the following percentages of people living in urban areas said Yes: 62% in India, 58% Brazil, 53% Saudi Arabia, Chile 49%, United Arab Emirates 49%, France 40%, South Africa 35%, Russia 28%, Germany 27%, Argentina 25%, Hungary 25%, USA 18%, UK 15%.

Louise Mclean
Zeus Information ServiceAlternative Views on Healthhttp://www.zeusinfoservice.com/ Copyright © Louise Mclean 2008

£10 VortexHealing® Energy Healing Taster Session - Friday 18th April

2008-04-11T09:13:00.007Z

VortexHealing® Energy Healing £10 Taster Session

VortexHealing® is a Divine healing art from the Merlin lineage, designed to transform the roots of emotional consciousness, heal the physical body, and awaken spirit within the human heart.

Friday 18th April from 12pm til 2pm @

MamaOshun
109a Dyke Road
Seven Dials
Brighton
BN1 3JE

To book a slot call into the shop or contact Nicki on 07887 838 481 or nicki@energy-matters.net

Suffer from Hay fever? Fed up with itching & sneezing?

2008-03-29T21:28:00.008Z

Each year 15-20% of the UK population suffers from hayfever. Hayfever (Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis) is an inflammatory condition mainly caused by grass and other plant pollens in the air. Symptoms can vary from mild to debilitating, these include sneezing, a blocked or runny nose and itchy eyes. There may also be a feeling of tightness and wheezing in the chest. Standard treatments include anti-histamine tablets, decongestant nasal sprays and saline eye drops, however these do not always give good results and can cause side effects, more-over they do not stop the hayfever from recurring the next season.

Grass pollen is the most common antigen, (foreign body), and it is around during the spring and summer months. Pollen stimulates the immune system to generate antibodies. This reaction causes the mucus membranes to release histamine and other substances, which are normally produced in response to infection. Common symptoms are watery discharge from the nose and eyes sneezing and irritability. Hay fever sufferers often have a feeling of being 'wiped out' for weeks on end.

Conventional treatment offers temporary relief and cause side effects of drowsiness and effects co-ordination. In severe cases steroid preparations are prescribed, these can depress more important immune function, and tend to deepen the imbalance in the natural defence system.

Have you ever tried homeopathy?

Homeopathic hay fever remedies can bring effective relief in addressing the acute symptoms. However in more chronic cases will require the expertise of a professional homeopath as there will be an underlying weakness that will need to be treated.

Try some homeopathic hay fever remedies for yourself

Homeopathy works on the principle of “let likes be treated by likes” so the remedy chosen will be based upon the symptoms shown. There are around thirty homeopathic remedies to treat symptoms of hay fever, but here are the most common ones with their associated symptoms. Choose the one that’s most suited to your symptoms:
Arsenicum album: Burning, watery, runny nose with a tickling feeling, redness, worse on the right side. There maybe asthmatic breathing. Blocked nose at night. The person may feel chilly, restless, anxious, and is often exhausted.

Allium Cepa: Burning and itching eyes. Lots of sneezing and a runny nose. Tickling back of throat, a dry hacking cough. Symptoms are worse in the evening, damp weather and indoors and better for cold drinks

Euphrasia: Burning, hot tears and with swollen lids. Coughs up mucus in morning; slightly phlegmy cough during the daytime. Lots of sneezing, runny, blocked nose. Symptoms are worse in windy weather, indoors, and evening time.

Pulsatilla: Itchy, lots of acrid tears - burn and want rubbing constant. thick yellow / green, blocks in stuffy room, evenings. Symptoms are worse for grasses, seasonal change, hot days and direct sunshine in eyes.

Sabadilla: Eyes water when sneeze. Violent sneezing. Streaming nose and can itch. Roof of mouth itchy.

Take one 12c or 3oc tablet three times per day for several days, if that does not help, try another or consult a homeopath. Once you feel some improvement, continue by taking a remedy when you feel you need to.

The best way to treat hay fever is to take homoeopathic remedies before the season, as a way of boosting the immune system. Consult a professional homeopath to get ready for the spring and be prepared with your own individually tailored homeopathic remedies best suited to you.

Creating your own basic homeopathic kit - Hove Factually March 2008

2008-03-06T20:03:00.016Z

Top 5 remedies to have at home

Homeopathy is great for treating all the family as it is natural, non-suppressive and non-toxic. So it is easy to see why this system of alterative medicine is an appealing alternative to conventional medicine. Homeopathy works with the body and stimulates healing energies. Homeopathy uses an individualised approach to treating illness, which means that if a room full of people suffering with headaches, potentially each case would require a different remedy.

There are well over 2,000 homeopathic remedies available to maintain and restore good health. I have listed some remedies that are must haves in the home homeopathic kit.

Aconite - Number 1 remedy for nipping colds in the bud. The remedycan be helpful if taken in the early stages of a cold, fevers and inflammations. Illness from exposure to the cold dry wind. Head feels full and heavy. Good for fevers, where a person has a red face with one red cheek and one pale cheek. The person is hot or burning, with cold sweat. Have an Unquenchable thirst for cold water.

Arnica - Arnica is a fantastic remedy to have in the home as it can help with lots of first aid situations. It will help to reduce bruising and swelling, soreness and bleeding after injuries, accidents, surgery and dental work. It is great for delayed shock, when a person insists they are fine and thinks that nothing is wrong. People needing Arnica can’t bear to be touched and might want to be left alone. The face will be hot and the body cool.

Arsenicum - A good remedy for food poisoning. The person will be exhausted and want to lie down. They don’t want to be left on their own; may have a fear of death if alone. Pains and discharges are burning and are relieved by heat. They will have an unquenchable thirst. Are chilly and worse for the cold. Better in the open air.

Belladonna - The no 1 remedy for fevers. The onset of symptoms are sudden and violent and with burning heat. Eyes are glassy and the pupils are dilated. There maybe delirium or even hallucinations; also a good remedy for sun stroke. There are mostly right sided symptoms. Pains are intense, pounding, sharp, shooting or throbbing and come and go suddenly, with heat and inflammation, e.g. ear ache, tonsillitis. A rapid pulse. Worse around 3pm and midnight. May want lemonade.

Gelsemium - Great flu remedy which is characterised by aching muscles, chills up and down spine, lethargy, sleepy ad dizzy; better from sweating and urinating. There is also heaviness in the head and eyes and the eyelids might droop.

Taking remedies
Dissolve a tablet under your tongue without water. Don’t eat or drink for 15 minutes either side of taking a remedy. In a first aid situation or a very painful situation take one dose every ten minutes until improvement. For acute illnesses, e.g. Fevers, take one dose each hour for 6 hours.

Homeopathic remedies do not cause any harmful side effects, so why not start off your home homeopathic kit with Arnica. Chronic conditions, e.g. asthma, skin diseases or re-current complaints and emotional or behavioral problems should be treated by a qualified homeopath.

Nicki Hutchinson is a homeopath and a Subscriber Member of the Society of Homeopaths. She is a student mentor at the Practical College of Homeopathy, London and has a homeopathic practice at the Back 2 Balance Clinic, Hove, East Sussex. Visit her website at www.energy-matters.net

Read the article here

BBC Health Website Deletes Complementary Medicine

2008-02-28T18:03:00.004Z

Last week the controllers of BBCHealth www.bbc.co.uk/health, the health section on one of the most accessed websites in the world, decided to remove all coverage of complementary medicine! They used to have substantial coverage with over 40 pages on this subject covering all the major therapies, their pros and cons, evidence for their effectiveness, how to find a qualified practitioner, etc.

However the site has in recent months been sent a deluge of letters and emails claiming that complementary therapies such as homeopathy and cranial osteopathy should be removed. As a result large chunks of this part of the site were simply removed overnight and now, following recent cutbacks, it was decided that, rather than update this part of the site, it should simply be removed altogether!

It may seem incredible that a public service site this prominent can deem complementary medicine so insignificant that it no longer warrants any coverage other than the odd news story. This is despite the fact that complementary medicine is used favourably by a significant proportion of the population (recent surveys have estimated that around 1 in 5 Britons use it at some point or other) and that increasing numbers of people are now seeking to train in these therapies.

However, as the 'quack busters' become more organised and active, evidence of the backlash against complementary medicine is appearing all over the place - such as the removal of PCT funding for homeopathy, the threatened closure of the homeopathic hospitals, many negative news stories in the press and so on.
Rather than taking a reasoned view and considering the evidence from good research studies on complementary medicine some groups seem simply hell bent on trying to 'stamp out' complementary medicine in any way possible. The BBCi removal of complementary medicine coverage (which has been in place for almost 15 years!) is one example.

If you believe information pages on it should be returned to BBCi, please, please take just a minute to express your views using their online comment form at:

www.bbc.co.uk/feedback

to make your view known. As a public service company they have to listen to your views so your email will make a difference. Apparently for all the many letters and emails that they received that were against complementary medicine they only received a handful in support. Therefore if you are in support please let them know so they may revise their thinking on this subject.

Please act as soon as possible and pass on these details to anyone else you know who may also be willing to write in support of complementary medicine.

Original source: Read article here

Post Christmas Detox - Feb 2008, Hove Factually

2008-02-12T20:26:00.000Z

Now that the festive indulgence is over, you might have less energy, feel ‘sluggish’ and experience disturbed sleep. Homeopathic remedies can help by supporting you to spring clean your system, putting a spring back in your step!

The body becomes toxic from external and internal sources; such as smoking, caffeine, air pollution, amalgam fillings, chemical residues on food, water, paints drugs and vaccinations. Our thoughts and emotions can also be toxic.

The body systems that help our bodies to detox are the bowel, liver, kidneys and lymphatic system. Depending upon your particular complaint, one or all of these systems may need some support in the detoxification process. In chronic and complex cases, it is best to consult a qualified homeopath to minimise the side-effects of detoxing.

Two great homeopathic detox remedies are Nux Vomica and Sulphur. Homeopaths use these remedies in combination. It is important to clear toxicity as it can prevent a person from returning to optimum health.

What can be expected from a homeopathic detox?
People can experience different effects depending upon their level of toxicity. Some people get a cold, have a mild fever or diarrhoea; these are ways of getting rid of the toxins. And others say that they generally feel better!

Here are some ways you can help your body detox:

1. Drink water

It is essential to drink at least 1.5 litres of water each day. 70% of our body is made up of water. Drinking water also helps to flush out toxins from our system. It is recommended that you avoid caffeine (also found in chocolate, and carbonated drinks).

2. Reducing your coffee intake
Do you find it hard to get going in the mornings, but are fine once you have had some caffeine? Withdrawal from caffeine can be unpleasant due to withdrawal headaches, but a few doses of Nux Vomica can help treat the headaches and help reduce the caffeine cravings. It also helps support the liver and is suited to those people who crave stimulants, who are stressed, irritable and wake up feeling unrefreshed.

3. Quit Smoking
Often the reason that smokers can’t give up cigarettes is because when they try, they feel more irritable and emotional than usual and have headaches; this is because the body is beginning to detoxify. Homeopathic remedies such as Tabacum and Nicotinum can help reduce the cravings. Remedies such as Arsenicum and Gelsemium can help the nervousness, anxiety and irritability associated with quitting. Remedies such as Ignatia and Lobellia support the lungs to help with cough or shortness of breath, difficult breathing and the sensation of a heavy chest from smoking.

4. A healthy diet
Refined and processed foods, hydrogenated fats and sugars should be avoided whilst detoxing. Eat a diet of fresh vegetables (preferably organic) and unprocessed foods.

5. Herbs
Milk Thistle (Carduus Mar) is a great herb to support the liver, kidneys and spleen during a detox.

It is advisable to see a professional homeopath to be guided through a detox programme, as your system may need some support before and after taking the remedies.

If you would like more information or advise on detoxing please contact me on nicki@energy-matters.net

Read the article in full here

The birth of Ben Goldacre and his Bad Science

2008-01-18T22:27:00.000Z

“In 2003, the new anti-quackery, pro-industry campaign, which I have called The Lobby, was in place….‘Goldacre’, came on stream. Ben Goldacre, an apparently practising medic with next to no experience in journalism, was given a plum job on the Guardian…..a paper which, over the years, has turned steadily in support of multinational corporations, should give the untried Goldacre a prominent place on its pages. His ‘Bad Science’ column quickly became an influential springboard for the anti-quackery, pro-industry, drug company arguments now so familiar to large numbers of irritated Guardian readers.

However, all the superficial make-weight arguments, the scientific falsifications and the hand-carved character assassination built in to all quackbuster production models, were there in the mischievous campaigns ignited by Goldacre. And, inevitably, all the same targets were set up to be knocked down; Patrick Holford’s peace was about to be shattered.

The object of the essay is not to argue the correct position on all the issues raised, but to describe the position argued by Goldacre and his skeptical friends, and so place him within an understandable area of social campaigning and power.

Away from specific issues of science, thinking sociologically, it is easy to comprehend the linkage between HealthWatch, Sense About Science, the Science Media Centre and industrial chemical and pharmaceutical interests, without viewing secret documents or finding whistle blowers. All refute multiple chemical sensitivity; all refute ME and CFS as organic illnesses. All support the government stand on MMR. There is an absolute denial of damage done by MMR – in fact, of any adverse reactions to any pharmaceutical products. Electro-magnetic fields (EMF) do not damage health. None of the organisations or individuals accepts nutritional ideas that might conflict with pharmaceutical medicine. All characters and organisation are vehemently against homoeopathy. All CAM is said to be quackery.

All characters and organisations are in support of in- vitro fertilisation and other new reproductive technologies. All believe that the media have to be stopped from publishing irrational information. GM technology and all other high-tech ‘advances’ such as head transplants are to be encouraged and even forced upon, a reluctant population.

After almost 20 years of studying quackbusters, two things are clear to me. First, whatever the public appearance or acknowledgement, they are usually in touch with each other, and behind their front of independence they toe a clear collective line.

In quackbusting circles, you can certainly tell a man, or a women for that matter, by the company they keep, and this is clearly true of Goldacre. The next section of this essay looks at some of his views and received opinions, while pointing out who else shares them. For those who consider that this is ‘guilt by association’, I can only agree. If, however, we consider the views directly expressed in his writing as ‘evidence’, we are dealing with something more than association. Anyway, I have always had a relatively common-sense approach to these matters: if it cocks its leg against a tree to piss, barks and sniffs round bitches, it’s probably a dog.

Ben Goldacre is 31, a medical doctor whom it is said works as a junior doctor in a London hospital. He is also a journalist penning, since 2003, a weekly ‘Bad Science’ column in the Guardian.

He studied medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford, where it is said he edited the student magazine Isis. He left Oxford in 1995 with a First. He was an honorary lecturer for a year, at the University of Milan, doing research at the same time into neuroimaging on MRI brain scans, examining language and executive function. Following this, he studied clinical medicine at University College London (UCL) graduating as a doctor in 1998. He claims to have paid his way through medical school by repairing vintage 1970s analogue modular music synthesisers.

After working for a short time as a registrar, he was funded by the British Academy to do a Masters degree in philosophy at King’s College, University of London.

Goldacre is often self-depreciatingly modest when describing himself, although he is always at pains to stress his serious academic credentials, describing himself on his website ¹ as ‘a serious fcuk-off academic ninja’. However, the only way in which academic status can be measured is by the number of peer-reviewed papers or other notable publications such as books. Despite his claim to be a serious academician, and despite the fact that a number of his PR puffs say that he ‘has published academic papers in neuroscience’, there is no record on the significant data bases of his having co-authored more than one academic paper, apparently written while he was a visitor at Milan University. It should be pointed out that the un-provable engorgement of academic credentials is one of the major points of criticisms he addresses when writing his quackbusting articles about individuals.

(1)www.badscience.net

Goldacre is, he says, a shameless geek² who has always looked like a boy rather than a grown adult. In photographs he has the naïve, punky look of a television chef. One blurb says that he ‘appears regularly on Radio 4 and TV while attending obscure geek science and arts events. He is usually ranting about the public misunderstanding of science. He cycles everywhere and eats his greens.’

(2) At the kindest, this is defined as: ‘an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity,’ or ‘The definition most common among geeks themselves is: "one who is primarily motivated by passion," indicating somebody whose reasoning and decision making is always first and foremost based on his personal passions rather than things like financial reward or social acceptance. Geeks do not see the typical "geeky" interests as interesting, but as objects of passionate devotion. The idea that the pursuit of personal passions should be the fundamental driving force to all decisions could be considered the most basic shared tenet among geeks of all varieties. Geeks consider such pursuits to be their own defining characteristic.’ At its worst, however, the appellation could mean a circus geek — performers at carnivals who swallow various live animals, live insects, and so forth. Sometimes this would extend to biting the heads off of snakes, chickens, or other living animals. We leave it to you to decide what Ben means by being a Geek, one alternative is definitely ruled out, that of being ‘A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest.’ Goldacre is never outside the mainstream but always embedded deep within it.

Goldacre’s ‘Bad Science’ column in the Guardian claims to ‘debunk pseudoscientific nonsense in cosmetics adverts, alternative therapies, and flaky media science stories’. The column is disarmingly subjective, and often Goldacre publicly ‘wonders’ and ruminates, giving glimpses of an attractive but phoney uncertainty.

He has, his publicity claims, won numerous awards³, including ‘Best Freelancer’ at the Medical Journalists Awards 2006. Goldacre recently won ‘best feature’ at the Science Writers awards, for the second time. He has also received the HealthWatch award for ‘significant steps in improving the public's understanding of health issues’. All his awards have been given by organisations that are partially funded by the pharmaceutical industry or other corporate sources.

Read the article in full on Patrick Holford's website:
http://www.patrickholford.com/content.asp?id_Content=2187

Homeopathy seen as $650mn industry by 2010

2008-01-18T22:10:00.000Z

From correspondents in Delhi, India, 01:30 PM IST

The Indian homeopathy market is expected to top Rs.26 billion ($650 million) by 2010 and outpace the growth of pharmaceutical industry in the country, says a study by a leading industry chamber.

'Users of homeopathy are multiplying not only within the country, but throughout the world as it roots out aliments for good,' says the study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), released Sunday.

The market of this traditional medicine in India, estimated around Rs.12.5 billion, would continue to grow at around 25-30 percent, against 13-15 percent for the pharmaceuticals industry, the study says.

In the year 2006-07, about 50 million people opted for homeopathy. This number would exceed 100 million by the end of 2010, according to the study.

Citing reasons for the growth of country's homeopathy market Assocham President Venugopal N. Dhoot said: 'It is not only effective in treating chronic aliments like respiratory diseases, arthritis, diabetes and thyroid problems to name a few, but without any side effects.'

'Also patients derive utmost satisfaction due to better consultation with the physician at a highly affordable cost,' he added.

Not only in the country, but also across the globe the homeopathy market has has expanded and crossed a whopping Rs.135 billion, growing at the rate of no less than 25 percent. Out of this, the French homeopathy market has a lion's share of about Rs.45 billion, the study says.

'One of the biggest reasons for its escalation in market size both in the country and globally is that homeopathic treatment is easily accessible online to over 10 million patients across the country and in 95 countries globally,' added Dhoot.

Currently India has over 400,000 registered homeopaths giving their services in 2,860 hospitals, with a total of 45,720 beds, providing traditional Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy besides 22,100 dispensaries of other traditional medicine.

The country churns out no less than 13,000 homeopaths every year. The number of registered traditional medicine practitioners and homeopaths stands at 587,536, which include both institutionally and non-institutionally qualified.

Even though homeopathic drugs cost only a fraction of allopathic or even ayurvedic medicines, there is a huge gap between homeopathy and healthcare industry, due to the lack of hospitals and institutions.

'There are very few institutions for hospitalisation and that is where a lot of money comes from.'

'Moreover, the distribution of products in homeopathy is very poor. Homeopathy medicines are hardly available in 10-15 outlets in a city, compared to the reach of allopathic medicines,' concluded Dhoot.

Source: http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20071209/85184.htm

The Strange Case of Homeopathy - Psychology Today

2007-11-27T20:20:00.000Z

1994, NASA computer scientist Amy Lansky of Portola Valley, California, began wondering about her two-year-old son. Max knew the alphabet and could beat adults at memory games, but he barely spoke and, despite normal hearing, didn't seem to understand language. At preschool he was a loner. His main form of communication was poking people with his finger. Eventually, school officials urged Lansky to have him evaluated. The diagnosis: autism, a neurological and behavioral disorder for which there is no known remedy.

But Lansky refused to believe Max was untreatable. Her search for an answer led her to homeopathy, an 18th-century healing art now enjoying renewed popularity because of Americans' growing interest in alternative medicine. Homeopathy involves treating illnesses with such extreme dilutions of herbs, animal substances and chemical compounds that frequently not one molecule of the diluted substance is left in the solution. Homeopathy defies the known laws of science, not to mention common sense. But rigorous studies show it just may work.

In a German trial, a homeopathic treatment for vertigo outperformed the pharmaceutical remedy; at Harvard, subjects with mild brain injury showed significantly greater improvement with a homeopathic treatment than with a placebo. And homeopathic remedies have been found to augment conventional treatments, as well. In the case of infectious diarrhea, a University of Washington study found that children given the standard rehydration fluid containing water, sugar and salt, plus a homeopathic remedy, recovered after two and a half days—a day and a half earlier than those who received just the rehydration fluid.

"I believe new science will explain how homeopathy works," says Ellen Feingold, a Wilmington, Delaware, pediatrician who left conventional medicine to practice homeopathy. "But research is not my concern. I want to heal patients. As an M.D., I mostly suppressed symptoms. Now I truly heal people."

"Critics of homeopathy say that because its mechanism of action can't be explained, it can't possibly work," says Michael Carlston, a Santa Rosa, California, physician who has combined mainstream medicine and homeopathy for more than 30 years. "But that's hypocritical. Aspirin was used for 90 years before its efficacy was explained—and no doctors shunned it."

Strange Medicine

Shortly after her son's diagnosis, Lansky found a magazine article on alternative treatments for childhood behavioral problems.

Lansky's acupuncturist referred her to homeopath John Melnychuk. He did not perform a physical exam, nor did he order diagnostic tests. He just asked questions, including many that M.D.s would consider irrelevant. He explored Max's milk craving, his fitful sleep, the bluish tint in the whites of his eyes and his restlessness, intensity, sweetness, stubbornness and perfectionism. Then, using reference books, he looked for substances that produce the same effects in healthy people. This is the fundamental principle of homeopathy, the Law of Similars. It's the idea that illness can be cured by substances—plant, animal or mineral—that evoke the same symptoms in those who are well. Melnychuk decided to give Max Carcinosin, a treatment made from—of all things—an infinitesimal amount of human cancer tissue.

"There are two types of homeopathic remedies," Melnychuk explains. "Some treat symptoms; For example, arnica works well for muscle strains. Then there are 'constitutional' remedies, ones that have to be matched to the patient's personality. Max seemed to fit the Carcinosin profile, which includes symptoms of perfectionism, restlessness, sleep difficulties and milk cravings." However, Melnychuk cautions, not every autistic child should receive Carcinosin. "You have to tailor the remedy to the patient's unique traits."

Lansky mixed a little Carcinosin in water and gave Max a teaspoon each morning. Within two days, she noticed subtle changes: "Max's speech improved, and he seemed more socially aware." In the next two months the trend toward improvement continued.

Maybe It's Doing Nothing

Homeopathy developed during the late 18th century, a time when physicians knew little about disease. They treated most illnesses by bleeding patients and administering powerful laxatives. Such treatments were called "heroic measures," but the heroism was entirely on the part of patients, many of whom suffered more from these interventions than from their illnesses.

One 18th-century German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, became so disgusted with heroic medicine that he closed his practice. But Hahnemann did not exactly reject conventional medicine. He was impressed with cinchona, the South American tree bark that was the first effective treatment for malaria. In 1790, Hahnemann ingested cinchona and became cold, achy, anxious and thirsty—all symptoms of malaria. That experience led him to postulate his Law of Similars.

Hahnemann tested hundreds of substances on himself—plants, animal parts and chemical compounds, including salt, zinc, gold and marigold flowers—cataloging their effects. Eventually, he reopened his practice but prescribed only homeopathic medicines.

Homeopathy was controversial from the outset because of Hahnemann's other postulate, the Law of Potentization, which holds that homeopathic medicines grow stronger as they became more dilute. Critics howl at the law. Homeopathy is "absurd," argues William Sampson, a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University. "It is bankrupt in theory and practice."

"There is no basis for believing that homeopathy has any effect," says Robert Baratz, president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, in Peabody, Massachusetts. "Homeopathy is a magnet for untrustworthy practitioners who pose a threat to public safety. It's quackery."

Maybe homeopathy involves treatment with nothing. If true, it's still an improvement over 18th-century heroic medicine—even if patients get little more than water.

By the late 19th century, conventional medicine had moved away from heroic measures. As they disappeared, the medical opposition led by homeopaths lost steam. The discovery of antibiotics and other modern drugs further strengthened conventional medicine at homeopathy's expense. While homeopathy remained popular in Europe, there were fewer than 100 homeopaths in the U.S. by the early 1970s. Critics dismissed homeopathic treatment as placebo.

Strange Power

Placebos have no direct impact on the body. But when given to treat almost any illness—from colds to serious conditions—about one-third of recipients report benefits. "Placebos work as well as they do because of the mind's ability to affect the body," says Brown University psychiatrist Walter Brown. Many studies have shown that when a doctor offers any treatment, people expect it will help, and that expectation itself can aid healing. Also, through a mind-body mechanism not entirely understood, placebos trigger the release of endorphins, the body's mood-elevating, pain-relieving compounds. "Improvement in patients receiving homeopathy is simply a placebo effect," Sampson says.

But studies consistently yield conflicting reports. British researchers are divided as to the power of arnica, often prescribed by homeopaths for musculoskeletal pain. Patients who received arnica after wrist surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome reported significantly less pain than did those in a placebo group; yet patients with other joint conditions had no such luck (among 58 rheumatoid arthritis sufferers, the placebo group reported significantly greater pain relief).

In 1991, Dutch epidemiologists analyzed 105 studies of homeopathic treatment from 1966 to 1990, most from French and German medical journals. Eighty-one studies found patients had benefited from homeopathy, prompting the Dutch researchers to conclude that "the evidence is to a large extent positive. [It] would probably be sufficient for establishing homeopathy as treatment for certain conditions." A 1997 German analysis of 89 studies agreed that homeopathy is often significantly more beneficial than the use of placebos.

Preferring Alternatives

Ambiguous as the evidence is, homeopathy has enjoyed renewed popularity in the U.S., coinciding with Americans' ambivalence about mainstream medicine.

One-half to two-thirds of Americans have used alternative therapies, and Americans visit alternative practitioners more often than they visit conventional practitioners—some 600 million consultations a year. They now spend $30 billion a year on alternative therapies, according to a report in Newsweek, and have as much confidence in alternative practitioners as they do in M.D.s, according to a study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Americans have not lost confidence in physicians—they've just expanded their view of what's medically helpful, believing that the combination of mainstream and alternative medicine will provide the best results. "The renewed interest in homeopathy," explains Dana Ullman, author of eight books on the subject, "is part of the groundswell of interest Americans have shown for all the alternative therapies. People are not satisfied with conventional medicine."

Homeopathy is not the only alternative therapy conventional medicine can't fully explain. The energy pathways deemed fundamental to acupuncture don't correspond to any known structures in the body, but a National Institutes of Health report concluded, "The data in support of acupuncture are as strong as those for many accepted Western medical therapies."

Nonetheless, homeopathy is nowhere near as accepted as acupuncture. A Harvard report on Americans' use of alternative therapies shows that homeopathy accounts for less than 0.5 percent of alternative-practitioner visits. University of Maryland researchers surveyed coverage for alternative therapies by six major managed-care plans—five covered chiropractic, four covered acupuncture, none covered homeopathy. "Homeopathy," Ullman says, "is the Rodney Dangerfield of alternative therapies: It gets no respect."

Impossible Cure

Amy Lansky didn't care that homeopathy is one of America's least accepted alternative therapies. After nine months of homeopathic treatment, Max was a different child: talkative, active, sociable and popular. Under Melnychuk's guidance, Lansky gradually decreased his dose of Carcinosin, eventually discontinuing it. Max continued to improve. By age five, he was virtually indistinguishable from any other kid. "He now sees Melnychuk maybe twice a year," says Lansky. "As far as I'm concerned, he's cured." Max's experience led Lansky to quit her job and study homeopathy full-time. In the fall, she hung out a shingle. "As a scientist," she explains, "I recognize that homeopathy is implausible. But I've seen it cure my son."

Article by Michael Castleman
Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/index.php?term=pto-20040302-000003&page=1

The Homeopathic Revolution: Famous People & Cultural Heroes Who Chose Homeopathy

2007-11-27T20:00:00.000Z

A NEW book by Dana Ullman, MPH

The foreword to this book was written by Dr. Peter Fisher, the Physician to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The book documents many famous people of the past 200 years who have been known to use and/or advocate for homeopathic medicine. I am not simply talking about "celebrities." The book contains specific quotes and/or documented stories about each person listed below and his or her experiences with homeopathy.

- Charles Darwin could not have written Origin of Species without the homeopathic treatment that he received from Dr. Gully (based on Darwin's own letters!).

- Numerous leading conventional physicians and scientists who have had extremely positive things to say about homeopathy include Sir William Osler (the "father of modern medicine"), Emil Adolph von Behring, MD (the "father of immunology"), Charles Frederick Menninger, MD (founder of the Menninger Clinic), August Bier, MD (the "father of spinal anesthesia"), C. Everett Koop, M.D. (former Surgeon General, U.S.), Brian Josephson, PhD. (Nobel Laureate & Cambridge professor).

- At least eleven American Presidents used homeopathic medicines or sponsored legislation to allow homeopathic practice (Lincoln, Tyler, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinley, Coolidge, Harding, Hoover, & Clinton)...and two British Prime Ministers (Disraeli and Tony Blair).

- Many of America's literary greats advocated for and often wrote about homeopathy, including Washington Irving, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain... and European greats such as Goethe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Alfred Tennyson, and George Bernard Shaw...and many modern greats including J.D. Salinger and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

- Numerous sports greats have bragged about their use of homeopathic medicines including David Beckham, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker, and many more.

- Many world-class musicians have greatly appreciated homeopathy including Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Cher, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Annie Lennox, Bob Weir, Paul Rodgers, Axl Rose, Moby, Jon Faddis, and Dizzy Gillespie.

- Numerous movie and TV celebrities have benefited from homeopathy, including early stars such as Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne… and some of the modern-day stars, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lesley Ann Warren, Pamela Anderson, Jane Seymour, Suzanne Somers, Lindsay Wagner, Michael York, Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw, Priscilla & Lisa Marie Presley, Jennifer Aniston, Jade Jagger, Tobey Maguire, and Orlando Bloom.

To find out more visit http://www.homeopathicrevolution.com/

'Homeopathy worked for me' - HMC21 petition

2007-11-18T21:31:00.000Z

Michelle Shine who spearheads HMC21 is working to get 250,000 signatures to take to parliament in June 2008 for Homeopathy Awareness Week. If you haven't already signed their petition, please click the link below and be counted!

THEN send the link to ten other people so they can be counted too!!
http://www.hmc21.org/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/2555?opendocument&part=3

Guardian: In Defence of homeopathy,13 November 2007

2007-11-14T19:48:00.001Z

Picture this. I am staying in a remote cottage in Cornwall without a car. I have a temperature of 102, spots on my throat, delirium, and a book to finish writing. My desperate publisher suggests I call Hilary Fairclough, a homeopath who has practices in London and Penzance. She sends round a remedy called Lachesis, made from snake venom. Four hours later I have no symptoms whatsoever.

Dramatic Astuff, and enough to convince me that while it might use snake venom, homeopathy is no snake oil designed for gullible hypochrondriacs. Right now, though, a fierce debate is raging between those, like me, who trust homeopathy because it works for them, and those who call it shamanistic claptrap, without clinical proof or any scientific base.

There have been a number of articles in the press recently criticising homeopathic remedies as worthless at best, and potentially lethal at worst, if they are being taken instead of tried-and-tested conventional medicines for conditions such as malaria or HIV.

I have found myself cited, and drawn into this, because I am on record as supporting homeopathic practice in general, and in particular the Maun homeopathy project, a clinic in Botswana set up by Fairclough.

The organisation Sense About Science and journalists such as Ben Goldacre and Nick Cohen are targeting a symposium in London in December that will discuss HIV and Aids and the homeopathic response to such diseases. Of particular concern is a claim by the British homeopath Peter Chapel and his Dutch colleague, Harry Van Der Zee, that Chapel has developed a remedy, PC1, that can be used to treat the HIV virus.

As a patron of Fotac (Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign) that has been fighting President Mbeke's lunatic insistence that HIV sufferers just need Vitamin C and a good diet, I am dismayed by any claim that may deter HIV sufferers from taking anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). And so is Peter Fisher, an NHS doctor, director of the Faculty of Homeopaths, and, incidentally, homeopath to the Queen. Good homeopaths know the value of conventional medicine and do not seek to undermine that value. Fairclough's clinic, and her talk at the symposium, concentrate on using homeopathy to support the ARV programme by alleviating the side-effects of ARVs, and boosting the patient's immune system so they are better able to fight off the opportunistic viruses that follow behind HIV, and the drugs necessary to suppress it. There is no suggestion that homeopathy can replace ARVs.

Edwin Cameron, a justice of South Africa's supreme court of appeal who is HIV positive, has done much to counter the disastrous Aids denialists there. He visited Maun and agreed in writing that "there are patent health benefits". He also admitted that, although initially sceptical of homeopathy, he had had a persistent mouth and gum disease, untreatable by antibiotics, but which was cleared by homeopathic intervention.

I use the word "intervention" because I admit it is hard to talk about what it is that homeopathy actually does, or why it works. For my part, I want to know more, not less, but I can't dismiss the thing in the way that Sense About Science, many doctors, and some journalists are asking me to.

A recent furore over those homeopaths who offered an undercover journalist alternative remedies for the prevention of malaria has also prompted long-term critics of homeopathy to demand its head on a plate. There will soon be an article in the Lancet calling on doctors to tell their patients that homeopathic medicines offer no benefit. Until now the caveat has been no "proven" benefit. But where is the scientific sense is saying that because we don't understand something, even though we can discern its effects, we have to ignore it, scorn it, or suppress it?This homeophobia is, I think, a genuine terror of what homeopathy is suggesting; which is that we think differently about the relationship between the cure and the disease. It is not enough to say Disease A is caused by B and can be cured by C. Homeopathy, in common with other holistic approaches, asks that we look at the whole picture - the person, and not just his illness. Specifically, in the case of homeopathy, the remedy picture, which is carefully drawn up after full consultation with the patient, follows the "like by like" premise - that tiny dilutions of the "problem" can prompt the body to effect its own cure. This is why the homeopathic code of practice does not talk about the medicines themselves having a simple causal effect - C cures A. Homeopathy seeks to understand everything we are, everything we do, as a web of relatedness. The reason why I have a recurring sore throat will not be the reason why you have one, and what helps me may not help you.This seems to be partly why tests used for conventional medicines fail when used to test homeopathy. Sceptics will say it is the medicines that fail, and not the trials, but if the medicines really are ineffective, why is it that so many people who have tried homeopathy have found that it makes a difference to their wellbeing?

As I understand it, homeopathy is not a linear medicine - a drug aiming for a target - nor does it seek to remove the human factor. The patient and the practitioner are both important and relevant when it comes to understanding how humans respond to treatment.

That a good doctor is part of the therapeutic process is commonsense to anyone who has ever visited their GP or been for surgery. We know too that patients heal differently, develop complications or not, secondary infections or not, and so on. The placebo effect that is often cited by detractors as homeopathy's only resource (ie that people like being talked to and then given a pill to take), is common to all therapeutic processes, and it is valuable. We can feel better in the right hands - everyone knows that - and people can shrivel and die in the wrong hands - whatever the treatment.

I am sure that there is a placebo effect in homeopathy, but it is a fact that many of the people who end up visiting a homeopath do so as a last resort, when nothing else is working. That such people often see an improvement suggests that the remedies themselves are contributing to the wellness of the individual.

Objections to homeopathy begin with what are viewed as the impossible dilutions of the remedies, so that only nano amounts of the original active substance remain, and in some cases are only an imprint, or memory. Yet our recent discoveries in the world of the very small point to a whole new set of rules for the behaviour of nano-quantities. Thundering around in our Gulliver world, we were first shocked to find that splitting the atom allowed inconceivable amounts of energy to be released. Now, we are discovering that the properties of materials change as their size reaches the nano-scale. Bulk material should have constant physical properties, regardless of its size, but at the nano-scale this is not the case. In a solvent, such as water, nano particles can remain suspended, neither floating nor sinking, but permeating the solution. Such particles are also able to pass through cell walls, and they can cause biochemical change.

We do not know whether this has a bearing on homeopathic dilutions, but it may well be that nanoparticles offer a clue.

Fisher says that water as a solvent has properties that are not yet understood, and there was great excitement recently when a team of Korean scientists seemed to show that water has "memory". I take New Scientist every week and I am continually amazed at how the seemingly well-known physical world of ours is beginning to show itself as stranger than anyone imagined.

I would like to see homeopathy better regulated. I would like to see the Society of Homeopaths engaging with its critics, as well as initiating more research. There will always be rogue homeopaths and bad homeopaths, but that is true of any profession. Above all we should be careful of dismissing the testimony of millions who say the remedies have worked for them.

· Jeanette Winterson is donating the fee for this article to the Maun homeopathy project.
(Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2209998,00.html)

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) & Homeopathic Treatment

2007-11-10T09:03:00.000Z

The change of seasons from autumn to winter brings with it shorter days, cloudy skies, cold weather and longer nights. This shift affects us all, we change our habits, e.g. the food we eat and the activities we do; and it can affect our mood. For some however the change brings with it feelings of depression and is termed Season Affective Disorder or SAD. People living in the Northern hemisphere are more susceptible to SAD. Symptoms begin in September and November and continue until March or April.

On a psychological level light, especially sunlight represents a powerful life-giving source of energy. By contrast, darkness represents the hidden, dark side of life and therefore represents those hidden parts of ourselves that we might rather not look into.

People with SAD might want to stay away from social situations, they may not be able to tolerate stress. And they may want to sleep more and find it hard to get going in the morning. And don’t feel quite like they do in the summer months with the long sunny days. These people may even feel manic in summer and spring months.

Homeopaths consider the sensitivities that people feel from the darkened days and that the grey and cloudy skies may be accompanied by feelings of depression and feeling lethargic. Homeopaths take an individual approach to treating the issue o SAD. No two patients would necessarily receive the same homeopathic treatment.

Symptoms of SAD
- Problems with sleep - Usually wake feeling un-refreshed, the desire for sleep and difficulty staying awake but, in some cases, disturbed sleep and early morning wakening;
- Depressed feelings – Having a gloomy outlook, guilt feelings, loss of self-esteem and sometimes hopelessness and despair. sometimes apathy and loss of feelings; - Lethargic feelings – Lack of enthusiasm and motivation. Fatigue and the inability to carry out usual tasks. There may be overeating, where there is a craving for carbohydrates and sweet foods, which can result in weight gain.
- Desire to hibernate. Avoiding social contact and irritability.- Anxiety – An inability to tolerate stress.- Changes in mood – For some there may be extremes of mood and short periods of hypomania (overactivity) in the spring and autumn.- Loss of libido.
- Weakened immune system - more vulnerable to infections and other illnesses during the winter months.

The importance of light
We all need light to survive, however there is little is known about the actual process of how and why we need it. What is know is that Melatonin, a hormone, produced in the darkness and inhibited by light. Melatonin is fundamental in the function of our body's Circadian rhythm, (a body rhythm), which plays a major role in our sleep-waking cycle, our moods and body’s thermostat. It is not certain that melatonin is the cause of SAD, but it is likely that it contributes to depression.

What you can do
- Make winter sunshine a priority, take advantage of any sun that does shine, especially if you live and/or work in a dark or darkish environment.
- Spend time outside during your lunch hour.
- Whether you work from home or an office, try and organise your working environment so that you can sit near a window, to make the most of the available light.
- Take your annual holiday in the winter months and travel to sunnier climates. This may provide only temporary relief and will help you to get through those winter months.
- A daily exercise routine will help to release endorphins which give a sense of well-being.
- Eat little and often and fresh fruit and vegetables.
- Wear sunny, brightly-coloured clothes, such as yellow, orange, and red.
- Keep a diary, where you record the weather and major events in your life and how they affect you, your body, your feelings, and your dreams. This will bring clarity and awareness.
- Learn a meditation that involves imagining a sunny place that you "visit" on a regular basis. Close your eyes and imagine yourself lying on a sun-drenched beach. Don’t underestimate the healing power of the imagination on our physical and emotional bodies.

Things to avoid:

Try not to wear sunglasses outside, as these cut down the amount of sunlight and vitamin D that is absorbed through your eyes in the winter and the summer months.

Homeopathic remedies
There are many homeopathic remedies that have SAD symptoms (being affected by the light and especially the lack of light in winter months) as part of their clinical symptom picture.

Self-prescribing is not recommended for chronic SAD which happens year after year. The expertise of a homeopath is advised to treat serious depression.

For short-lived (acute) SAD, you can try the following remedies. If you find them to be ineffective, consult a professional homeopath for their help:

Ammonium Carbonicum – people who are chilly. And are much affected by the dull and cloudy weather of winter. They feel unmotivated and apathetic and unmotivated. They have a sweet tooth and crave lots of sweet things and put on lots of weight.

Aurum metallicum – get terrible depression in the winter moths. They feel like a heavy cloud is sitting over them. IN their darkest hour, they feel suicidal. They take solace in work and/or religion and hide themselves away listening to sad music until the sun returns the following spring.

Phosphorus – there is a close relationship between their mood and the weather. They love the sun and feel upbeat from it. However their mood turns without the sun, they become miserable during winter, with the dark, cold and cloudy days and they feel unmotivated. They desire chocolate.

Rhus toxicodendron - is good for those who are susceptible to cloudy, grey weather. They are aggravated by the cold, damp, wet and cloudy weather. This climate makes them physically stiffen, especially the joints. When they first get up from sitting down, they feel stiff, but after being mobile for a while, their movement becomes freer. The joints also hurt again if they are using them for a while. They are very restlessness.

Sepia- is a remedy for very chilly types, they hate everything about winter. Their moods start to lift when they begin to get warm again in the late spring and early summer. They can get out in the fresh air and do some exercise which makes them feel really well. If they can't exercise, they sink into a depressed and irritable state and want to be alone.

Winter Special Offer - £10 off your 1st consultation

2007-10-21T21:12:00.000Z

Homeopathy can really help with winter illnesses, such as colds and flu. Homeopathy can also help other illnesses associated with this time of year. For some the winter aggravates complaints, such rheumatism, arthritis and old injuries; where the experience of aches and pains are made worse in the colder and damp weather.

I am offering £10 off your first appointment between Tuesday 27th November and Saturday 1st December.

Please call or email me to discuss how homeopathy can help you.

Why homeopathy and what is it anyway?

2007-10-16T21:03:00.000Z

There has been much discussion in the scientific realm about homeopathy. For those that have tried homeopathy and as a result their health has been greatly improved there is no doubt. Homeopathy challenges the traditional medical model in many ways, an understanding of homeopathy in it's principles and practices illustrates this clearly.

Bob Leckridge, used to be a GP and currently works at the Homeopathic Hosptial in Glasgow. He details his experience of the limitations of modern medicine and tells his readers about why his facination of homeopathy began:

Sep 26th, 2007 by bobleckridge I work at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital. I'm a medical doctor, used to be a GP (Family Physician), but I became gradually disenchanted with prescribing only antis (anti-biotics, anti-depressants, anti-inflammatories, anti-histamines, anti-hypertensives……..you get the picture) and only having the time to focus on little bits of people instead of the people themselves (we call those little bits diseases by the way). I had perhaps strangely had a notion that being a doctor would be about being involved in healing (ever tried looking up "health" or "healing" in a medical textbook? Don't bother. No such index items!) so just suppressing bits of people didn't feel like what a proper doctor should be doing. On top of that there were situations every day where I just didn't have anything good to offer (everything from infant colic, to night cramps, restless legs, sports injuries, PMT…….blah, blah, blah - believe me, there are LOTS of problems your doctor doesn't have answers for!)

I happened upon a course in "Homeopathy" at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital back in 1983 - didn't know there was such a hospital and had no idea what "homeopathy" was anyway, but something about the ad caught my attention - wish I could remember what it was! - I think it was something that mentioned "healing"! Well, I signed up. I learned there about homeopathic medicines, how safe they were, and what their indications were and they gave us a wee box of 10 remedies to go and try out in our practices. Well, from the first try I was amazed at how good these treatments were. They could deliver improvements in conditions I hadn't other answers for and that was VERY useful. Patients would stop me in the street and thank me for the prescription because it had helped so much - that NEVER happened when I prescribed an anti-something!

To cut a long story short, the patient demand for homeopathic treatment drove my learning and after I passed the Membership exam of the Faculty of Homeopathy I started working at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital in the Outpatient Dept every wednesday. Well, my wednesdays soon got an awful lot more satisfying than the mondays, tuesdays, thursdays and fridays, so I had a crisis. All my life I'd wanted to be a doctor, no, not just a doctor, but a GP, and here I was thinking I don't want to be a GP anymore. So I stopped being a GP and for a few months did a weekly radio show on ScotFM, wrote a textbook of homeopathy for GPs, and did my wednesday clinics. After a few months my friend and colleague, David Reilly at the Homeopathic Hospital suggested we make a bid for the creation of full-time position for me at the hospital. I started there full-time in 1995 and I'm still there. I love it! Every single day, every single clinic, every single patient. I look forward to every day of work. How many people can say that?

So what do I do there? What's this homeopathy?

Everyone I see there has been referred by another doctor or nurse. Everyone I see has a chronic problem - everything from chronic pain, to allergies, skin problems, cancer, multiple sclerosis, psychiatric problems like depression, bipolar disorders, you name it. I see a lot of kids. Almost half my practice is treating children. The thing most of these people have in common is that they've already tried the drugs, surgery and so on recommended by other doctors but they're still not well, still suffering. Amazingly, our in-house audits consistently show that across the board, after receiving homeopathic treatment, around two-thirds of these patients claim a benefit which makes a difference to their daily lives.

So, no wonder it's such a treat to work there. Most of the patients get benefits from the treatments which they didn't find elsewhere. That's hugely satisfying if your goal in life as a doctor is to try and relieve suffering.

Ok, enough, you're probably thinking, what on earth is this homeopathy thing anyway?

Dr Samuel Hanhemann, was a German doctor who lived from 1755 - 1843 As a young doctor he soon grew disenchanted with the practice of medicine of his day - he thought that blood-letting, cupping, leeching, purging and poisoning patients was pretty brutal and didn't seem to actually heal anyone. So he stopped being a doctor and to earn some money he translated textbooks into German. One day he was translating Cullen's Pharmacopoeia from English into German and he read about the treatment of swamp fever with Peruvian Tree Bark. Cullen said this drug worked by being an "astringent" ie it dried the body up. Hahnemann, wondered if that was right, so to test it out, he took some. Much to his surprise, he found that he got all the symptoms of swamp fever. How interesting! The drug which can cure the disease can produce the same disease when given to a healthy patient (that's not exactly true but it's how he saw it). He then tested a bunch of other common drugs of the time and found the same phenomenon. He called this "the treatment of like cures like" - "homeopathy".

Does this make sense? Well, yes it does. There's a phenomenon we know called "hormesis" - where a drug which has one effect at a high dose, has an opposite effect at a low dose. Think of aspirin. In high doses it makes the body temperature rise, yet in low doses it can lower a fever. Professor Bond, pharmacologist in Houston coined the term "paradoxical pharmacology" to describe this phenomenon and even created a receptor theory model to explain it. Nothing really controversial here. Let's move on.

Hahnemann thought that doctors shouldn't be poisoning their patients so he decided to find out what was the smallest possible dose of a medicine which would bring about a healing effect (when prescribed on the basis of this like treats like idea). There weren't any drug companies in those days so doctors had to prepare their own medicines. Hahnemann used a method of serial dilutions and succussions to make his medicines (that's a stepwise series of dilution of the original substance with vigorous shaking of the test tube between each dilution). He got another surprise. Not only did the smaller doses cause less harm, they actually seemed to cure quicker! The more dilute preparations had a more powerful effect! OK, I hear you say, enough's enough. This is crazy thinking! Well, it gets worse. Cos he pushed this dilution theory way up to 1 in 10 to the power 30 and beyond - trust me, I'm a doctor - that means there are NONE of the original molecules left! Now THAT is controversial! In fact, its at this point where some people start to say homeopathy is sheer nonsense and can't possibly work! Would it surprise you to know I disagree with that view?

You might want to go check out the scientific research in homeopathy. I recommend you start here. In short, there are many clinical trials of homeopathy and many have shown effects of homeopathic treatments that cannot be dismissed as placebo. Something seems to be happening and its probably not placebo. In fact the clinical trial evidence in homeopathy is not very strong and doesn't really answer any of the questions about this treatment so we need to look elsewhere. Elsewhere includes what are known as outcome studies. These are studies of what actually happens to patients who have homeopathic treatment (not comparing this to placebo medicines). Consistently such studies show around two out of every three patients get benefits from homeopathic treatments. So, however you explain it, for most people it does exactly what it says on the tin - it helps. What about the idea that such ultra-high dilutions can have a consistent biological effect? Is that nonsense? Well, interestingly, there have been a number of laboratory studies in recent years which show that water does indeed have the capacity to communicate specific effects of substances which have been diluted in it many times. This is early work but it shouldn't be dismissed.

But what IS homeopathy?

Homeopathic medicines are prepared from natural substances - plants, minerals, substances of animal origin - all of which are serially diluted and succussed many, many times to prepare the actual medicines. Every single medicine has its own unique picture of symptoms as described in homeopathic materia medicae - these are reference books based on clinical trials (called "provings"), clinical experience and toxicological information about the substances. The idea is that the picture of the remedy should match, as closely as possible, the picture of the patient's illness (actually I prefer the concept of the "narrative" as opposed to the "picture").

The narrative of the patient's illness reveals their unique experience (no two people with the same diagnosis have the same narrative) and it reveals their patterns of coping (and failing to cope) - this is what we are looking for in selecting a specific homeopathic medicine - the narrative of the experience and the patterns of coping. When the patient takes the homeopathic medicine the intention is to stimulate their processes of self-repair, self-recovery and self-healing. The intention is NOT to suppress but to heal. The medicines themselves are non-toxic - they have no significant side-effects, a record over 200 years of absolutely NO fatalities, and can be safely taken in conjunction with other prescribed medication.

Original source: http://heroesnotzombies.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/why-homeopathy-and-what-is-it-anyway/

Allergy Patients Turn to Homeopathy

2007-09-28T11:13:00.000Z

Members of the Society of Homeopaths are seeing an increasing number ofpatients suffering from a range of allergic conditions, from skinproblems such as eczema through to life-threatening food allergies.

A House of Lords report published this week recommends the Governmenttakes urgent action to address the “epidemic” of allergies in the UK,and acknowledges that many patients are turning to complementarymedicine for help1.

The report of the science and technology committee, urges ministers totake concrete steps to tackle the lack of specialist clinics, andinadequate allergy training for doctors within the NHS, which it says isleading to a poor service for patients.

As well as a plan of action to tackle the problem within the NHS, thereport recommended that “robust research into the use of complementarydiagnostic tests and treatments for allergy should examine the holisticneeds of the patient, assessing not only the clinical improvement ofallergy symptoms, but also analysing the impact of these methods”.

Kate Chatfield, representative of the organisation’s research ethicscommittee, gave evidence to the science and technology committee earlierthis year. She told them: “With the kind of holistic treatment that weare measuring in homeopathy, we still do not have an outcome measurethat successfully can measure the effect on every level. By their verynature, randomised control trials are trying to measure veryspecifically. Homeopathy is going to affect the whole person. It is verydifficult to measure an outcome for a whole person.”

The Society believes that homeopathy should form part of an integratedapproach to treatment. Kate explained: “For an increasing number ofpeople homeopathy is becoming the treatment of choice for allergies asit offers a more gentle alternative to conventional approaches, such asantihistimines and steroid-based skin preparations. Homeopathy is aholistic approach and treats each person as an individual. Allergieshappen when the immune system over-reacts to substances which should notcause a problem, and with carefully selected remedies a homeopath willaim to strengthen the immune system.

She explained that results from several recent observational studiesindicated that homeopathy appeared to have high levels of clinicaleffectiveness in the treatment of people with allergy related problemssuch as eczema and asthma2.

It is the experience of members of the Society that patients in the vastmajority of cases seek homeopathic treatment when they have exhaustedthe conventional route, which has good results in palliating thesymptoms but does not treat the underlying cause. Remedies can be usedalongside conventional medication where needed.

Release Ends Notes to the EditorReferences:

1.House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/lords_press_notices/pn260907st.cfm

2. Bristol Homeopathic Hospital Outcome survey (1997-2003)www.trusthomeopathy.org/case/res_outcomesurveys.html

Homeopathy
- Homeopathy has been available on the NHS since its inception in1948.
- There are 5 NHS homeopathic hospitals
- The homeopathy market for 2007 is estimated to be worth £38m andprojected to reach £46m in 2012 (21% rate of growth).

“Homeopathy is showing steady growth and this is likely to continue”. (Mintel,Complementary Medicines, April 2007)

Article from SoH.

Homeopathy gains widespread acceptance in India

2007-09-20T06:52:00.000Z

Homeopathy is extremely popular in India. India not only manufactures homeopathic remedies, but is one of the most favoured alternative medicine of choice. This is due to its success in treating chronic diseases such as asthma, allergies, migraines, ulcers, arthritis and even cancer.

Summary:
DELHI: As homeopathy supporters marked the 250th birth anniversary of its founder Samuel Hahnemann, they had plenty to cheer about - from innovative treatments for skin diseases to cancer cures, the 'similar, simple, minimum' medicine has advanced by leaps.

Homeopathy has treatment of aronund 15,000 medical options today and has global drugs sales amounting to almost $2 million.

No small feat for a branch of medicine in a country where a Homeopathy Central Council Act for regularising the practice was framed only in 1973.

There are multi-specialty hospitals such as Dr. Batra's Positive Health Clinic Pvt Ltd (DBPHC) - a 24-hour super-speciality clinic chain spread across 15 cities in India, Mauritius and Britain that claims to be India's largest chain of homeopathic clinics.

"Homeopathy is holistic, gentle and there are no staunch dietary restrictions except for a general preference in avoiding processed food such as aerated drinks, fried and fast food," said Kalyan Banerjee, research director of Mihijam Institute of Homeopathy, who was recently invited to China to cure a pancreatic cancer patient.

According to Rajiv Shah, a doctor who has practised homeopathy for over 20 years, there are over 3,000 varieties of homeopathic medicines, with five different potencies each - giving the doctor as much as 15,000 medical options.

"Homeopathy is popular because it is safe, devoid of side effects and works like magic for chronic diseases."

Original source:http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IE320050510072425&Title=Features+-+Health+%26+Science&Topic=-162
Article also featured on News Target: http://www.newstarget.com/007631.html

Homeopathy First Aid Must-haves!!

2007-08-07T20:40:00.000Z

Arnica 30c - A great remedy which has many uses, e.g. shock, bruising, swelling, reducing bleeding. Use after injuries and accidents, will help to reduce bruising and swelling. A person needing Arnica will be worse from touch and motion. It is helpful for soreness, bleeding and tissue-bruising related to surgery and dental work. A fantastic remedy to have in the home as it can help with lots of first aid situations!

Arnica cream - Great to reduce bruising and swelling. Do not use on broken skin.

Calendula cream - Calendula is a wonderful healer. It is helpful in soothing burns and promoting tissue healing. Another must have in the home first aid kit!

Hypercal tincture - A tincture of Calendula and Hypericum (diluted 1:10) , helps with healing.

Aloe Vera - Used topically on the effected area helps to soothe burns.

Rescue remedy (Bach Flower) - Gives immediate results in anxious situations.

New Homeopathy Clinic at Back 2 Balance Coming soon!

2007-06-14T22:18:00.000Z

As of the 29th June I will be practicing at the Back 2 Balance Clinic in Hove.

I will be practicing on a Friday from 9am - 2pm.

How to find the Back 2 Balance Clinic by train, bus and car.

By train: Hove Station a 150m walk away!
By bus: The clinic is on most major bus routes in Hove; the No 7 and 81 stops outside the clinic with No's 2, 2a, 5, 5b, 5c, 25, 46 and 46a close by.
By taxi: Taxi Rank is no less than 50m.
By Car: Parking is metered.

35 GoldStone
Villas
Hove
BN3 3RT

To find the clinic on multi map click here

If you would like to book an appointment, please call or email me.

GCSE candidates who suffer from hay fever are 40% more likely to drop a grade

2007-06-14T21:09:00.000Z

Hayfever has been brought to our attention today in the news.

"It has been found that GCSE candidates who suffer from hay fever are 40% more likely to drop a grade between their mock and final exams, research has found. This figure rises to 70% if they are taking a sedating anti-histamine treatment, which can cause drowsiness." (Source BBC News).

This illustrates how severe hayfever can impact drastically on people's lives. Symptoms experienced are sniffles, a blocked or streaming nose, itchy eyes, itchy roof of the mouth and sneezing. Sounds familiar? Hay fever is estimated to affect 15 million people in the UK and according to the Royal College of Physicians, and the number of people suffering from hayfever has tripled over the past 20 years.

Conventional treatment, such as anti-histamines, offer temporary relief and cause side effects of drowsiness and effects co-ordination and steroids can impact upon immunity.

Hayfever can be treated effectively with homeopathy. Remedies are individualised to and match specifically the hayfever symptoms and can bring effective and fast relief in the short term. In the longer term homeopathy can provide constitutional treatment, which taken over two or three seasons will reduce symptoms, if not completely cure the condition.

In chronic (longer lasting) conditions, a cure may take longer since there may be some bodily weaknesses. In such cases it is best to begin treatment before the hay fever season begins in order to strengthen the patient’s constitution.

Book an appointment in up until the end of July 2007 and receive £5 OFF your first consultation.