World Homeopathy Awareness Week
April 10 – 16, 2009 (more, here)
The focus for this year is Homeopathy and Allergies. Many Americans suffer from allergies, which causes much suffering. Homeopathy can help to heal these reactions. Check back here for more information.
World Homeopathy Awareness Week, April 10 – 16, 2009
Homeopathy and Acupuncture Beneficial
Homeopathy, acupuncture and reflexology are among a range of complementary and alternative therapies a new trial concludes should be provided on the NHS.
The major new Government-funded study found there would be a range of benefits to patients in providing access to complementary and alternative medicine, and that the treatments could even save the health service money.
As many as 81% of patients receiving the treatments on referral from their GP reported improvements in their physical health, and 79% in their mental health. (article continues, here)
Key Findings
• 81% of patients reported improvement in their physical health, 79% in their mental health.
• 84% of patients directly linked improvements in their health and wellbeing to the complementary treatment.
• 62% of patients were suffering less pain, with 55% said they had been able to reduce their use of painkillers.
• 64% of patients in employment said they took less time off work after treatment.
• Half of GPs reported prescribing less medication for chronic or acute patients during the trial.
• In 65% of cases, GPs reported a health improvement.
Source: Evaluation of Government-funded pilot project in Northern Ireland, carried out by Social & Market Research (SMR)
Pioneering Homeopathic Pharmacist, Passes On
When I read that Michael Quinn, homeopathic pharmacist and founder of Hahnemann Labs recently passed, I was stunned. I never met him, but have ordered remedies from the pharmacy. The quality has always been excellent and the customer service great.
He will be missed and the example of his life and contributions will live on. Here is an article on the making of homeopathic remedies, here.
True Enthusiast of Homeopathy Passes On this article can be found at the ArizonaHomeoapthic.org
Subject: FW: From HomeoNet written by David Warkentin
Michael Quinn had a massive stroke on Saturday, January 24th. He was at a conference in Maui with his wife April. He went into a deep coma, continued to hemorrhage, and his heart was failing. He did not regain consciousness and died early this morning. Though Michael was in a coma, Roger Morrison was able to say goodbye over the phone just before he died. (I have to say this image has stuck with me all day.)
He was 58.
Very very very sad…..
Michael was one of the true enthusiasts of Homeopathy. He studied homeopathy in the 1970s in Madison and through the twists and turns of life eventually became an allopathic pharmacist – though his dream was to be a homeopathic pharmacist. When he heard that we were starting the Hahnemann Clinic 25? years ago and that there might be need for an on-site pharmacist he was literally overjoyed.
The pharmacy he founded, the Hahnemann Pharmacy, was among the most careful and precise in the world. He began in our offices and as his reputation grew moved to huge offices across the bay. He has been a very good and loyal friend to all here for many years.
His death comes as a shock and he will be deeply missed.
Perhaps others will feel the urge to add stories about Michael….
(you have to be logged in with your name and password to make comments – you only have to do it once)
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Michael said of himself:
Michael Quinn, Founder, President, and Chief Pharmacist of Hahnemann Laboratories, Inc.
I first heard about Homeopathy in 1974. I studied and began practicing Homeopathy as a lay person for several years. Because of my experience in and love of research laboratory work, I became professionally committed to Homeopathy, and decided to become a homeopathic pharmacist.
Graduating from the Pharmacy School at Oregon State University in 1979, for six years I learned my profession as a hospital pharmacist at the University of California San Diego Medical Center, where my job titles were Senior Pharmacist and Supervisor of the Intravenous Admixture Service of the Department of Pharmacy.
I started Hahnemann Laboratories Inc. in 1985, beginning first as a retail pharmacy devoted exclusively to providing homeopathic medicines to the patients of some of the finest homeopaths in the world, at the Hahnemann Clinic in Berkeley, California.
After a year of dissatisfaction with the quality of the remedies available at that time, the doctors urged me to begin preparing the medicines myself. I consulted with an engineer and together we produced a homeopathic remedy preparation machine which makes remedies in as close a manner as possible to the traditional method of making remedies by hand. (For photos of and more information about this machine see Methods of Preparation.) Over the years, in my pharmacy I have prepared more and more of the homeopathic medicines myself on this machine.
The doctors who used these medicines found them remarkably effective and referred my pharmacy to their colleagues. Demand for our remedies grew until, in 1997, we opened an FDA licensed homeopathic pharmaceutical laboratory, in addition to our pharmacy.
Research: An Alternative Approach to Asthma
It is estimated that asthma and other allergic diseases affect 20% of the world’s population. The number of sufferers in the United States exceeds 15 million. In the last 20 years, the number of asthma hospitalizations has increased by 50%. In the past ten years the number of asthma death cases has doubled! Dr. Ilan Zamir, one of the pioneers of homeopathy in Israel, has recently reported successful treatment of asthmatic patients with his own homeopathic methods.
Asthma is on the rise. Eight years ago, it was determined that 10% of all new IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) recruits had suffered from asthma at some time in the past, while 6% were current asthma sufferers.
Asthma, shortness of breath and spastic bronchitis are basically the same phenomenon, caused by the sensitivity and super-reaction of the respiratory system, leading to the contraction of the system muscle from any small irritation. In addition, at the time of the spasm of contractions, inflammatory cells are detected in the respiratory system. Some physicians believe that these are responsible for the spasms, coming out in a form of coarseness, whistles, cough and lack of breath – which can lead to death by asphyxia.
Environmental pollution agents, such as household dust, which increase the presence microscopic insects living in bed linen and in other parts of the house, only aggravate the problem, as do the presence of cockroaches, pets, and smoking (including passive smoking). High humidity and sport activities which dry out the respiratory system also serve to aggravate the problem. Mental and psychological stress may also exacerbate asthma symptoms.
Conventional treatment consists of medication to expand the bronchi by means of inhalation or swallowing, imitating the effect of adrenalin in the body. In severe cases, medicines containing steroids are given as preventive treatment to break down the inflammatory process. The generally accepted opinion is, however, that there is no known cure for asthma.
According to Dr. llan Zamir, the basic problem in dealing with asthma is that it almost always starts after an infectious disease, such as ear or throat infections or bronchitis, for which the patient is prescribed antibiotics. (continue)
Alternative Health and Homeopathy Chat on the Radio
Join me this evening on the radio (1/19). I’m a guest on Magical Mother tonight at 7pm for their weekly broadcast of Mastering A Joyful Life on www.harambeeradio.com.
Special guest: Continum Wellness proprietor and Homeopath Catherine (Senbita) Carter.
call in at 1-866-851-5279 with your questions and comments on health, wellness, rejuvenation etc…
I look forward to hearing from you!
Peace and love
Research: Homeopathic Medical Care Produces Increase in Quality of Life
A recent study of classical homeopathic treatment in Germany and Switzerland, showed that the majority of patients who used homeopathy suffer from long standing chronic disease. The findings indicated that the patients as a result of homeopathic care enjoyed an increase in the quality of their life.
Read the research here.
Study: Homeopathy Can Yield Long Lasting Improvement
January 6, 2009 (WLS) — Patients who practice homeopathy often say the health improvements are long lasting, according to a study in the journal BMC Public Health.
Patients reported long term improvement in chronic conditions such as headaches, allergies and sleep problems.
However, the findings do not necessarily mean the controversial alternative therapy is responsible for the benefits according to researchers. They say many of the other patients also used other types of alternative care as well as conventional medicine.
Homeopathy, Children and Life, A Deeper Look
What I love about this article below is that it captures succinctly a number of key points of homeopathic philosophy. For example, that you are not your illness. That the origins of a ‘disease’ that you are experiencing *today* may have ancestral roots. But whatever the cause of the problem it has something to do with inter-relationships of things in your world, your life and how it effected you. I don’t have the name of the author, but the article appeared in “The Daily Mirror” 12/25/08, an Indian paper. And read the Arsenicum case in the article, so cool.
A person is not simply a disease. Instead they are the totality of their physical and psychological characteristics. This totality is a dynamic and evolving system. In Homeopathy we recognize that our whole entire being is influenced not only by infections and day to day stresses but also our environment and our emotions and that of those around us.
In the case of children we can clearly see a link in the stresses surrounding their births and even conception going onto having a bearing in their “total health.” In some cases this will be revealed by the child’s inability to gain weight, to sleep well or a recurring ear infection, craving certain foods and so on. Instead of looking within ourselves and the shadow side of our behavior and emotions we look for the quick fix to patch our children back to “health” with antibiotics and vitamins. This is not a true cure. We need to always consider the root cause. And more often than not it has its roots in the realm of emotions. Sometimes it is an emotion of an ancestor that we carry with us and keep reliving it. Remember that all experiences we have leave an energetic imprint on us.
This brings me to a case I read of when a mother came to visit a Homeopath with her son who always woke up at 3 am. The mother had frontal sinusitis. The child seemed very agitated and in contrast the mother was calm and dressed all in black. Of course like most modern mothers she claimed her pregnancy was problem free and how much she had achieved during her pregnancy, but her child was presenting with much agitation and sleep issues. So the homeopath has to dig a little deeper to find out what had been going on during her pregnancy. Many months later the mother recalled that she watched the assassination of President Sadat on the television when she was pregnant. This apparently really shocked her and she was also able to recall that ever since then the baby moved around so much in her stomach. She put it down to him just being active and all boy! But through the Homeopathic lens of understanding we are able to see that this negative image was transferred to the unborn baby while in utero. The Homeopath prescribed a few doses of Arsenicum Albumen for the indication of the fear of death. The boy began to sleep through the night and became much calmer.
In today’s world a pregnant woman is exposed to so much negativity on a daily basis. For example, take the 24 hour news channels that allow us to relive disturbing and traumatic events on demand. We absorb these images and emotions and make it part of our psyche. We have moved very far away from the days when pregnant women were revered and placed in calming and beautiful surroundings in order to imbibe feelings of harmony and joy to their children. Today even a child’ birth is scheduled in most parts of the developed world. Very little is left to the natural rhythms of the Universe. We have to find a middle path, a path on which we can enjoy the benefits of the modern world but not let it destroy our spirit.
In our busy world we seem to have forgotten that our physical body and our emotions are inextricably linked. In order to truly put our lives back in balance we need to look a little deeper than the superficial symptoms. We need to truly look at the dis-ease in our being. In order to ascertain the fundamental cause of disease and then treat what needs to be cured it takes some self reflection. All the stresses of our day to day life impact our vital force. In treating children we see how strong their vital force is and through Homeopathy you can maintain this vitality and enhance it.
New evidence for homeopathy
The two new studies reconstructed the Lancet review and the main conclusions of that reconstruction are:
* That the results of the Lancet review were very sensitive to the definition of ‘large’ trials.
* Because of heterogeneity between the trials included in the review, its results are less definite than claimed. The conclusion that homeopathy is, and that conventional treatment is not, a placebo effect, was not based on a comparative analysis and is unjustified because of the heterogeneity of trials and lack of sensitivity analysis.
* The review did however, demonstrate that the quality of homeopathy trials was on average better than the conventional trials analysed.
‘The review gave no indication of which trials were analysed nor of the various vital assumptions made about the data. This is not usual scientific practice. If we presume that homeopathy works for some conditions but not others, or change the definition of a ‘larger trial’, the conclusions change. This indicates a fundamental weakness in the conclusions: they are NOT reliable”, said George Lewith, Professor of Health Research at Southampton University
The background to the ongoing debate is as follows:
In August 2005, The Lancet published an editorial entitled ‘The End of Homeopathy’, prompted by a review comparing clinical trials of homeopathy with trials of conventional medicine. The claim that homeopathic medicines are just placebo was based on 6 clinical trials of conventional medicine and 8 studies of homeopathy but did not reveal the identity of these trials. The review was criticised for its opacity as it gave no indication of which trials were analysed or the various assumptions made about the data.
Sufficient detail to enable a reconstruction was eventually provided and these two new studies are based on such a reconstruction and challenge the Lancet review. Specifically these two studies show:
* Analysis of all high quality trials of homeopathy yields a positive conclusion.
* The 8 larger higher quality trials of homeopathy were all for different conditions. Homeopathy works for some of these but not others, implying that homeopathy is not placebo.
* The comparison with conventional medicine was meaningless.
* Doubts remain about the opaque, unpublished criteria used in the review, including the definition of ‘higher quality’.
The Lancet review, led by Prof Matthias Egger of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Berne, started with 110 matched clinical trials of homeopathy and conventional medicine, reduced these to ‘higher quality trials’ and then to 8 and 6 respectively ‘larger higher quality trials’. Based on these 14 studies the review concluded that there is ‘weak evidence for a specific effect of homoeopathic remedies, but strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions’.
Due to a lack of funding, there are a limited number of homeopathic studies. As a result, it is quite possible to interpret homeopathic data selectively and unfavourably, which is what appears to have been done in the Lancet paper. If we assume that homeopathy does not work for just one condition (Arnica for post-exercise muscle stiffness), or alter the definition of ‘larger trial’, the results are positive. The comparison with conventional medicine was meaningless: the original 110 trials were matched, but matching was lost after the trials were reduced to 8 in one group and 6 in the other. Interestingly, the quality of homeopathic trials was better than conventional trials.
This reconstruction casts serious doubts on the Lancet review, showing that it was based on a series of hidden judgments unfavorable to homeopathy. An open assessment of the current evidence suggests that homeopathy is probably effective for a number of conditions including allergies, upper respiratory tract infections and ‘flu, but more research is desperately needed.
Prof Egger has declined to comment on these findings.
Alternative and Complementary Medicine (CAM)Use is Growing
I posted a government survey here on this blog which concluded that 38 percent of American adults and 12 percent of American children use complementary and alternative medicine (here). The Washington Post did an article on this topic too (here)
Critics of these health care approaches are up in arms, claiming that acupuncture is a placebo and homeopathy is fake. What they fail to realize it that these approaches are valid and have helped since their inceptions millions of people. The power of these approaches is that they offer prevention and healing. These alternative approaches tend to follow a non-invasive model and offer empowerment.
Many people are opting out of lifelong medication. That approach seems to miss the mark on quality care. The Western medical model is helpful, however it is not the only approach that has validity and that can help people. The science as God approach used to validate modern medical is also not fool proof. To wit the large number of adverse events and drug side effects. But, the purpose of the article is not to rant.
Health is freedom. Let the healing continue.