Wellbeing Matters - A Personal Guide to Radiant Health by David Gore Graham, Integral Integrity

Homeopathy – A Viable Alternative to Conventional Healthcare?
December 23rd 2009

I have noticed recently that the medical community and "big pharma" have been taking pot shots are the practice of homeopathy and in Britain have managed to shutdown homeopathic hospitals, clinics and homeopathic practitioners funded by the National Health Service, that have been in operation for many, many years. This is a tragedy as homeopathy offers a healing modality that is very effective, uses no drugs, and thus has no side effects. This all despite the British royal family having supported and used homeopathy for many years. In fact, homeopathy is the second most widespread form of medicine in the world being particularly strong in poorer countries such as India and Cuba.

Michael Baum and Edzard Ernst, who are leading the current anti-homeopathy campaign in the UK, published a article in the November 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine in which they stated, “a belief in homeopathy exceeds the tolerance of an open mind. We should start from the premise that homeopathy cannot work and that positive evidence (in any studies) reflects publication bias or design flaws until proved otherwise.” The authors ignored a number of well-designed studies that illustrate, quite clearly, that even though homeopathy may exceed the tolerance of an open mind, it nevertheless works.

So what is homeopathy that it triggers such reactions and why? Homeopathy was discovered by Samuel Hahnemann in Germany in the early 1800s. By 1840 it was popular in Europe and the US but was even then fiercely opposed by the medical fraternity. Many homeopaths were allopathic (conventional) doctors that found homeopathy more effective in treating diseases such as cholera, typhus, yellow fever, diphtheria, influenza, and other epidemics of the 1800s than the conventional solutions at the time.

Homeopathy means similar (Homeo) suffering (pathy). It is based on the principle that “Like cures Like”. This means that if a patient is suffering from chronic sleeplessness, taking a substance that causes the body to be sleep deprived ( the homeopathic remedy for insomnia is Coffea Cruda and is made from coffee) will actually make the patient sleep better. Weird, I know, but it works. However it does get even stranger and this is what the critics jump on. What the patient is given is not the compound itself as this may be toxic, but the compound dissolved in water and then diluted to the point that there is not a single molecule of the original compound. The solution is also “potentized:” at each dilution by vigorous shaking or “succussion”. Hahemann discovered that the more the solution was diluted, the more potent therapeutically it became as long as it was potentized at each dilution. The water carries the “energy” of the compound.

From a theoretical perspective this does exceed the tolerance of an open mind which is often the case in science until a mechanism is developed to explain it (e.g. electricity). However, water has the property of “memory”. Indeed, science has backed up the phenomenon of potentization for over 20 years. In 1988, Nobel Prize nominee and medical researcher Jacques Benveniste turned the course of his life upside down when he discovered that ultradilutions in water could retain substance-specific properties. In particular, he found that a certain antibody could be serially diluted and succussed beyond the point where a single molecule could remain, but still cause the same effects. In spite of being attacked by the skeptics, he continued his work and further demonstrated that the electromagnetic signature of an ultradilution could be recorded electronically, transmitted via Email, replayed into water, and still achieve the same substance-specific effects in the laboratory. Eventually, Benveniste’s results were replicated and more recently, a paper by Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier in 2009 underscored the power of ultradilutions.

So the scientific community does now accept the principle of ultradilution. However this did not convince the skeptics. Big pharma through its agents is intent to shutting down homeopathy as there is no way they can take their customary share of the proceeds

In my experience homeopathy is very good a dealing with all kinds of illness, both acute and chronic. Homeopaths believe that the remedies go to the cause of the problem and not just suppress the symptoms in the manner of conventional drugs. In fact homeopathy can cure chronic diseases not just relieve the symptoms. If you have asthma and you are prescribed the appropriate remedy, the asthma will be healed for good without any side effects. Note that homeopathy has the power to heal both physical problems as well as emotional ones such as depression.

My only caveat is that you find a good homeopath. The training is long and thorough, but I find that the best homeopaths I have come across have an instinct for the correct remedy of which there are many thousands. There are no generic approaches to homeopathy (a single remedy for each illness), and each person’s health signature is different thus requiring a specific remedy.

There are homeopathic institutions in each country that can help you find a recognized and reliable homeopath. One way to tell if the homeopath is good is
how long do you have to wait for an appointment. If you get an appointment within a day or so, ask why, as most good homeopaths are booked quite far in advance.

David Gore Graham B. Sc.

Author of Wellbeing Matters – A Personal Guide to Radiant Health and Wellbeing.

Tags: homeopathy, pharmaceutical, Samuel Hanhemann, Michael Baum, Edzard Ernst, AJM, succussion, potentized, remedy, Jacque Benveniste, ultradilution, Luc Montagnier