Skeptical Researcher Reluctantly Admits Homeopathy Works

An article in the New Scientist points out how a pharmacologist who was attempting to debunk homeopathy had to reluctantly admit that it works.

 

MADELEINE Ennis, a pharmacologist at Queen’s University, Belfast, was the scourge of homeopathy. She railed against its claims that a chemical remedy could be diluted to the point where a sample was unlikely to contain a single molecule of anything but water, and yet still have a healing effect. Until, that is, she set out to prove once and for all that homeopathy was bunkum.

In her most recent paper, Ennis describes how her team looked at the effects of ultra-dilute solutions of histamine on human white blood cells involved in inflammation. These “basophils” release histamine when the cells are under attack. Once released, the histamine stops them releasing any more. The study, replicated in four different labs, found that homeopathic solutions – so dilute that they probably didn’t contain a single histamine molecule – worked just like histamine. Ennis might not be happy with the homeopaths’ claims, but she admits that an effect cannot be ruled out.

Homeopathy Cancer Centre Makes Research Breakthrough Showing Homeopathy Affects Cancer Cells

 

Dana Ullman reports that a new study done at the Amala Cancer Research Centre in India and published in the Oxford University Press journal called e-CAM  shows that homeopathy has a dramatic impact on gene expression and various cancer cells in a long term way.

 

Dana Ullman, who has a  Masters of Public Health writes, “Of special interest is the fact that this study has repeated shown that homeopathically potentized doses have dramatic effects on various kinds of cancer cells, not just in the short-term but the long-term. This research also shows that various homeopathic medicines have dramatic effects on gene expression (this is the type of evidence that conventional drug companies LOVE to see for their drugs…and there is increasing evidence that homeopathic medicines have this profound effect).”

 

ABSTRACT:
Although reports on the efficacy of homeopathic medicines in animal models are limited, there are even fewer reports on the in vitro action of these dynamized preparations. We have evaluated the cytotoxic activity of 30C and 200C potencies of ten dynamized medicines against Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascites, Ehrlich’s Ascites Carcinoma, lung fibroblast (L929) and Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines and compared activity with their mother tinctures during short-term and long-term cell culture. The effect of dynamized medicines to induce apoptosis was also evaluated and we studied how dynamized medicines affected genes expressed during apoptosis. Mother tinctures as well as some dynamized medicines showed significant cytotoxicity to cells during short and long-term incubation. Potentiated alcohol control did not produce any cytotoxicity at concentrations studied. The dynamized medicines were found to inhibit CHO cell colony formation and thymidine uptake in L929 cells and those of Thuja, Hydrastis and Carcinosinum were found to induce apoptosis in DLA cells. Moreover, dynamized Carcinosinum was found to induce the expression of p53 while dynamized Thuja produced characteristic laddering pattern in agarose gel electrophoresis of DNA. These results indicate that dynamized medicines possess cytotoxic as well as apoptosis-inducing properties.

 

—–>   http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/6/2/257?etoc

 

 

 

Rock Legend Roger Daltrey Praises Homeopathy and Prince Charles Support of Homeopathy

Roger Daltrey, the Who’s lead singer, praised homeopathy as a guest speaker at an event sponsored by Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health. Mr. Daltrey talked about his experiences with homeopathy and work with the Teenage Cancer Trust. In 2008, Daltrey discussed how homeopathy saved his son’s life.

Rock legend Roger Daltrey has praised the Prince of Wales for his work campaigning on issues like climate change and integrated health.

The Who’s lead singer described the heir to the throne as “his own man” when the two met at a health conference in central London.

The musician was a guest speaker at the event staged by the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health to talk about his experiences of homeopathy and work with the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Asked what he thought about the 60-year-old Prince, Daltrey said: “I think the work Charles is doing is amazing, he takes it on the chin, he’s his own man.”

Charles has faced criticism over the decades for his support for green issues and promoting the use of complementary alongside conventional treatments.

The Press Association

 

 

In 2008, Daltrey revealed, “I had a very, very dramatic experience with my son when he was nine months old. He had gastro difficulties, started throwing up, could not keep any food down and turned into skin and bone. At the hospital, they did every test to him, and in the end they just handed him back to me. My wife and I were in bits. My poor baby. The kid was dying. It was terrifying. I thought, there’s got to be something. I’d heard of homeopathy, so I found a local guy in the Yellow Pages and took my boy there. He gave him some powders. Within two weeks he was putting weight on, keeping the food down. The trouble recurred periodically for a couple of years, but he’s now 27, a fit and healthy young man.” 

Daltrey further explained that he has seen other miraculous results from homeopathic treatment, “The bizarre thing is that I’ve got a chiropractor friend in LA whose baby landed up in exactly the same state. He thought he was about to lose him. But I recommended homoeopathic remedies, and he recovered too. That’s God’s honest truth. Now I bet doctors would say, ‘Oh they’d have got better anyway’. But I can’t believe that.” 

PR Log

 

Homeopathy Successful in Flu Pandemics

Homeopathy has always had great success in treating viruses and flu like illnesses. In fact, homeopathy was very effective in the 1918 flu pandemic. Julian Winston, a medical historian wrote:

It is hard to imagine the devastation caused by the flu epidemic of 1918-19. People who lived through it reported that someone who was up and well in the morning could be dead by evening.

It was about as deadly as the Black Death. Twenty million people died world-wide. Twelve and a half (12.5) million died in India alone – four percent of the population. In the United States, 548,000 people died in the epidemic.

The following is an extract from an article entitled “Homeopathy in Influenza- A Chorus Of Fifty In Harmony” by W. A. Dewey, MD from the Journal of the American Institute Of Homeopathy in 1921.

* Dean W. A. Pearson of Philadelphia collected 26,795 cases of influenza treated by homoeopathic physicians with a mortality of 1.05%, while the average old school mortality was 30%.

* Thirty physicians in Connecticut responded to my request for data. They reported 6,602 cases with 55 deaths, which is less than 1%. In the transport service I ha 81 cases on the way over. All recovered and were landed. Every man received homoeopathic treatment. One ship lost 31 on the way. – H. A Roberts, MD, Derby, Connecticut

* In a plant of almost 8,000 workers we had only one death. The patients were not drugged to death. Gelsemium was practically the only remedy used. We used no aspirin and no vaccines. – Frank Wieland, MD, Chicago

* I did not lose a single case of influenza ; my death rate in the pneumonia was 2.1%. The salicylates, including aspirin and quinine, were almost the sole standbys of the old school and it was a common thing to hear them speaking of losing 60% of their pneumonias. – Dudley A. Williams, MD, Providence, Rhode Island

* Fifteen hundred cases were reported at the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the District of Combia with but fifteen deaths. Recoveries in the National Homoeopathic Hospital were 100% – E. F. Sappington, MD, Philadelphia.

* I have treated 1,000 cases of infuenza. I have the records to show my work. I have no losses. Please give all credit to homoeopathy and none to the Scotch-Irish-American! T. A. McCaan, MD, Dayton, Ohio.

* One physician in a Pittsburg hospital asked a nurse if she knew anything better than what he was doing, because he was losing many cases. “Yes, Doctor, stop aspirin and go down to a homeopathic pharmacy, and get homeopathic remedies.” The Doctor replied: “But that is homeopathy.” “I know it, but the homeopathic doctors for whom I have nursed have not lost a single case.”

Julian Winston relates a further comment from his first homeopath, Dr Ray Seidel:

“In reading accounts of the epidemic it seems many deaths were caused by a virulent pneumonia that was especially devastating to those who depressed their system with analgesics, the most common being aspirin. Raymond Seidel told me he decided to become a homeopathic doctor when he was 10 year old delivery boy for a local homeopath. He said, “I saw that the people who were taking aspirin were dying, and about half of those who were drinking a lot of whiskey were dying, and those receiving homeopathic remedies were living.”

 

 (From: J. Winston. 1999. The Faces of Homeopathy. Great Auk Publishing. Wellington: New Zealand.)

Today, Dana Ullman writes:

The fear-mongering that the media is perpetuating is great television, and it sells a lot more newspapers as fear hooks people into watching and reading whatever news they can.  This fear-mongering is even better for the drug companies.  In 2002, the ten largest drug companies in the Fortune 500 made more profit than the remaining 490 companies combined!  THIS is why we see so many TV advertisements for drugs.  These companies make so much profit that they benefit big time from the fear of the flu (or any disease) that gets big media.

The media seem sympathetic to others’ suffering, and they try to give people advice on how to avoid the flu or how to treat it, but as yet, I have not seen one story on what may be the BEST ADVICE one can give to people who have the flu (or even a fever).  This advice is:  do not take aspirin or other conventional drugs to lower your fever, and do not take any antibiotics.  We all know that antibiotics are not effective for the flu because it is the result of a viral infection, not a bacterial infection.  However, too few people know the real dangers of taking aspirin or any other conventional drugs that lower fever.
  

As homeopaths treat individuals, even a flu is individualized for the correct homeopathic remedy. There is what is called a “remedy epidemicus” which means one or a few remedies can be most frequently used in an epidemic. As shown in Cuba, homeopathy can even be remarkably  effective in treating 2.5 million people at one time.   Contact a professional homeopath if you or your family exhibit symptoms.

Jenny McCarthy is a Supporter of Alternative Health Methods

Jenny McCarthy’s organization Generation Rescue arose from her having an autistic son. She and her Dr. have successfully treated his autism using alternative health means. Homeopathy has successfully treated autism as well.

She also believes that vaccines particularly the number currently given have caused autism, neurological problems, ADHD (Attention Deficits) and even more deaths. She has successfuly gathered scientists together to discuss these ideas and has prompted some studies and surveys herself.

A study on her web site also notes that although the United States has the highest rate of vaccination it also has one of the highest rates of mortality for children under 5 years old. She has also done a vaccine versus unvaccinated survey with some startling results.

Vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55), Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24

 

In 1983, the Centers for Disease Control (”CDC”) recommended a total of 10 vaccines for our children up to the age of 5. In 2007, the CDC recommends 36, an increase of 260%, or 3.6x. (See a comparison here).

During this time period, we have witnessed an epidemic of childhood neurological disorders (”NDs”). Today, the CDC estimates that 1 in 13 U.S. children has been diagnosed with ADHD and 1 in 150 has been diagnosed with autism. In the 1980s, ADHD was almost unheard of and autism was estimated to affect 1 in 10,000 children. Boys are significantly more affected by NDs, accounting for approximately 80% of all cases.

 

 

Study Shows Homeopathy As Effective as Conventional Medicine in Treating Acute Respiratory and Ear Complaints

A study using 57 primary care centers in Europe showed that homeopathy is as effective at treating acute respiratory and ear complaints as conventional treatment. Data of 1,577 patients was evaulated and 857 patient received homeopathic treatment. 

The study was designed as an international, multi-centre, comparative cohort study of non-randomised design. Patients, presenting themselves with at least one chief complaint: acute (≤ 7 days) runny nose, sore throat, ear pain, sinus pain or cough, were recruited at 57 primary care practices in Austria (8), Germany (8), the Netherlands (7), Russia (6), Spain (6), Ukraine (4), United Kingdom (10) and the USA (8) and given either homeopathic or conventional treatment. Therapy outcome was measured by using the response rate, defined as the proportion of patients experiencing ‘complete recovery’ or ‘major improvement’ in each treatment group. The primary outcome criterion was the response rate after 14 days of therapy.

The study concluded that homeopathic treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints, including those in children was at least as good as conventional medicine. And as importantly, the study also showed that the onset of improvement was much faster for patients using homeopathy with adults having less adverse reactions using homeopathy.

“However, onset of improvement within the first 7 days after treatment was significantly faster upon homeopathic treatment both in children (p = 0.0488) and adults (p = 0.0001). Adverse drug reactions occurred more frequently in adults of the conventional group than in the homeopathic group …”

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine-PubMedCentral

 

 

Check out this other study of patients with psoriasis that has recently been published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venerology.

Direct Prescription Drug Advertising Accounts for USA Children Taking More Psychiatric Medications

 

Children in the United States are more likely to take psychiatric medications than those in Europe and this could be related to drug company advertising according to a new study published. 

“There is significantly greater use of atypical antipsychotics and SSRI-type antidepressants for child mental health treatment in U.S. than in Western Europe,” said lead researcher Julie Zito, from the pharmaceutical health services research department in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland.

“Direct-to-consumer drug advertising, which is common in the U.S., is also likely to account for some of the differences. The increased use of medication in the U.S. also reflects the individualist and activist therapeutic mentality of U.S. medical culture,” the researchers concluded.

More at  Medicinenet.com .

Fivefold Increase In Kidney Stones In Children

Updated

Why is it that our children are getting more and more chronic problems that were only showing up in adults? Is it because of the number of conventional drugs, including vaccines that they are ingesting? And why is it that with the amount of conventional medicine that is available in the Western World these serious conditions have not been prevented but are increasing? 

USA Today in an article reports that children are now experiencing kidney stones and in some areas in the United States of America the problem is at epidemic proportions.

 

At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the number of children treated for kidney stones since 2005 has climbed from about 10 a year to five patients a week now, said Dr. Pasquale Casale.

Johns Hopkins Children Center in Baltimore, a referral center for children with stones, used to treat one or two youngsters a year 15 or so years ago. Now it gets calls about new cases every week, said kidney specialist Dr. Alicia Neu.

They speculate it may be a nutritional problem but could it also be as a result of all the vaccines and medications that children are getting? Certain vaccines are not indicated in kidney disease.

Homeopathy Shows Promise in the Treatment of HIV Infections

Updated

There are millions of people that either cannot afford or choose not to undergo standard treatment for AIDs. Homeopathy is a good alternative for these individuals. Some older and some recent initial studies are showing that homeopathy is an effective treatment alternative for Acquired Immune Deficiency. There is a very promising study starting in Cuba and the expectation is that the results will be similar to this spectacular result.

Homeopathy also has a history of successful treatment of various serious influenza outbreaks and other viral diseases.

More later on the actual studies and individuals, homeopaths from Israel, England, Cuba, India and Holland who are leading the way in this non-toxic, inexpensive treatment choice.

Study Shows How Patients Report Significant Improvement After Complimentary Health Treatments in Northern Ireland

Hospital Health Care, an online resource for senior management in hospitals across Europe, reports that an independent study involving  713 patients using complimentary therapies including homeopathy showed remarkable and  significant improvements in health.

A year-long pilot scheme in Northern Ireland has found that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can offer significant health improvements to NHS patients.

After receiving CAM treatments on referral from their GP, 81% of patients reported an improvement in their physical health and 79% in their mental health. The majority of patients, 84%, directly linked improvements in their health and wellbeing to the CAM treatment they had received and 94% said they would recommend it to others with a similar condition.

 

 

Independent analysis of the findings showed:

• Patients receiving acupuncture treatment reported an average 33% improvement in their health and wellbeing
• Patients receiving chiropractic and osteopathy treatment reported an average 38% improvement in their health and wellbeing
• Patients receiving homeopathic treatment reported an average 54% improvement in their health and wellbeing