Prince Charles Congratulates Homeopathy School’s Success

The School of Homeopathy in England held an historic event in Stroud to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Many of the world’s leading homeopaths came to show support and give presentations and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales sent his warmest congratulations:

“I did just want to send my warmest possible congratulations in celebration of the Stroud School of Homeopathy’s 30th Anniversary. It seems to me this most noteworthy of events takes on an even greater resonance, coming as it does at a time when, sadly, we have been witnessing the relative decline of some homeopathic services in different parts of the United Kingdom.

It makes the achievements of the School even more significant – from being one of the first in this country to offer an on-site, four year programme, to developing an extensive clinical supervision process and, in addition, creating a home-study programme which reaches students in over sixty countries.

It seems remarkable all this has happened in spite of the apparently ceaseless attacks on homeopathy, and on the individuals attempting to build credibility around its patient outcomes, and I can only wish you every possible success in the years to come.”

Mani Norland, the School of Homeopathy’s Principal says, “This incredible event was our way of celebrating the School’s achievement of 30 years at the forefront of UK homeopathic education. This is one of the largest most exciting events ever held in homeopathy. Never before have so many influential homeopaths come together to present at one free online event – it is truly world class! We are honoured and proud to be given the added endorsement from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. We feel it was a great gift to give the profession and a fitting way to mark the year for us.”

The School (which is the longest running in the UK) was founded in 1981 and quickly developed to be one of the first to offer an on-site four year programme. It has worked closely with the Society of Homeopaths during a long development towards an accreditation process.

Chair of Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Department Praises Alternative Medicine

In a recent article in The Atlantic, many main stream medical doctors such as Dr. Gertz have come out in favour of homeopathy in spite of venomous attacks by skeptics. The author of the article writes:

 Morie Gertz, a hematologist, who chairs the Mayo Clinic’s internal-medicine department: “Most of the doctors here were top of their medical-school class, top of their residency, blah, blah, blah,” he told me. “That’s technical mastery. That doesn’t make them effective healers. Over the past 30 years, I’ve seen hundreds of patients who clearly feel they’ve benefited from alternative therapies. It’s not my job to tell them they shouldn’t feel better. And I wouldn’t tell patients they shouldn’t try alternative medicine if they want to—we need to follow the clues patients give us about what might help them. If a patient chooses to walk away from the therapy I’ve prescribed and go to an alternative therapist instead, that’s not the fault of alternative medicine; it’s because I’ve failed as a doctor to do a good job of making my case in terms that are important to the patient.”

Gertz is among the many physicians who dismiss the lack of supportive randomized-trial data as a reason to write off alternative medicine. “The randomized trial is a very high bar,” he says. “Eighty percent of what I do here isn’t based on randomized-trial data.”

Physicians routinely write “off-label” prescriptions, Gertz says—that is, prescriptions that call for drugs to treat conditions for which those drugs have not been officially approved. It’s a perfectly legal and ethical practice, and even one that physicians consider essential, accounting for about a fifth of all U.S. prescriptions. “It’s off-label not because it doesn’t work, but because there’s no good randomized-trial data on it. In the same way, we may not have great evidence that alternative medicine works, but that’s very different from saying it doesn’t work.”