What does Coca Cola, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Anti-homeopathy Group ‘Sense About Science’ Have In Common?

The Alliance for Natural Health International reports that the anti homeopathy group Sense about Science has been “busted by The Times of London” for once again secretly supporting corporate giants.  This skeptic group has been for years taking contributions from Pharmaceutical Companies.  In turn, they have authored actions and reports that seem independent and equal minded but are an attempt by the pharmaceutical industry to destroy homeopathy and the right of consumers to choose alternative health  modalities.

The alliance for natural health reports that “On the 9th & 10th October 2015 respectively, The Times published two consecutive, highly revealing articles by its special correspondent, Alexi Mostrous. In the Saturday piece, Alexi Mostrous exposed Sense About Science’s association with Coca-Cola. Sense About Science is the charity with which anti-alternative medicine skeptics like Simon Singh and Ben Goldacre are associated, that claims to be independent yet often acts as a voice for Big Food, Pharma and Biotech.”

According to the article, Sense about Science used its so called “scientific voice” to debunk a study that showed the dangers of drinking sugar-sweetened beverages.  The research evidence that triggered this situation was entitled “Estimated Global, Regional, and National Disease Burdens Related to Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption in 2010”. The background of the research was described as follows:

     “Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are consumed globally and contribute to adiposity. However, the worldwide impact of SSBs on burdens of adiposity-related cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancers, and diabetes mellitus has not been assessed by nation, age, and sex…”

As mentioned, Sense about Science has been complicit in inciting and spreading negative and false opinions about homeopathy and alternative health modalities. It was revealed that it is funded by the pharmaceutical industry and other corporations needing a seemingly “independent” scientific voice.

Leading Scientist and Chemist Becomes Professional Homeopath

One of the leading research chemists and scientists was so impressed with homeopathy that he decided to study it and is now a practising homeopath. Dr Lionel R Milgrom BSc, MSc, PhD, CChem, FRSC, LCH, MARH, RHom. is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and his research and articles are highly cited in leading science journals. He has practised for a number of years as a professional homeopath in London, England.

Apart from homeopathy, I have also been a research chemist for over 30 years, holding several science degrees, including a doctorate in chemistry. I am a Chartered Chemist, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. My chemistry research over the past 12 years has concentrated on the use of light and biologically-targeted pigments as a novel treatment for cancer. In 2001, this culminated in the formation of a university spin-out company to propagate and commercialise this research. I am also a science journalist, writing about chemistry and CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) for many leading newspapers, journals and magazines. – www.lionelmilgrom.com

UNESCO Scientific Symposium Features Homeopathy as “New Frontiers in Medicine”

Scientist met at UNESCO headquarters in Paris France in August to discuss the medical implications of what UNESCO calls a new paradigm in biology – essentially homeopathic potentitzation. Nobel prize winner, Luc Montagnier and French and Italian scientific researchers into homeopathic paradigms were leaders at the symposium and presented rigorous scientific evidence. One of the original researchers of homeopathic mechanisms, Benveniste and his work was also discussed. UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization)  is known as the intellectual agency of the United Nations.

For the first time, a scientific symposium will discuss the emergence and possible societal and medical implications of a new paradigm in biology: electromagnetic waves and their relationship to the properties of water. This symposium will provide a synthesis of the research conducted over many years by Professor Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize in Medicine. Professor Montagnier has worked with multidisciplinary teams of French and Italian researchers. The mathematician Cédric Villani, who received the Fields Medal in 2010, will propose a synthesis of the various presentations. He will include them in the broader context of Professor Jacques Benveniste’s work (1935-2004) on the “memory of water”, which was initiated thirty years ago. Professor Montagnier’s team is working on electromagnetic waves emitted in the area of very low frequencies and thus of low energy. Different reproducible experiments will be presented at the conference. These experiments show that these waves may play an important role in the pathogenicity of micro-organisms – bacteria and viruses – and also in physiological processes such as stem cell differentiation shown by Professor Carlo Ventura. The experimental facts will be presented by the two biologists. It appears that water is an important mediator in the transmission of molecular information, such as that carried by DNA. To achieve such transmission, water generates organized structures, which also emit electromagnetic signals. Marc Henry and Giuseppe Vitiello, relying on concepts developed by Italian physicists Giuliano Preparata and Emilio Del Giudice, will explain how quantum physics can elucidate these mysterious phenomena. They will reveal new fields of research that are areas of consistency activating water molecules. Interdisciplinarity (physics/biology) is the conference’s major message. The promoters of this conference are aware of the critical reactions aroused by this work in parts of the scientific community, so they wish to communicate their results with the utmost rigor. The aim is to foster a broad and multidisciplinary discussion. These data seem particularly important because they further enrich the immense achievements of molecular biology. They also suggest the development of new modes of transmission of genetic messages (transmission, transduction, teleportation, etc.). Opening remarks by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO Presentations by: Giuseppe Vitiello, Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Salerno: “A quantum field approach to living matter: why fields? why quantum?” Marc Henry, Professor of Molecular Chemistry, University of Strasbourg: “Water, electromagnetism and quantum coherence” Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008: “Digital transmission of bacterial DNA in living cells” Carlo Ventura, Professor of Molecular Biology, University of Bologna: “The voice of the stem cells: mutant vibrations and regenerative medicine” Cédric Villani, Professor at the University of Lyon, Director of the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris: “Memory, forgetfulness and reproducibility: an outside view on an unresolved controversy” Closing remarks by John Crowley, Head of the Research, Policy and Foresight Section, UNESCO Moderator : Frank Nouchi, Journalist, ‘Le Monde’ – From the UNESCO site

Complex Modern Experiment Demonstrates Homeopathic Remedy Has Effect on Gene Expression

Both high and low homeopathic potencies of Gelseminium sempervirins were used to see if it would affect the gene expression of a human neurocyte cell line. The experiment was successful and provides evidence that Gelsemium s. “exerts a prevalently inhibitory effect on a series of neurocyte genes across a wide dose-range.” The complexity of modern scientific experimental planning, technique, equipment, experimental controls and quality controls that were used are all quite remarkable. 

Background
Gelsemium sempervirens L. (Gelsemium s.) is a traditional medicinal plant, employed as an anxiolytic at ultra-low doses and animal models recently confirmed this activity. However the mechanisms by which it might operate on the nervous system are largely unknown. This work investigates the gene expression of a human neurocyte cell line treated with increasing dilutions of Gelsemium s. extract.
Methods
Starting from the crude extract, six 100 × (centesimal, c) dilutions of Gelsemium s. (2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 9c and 30c) were prepared according to the French homeopathic pharmacopoeia. Human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were exposed for 24 h to test dilutions, and their transcriptome compared by microarray to that of cells treated with control vehicle solutions.
Results
Exposure to the Gelsemium s. 2c dilution (the highest dose employed, corresponding to a gelsemine concentration of 6.5 × 10-9 M) significantly changed the expression of 56 genes, of which 49 were down-regulated and 7 were overexpressed. Several of the down-regulated genes belonged to G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathways, calcium homeostasis, inflammatory response and neuropeptide receptors. Fisher exact test, applied to the group of 49 genes down-regulated by Gelsemium s. 2c, showed that the direction of effects was significantly maintained across the treatment with high homeopathic dilutions, even though the size of the differences was distributed in a small range.
Conclusions
The study shows that Gelsemium s., a medicinal plant used in traditional remedies and homeopathy, modulates a series of genes involved in neuronal function. A small, but statistically significant, response was detected even to very low doses/high dilutions (up to 30c), indicating that the human neurocyte genome is extremely sensitive to this regulation.

This study provides evidence that Gelsemium s. exerts a prevalently inhibitory effect on a series of neurocyte genes across a wide dose-range. The effect decreases with increasing dilutions, but whole genome expression analysis allowed to detect statistically significant changes even at the highest dilutions tested (9c and 30c). The results suggest the extreme sensitivity of human gene expression to regulation by ultra-low doses and high dilutions/dynamizations of a plant remedy and encourage further efforts in research on this field. Studies using “omic-based” approaches and systems biology should be particularly worthy at generating new hypotheses on mechanisms for the effects of highly diluted natural compounds.

See the write up here: Extreme sensitivity of gene expression in human SH-SY5Y neurocytes to ultra-low doses of Gelsemium sempervirens

New Study Shows Homeopathy Treatment After Tuberculosis Significantly Improves Lung Capacity and Breathing

A new study has shown that homeopathy is effective in improving lung capacity, cough, breathing and general health  in patients who had previously undergone conventional treatment for tuberculosis. It was a double blind study and the results were remarkable.

The conclusion was that “Homeopathy is effective in improving lung capacity and health status. Benefits remain evident after a year. This suggests that homeopathy could make an important contribution to post treatment tuberculosis pulmonary impairment.”

Purpose
Previous studies show that treated and cured pulmonary tuberculosis patients do suffer from pulmonary impairment, lower health related quality of life, disability and long term morbidity, thus responsible for a majority of the disease burden. Despite this, no effective management is available for most of the patients. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of homeopathy on pulmonary, functional and quality of life status of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis who have completed treatment.
Methods
Patients who were cured and had completed anti-tuberculosis treatment within a period of 5 years were enrolled in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Individualised homeopathy treatment was given to 61 patients and identical placebo to 57 patients. Symptomatic changes, pulmonary function tests, and health related quality of life were assessed prior to treatment, after 6 months of intervention, and followed up for a year after completing the intervention.
Results
Significant improvement was observed with the homeopathy treatment in FEV1 (p<0.001), forced vital capacity (p<0.001), and FEV1/FVC ratio (p=0.002). Symptom scores for cough and breathlessness were significantly lower with homeopathy than with placebo (p<0.001). At the end of treatment, patients on homeopathy had increased body weight (p<0.0001), and better quality of life (p<0.05) compared with placebo (p=0.003). Benefits were maintained in the homeopathy group after a year whereas symptoms (p<0.01) and impact score (p<0.001) deteriorated in placebo. Physicians visits were reduced in the homeopathy group by 58.0% (p =0.002) compared to placebo (p<0.0001).
Conclusion
Homeopathy is effective in improving lung capacity and health status. Benefits remain evident after a year. This suggests that homeopathy could make an important contribution to post treatment tuberculosis pulmonary impairment.

-Biomed Central

New Research From Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart Scientifically Proves Water Memory and Homeopathy

A simple experiment by researchers and professors at the prestigious Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart in Germany is confirming Dr. Jacques Benveniste’s 1988 assertion that water has an imprint of energies to which it has been exposed. In spite of Jacques Benveniste’s experiment to show that homeopathy works being replicated many many times at various research labs and universities around the world, skeptics have continued to attempt to debunk it albeit unsuccessfully.

This new experiment and support from professors here offer another intriguing view and explanation of how homeopathy works since it proves water has a “memory”.

The Oasis HD Channel in Canada describes the fascinating results of this new experiment-

Another Nobel Prize Winner Speaks Out For Homeopathy

Nobel Prize winner Brian Josephson PhD, an emeritus professor at Cambridge University, England has joined Luc Montagnier in making strong statements in favour of homeopathy. In the New Scientist he writes:

Regarding your comments on claims made for homeopathy: criticisms centered around the vanishingly small number of solute molecules present in a solution after it has been repeatedly diluted are beside the point, since advocates of homeopathic remedies attribute their effects not to molecules present in the water, but to modifications of the water’s structure.
Simple-minded analysis may suggest that water, being a fluid, cannot have a structure of the kind that such a picture would demand. But cases such as that of liquid crystals, which while flowing like an ordinary fluid can maintain an ordered structure over macroscopic distances, show the limitations of such ways of thinking. There have not, to the best of my knowledge, been any refutations of homeopathy that remain valid after this particular point is taken into account.

A related topic is the phenomenon, claimed by Jacques Benveniste’s colleague Yolène Thomas and by others to be well established experimentally, known as “memory of water.” If valid, this would be of greater significance than homeopathy itself, and it attests to the limited vision of the modern scientific community that, far from hastening to test such claims, the only response has been to dismiss them out of hand. (21)

See the full article on Huffington Post