Homeopathy has an important role to play before, after and in many countries around the world, during surgery. In Australia where the surgical facilities are generally quite good, there is still a small but consistent number of patients who require assistance with concerns that arise prior to the surgical event and the complications that can arise after the process has been completed. The fast results and lack of drug interactions and contra-indications that homeopathy offers, makes it well suited to meet pre and post-surgical demands. What follows is a short list of homeopathic remedies that been found by a number of authors 2-12 to be of use in these situations. (click here for full article)

Aconite: in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial conducted in France in 19901, aconite was found to be highly effective in the treatment of post-surgical agitation in children. Aconite is commonly used for both pre and post-surgical anxiety and of the fear of dying.

Continue reading Remedies for Surgery →

Homeopaths Without Borders-NA (HWB) has accomplished another successful mission to Haiti. Responding to requests by charitable groups in Haiti, the volunteers worked not only in the capital but also travelled to sites in the countryside. Their ten-day schedule was a whirlwind of compassionate homeopathic intervention. They began their clinical work with a return to St. Vincent’s School for the Handicapped, where HWB has treated students and faculty since July 2010.

The comparative comfort of St. Vincent’s was left behind as the group travelled to Leogane, the epicenter of the January 2010 quake, over roads still difficult to maneuver, where they set up a clinic for two days at Living Waters for Top of the World, an affiliate of the Presbyterian Church. As has been true of all the sites where volunteers have offered care, the group was welcomed and kept busy with a steady stream of ill people. Several days later, the group was on the road again, going to the Ganthier School, west of Port-au-Prince near the Dominican Republic border.

In between these road trips and during their last few days, various sites around Port-au-Prince served as clinic venues . The trio devoted very full days providing medical assistance at two sites run by the Baptist Mission Group (one of which had been served before by HWB) : the Carrefour Cote de Plage tent camp and the Association of Protection of Women and Children Again. The number of people in need of help almost overwhelmed the group, and meals and breaks were forsaken in an effort to diagnose and treat as many as possible.

The team reported that conditions in Haiti remain difficult; piles of rubble still sit in the streets, roads are filled with potholes and rebuilding is extremely slow. Potable water is scarce as is sufficient food, and fear of cholera is evident.

Haitians continue to demonstrate symptoms of trauma and grief from an earthquake that took place a year and a half ago. Skin problems such as ringworm are prevalent as are gastrointestinal problems including severe diarrhea; some of the latter are related to poor nutrition. Vaginal infections persist. The group treated several very ill infants who were malnourished, dehydrated, underdeveloped, feverish and covered with rashes from head to toe.

Although a great variety of remedies were used, the following were the most frequently administered: Arnica, Aconite, Ignatia, Causticum, Nat mur, Sepia, Phosphorus acid and Sulphur.

See full article on Hpathy website.

The School of Homeopathy 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.”

To see the full report, please see the School of Homeopathy’s website.

In a recent study from Germany, 2,722 Swedish and German patients with chronic health problems received homeopathic treatment from doctors trained in homeopathy. Please see full study here.

The participants were monitored over an eight year period.
The researchers stated that the data, “…consistently show substantial health improvements in patients under homeopathic treatment, which persisted through the whole observation period.”
Some of the more interesting observations from the study are:

• One in 2 patients reported a 50% or more improvement in their health
  complaint
• Three in ten patients stopped homeopathic treatment before the end of
  the 8-year period because of major improvements in their health.
• Improvements were more pronounced in those with greater disease severity
  at the beginning of treatment.

Most patients said they would use homeopathy again and recommend it to friends.

Sadly, several organised groups are agressively targetting homeopathy and other complementary therapists on the basis that there is no ‘scientific’ evidence for efficacy. Quite apart from the fact that there is sound evidence (see other news stories), there are some major questions asked about the reliability of the methods being used to test conventional medicine.

In her blog on Pulse, Karine Nohr, says it’s “time to take a reality check on evidence from clinical trials.”

Her article looks at the shortcomings of conventional medicine in terms of its ‘so called’ research evidence: “Critics of the research in complementary medicines need to take heed of the scepticism that is increasingly present regarding ‘evidence’ for orthodox treatments.

“Of course we all want ‘evidence’, but evidence is only as good as the quality of the research, it’s transparency and the absence of bias. 85% of trials are sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies; when comparing drugs, the vast majority show that the sponsoring company’s drugs are more effective than the comparison drug.

If you haven’t already done so, I would urge anybody who puts ‘evidence’ on a pedestal to read ‘Reality Check’ in the BMJ. Ray Moynihan refers to the mounting corroboration that there is a massive positive bias in the publication of trials.”

She also points out that; “In the UK, NICE does not have a legal right of access to unpublished trial results which the industry submits to the regulator and the MHRA is unable to prosecute companies for witholding information, so how can NICE ensure that their recommendations are evidence based?

The problems of selective publication are further explored in the subsequent two articles of the same BMJ, urging greater access and transparency of data, disclosure of unpublished evidence and better quality reporting by the European Medicines Agency, in order to provide more useful information to all.”