Dr Sreevals G Menon MD (Hom)
The renewed & more vigorous attack on the efficacy of homoeopathy as a curative therapy picked up internationally by the media is nothing but a sinister pogrom by the powerful pharmaceutical corporations the world over. The news and the discussion related to it as quoted from those at UK is only based on a series of events, a part of a decade long series of organized assault against homoeopathy triggered, sponsored and funded by the consortium of such corporations which is the most effected by the global rise in public demand of Homeopathy.
If one is keen on finding the genesis of the present tirade, one would find reported in Guardian-online, over a decade ago, that The Prince of Wales had ordered a leading independent economist to examine whether the use of complementary therapies could save the NHS money. Homeopathy was one among the priorities. A part of the report claimed up to £480m could be cut from the prescription drugs bill if 10% of GP’s offered homoeopathy as an alternative to standard drugs. The report was instantly reacted to by the pharmaceutical industry wherein they turned critical about the Prince. The report was inwww.scotsman.com
The royal family, in a series of public statements had often quoted the importance, advantages and benefits of Homoeopathy, the most sought system of medicine by them since more than a century, as the most economic, reliable and effective treatment and had urged the NHS to take up Homoeopathy more seriously, with more homoeopathic units under it in place of the few which ran at present. The possible impact on UK’s economy was huge by the growth of Homoeopathy which could save millions of pounds each year spent on allopathic medicines, and could be displaced by the use of homoeopathy in a fraction of the illnesses. A serious worry for pharma corporates !
The news pressed the ‘panic button’ and as a sequel Lancet, a leading allopathic journal suddenly come up with an article urging to give up homoeopathy and stating it as medicines which has no drug content and that the outcome as a mere ‘placebo effect’. The interesting observation is that Lancet is known to have always upheld the homoeopathic possibilities, treatment and clinical observations with frequent articles in its previous editions, from its very inception. However, Lancet did succeed in confusing its readers.
For its article, Lancet is known to have conducted drug trials in Homoeopathy. But this time the modes of study and the protocols used were purely those used for the study of allopathic medicines, well connected to the quantitative aspect of the drug with respect to the clinical diagnosis. It was far from the fundamentals of Homeopathy and they tried to prove that Homeopathic medicines are insignificant and carry only a placebo effect. Prominent U.S. scientists strongly rejected findings on homeopathic medicine to be published in the August 27, 2005 edition of the Lancet. They found that they have successfully applied a methodological approach to the articles they reviewed that is highly suitable for drawing conclusions about conventional medicine but is incomplete in evaluating homeopathic medicine. They did not include criteria that would apply to high quality homeopathic research reflecting the nature of homeopathic practice and ita fundamentals.
Furthermore, a single remedy selection for a given conventionally diagnosed condition is not homoeopathy, yet there are numerous conventionally-judged high quality studies that were so designed. Well aware about the different philosophical structure of Homoeopathy, this study was more than deliberate as anyone who know homoeopathy and its philosophic background close knows that the composite symptom structure, the totality, the miasm and the individualizing elements with respect to the patient and the drug-picture are those based on the selection of medicines and not merely the clinical diagnosis or the pathology though they give clues helping prescription. One could compare this to attempting to read a French book in English, considering the fact that the alphabets used are the same !!
With time, the lancet impact did fade away. But those that have come up off late are more vigorous, renewed and more organized assaults and well focused on the Homoeopathy ‘wash away’. Today the detractors have managed to take the antagonistic views to the House of Commons of UK and has further stimulated a situation where BBC is seen reporting that the ministers consider blacklisting of Homeopathy !.
Another totally biased study by NHMRC of Australia inspecting Homeopathy surprisingly had only Allopaths in the team and they ‘easily concluded’ their views on Homeopathy as inefficient from the research papers submitted to them ! Unlike the situation in India which has a highly developed medical education system for Homeopathy, the fact that a sizeable fraction among homeopaths in Australia are not medically trained doctors, including those who represent the system to the NHMRC, had possibly influenced the quality of submission and in turn made the conclusion a lot easier making the cause of Homeopathy weaker in Australia. The news was well picked up by international media tarnishing Homeopathy.
Interestingly, the World Homeopathy Summit – WHS by Global Homeopathy Foundation – GHF held in April at Mumbai in 2015 has exposed dozens of research papers from scientists across 9 countries in molecular biology, nanotechnology, cell-line studies, in-vitro studies, homeo-prophylaxis, phylogenetic trials etc which were taken well by the Indian and global media. The confirmation of presence of nanoparticles or quantum dots in potentized ultra dilutions of Homeopathy openly challenged the avagadro limits opening up new doors into nanopharmacology related to Homeopathy. The papers furthered into early evidence of the possibility of alternations of gene expressions and the epigenetic changes at the genomic levels by the quantum dots which can pervade across the subcellular levels where the conventional drugs act at the molecular levels. This opens up Homeopathy and it’s scope into the future of Internal medicine !
Homoeopathy has had an impact on the per-capita health expenditure in pro-homoeopathic countries where it is well evolved, like in India, Belgium etc. In India we have a well evolved Ministry of AYUSH with Homoeopathy as an integral part under a union minister with extensive reach out of national rural health mission as peripheral homoeopathic clinics apart from state facilities.
The scope of Homeopathy has been largely proven by thousands of clinical studies in almost all the specialties including Allergies, Auto-immune diseases, Psychatric illnesses, Gastro diseases, Renal, Neurologic, Lifestyle diseases, Psycho-somatic diseases, Skin diseases etc. in various countries at NGO and Government levels. In India the Central Council of Research in Homeopathy CCRH has emerged with an array of research works over the past few decades.
Today India is the seat of Homeopathy with the largest mass of Homeopaths across the country and the government patronage at its highest across the world.
_________________________
Dr Sreevals G Menon MD (Hom)
Managing Trustee,
Global Homeopathy Foundation – GHF
Former National Secretary,
Indian Homeopathic Medical Association – IHMA
Ph: + 91 9349117833 Email: sreevalsm@gmail.com
Reference
http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/prince-attacked-for-secret-health-study-1-730906
Thank you, Dr. Manon, for covering the subject of bias against homeopathy so succinctly and with such relevant points. It is truly amazing that the detractors, acolytes, and uninformed public, don’t see beyond their own bias and simplemindedness to realize that people who could get the best healthcare in the world, such as the Royal Families, from various kingdoms, several popes, luminaries and prominent business people, have chosen homeopathy. It if didn’t work for clinically complex conditions, as it does, it would not have survived over 200 years. Often, narrow-mindedness makes one loose perspective of the big picture. Homeopathy can be part of the solution to the currently expanding healthcare crisis, in my opinion.
Very clear picturisation of the Anti-Homeopathy agenda that is operating globally. Dr Menon, kudos to you for bringing this up and reminding us about the need of a mass propaganda worldwide and GENUINE RESEARCHES. I hope, we should take up the matter of FUNDAMENTAL research in Homeopathy a lil more seriously and filter out fake researches that maligned the reputation of homeopathy gravely.
Hope we would meet to discuss more on it.
The campaign will fail for the simple reason that Homeopathy is highly effective and unlike Allopathy, does no harm.
The campaign will fail for the simple reason that Homeopathy is highly effective and unlike Allopathy, does no harm.
Thank you, Dr. Menon, for daring to cover this topic. It has been clear for some time
now that there is a conspiracy afoot to undermine the credibility and good standing
of homeopathy. PhRMA is using the media, medical academia, and its skeptic
mercenaries to do its ugly bidding. As with the big tobacco companies that long
tried to hide the truth, the more we can manage to shed some light on these
deceptive practices, the more people will come to see the true motivations of
PhRMA. Recent actions by FDA and FTC in the U.S. are not coincidental. They are
likely the result of PhRMA exerting pressure on these agencies and lies that it
spreads regarding homeopathy. The nonsensical contradictory lie that homeopathy
is both unsafe and nothing more than placebo highlights the desperate state of
mind of those who oppose it. The question we must all ask ourselves is, if
homeopathy is as ineffective as PhRMA claims, then why would it go to all the
trouble to destroy it? Could it be that homeopathy is stiff competition because
it works so well?