Therapy Guides: Homeopathy

 

Contents

What is homeopathy?

Definition

The term homeopathy comes from the Greek words homeo, meaning similar, and pathos, meaning suffering or disease. Homeopathy was created in the late 18th century by German physician Samuel Hahnemann and laid out in his textbook, The Organon of the Healing Art.

Homeopathic remedies are made from substances that, in undiluted form, cause symptoms similar to the disease they aim to treat. These substances are repeatedly diluted, with shaking at each stage. Homeopaths believe that this procedure removes side-effects, "adds to their power to stimulate a response", and "develops the special properties of the remedy", even for substances that are chemically inert or so greatly diluted that none of the original substance remains. The therapeutic applications of the remedies used in homeopathy are recorded in homeopathic materia medica, and practitioners select treatments according to a patient consultation that explores both the physical and psychological state of the patient. Some homeopaths, who are a minority in the medical field, contend that many studies and meta-analyses have demonstrated that homeopathy has an effect other than placebo, and that placebo-controlled, randomized, and blinded clinical trials are not the best research tool to test homeopathic effects.

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How it works

Samuel Hahnemann conceived of homeopathy while translating a medical treatise by Scottish physician and chemist William Cullen into German. He was skeptical of Cullen's explanation of cinchona bark's mechanism of action in treating malaria, so he decided to test its effects by taking it himself. Upon ingesting the bark, he experienced fever, shivering and joint pain, symptoms similar to some of the early symptoms of malaria, the disease that the bark was ordinarily used to treat. From this, Hahnemann came to believe that all effective drugs produce symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the diseases that they can treat. This later became known as the "law of similars", the most important concept of homeopathy. The term "homeopathy" was coined by Hahnemann and first appeared in print in 1807, although he began outlining his theories of "medical similars" in a series of articles and monographs in 1796.

Hahnemann began to test what effects substances produced in humans, a procedure which would later become known as "proving". These time-consuming tests required subjects to clearly record all of their symptoms as well as the ancillary conditions under which they appeared. Hahnemann saw this data as a way of identifying substances suitable for the treatment of particular diseases. The first collection of provings was published in 1805 and a second collection of 65 remedies appeared in his book, Materia Medica Pura, in 1810. Hahnemann believed that large doses of drugs that caused similar symptoms would only aggravate illness, and so he advocated extreme dilutions of the substances; he devised a technique for making dilutions that he believed would preserve a substance's therapeutic properties while removing its harmful effects, proposing that this process aroused and enhanced "spirit-like medicinal powers held within a drug". He gathered and published a complete overview of his new medical system in his 1810 book, The Organon of the Healing Art, whose 6th edition, published in 1921, is still used by homeopaths today.

General philosophy

Homeopathy is a 'vitalist' philosophy in that it regards diseases and sickness to be caused by disturbances in a hypothetical vital force or life force in humans and that these disturbances manifest themselves as unique symptoms. Homeopathy contends that the vital force has the ability to react and adapt to internal and external causes, which homeopaths refer to as the "law of susceptibility". The law of susceptibility states that a negative state of mind can attract hypothetical disease entities called "miasms" to invade the body and produce symptoms of diseases. However, Hahnemann rejected the notion of a disease as a separate thing or invading entity and insisted that it was always part of the "living whole".

Law of similars

The "law of similars", otherwise known as "like cures like" says that by inducing artificial symptoms of a disease, the artificial symptoms would create another disturbance in the vital force thus pushing out the old disturbance and that the body would naturally recover from the artificially induced disturbance. The basic idea is that to cure a person suffering from an illness, one should administer a dilute dose of a substance that produces the same symptoms of the illness being treated in healthy individuals.

Miasms and disease

A miasm is often defined by homeopaths as an imputed peculiar morbid derangement of our vital force. Hahnemann associated each miasm with specific diseases, with each miasm seen as the root cause of several diseases. According to Hahnemann, initial exposure to miasms causes local symptoms, such as skin or venereal diseases, but if these symptoms are suppressed by medication, the cause goes deeper and begins to manifest itself as diseases of the internal organs. Homeopathy contends that treating diseases by directly opposing their symptoms, as is sometimes done in conventional medicine, is not so effective because all "disease can generally be traced to some latent, deep-seated, underlying chronic, or inherited tendency." The underlying imputed miasm still remains, and deep-seated ailments can only be corrected by removing the deeper disturbance of the vital force.

Hahnemann's miasm theory remains disputed and controversial within homeopathy even in modern times.

Summary

Homeopathy is a profoundly effective yet safe and gentle system of healing which works by stimulating the body s natural ability to heal itself. It is a holistic medicine in that it sees all symptoms of disease as expressions of disharmony within the whole person and recognises that it is the individual who needs treatment, not the disease.

When symptoms persist, it is because the body s ability to heal itself is blocked. The blockage can be caused by inherited immune weaknesses, suppressed emotional expression and restricted beliefs. The remedy works by resonating with the symptoms and energising the body to cure itself.

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Clinical Practice

What it treats

Common Conditions that respond well to Homeopathy include:

What will happen during in a treatment?

During a consultation the client will have the opportunity to talk not only about their specific symptoms, but the homeopath will also seek to understand the client as a person, learning about their mental and emotional life, likes and dislikes, what makes them scared, angry and sad etc. Every complaint is seen as a body  mind process so personality traits and general characteristics are just as important as physical symptoms. Homeopathic treatments generally begin with a detailed examination of their patients' histories, including questions regarding their physical, mental and emotional states, life circumstances and any physical/emotional illnesses.

The homeopath then translates this information into a complex formula of mental and physical symptoms, including likes, dislikes, innate predispositions and even body type. The goal is to develop a comprehensive representation of each individual's overall health. This information can then be compared with similar established data found in the homeopathic materia medica. The homeopath then aims to find the one drug most closely matching the 'symptom totality' of the patient. There are many methods for determining the most-similar remedy (the simillimum), and homeopaths sometimes disagree. This is partly due to the complexity of the "totality of symptoms" concept. That is, homeopaths do not use all symptoms, but decide which are the most characteristic. This subjective evaluation of case analysis relies on knowledge and experience of the homeopath doing the diagnosis.

Some diversity in approaches to treatments exists among homeopaths. So called "classical" homeopathy generally involves detailed examinations of a patient's history and infrequent doses of a single remedy as the patient is monitored for improvements in symptoms. On the other hand, "clinical" homeopathy uses a range of approaches including combinations of remedies to "cover" the various symptoms of an illness, similar to conventional drug treatments.

Remedies

"Remedy" is a technical term used in homeopathy to refer to a substance prepared with a particular procedure and intended for treating patients. Today there are about 3,000 different remedies commonly used in homeopathy. Homeopathic practitioners rely on two types of reference when prescribing remedies. The Homeopathic Materia Medica, which is comprised of alphabetical indexes of "drug pictures" organized by remedy and describe the symptom patterns associated with individual remedies. They also rely on homeopathic repertories which consist of indexes of symptoms of diseases and listing remedies associated with specific symptoms.

Homeopathy uses many animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic substances in its remedies. Homeopaths also use treatments called nosodes (from the Greek nosos, disease) made from diseased or pathological products such as fecal, urinary, and respiratory discharges, blood, and tissue. Homeopathic remedies prepared from healthy specimens are called Sarcodes.

Safety issues

Here is some general information that has been reported about risks and side effects in homeopathy:

As with all medicinal products, a person taking a homeopathic remedy is best advised to:

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Research on medical effectiveness

Comprehensive meta-analyses of clinical trials in homeopathy

The widely accepted 'gold standard' for assessing the efficacy of a treatment is a meta-analysis or systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Since 1991 there have been six published meta-analyses of homeopathic RCTs, and all but one conclude (with some qualifications) that homeopathy has an effect greater than that of placebo.

The most thorough summary of this evidence was provided in a meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy in human subjects, published by Linde et al in the Lancet in 1997. A total of 89 double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trials was included in the analysis. The results strongly supported a statistically significant difference overall between homeopathy and placebo. This conclusion is compatible with those in four of the five other meta-analyses of research in homeopathy. A key issue is that very few individual medical conditions have been the subject of rigorous investigation in homeopathy, and so there are little research data to review in a systematic way. It was for this reason that Linde et al came to the additional conclusion that there is 'insufficient evidence ... that homeopathy is clearly efficacious for any single clinical condition'. The most recent meta-analysis approached this issue in a unique way, by limiting the main analysis to just 8 large clinical trials of homeopathy and interpreting their (negative) results as somehow representative of the whole of homeopathy and for any medical condition.

Importantly, all such meta-analyses and systematic reviews have concluded that more research in homeopathy is warranted. This is a view strongly supported by the British Homeopathic Association and the Faculty of Homeopathy. It should be highlighted too that, since 1997, focused meta-analyses of published trials in four specific medical conditions - childhood diarrhoea, hayfever, post-operative ileus and rheumatoid arthritis - have provided support for the treatment effectiveness of homeopathy.

Clinical outcome surveys

We summarise here the results from outcome surveys conducted at two of the UK's Homeopathic Hospitals:

Bristol Homeopathic Hospital, 1997-2003 One of the most comprehensive outcome surveys is an analysis of over 23,000 outpatient consultations at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital from November 1997 to October 2003. This represented over 6,500 individual patients whose overall outcome was recorded at follow-up. More than 70% of these follow-up patients reported clinical improvement following homeopathic treatment. Many of the patients in the analysis had previously received mainstream medical intervention at the secondary care level and had either failed to respond satisfactorily or had been unable to tolerate the medication prescribed. Homeopathy therefore achieves positive clinical outcomes in certain conditions that have not yet been proven in RCTs (e.g. Crohn's disease, depression, eczema, headache, menopausal syndrome).

Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, 1999 This study followed up 100 sequential patients after 1 year, with 80% returns. At presentation, 81% of patients had failed to respond to conventional treatment; 47% had seen a Consultant for the problem. After 1 year, 60% of patients improved in the presenting complaint, 61% improved in well-being, 49% had a sustained improvement of value in daily living, and 37% had a sustained reduction in conventional therapy.

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Resources

Homeopathy General

Ainsworths
Homeopathic pharmacy
Nelsonshomoeopathy
Homeopathic pharmacy
Helios
Homeopathic pharmacy
Webhomeopath
Free membership site designed by Swedish Doctors and Homeopaths with remedy finder application and general information
Abchomeopathy
Complete homeopathy site with directory, comprehensive homeopathy store and homeopathy remedy finder
Homoeopathy Home
Professionally designed American site calling itself a 'jumping-off point' for homoeopathic resources on the web.
The Homeopathic Supply Company
Suppliers of carrying cases, screw cap vials, droppers, un-medicated tablets and pillules, books and posters.

Professional Member Associations

The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths
A UK-based professional organisation that supports and promotes a high standard of safe, effective homeopathic practice.
British Homoeopathic Association
Promotes the academic and scientific development of homeopathy and regulates the education, training and practice of homeopathy by doctors, veterinary surgeons, podiatrists, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and other statutorily registered health care professionals.
The European Council for Classical Homeopathy
The voice of the profession in Europe.
The Faculty of Homoeopathy
The voice of the profession in Europe.
The Homeopathic Medical Association
Established in 1985, this organisation represents qualified professional homeopaths and promotes homeopathy and homeopathic education.
The Homeopathic Nurses' Association
A professional support organisation for nurses all around the world who are studying homeopathy and using it in their clients wellness care and health education.
The Society of Homoeopaths
Representing professional homoeopaths and maintaining a register of qualified and experienced homoeopaths.

Books

The Complete Homeopathy Handbook Castro M

Homeopathy for Pregnancy, Birth, and Your baby's First Year Castro M

The Family Guide to Homeopathy Lockie A

Homeopathy - A Practical Guide for the 21st Century MacEion B

Practical Handbook of Homoeopathy Griffith C

Homeopathy (Neal s Yard Remedies) Wells R

The New Synoptic One (Student Materia Medica) Vermeulen F

Homoeopathy in Essence James A

Journals and Magazines

The Online Homeopathic Resource
Homeopathic Links Magazine.
The Homeopath
Journal of the Society of Homeopaths (UK)
Homeopathy (formerly British Homoeopathic Journal)
The official journal of the Faculty of Homoeopathy
The American Homeopath
Journal of the North American Society of Homeopaths
Homoeopathic Links
International Journal for Classical Homoeopathy
New England Journal of Homeopathy
Including online samples of many issues.
Homoeopathic Medical Panorama
Large site from the Journal of the Kerala Homoeopathic Medical Graduates Association
Simillimum
Journal of the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians

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References

Information is sourced from Wikipedia and edited by CompTogether.co.uk and practitioner(s). Content has been edited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy

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Contributors to this Guide

Note the opinions expressed here do not represent a consensus view. Each contributor, if there is more than one, may not agree with all the opinions expressed. If you would like to add or edit any parts of this guide, please contact the Editor at editor@comptogether.co.uk with your contribution.

Tanya Colgate
Praana - Holistic Coaching and Healing

 

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