Homeopathy and alternative medical treatments are under attack by the news media again. Homeopathy has been unjustly blamed for the death of a child in Australia and the Native American beliefs of the Nemenhah Band. These attacks are incorrectly directed at the treatments sought rather than what the parents were seeking to achieve for their families. No parent wants to see their child suffer and no parent wants to feel like they are the one inflicting the amount of suffering induced by treatments like chemotherapy for cancer or the latest in immunotherapy for neuroblastomas.
It’s difficult to stand by and watch the way traditional medicine impacts a body and mind and our youngest family members it’s hard to tell sometimes who is being the hardest hit. There is no morphine drip for the parent sitting at the bedside of a child who just came through surgery. The news media has not painted these parents in a good light at all, they call them child abusers or worse, muderers. What they are are parents who are scared and uninformed on all their options and need someone to understand and help them not make them pariahs. What the news media also fails to mention are important things like facts about alternative medicine treatments; they choose to cast the light of 17th century Salem witch hunts on the practices like homeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture, et al.
Homeopathy has no history of death from iatrogenic causes (in layman’s terms death caused by medical mistakes). The parents in Australia who sought treatment for their daughter’s eczema and shunned the suppressive therapies favored by allopaths. The eczema was not improving and the parents did not seek treatment from an allopath to work in a complementary way with their favored homeopathic treatment, this is the real question, why didn’t the homeopath advise the parents down this route or why didn’t the parents at least seek the advice of another homeopath? Homeopathy did not cause this child’s septicemia and it is poor journalistic integrity to say outright in the headlines that “Homeopathy Kills.”
All families should be encouraged to seek the kind of treatment they want for their family but when illness carries the threat of becoming severe it should be the job of the medical community, comprising allopaths and alternative practitioners together, to work for the greater good and provide complementary care to see the families as a whole through the trying times of treating an illness. A homeopath can provide treatment for the ill member of the family and provide support for any adverse side effects that may arise, like the vomiting and pains associated with chemotherapy, but also provide a remedy that can help with the mental and emotional issues the family may experience. Homeopathy can provide help for the whole family where allopathy falls down failing to recongize the impacts of illness.
Comments
Many thanks for Heather Greiner's calm and well reasoned support of integrated medicine in which both allopaths and alternative practitioners work together in harmony for the good of the patient.
Homeopathy contains the potential for the first great medical breakthrough of the 21st century - a system of medicine which stands aside and let's the ultimate healer, nature itself, do its work. But this system of medicine is not made for the profiteering plunder of corporate boardrooms, nor to perpetuate the hegemony of a single medical monopoly. It is made for the patient.
That is its greatest power and the very fact which strikes the greatest fear in those that hysterically oppose it.
> Homeopathy has no history of death from iatrogenic causes (in layman’s terms death caused by medical mistakes).
That's because it's a placebo! If these parents had simply taken their child to a proper doctor, then their child would be alive today. And people like you writing sympathatic articles towards nonsense 'cures' will only cause more misery.
It is simple 'head in the sand' thinking' to believe that homeopathy cannot cause medical harm. The case of the poor Australian baby, Gloria Thomas, cannot be brushed aside. Her homeopath parents believed magic sugar pills could treat her and they eschewed proven care that could have relieved symptoms, pain and suffering, fought secondary infections (which killed her) and allowed her a life.
It is not the homeopathic pills that kill (after all, they are plain sugar pills). It is homeopathic thinking - an inability to confront criticism and evidence.
The parentsare culpable here. But the bigger guilt lies with the homeopathic community who refuse to put boundaries on their beliefs as to what homeopathy can achieve and their handwaving denigration of modern medicine (as is so well displayed in this article "Suppressive therapies").
It is an indictment of homeopaths that they are not taking a much harder look at themeselves and wondering how they can prevent future tragedies.
It is too bad that it has to be one or the other for people. I wish that more doctors could work hand in hand with homeopathy, as ours did! Our son suffered from Eczema and it was a very long and itchy three yrs. We went to all kinds of specialists and hospitals for children and the only options we were given was high potent medications. His original allergist put him on such high doses of oral steroids for so long that his little body became steroid dependent, which he needed professionally weaned from. It was hard. Finally, our family doc offered us the name of a homeopath to work side by side with! All of this opened up many doors for us and we finally found out about probiotics! We started him on the Vidazorb kids chewable and we soon saw a different little boy. He has really been helped immensely from his Zorbee and not only has it worked for him....but he loves it! He is now a healthy and happy boy and we are so thankful for our answer to prayer! Caroline
Hear hear James Pannozzi!!
The fact is that Gloria Sam's father, Thomas Sam is a Dr. of Homeopathy. Baby Gloria was seen by many Homeopathy Dr's in Australia & India aside from her father, none recommended science/evidence based medicine. However she was seen by a nurse practitioner once who recommended she see a dermatologist immediately. Her parents refused. They were sure homeopathy would cure her. In fact, that was their defense during the trial. Along with the fact that they are from India, where Homeopathy is widely used, and takes on even odder forms like telephone Homeopathy (The name of the remedy is told to the patient by phone to effect a cure) or paper homeopathy (the name of the remedy is written on paper & pinned on the patient's shirt)..."great medical breakthrough of the 21st century"? Certainly... for the very gullible. LMAO!
As with many other studies, the Lancet's 2005 publication of a meta-analysis of 118 tests of the efficacy of homeopathy concluded that it is no better than placebo.
To James Pannozzi,
Have you never heard of the Homeopathic remedy "Head On" with it's annoying and repetitive TV ads? Or Zycam? Homeopathy is a multi-million dollar industry selling remedies under the guise of "nutritional supplements" to pass FDA regulations. I can buy an eye moisturizer (water and salt) for $1.99 or buy the Homeopathic equivalent (same ingredients minus the salt) for $13.99!
Making medicine without years of rigorous scientific research, trials or expensive ingredients is indeed profitable. And because it is only water, harmless and free of side effects, unless used for something life threatening.
"Homeopathy did not cause this child’s septicemia"
...maybe true, but it sure didn't cure it. And the belief that magical shaken water with no active ingredient would be sufficient to treat growing infections and associated nutritional deficiencies likely contributed to the parents' extremely poor decision to eschew proper medical treatment.
Given that the overwhelming scientific evidence shows no effect beyond placebo for homeopathy, it is poor journalistic integrity to claim that "homeopathy has no history of death from iatrogenic causes" when the reason for this is clear: homeopathy has no medical effects, good or bad. The danger of homeopathy rarely lies in the treatment (usually entirely water), but in the delay or refusal of proper science-based medical treatment.
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