HOMEOPATHY FACTS LIST – 54 FACTS (and growing!)
By Louise Mclean, LCCH MHMA at Zeus Information Service
So far I have come up with 54!
How Homeopathy Works
FACT 1: Hippocrates ‘The Father of Medicine’ of Ancient Greece said there were two Laws of Healing: The Law of Opposites and the Law of Similars. Homeopathy treats the patient with medicines using the Law of Similars, orthodox medicine uses the Law of Opposites, e.g. antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, anti-convulsants, anti-hypertensives, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics.
FACT 2: Homeopathic theories are based on fixed principles of the Laws of Nature which do not change – unlike medical theories which are constantly changing!
FACT 3: Homeopathy is an evidence-based, empirical medicine.
FACT 4: Homeopathy is both an art and a science.
FACT 5: The Homeopathic PROVINGS of medicines are a more scientific method of testing than the orthodox model.
FACT 6: Homeopathic medicine awakens and stimulates the body’s own curative powers. The potentised remedy acts as a catalyst to set healing into motion.
FACT 7: Homeopathic medicines work by communicating a current/pattern/frequency of energy via the whole human body to jump start the body’s own inherent healing mechanisms.
FACT 8: Homeopathy assists the body to heal itself, to overcome an illness which brings the patient to a HIGHER level of health. Orthodox medicine suppresses the illness, bringing the patient to a lower level of health.
FACT 9: The homeopathic practitioner endeavours to search for and treat the CAUSE of the disease in order to heal the EFFECT.
FACT 10: Outcomes of homeopathic treatment are measured by the LONG TERM curative effects of prescribing and complete eradication of the disease state.
FACT 11: The homeopathic practitioner treats the WHOLE PERSON, believing all symptoms are interrelated and seeks to select a medicine which most closely covers them all.
FACT 12: Homeopathy works FAST in acute illnesses, slower in chronic illness.
FACT 13: Homeopathic medicine has been proven extremely effective in Epidemics such as cholera, typhoid, diptheria, yellow fever, polio and influenza and were used extensively in 19th century.
Homeopathic Medicines
FACT 14: Homeopathic remedies are cheap.
FACT 15. Homeopathy is the 2nd most popular and widely used medicine in the world.
FACT 16: Pharmaceutical medicines are expensive.
FACT 17: There are more than 4,000 homeopathic medicines.
FACT 18: Homeopathic medicines have no toxic side-effects.
FACT 19: Homeopathic medicines are NON-ADDICTIVE.
FACT 20: Every true homeopathic medicine is made using ONE SUBSTANCE – whether plant, mineral, metal, etc. The exact substance is known, unlike most modern drugs where we are rarely informed of the ingredients.
FACT 21: Any remedy up to a 12c or a 24x potency still contains the original molecules of the substance and this is known as Avogadro’s number.
FACT 22: Every Patient is Unique so homeopathic medicines are individualised.
FACT 23: Homeopaths treat genetic illness, tracing its origins to 6 main genetic causes: Tuberculosis, Syphilis, Gonorrhoea, Psora (scabies), Cancer, Leprosy.
FACT 24: High fevers will drop within minutes after taking the homeopathic medicine Belladonna and Aconite.
FACT 25: There are thousands of homeopathic books, available at specialist outlets, not sold in the high street.
Homeopathic Hospitals
FACT 26: There are 5 homeopathic hospitals in the UK – in London, Tunbridge Wells, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow. They cost the NHS under £10 million a year compared to the £100 billion for the total annual NHS budget for 2008!
FACT 27: At one of the earliest debates on the NHS Act of 1948 the Government pledged that homeopathy would continue to be available on the NHS, as long as there were “patients wishing to receive it and doctors willing to provide it”.
FACT 28: There is a campaign by certain UK Professors to oust homeopathy completely from the NHS after they wrote (illegally) on NHS headed paper to all Primary Care Trusts in 2006 telling managers not to refer patients to the homeopathic hospitals.
FACT 29: The Homeopathic Hospitals are clean, with friendly, well informed staff. The patients are generally pleased with their treatment unlike many orthodox National Health Service hospitals.
FACT 30: The chances of contracting MRSA or C. Difficile at a Homeopathic Hospital are extremely rare.
FACT 31: Unlike orthodox medicine where two thirds of all conventional hospital admissions are due to the side-effects of pharmaceutical medicines, the bill for negligence claims soaring into billions, one UK leading insurance company reported only ‘a couple’ of claims against homeopaths in a ten year period!
Orthodox Medicine Opposing Homeopathy
FACT 32: In the United States in the early 1900s there were 22 homeopathic medical schools and over 100 homeopathic hospitals, 60 orphanages and old people’s homes and 1,000+ homeopathic pharmacies.
FACT 33: Members of the American Medical Association had great animosity towards homeopathy after its formation in 1847 and it was decided to purge all local medical societies of physicians who were homeopaths.
FACT 34: Big Pharma does not want the Public to find out how well homeopathy works!
Scientific Studies
FACT 35: In 2005 World Health Organisation brought out a draft report which showed homeopathy was beneficial causing Big Pharma to panic and the Lancet to bring out an editorial entitled ‘The End of Homeopathy’.
FACT 36: In 2005 the Lancet tried to destroy homeopathy but were only looking at 8 inconclusive trials out of 110 of which 102 were positive. This was a fraudulent analysis. “The meta-analysis at the centre of the controversy is based on 110 placebo-controlled clinical trials of homeopathy and 110 clinical trials of allopathy (conventional medicine), which are said to be matched. These were reduced to 21 trials of homeopathy and 9 of conventional medicine of ‘higher quality’ and further reduced to 8 and 6 trials, respectively, which were ‘larger, higher quality’. The final analysis which concluded that ‘the clinical effects of homeopathy are placebo effects’ was based on just the eight ‘larger, higher quality’ clinical trials of homeopathy. The Lancet’s press release did not mention this, instead giving the impression that the
conclusions were based on all 110 trials.”
FACT 37: There have been many clinical trials that prove homeopathy works. In the past 24 years there have been more than 180 controlled, and 118 randomized, trials into homeopathy, which were analysed by four separate meta-analyses. In each case, the researchers concluded that the benefits of homeopathy went far beyond that which could be explained purely by the placebo effect.
FACT 39: Homeopathy can never be properly tested through double blind randomised trials because each prescription is individualised as every patient is unique. Therefore 10 people with arthritis, for example, may all need a different homeopathic medicine.
FACT 40: Homeopathic medicines are not tested on animals.
FACT 41: Homeopathic medicines work even better on animals and babies than on adults, proving this cannot be placebo.
FACT 42: Homeopathy is safe for women to take while pregnant and safe for old people.
FACT 43: Scientists agree that if and when homeopathy is accepted by the scientific community it will turn established science on its head.
Homeopathic Practitioners
FACT 44: Homeopathic Practitioners train for 4 years in Anatomy and Physiology, as well as Pathology and Disease, Materia Medica, Homeopathic Philosophy and study of the Homeopathic Repertory.
FACT 45: Most homeopaths treat patients who have been referred to them by word of mouth. Most patients seek out homeopathy because conventional treatment has not benefitted them or because it poses too great a risk of side-effects.
FACT 46: The homeopathic community has thousands, even millions, of written case notes that demonstrate the positive benefits of their treatment. Some homeopaths have video proof of their patients before and after treatment.
FACT 47: Homeopaths charge patients an average of £50 an hour. Specialist Doctors can charge up to £200 or more.
Popularity of Homeopathy
FACT 48: The popularity of homeopathy has grown in the past 30 years, its revival entirely through word of mouth and estimated to be growing at more than 20% a year the world over!
FACT 50: The aristocratic patronage of homeopathy in the UK extended well into the 1940s and beyond can be easily demonstrated. In the Homeopathic Medical Directories there are lists of patrons of the dispensaries and hospitals. They read like an extract from Burke’s or Debrett’s.
FACT 51: The Royal Families of Europe use homeopathic medicine and Queen Elizabeth II of England never travels anywhere without her homeopathic vials of medicine.
FACT 52: Homeopathy is practised nowadays in countries all over the world. In India there are 100 homeopathic medical schools and around 250,000 homeopathic doctors!
FACT 53: In a recent Global TGI survey where people were asked whether they trust homeopathy the following percentages of people living in urban areas said YES: 62% in India, 58% Brazil, 53% Saudi Arabia, Chile 49%, United Arab Emirates 49%, France 40%, South Africa 35%, Russia 28%, Germany 27%, Argentina 25%, Hungary 25%, USA 18%, UK 15%.
FACT 54: The media as a whole has been unwilling to air a defence of the efficacy of homeopathy and the validity of this 250 year old profession.
Copyright Louise Mclean © 2008