There are two aspects to this questions.
1. Is it ‘actively’ dangerous? In other words, can giving a homeopathic remedy make someone sick?
2. Is it dangerous because it seeks to replace ‘real’ medicine?
To answer the first point, the simple answer is ‘no’. Even our merry band of PHS (Professional Homeopathic Skeptics) seem to agree on this, though that’s because they believe the remedy has no effect as there is no medicinal substance in it! (poor misguided souls)
The real answer is, that for a remedy to have an affect on someone, it has to closely match their symptom picture. If it is totally different, it will have absolutely no affect no matter how much you take, or for how long. If the remedy DOES match the person’s symptoms then it still can do no harm as it’s only effect is to stimulate the persons own vital force, their bodies own intelligent healing ability. Sometimes this stimulating effect can cause symptoms to get worse (as many of us who have treated ezcema could testify!)…so superficially it could look harmful…but it is just stimulating the vital force to do it’s job, to use my example above, the ezcema symptoms are part of the process of healing & will soon pass.
Now to answer the second point. I would answer in two ways. Firstly IF homeopathy is a load of codswallop as our merry tireless band insist, then it is still up to the patient to take responsibility for their own health. We are in the 21st century & I welcome the advent of informed patients…we need to get away from the old ‘father knows best’ model were we go along to our G.P & prostrate ourselves at his feet…obeying his every utterance. I think G.Ps do a very important job, don’t get me wrong, but it is a different role than people think. I believe their role is more as a diagnostician, a gateway to the rest of the NHS, that sort of thing. The ideal model I think is the patient goes, gets a diagnosis…then thinks & researches about the most suitable form of treatment for them. This might be allopathic medication, surgery, chiropractic, accupunture, homeopathy, naturopathy etc. If it is a chronic complaint then the G.P would have a continuing role, checking on their progress at regular intervals.
The PHS-brigade have erected this strawman of a crazy deluded homeopath that insists on their patient stopping their medication & having no contact with their G.P. And of course they can point to occasions when this has happened. But then I can point to an occasion when a G.P murdered hundreds of patients, it doesn’t prove anything about other G.Ps
If a patient CHOOSES to use homeopathy solely, then this person has taken personal responsibility for his health (a GOOD thing, though not so good for Big-Pharma’s profits). If they have a serious chronic condition & it continues to worsen during their homeopathic treatment, then in my opinion it is the homeopaths duty to be honest with them, explain the condition isn’t improving, recommend they visit their G.P etc… but ultimately the patients health is their own responsibility.
I’ve rambled on long enough, I hope you can see that my conclusion must be ‘homeopathy is not dangerous’, and understand why from my arguments above.
All comments welcome.
Alan
Hi there,
As always an interesting post and one that i feel should always addressed. Not sure if you have read much of David Little’s work but here is a link to an interesting article.
http://www.simillimum.com/education/little-library/homoeopathic-philosophy/chd/article.php
I agree that homeopathy is by far the safest form of therapeuticsa but i would disagree that it is completely without its hazards. Anything can have both positive and negative effects. I have witnessed supression of symptoms using medicine labelled homeopathic. I would have to say that the only thing that makes a medicine a homeopathic remedy is when it is correctly applied.
On your other point I agree fully that a good homeopath will work closely with all the other people involved to ensure the patients safety. One of the essences of homeopathy is the encouragement of the patient to take on increasing degrees of responsibilty for their own health. One of my main concerns about the conventional approach is that what I see it doing is turn patients into victims of the disease and then passive recipients of the treatment. It is a scenario where they turn up saying take this pain rash etc away from me and the biggest challenge when they embark upon H treatmenbt is to explain that it is not just a quick fix.
Regards
An interesting reply, thank you. Could you tell me about the homeopathic suppression, it’s something I haven’t come across myself?
Alan
Hi Alan,
I would be happy to discuss this further. Are you able to access my email address that is not not published. If so please send me a message.
The principle relates to all treatments being on a scale from similars to opposites to dissimilars. In order for a treatment to be truely similar it has to include the totality. Any assessment which does not include totality will therefore have some degree of being dissimilar or opposite.
Regards
Hi,
I had rather hoped to discuss it on here so that others may learn from the exchange. You can change names/locations if you are worried about confidentiality issues?
Kind regards,
Alan
Hi Alan,
Maybe a good begining would be to consider the article I posted a link to. I have an uncomfortable feeling discussing cases in such n open forum.
Hi wakeup,
I’ve had a read of the article & it contains some ‘classical’ (really ‘Kentian’) doctrine that I don’t agree with. I’m certainly not saying you are wrong, but what I have been taught, and what I have experienced in my own practice does not quite resonate with all of the article. Of course with 20 years experience under my belt I may come back & realise it was correct after all.
Regards,
Alan
Hi Alan,
Your first question at the top of the post asks if giving someone a remedy can make them sick? I would say that it can. I can understand that maybe you don’t agree with Kent but here is a quote from an article about him from the HWC site.
It was at this time he got a patient Clara Lousie, who had finished her medical studies. This patient had consulted the most famous homoeopathic doctors of America and every one of them had prescribed Lachesis because she presented all the symptoms of the remedy. After studying the case carefully, Kent concluded that she had been manifesting a proving of Lachesis. The frequent repetition of the remedy had created a chronic medicinal illness.
Oh an interesting case Wakeup,
I don’t consider someone proving a remedy as being ‘sick’….but I agree with you, for this is exactly what our homeopathic provings are designed to do, ‘graft’ a disease symptom complex onto a healthy person.
Alan