Homoeo Info

Doctors and health charities have expressed concern about a conference which will examine the role of homeopathy in treating HIV.
The event includes discussion of what have been described as "healing remedies" for HIV and Aids.
One of the speakers believes that the treatment, involving flower essences, can be used to halt the Aids epidemic.
But the event, which marks World Aids Day, has been criticised by doctors who say the treatment is not effective.
About 80 homeopaths and workers from HIV projects are gathering for the workshop in south London today.
It will include discussion about a remedy for HIV and Aids which is said to have been used in Africa for five years.
Medical charity Health Watch has criticised the event.
Its chairman said the number of Aids cases in Africa had been exacerbated by a refusal to accept scientific knowledge about the condition.
The Terrence Higgins Trust, which campaigns on HIV issues, said homeopathic remedies alone could not reduce the activity of the virus, nor halt the onset of Aids.
BBC News, UK - Nov 30, 2007

Labels: UK

New Delhi: The government has approved a package of Rs 550 crores for upgrading state-run centres offering education in alternative health programmes such as ayurvedic and homeopathy during the 11th Plan period.
"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Friday gave its approval for implementation of the scheme of development of the Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) Institutions with a plan outlay of Rs 550 crores in the 11th Plan," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the CCEA meeting.
He said government aid to Ayush colleges under various heads would be revised for upgradation of various institutes.
"The implementation of this scheme of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy (ASU&H) will definitely improve upgradation of infrastructure at drug testing laboratories and state pharmacies. It will also ensure enforcement mechanism of ASU drugs at state levels," the minister said.
PTI/Hindu, India - 30 Nov 2007

Labels: India

Doctors and health charities have expressed concern about a conference which will examine the role of homeopathy in treating HIV.
The event includes discussion of what have been described as "healing remedies" for HIV and Aids. One of the speakers believes that the treatment, involving flower essences, can be used to halt the Aids epidemic.
But the event, which marks World Aids Day, has been criticised by doctors who say the treatment is not effective.
About 80 homeopaths and workers from HIV projects are gathering for the workshop in south London today.
It will include discussion about a remedy for HIV and Aids which is said to have been used in Africa for five years. Medical charity, HealthWatch, has criticised the event.
Its chairman said the number of Aids cases in Africa had been exacerbated by a refusal to accept scientific knowledge about the condition.
The Terrence Higgins Trust, which campaigns on HIV issues, said homeopathic remedies alone could not reduce the activity of the virus, nor halt the onset of Aids.
BBC News, UK - 30 Nov 2007

Labels: UK

It is important to realise that the current vogue for alternative medicine is not really about alternative medicine at all - it is about us. The whole point of alternative medicine is that it doesn’t change; the techniques of alternative medicine were developed several thousand years ago and you are meant to stick with the procedure as a fixed entity. Relative to scientific medicine, which is constantly attacked by scepticism and the proposal of newer and better procedures, alternative medicine is a closed shop. Alternative procedures are what they are and they are not open to development and change: they work because they work, end of story. So if alternative medicine is becoming more popular, then it is clearly not because of any changes in the practice of alternative medicine; it is because of changes in us.
Three things have changed. Firstly, we are physically much healthier. In all corners of the world, except in the former Soviet Union, life expectancy is rising and people are physically healthier for longer stretches of time during their lives. Many factors have contributed to this happy state of affairs, including improved living and working conditions and the rise of scientific medicine that has yielded vaccination programmes, antibiotics, steroids, radiotherapy, anti-viral medicines, and so on (2).

Secondly, and relatedly, having resolved many serious illnesses that blighted lives right up to the middle of the last century, scientific medicine is bumping up against harder problems associated with mechanical wear and tear, ageing and the existential distress of living in ‘a world without meaning’ (3). Although physical health and longevity both trend in a positive direction, there has been a swathe of new problems that are defined by the subjective report of symptoms rather than the objective signs of disease or damage (4). These are disorders such as non-specific low back pain, fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome – illnesses of the ‘worried well’, or, more precisely, the ‘worried sick’, encouraged by a combination of people being healthy enough to be concerned about symptoms that are unlikely to indicate ill-health and being constantly bombarded with messages about ill-health. It is a rare individual who is unaware of the apparent need to reduce caloric intake, watch their units of alcohol, stay out of the sun, eat five fruit and veg a day, exercise, self examine and heed the occasional twinge as a potential harbinger of disease and death (5). When the banalities of everyday life - eating, drinking, catching the occasional ray of sunshine - are perceived as potential threats to continued life, it is little wonder that people are worried and flock to their GP to parade symptoms without illness.

Thirdly, medicine can be horribly impersonal. Doctors are not much interested in your existential concerns. In fact, your doctor is probably pretty keen to look straight through you to find the disease process lurking below. Of course you are more than your illness and a good doctor will at least attempt to engage you as he or she seeks the source of your sickness. In something like Britain’s National Health Service system, however, which is driven by political and economic targets, the good doctor has no time to see you and barely has enough time to see your illness. It’s much nicer to see an alternative practitioner who takes the time to get to know you, and prepare a treatment that is apparently tailored just for the kind of person you are and the illness or problem you are carrying.
Spiked, UK -Nov 28, 2007

Labels: UK

Newtown Square: In its continued educational and research efforts for the advancement of homeopathy, Boiron Laboratories disputes an editorial comment published in The Lancet's Nov. 17, 2007 issue on the basis that its author has misinterpreted results of clinical trials on homeopathic medicines. (1-5)
The British medical journal features an editorial by Ben Goldacre on the "Benefits and Risks of Homeopathy." In his commentary, Goldacre suggests that the results from five large meta-analyses indicate that homeopathy produces no statistically significant benefit over placebo.
However, a thorough review of the studies' research evidence indicates positive principle conclusions in favor of homeopathy over placebo as quoted as follows:
1. The Kleijnen, et al study states that "the evidence of clinical
trials is positive but not sufficient to draw any definite
conclusions."
2. The Boissel, et al study reports that "[f]or 17 retained
comparisons, for each method used, the result is a p-value well below
.0001. This means that in at least one test, the null hypothesis (lack
of effect of homeopathy) must be rejected. ... The number of
significant results is not likely due to chance alone."
3. The Linde, et al study concludes that "[t]he results of the
available randomized trials suggest that individualized homeopathy has
an effect over placebo."
4. The Cucherat, et al study concludes that "[t]here is evidence that
homeopathic treatments are more effective than placebo."
5. The Shang, et al study indicates that "21 (19 percent) homeopathic
trials and nine (8 percent) conventional medicine tests were of higher
quality. Most odds ratios indicated a beneficial effect of the
intervention. Heterogeneity of trial results was less pronounced for
homeopathy ... than conventional medicine .... This difference is
unlikely to be due to chance (p=0.011 by F test)."
Additionally, there is a sixth relevant meta-analysis also published in The Lancet that supports positive results for homeopathy, but was not mentioned in Goldacre's commentary. The study authors concluded that "the results of our meta-analysis are not compatible with the hypothesis that the clinical effects of homeopathy are completely due to a placebo effect."
PRNewswire/PR Newswire (press release), NY - Nov 27, 2007

Labels: USA