Hi Everyone, I found this article through Dr. Mercola's newsletter and felt it profitable to share. Has anyone tried Homeopathy for their Hashimotos? Let me know if you have and what your experience has been. Thanks! (The formatting is a bit off from copying and pasting but I think it is readable enough as is - the main thing is that two words are often strung together so be looking for that)
I would love to get your feedback.
Why Skeptics Love to Hate Homeopathy by Amy L. Lansky
Perhaps the most derided of alternative medicines is my own favorite --homeopathy. Over the past few years, detractors have focused their efforts in the United Kingdom and have succeeded in crippling homeopathic hospitals and clinics funded by the National Health Service, as well as the practices of many homeopaths. A few well-placed editorials in prominent newspapers have done the trick, despite thefact that Prince Charles and the rest of the royal family are ardent supporters of homeopathy.
It now seems that some of these folks are taking their show onthe road. Two key UK players, Michael Baum and Edzard Ernst have published a commentary in the November 2009 issue of the
American Journal of Medicine[2] in which they state, [BLOCKQUOTE]"a belief in homeopathy exceeds the tolerance of an open mind. Weshould start from the premise that homeopathy cannot work and that positive evidence reflects publication bias or design flaws until proved otherwise." [/BLOCKQUOTE]Not surprisingly, their commentary also reflects a complete ignorance of homeopathy and the range of studies that support its effectiveness.For example, their article incorrectly uses the term "potentation"instead of "potentization" for the method used to create homeopathic remedies (more on this later). The authors also insist on citing asingle negative meta-analysis study that has already been shown to be methodologically flawed [3], while ignoring many positive studies inrespected publications, including two other meta-analyses that showedpositive results [4-9].
So why do the skeptics love to hate homeopathy? Perhapsbecause it is one of the most threatening alternative modalities --financially, philosophically, and therapeutically. Actually, homeopathyhas been a threat to allopathy ever since the 1800s, when Germanphysician Samuel Hahnemann developed the homeopathic system.
Founder of Homeopathy
Hahnemann, a respected doctor and chemist who helped to pioneer theimportance of hygiene as well as homeopathy, was forced to movefrequently during his life because the local German apothecariesobjected to the fact that he created his own medicines rather than usetheirs. A fierce battle was also waged against homeopathy in the UnitedStates during the 1800s, where homeopathy had achieved a strongpresence by 1840. In fact, in 1847, the American Medical Association(AMA) was formed specifically to fight the battle against homeopathy.
Most homeopaths of the 1800s were former allopaths who had abandonedtheir brethren because they found Hahnemann's system to be moresuccessful in battling cholera, typhus, yellow fever, diptheria,influenza, and other epidemics of the 1800s. In retaliation, thepreamble to the AMA's charter forbade its members to associate withhomeopaths or to use their medicines, and many doctors were expelledfor failing to comply.
But does homeopathy really pose such a threat to conventionalmedicine today? To see how the little David of homeopathy could takedown the Goliath of Big Pharma, we need to take a closer look at whathomeopathy is all about.
Like Cures Like
Homeopathic practice is based on a single law of therapeutics calledthe "Law of Similars." This law states that a substance that can causethe symptoms of a disease can also cure it. In fact, that's exactlywhat word "homeopathy" means: similar ("homeo") suffering ("pathy").For example, one reason that the remedy Coffea Cruda (made from coffee)can be curative for insomnia is that coffee can cause sleeplessness.Interestingly, allopaths sometimes utilize the Law of Similars, but areunaware of it when they do and are perplexed by the phenomenon.
Ask any conventional doctor why Ritalin (a substance thatwould normally cause hyperactivity) can treat hyperactivity inchildren, and they'll scratch their heads in confusion. Ask ahomeopath, and it's a no-brainer: the Law of Similars.
The reason why homeopaths run into trouble with the skeptics,though, revolves around how homeopathic remedies are prepared.Obviously, many of the substances that can cause the symptoms ofdisease are toxic. This inherent toxicity poses a challenge if you wantto administer these substances safely. In an effort to deal with thisproblem, Hahnemann tried various methods of diluting his medicines sothat they would become less harmful to his patients. This provedunsuccessful until he also incorporated vigorous shaking or succussioninto the process. The result was a method that he called potentization,in which a substance is serially diluted and succussed over and over.
Much to Hahnemann's own surprise, these ultra dilutions -- so dilutethat they cannot possibly contain a single molecule of the originalsubstance -- were still potent therapeutically. In fact, they were evenmore potent than low levels of dilution.
Of course, this was and still is too much for the skeptics to bear. It turns much of accepted science on its head!
What the skeptics keep ignoring, however, are an increasingnumber of scientific studies that indicate that some kind of signatureof the original substance is embedded in a potentized ultra dilution.In a 2007 paper by Professor Rustom Roy, the founding director of theMaterials Research Laboratory at Penn State and one of the world'sleading experts on the structure of water, it was demonstrated that labinstruments could pick up energetic signatures in ultra dilutions thatwere not only specific to individual homeopathic remedies, but tospecific potencies of these remedies [10].
Indeed, science has backed up the phenomenon of potentization for over20 years. In 1988, Nobel Prize nominee and medical researcher JacquesBenveniste turned the course of his life upside down when he discoveredthat ultra dilutions could retain substance-specific properties. Inparticular, he found that a certain antibody could be serially dilutedand succussed beyond the point where a single molecule could remain,but still cause the same effects [11].
Naturally, the skeptics quickly attacked Benveniste. But hecontinued his work and further demonstrated that the electromagneticsignature of an ultra dilution could be recorded electronically,transmitted via Email, replayed into water, and still achieve the samesubstance-specific effects in the laboratory [12]. Eventually,Benveniste's results were replicated [13]. Most recently, a 2009 paperby Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier underscored the power ofultradilutions too [14].
Drug Companies Are Running Scared
Now think about it. This is what big pharma is scared of.
What if an expensive drug could be potentized to createbillions of effective doses at essentially no cost? It would destroybig pharma entirely. Medicines that cost essentially nothing? Nontoxicultra diluted medicines that cause fewer side effects? How could thecoffers of big pharma be sustained? Forget about the Law of Similars.It's potentization -- the process of creating effective ultra dilutions-- that big pharma is scared of! No wonder Baum and Ernst got the word"potentization" wrong. This one word is the small stone that could takeGoliath down.
Of course, homeopaths add fuel to the fire. The fundamentalphilosophy of homeopathy implies that the primary tools of allopathyare harmful. In particular, homeopaths believe that suppressingsymptoms with anti-pathic drugs -- drugs that oppose the symptoms of adisease rather than mimic them -- cannot cure and can even do harm. Ifa symptom is suppressed -- for example, if a seasonal allergy issuppressed by an antihistamine -- it is only temporarily palliated.
A patient still has allergic tendencies and his or her symptoms willeventually return. That's why suppressive drugs must be taken again andagain. And of course, big pharma loves that! It's good for business.
Deceptive Cures
Unfortunately, if a substance succeeds in completely suppressing asymptom, there may be an illusion of "cure," but the real result ismore sinister. Another key tenet of homeopathy is that the true resultof suppression is a deepening of the underlying disease state - becausethe energy of the disease is now forced to manifest in a more seriousway. That's why repeated application of cortisone cream to eczema canlead to asthma.
That's why the suppression of arthritis pain can lead to heart disease.That's why teenagers who take acne drugs sometimes develop suicidaldepression. Doctors call this phenomenon a "side effect" or a "naturaldisease progression." But that's because they don't understand theeffects of suppression or the signs of true cure.
Over the past two hundred years, homeopaths have discovered thathomeopathic medicines - drugs that mimic a person's symptoms ratherthan oppose them - can lead to genuine cure of chronic disease, notmere palliation or suppression. Rather than creating a deeper disease,a homeopathic medicine that is similar to a patient's disease can notonly cure it, but reveal previously suppressed layers of disease thatcan be treated too.
That's why good homeopathic treatment can often cure asthma -and also reveal and treat previously suppressed eczema. That's why ithas the potential to cure arthritis and chronic bladder infections, notsimply palliate them with endless medications. Indeed, homeopathy caneffectively treat acute diseases like influenza and bacterialinfections too. With its ability to successfully treat both chronic andacute disease with low-cost medicines, homeopathy really could be athreat to big pharma, given half a chance.
Ideal for Poor Countries or Rich Ones with Declining Economies
Poor countries with less access to expensive drugs have already discovered this.
That'swhy homeopathy is the second most widespread form of medicine in theworld. In India, homeopathy is a full-fledged medical system with itsown medical schools and hospitals. Homeopaths in India successfully treat the full range of diseases, including AIDS, cancer, and malaria.
In Cuba, a poor country with a health care system that often doesbetter than our own, homeopathy is being used more and more. In 2008,2.5 million Cubans were given a homeopathic remedy to preventLeptospirosis, an infectious disease also known as swamp fever. Thisdisease has plagued the country for several years in the aftermath offlooding, but the year in which homeopathy was used, in contrast toprevious years, there were no fatalities and very few cases of thedisease [15].
But here's the rub. Homeopathy is harder to practice thanallopathy. There are no cookie-cutter cures, especially for chronicdisease. (Luckily, however, effective treatment of epidemic diseaseslike the flu is easier) Each patient's health pattern is unique, soeach patient must be treated as an individual.
A homeopath must find a single remedy (among thousands of possiblehomeopathic remedies) whose associated symptoms match those of thepatient - not just their main complaint, but their entire symptompicture that includes emotional, mental, behavioral, as well as thephysical symptoms of the entire body. It's a daunting task. Apractitioner who practices classical homeopathy (the kind of homeopathyI advocate) typically needs at least two hours for an initial caseinterview and may spend just as long deciding upon a remedy.
And sometimes it takes a homeopath several tries to find just the rightremedy -- the one that homeopaths call the simillimum. This processalso requires patients to engage in their own treatment, becausesymptoms are gathered not by machines or by using tests, but throughdirect communication between patient and homeopath.
Of course, this is not something big pharma, conventionaldoctors, or insurance companies would be happy about. No expensivemedicines or tests or equipment needed? No five-minute appointmentsreimbursed at $300 a shot? A medical system that requires longappointments, time for case analysis, and patients who must participatein the healing process? Not very lucrative.
How I Broke Out of the Mold and Reliance on Failed Medical Therapies
Of course, I used to be a lover of conventional medicine likemost people. Back in the early 1990s, my husband Steve Rubin and I wereboth computer researchers in Silicon Valley and followed our doctors'instructions obediently, loading our kids up with every recommendedvaccine on schedule. Our allopathic trance began to break in 1994 whenour 3-year-old son Max began to show signs of autism.
I first read about homeopathy in the January 1995 issue of
Mothering Magazine,which contained an article about the successful homeopathic treatmentof ADD and other children's behavioral problems [16]. Steve and Idecided to give it a try and found a practitioner in our area. Within aweek we began to see small and subtle improvement in Max - improvementthat became a slow and steady trend. After two years of treatment, hewas testing normally and was released from eligibility for specialeducation benefits.
His speech and language therapist told the county representative thatshe had never seen an autistic child recover like Max had, and shefully credited homeopathy for his recovery. By the time he was eight,nearly all signs of Max's autism were gone. Today he is 18, a freshmanat a leading university, completely autism free, and withoutrestrictions of any kind.
Needless to say, this experience was both mind-boggling andlife-transforming. I began to study homeopathy myself and ultimatelywrote what became the best-selling patient education book in the USA -
Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy[17] - a comprehensive introduction to homeopathic history, philosophy,science, and experience, sprinkled with dozens first-person curestories for a variety of ailments, along with a chapter about Max'scure.
In the end, I left my work in computer science and devoted myself toletting others know about the healing powers of homeopathy. I gotinvolved in the successful campaign for health freedom legislation inCalifornia too [18]. Steve also got involved and developed the NationalVaccine Information Center's online interface to the VAERS database[19] (the CDC's public record of vaccine injuries). I guess Max'shealing led us both to become alternative medicine activists, and wehaven't looked back.
Conclusion
So why not take a look at homeopathy for yourself? Make it your NewYear's resolution to find a good classical practitioner and to learnmore about this amazing medical modality. The skeptics manage to createa lot of smoke in an effort to hide homeopathy from public view. Butwhere there's smoke, there's fire. Find out about how this powerfulhealing system - a system that packs a lot of firepower into aninfinitesimal punch - can help you and your family.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/199040-Why-Skeptics-Love-to-Hate-Homeopathy
