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--- en:misc:talk-qa-schwarcz-saine [2013/02/07 11:05]
legatum
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legatum [QUESTION 8]
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 **If homeopathy has truly been proven to be effective as stated by homeopaths, why would it not be embraced by physicians? Are they not interested in healing their patients?**
-It is an extraordinary fact how skeptics are so poorly informed about the state of homeopathy in the world. Contrary to what they may think, homeopathy was originally developed by Hahnemann who was a physician and scientist of great learning and industry. Hufeland, who was known as the Nestor of Medicine, was one of the most eminent physicians in Germany during the time of Hahnemann, author of numerous works displaying extensive reading and a cultivated critical faculty, and editors for 42 years of the most reputable journal of the practical healing art. He said of Hahnemann in 1826, "Hahnemann, who I have known for more than 30 years, is one of our most distinguished, intelligent and original physicians… and who I have esteemed for a long time for his earlier productions, and for his sterling contributions to the science of medicine((Hufeland CW. Die Homöopathie. //Journal der practischen Heilkunde// 1826; 62: 7. ))."
+It is an extraordinary fact how skeptics are so poorly informed about the state of homeopathy in the world. Contrary to what they may think, homeopathy was originally developed by Hahnemann who was a physician and scientist of great learning and industry. Hufeland, who was known as the Nestor of Medicine, was one of the most eminent physicians in Germany during the time of Hahnemann, author of numerous works displaying extensive reading and a cultivated critical faculty, and editors for 42 years of the most reputable journal of the practical healing art. He said of Hahnemann in 1826, "Hahnemann, who I have known for more than 30 years, is one of our most distinguished, intelligent and original physicians… and who I have esteemed for a long time for his earlier productions, and for his sterling contributions to the science of medicine[(Hufeland CW. Die Homöopathie. //Journal der practischen Heilkunde// 1826; 62: 7. )]."
-In 1829, in a second essay on homeopathy, he wrote, "I consider it wrong and unworthy of science to treat the new doctrine with ridicule and contempt. Persecution and tyranny in scientific matters are especially repugnant to me; here we should meet with only liberality of thought, thorough investigation, rational refutation, mutual respect, and rigid adherence to the subject, but no personalities. … ‘Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,' is and will ever be the first commandment in all science, and in medicine especially. … Liberty of thought, liberty of science—that is and must be ever be our chief palladium, if we desire to advance((Hufeland CW. Homoeopathy. //British Journal of Homoeopathy// 1858; 16: 179-198. This essay was originally published in 1829 and was reprinted in 1831, see: Hufeland CW. //Die Homöopathie//. Berlin: Reimer, 1831. ))."
+In 1829, in a second essay on homeopathy, he wrote, "I consider it wrong and unworthy of science to treat the new doctrine with ridicule and contempt. Persecution and tyranny in scientific matters are especially repugnant to me; here we should meet with only liberality of thought, thorough investigation, rational refutation, mutual respect, and rigid adherence to the subject, but no personalities. … ‘Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,' is and will ever be the first commandment in all science, and in medicine especially. … Liberty of thought, liberty of science—that is and must be ever be our chief palladium, if we desire to advance[(Hufeland CW. Homoeopathy. //British Journal of Homoeopathy// 1858; 16: 179-198. This essay was originally published in 1829 and was reprinted in 1831, see: Hufeland CW. //Die Homöopathie//. Berlin: Reimer, 1831. )]."
-Many prominent physicians adopted homeopathy during the time of Hahnemann and a great number of the court physicians were homeopaths throughout Europe. Even today, a great part of the European royalty is treated with homeopathy, and many Popes of the Catholic Church have been treated with homeopathy((For more information about the Vatican support of homeopathy see: Dana Ullman's //The Homeopathic Revolution//. Berkeley: North Atlantic books, 2007, 304-308.)). At least seven US Presidents, namely Tyler, Garfield, Arthur, McKinley, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, have been treated with homeopathy and their physicians were attending their families at the White House.
+Many prominent physicians adopted homeopathy during the time of Hahnemann and a great number of the court physicians were homeopaths throughout Europe. Even today, a great part of the European royalty is treated with homeopathy, and many Popes of the Catholic Church have been treated with homeopathy[(For more information about the Vatican support of homeopathy see: Dana Ullman's //The Homeopathic Revolution//. Berkeley: North Atlantic books, 2007, 304-308.)]. At least seven US Presidents, namely Tyler, Garfield, Arthur, McKinley, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, have been treated with homeopathy and their physicians were attending their families at the White House.
-Homeopathy has continued to be embraced by physicians all over the world, especially where homeopathy is not repressed, unlike it is currently in many parts of Canada and the United States((For instance, medical doctors in Quebec haven't been able for decades to practice homeopathy without risking being disciplined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons for practicing medicine outside of the standards of practice. In USA and Canada, physicians and scientitists greatly put at risk their academic reputation and career by showing any interest in homeopathy. Many choose medicine as a profession for its social prestige and financial advantages usually associated with it, which they will not risk loosing by exercising their scientific freedom. In fact, few choose medicine and even a smaller number will pursue it as a true vocation.)). Homeopathy spread in the early 1820's from Germany to the rest of the world. Today in many countries, homeopathy is recognized as official medicine, is part of national health services and its institutions are supported by governments.
+Homeopathy has continued to be embraced by physicians all over the world, especially where homeopathy is not repressed, unlike it is currently in many parts of Canada and the United States[(For instance, medical doctors in Quebec haven't been able for decades to practice homeopathy without risking being disciplined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons for practicing medicine outside of the standards of practice. In USA and Canada, physicians and scientitists greatly put at risk their academic reputation and career by showing any interest in homeopathy. Many choose medicine as a profession for its social prestige and financial advantages usually associated with it, which they will not risk loosing by exercising their scientific freedom. In fact, few choose medicine and even a smaller number will pursue it as a true vocation.)]. Homeopathy spread in the early 1820's from Germany to the rest of the world. Today in many countries, homeopathy is recognized as official medicine, is part of national health services and its institutions are supported by governments.
 For instance, in Germany, the population is so supportive of complimentary medicine that the German government mandated all medical school curricula to include information about complementary medicine. In Germany, the title "Homeopathic Physician" is legally protected. The Medical Chamber bestows this title after a three-year training program. Official courses in homeopathy are offered in the medical faculties of Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hannover, Heidelberg and Freiburg. Approximately 10%, or about 32,000 physicians in Germany, specialize in homeopathy and 75% of Germans regularly use complementary medicine. 98% of the pharmacies dispense homeopathic medicines.
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 In Spain, homeopathy is recognized as a medical specialty, being taught in universities in Seville, Valladolid, Murcia, Barcelona, Bilbao and Malaga.
-In the UK, homeopathy is recognized as a medical practice and has always been available on the National Health Service. The General Practitioners' Committee of the British Medical Association issued the following guidance to general practitioners in 1999, "General practitioners are obliged under their terms of service to refer patients for services available under the NHS... Referral to NHS doctors at one of the five homeopathic hospitals or NHS homeopathic clinics, in cases where GPs think such treatment is appropriate, will be part of the terms of service." Today, there are several NHS homeopathic hospitals regulated by the Care Quality Commission((» http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Homeopathy/Pages/Introduction.aspx)).
+In the UK, homeopathy is recognized as a medical practice and has always been available on the National Health Service. The General Practitioners' Committee of the British Medical Association issued the following guidance to general practitioners in 1999, "General practitioners are obliged under their terms of service to refer patients for services available under the NHS... Referral to NHS doctors at one of the five homeopathic hospitals or NHS homeopathic clinics, in cases where GPs think such treatment is appropriate, will be part of the terms of service." Today, there are several NHS homeopathic hospitals regulated by the Care Quality Commission[(» http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Homeopathy/Pages/Introduction.aspx)].
 Homeopathy is the most popular postgraduate course among all in Great Britain. The respect towards homeopathy and its practice is even more evident after a research showed that close to 50% of physicians prescribe or refers patients to homeopathic physicians.
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 In Russia, only medical doctors and dentists can practice homeopathy. Homeopathy is considered a medical specialty, and a medical doctor must obtain a license from the Ministry of Health. Homeopathy holds a unique place, where it has been widely accepted. Demand for homeopathic care is so great that Russians prefer to pay for homeopathic care than to receive free conventional medical care. 58% of physicians use or refer for homeopathic treatment.
-In India, homeopathy is integrated into the national health care system and has the largest homeopathic infrastructure in the world, with 400,000 registered practicing homeopaths, 180 colleges teaching courses and graduating 13,000 homeopaths yearly, 7,500 government clinics, 307 hospitals and 24 state boards for the registration of qualified practitioners of homeopathy. According to the Indian government around 10% of its population—or more than 100 million people—depend solely on homeopathy for their health care((Prasad R. Homeopathy booming in India. //Lancet// 2007; 370; 1679-1680.)).
+In India, homeopathy is integrated into the national health care system and has the largest homeopathic infrastructure in the world, with 400,000 registered practicing homeopaths, 180 colleges teaching courses and graduating 13,000 homeopaths yearly, 7,500 government clinics, 307 hospitals and 24 state boards for the registration of qualified practitioners of homeopathy. According to the Indian government around 10% of its population—or more than 100 million people—depend solely on homeopathy for their health care[(Prasad R. Homeopathy booming in India. //Lancet// 2007; 370; 1679-1680.)].
 In Pakistan, homeopathy is integrated into the national health system. In 1998, there were about 40,000 homeopathic physicians registered with the National Council for Homeopathy, and seventy-six colleges of homeopathic medicine offered officially recognized programs for the four-year Diploma of Homeopathic Medical Science. Several hospitals, outpatient clinics, and dispensaries are attached to the homeopathic medical colleges.
@@ Line 211: / Line 211: @@
 In Cuba, the Ministry of Health officially recognized homeopathy in 1992. Courses on introductory and advanced homeopathy are given at the medical and pharmaceutical schools. Homeopathic dispensaries are spread all over the country.
-In Mexico, homeopathy has been recognized since 1896. In 1985, regulations specifying training requirements for homeopathic doctors were established by a presidential decree. It is currently integrated into the national health care system; there are two schools that grant the MD degree, and five others that offer postgraduate training, and there are two homeopathic hospitals. In 1998, there were about 3,000 homeopathic physicians((World Health Organization. //Legal Status of Traditional Medicine and Complementary/Alternative Medicine: A Worldwide Review//. 2001.
+In Mexico, homeopathy has been recognized since 1896. In 1985, regulations specifying training requirements for homeopathic doctors were established by a presidential decree. It is currently integrated into the national health care system; there are two schools that grant the MD degree, and five others that offer postgraduate training, and there are two homeopathic hospitals. In 1998, there were about 3,000 homeopathic physicians[(World Health Organization. //Legal Status of Traditional Medicine and Complementary/Alternative Medicine: A Worldwide Review//. 2001.
-» http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/pdf/h2943e/h2943e.pdf )) ((Das E. //History and Status of Homoeopathy Around the World//. New Delhi: Jain Publsihers, 2005. )) ((//Regulation and Prevalence of Homeopathy//.
+» http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/pdf/h2943e/h2943e.pdf )] [(Das E. //History and Status of Homoeopathy Around the World//. New Delhi: Jain Publsihers, 2005. )] [(//Regulation and Prevalence of Homeopathy//.
-» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_prevalence_of_homeopathy )) ((A European Council for Classical Homeopathy Report. //The Recognition and Regulation of Homeopathy in Europe//. June 2007.
+» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_prevalence_of_homeopathy )] [(A European Council for Classical Homeopathy Report. //The Recognition and Regulation of Homeopathy in Europe//. June 2007.
-» www.homeopathy-ecch.eu)).
+» www.homeopathy-ecch.eu)].
+===== QUESTION 8 =====
+**The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the US has spent 1.4 billion dollars in ten years investigating all sorts of alternative treatments, including homeopathy. How is it that it has been unable to find any evidence that homeopathy provides benefits that are superior to those of a placebo?**
+This is wrong, as the following EEG and fibromyalgia studies[(Bell IR, Lewis DA, Lewis SE, Schwartz G. EEG alpha sensitization in individualized homeopathic treatment of fibromyalgia. //International Journal of Neuroscience// 2004; 114: 1195-1120. )] [(Bell IR, Lewis DA, Brooks AJ, Schwartz GE, Lewis SE, Walsh BT, Baldwin CM. Improved clinical status in fibromyalgia patients treated with individualized homeopathic remedies versus placebo //Rheumatology// 2004; 43: 577–582.)], were funded by a number of grants from the NIH/NCCAM and researchers found differences from placebo in all of these studies. The fibromyalgia study was the second study on that condition to show that homeopathy is beneficial. Fisher et al. first published their study in British Medical Journal, and Bell et al. published theirs in Rheumatology, as mentioned in the answer to question 3.
+Others studies on homeopathy funded by the NIH/NCCAM grants have been published in peer-review journals in recent years include the one in Sleep Medicine on young adults with coffee-related insomnia. Researchers found that polysomnography (PSG) offers a modern methodology for evaluating the objective effects of taking homeopathic remedies that clinicians claim exert effects on sleep quality in susceptible individuals. Animal studies have previously shown changes in non-rapid eye movement sleep with certain homeopathic remedies. Verum remedies significantly increased PSG total sleep time and non-rapid eye movement sleep, as well as awakenings and stage changes. Changes in actigraphic and self-rated scale effects were not significant[(Bell IR, Howerter A, Jackson N, Aickin M, Baldwin CM, Bootzin RR. Effects of homeopathic medicines on polysomnographic sleep of young adults with histories of coffee-related insomnia. //Sleep Medicine// 2011; 12: 505–511.)]. In another study, researchers found out that EEG alpha offers an objective biomarker of remedy effects for future studies and potential method for distinguishing time-dependent effects of specific remedies and remedy potencies from one another[(Brooks AJ, Bell IR, Howerter A, Jackson N, Aickin M. Short-term effects of repeated olfactory administration of homeopathic Sulphur or Pulsatilla on electroencephalographic alpha power in healthy young adults. //Homeopathy// 2011; 100: 203-211.)]. In a third study, it was found that EEG cordance provided a minimally invasive technique for assessing objective nonlinear physiologic effects of two different homeopathic remedies salient to the individuals who received them. These findings open the door for additional neuroimaging research on nonlinear psychophysiologic effects of specific homeopathic remedies[(Bell IR, Howerter A, Jackson N, Brooks AJ, Schwartz GE. Multiweek resting EEG cordance change patterns from repeated olfactory activation with two constitutionally salient homeopathic remedies in healthy young adults. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2012; 18: 445-453.)].
+Research on homeopathy funded by the NCCAM in its 20 years of existence has been quite limited to most likely less than 1% of its total budget. Today, junior researchers most likely risk their career and of being kicked out of tenure track if they focus on homeopathy. Also as there are very few researchers applying for grants to research homeopathy, there is little funding. Since there is little funding and few homeopathy researchers in the US, there has not been larger scale funding to replicate findings. There are structural problems with "peer review" for larger applications to do larger clinical trials, which means no CAM researchers, let alone homeopaths, are on review committees. The bias against homeopathy creates a self-fulfilling prophecy—no academic advancement for researchers pursuing homeopathic studies and no true CAM peers on the grant reviews if someone does send in studies.
+===== QUESTION 9 =====
+**Can you make a comparison between the number of years of education a homeopath receives versus that of a medical doctor as well as the residency requirements?**
+The training requirements for becoming a homeopath vary from one country to another, as can be seen in the answer to question 7. However, the preparation I have always recommended for a person interested in pursuing a career in homeopathy has been the following: first, to obtain a wide-spread education in liberal arts and science with particular emphases on philosophy, psychology, biology, arts and science. Second, this should be followed by medical training, preferably one that offers homeopathy as parts of its curriculum, as it is given in all the accredited naturopathic medical schools in North America[(See the Association of Acredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges:
+» http://www.aanmc.org/ )].
+A specialty can be pursued, such as pediatrics, gynecology, psychiatry, cardiology, etc., but always keeping homeopathy as the main focus. Following this training, a specialty in homeopathy should be pursued in a postgraduate training, like I pursued after graduation from naturopathic medical college in order to obtain my board certification in the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians.
+The question seems to insinuate that homeopathic training is subpar with the one received by an allopathic family medicine practitioner. It is likely to be the opposite. Once, while I was the acting secretary of the Council on Homeopathic Education, a US-based organization, we had a meeting on which I was the only non-MD on that board (as I hold a doctorate of naturopathic medicine (ND)). If my memory serves me well, there were a cardiologist, a psychiatrist, a radiologist and a few family practitioners sitting on the council at that time. They unanimously agreed that homeopathy had so far been the most difficult discipline they had had to learn in all their training, and a greater amount of work and experience was required in order to master it than any other discipline they had to learn.
+In essence, aside from therapeutics, a first class homeopathic physician must know human beings in health and disease and from genes to psyche, and understand the factors, conditions and influences needed for optimal health and be able to recognize all the possible causes of diseases. In 1862, Carroll Dunham explained in details in a long essay the requirement needed for becoming a homeopathic physician and the importance of being an excellent diagnostician. He wrote, "When first brought into the presence of a concrete case of disease, the business of the physician is to ascertain what branch of medical science he is called upon to exercise. Is the case one which requires hygienic management, or therapeutic, or both, or is the patient beyond the reach of art?
+To answer these questions a diagnosis and prognosis must be made, and to make these, a knowledge of the remote and proximate causes and of the course and determination of diseases is required. In a word, a knowledge of physiology and pathology is indispensable on the very threshold of medical practice and beforeany question of therapeutics has arisen[([[en:ahr:dunham-c-homoeopathy-the-science-of-therapeutics-158-10408|Dunham C. Homoeopathy, the science of therapeutics]]. American Homoeopathic Review 1862-1863; 3: 9-15, 61-71, 103-111, 156-162, 203-210, 263-273, 305-313.)]."
 ===== References =====

Legatum Homeopathicum

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