Positive results from homeopathy
by Dr. Kate Whimster, ND  in HomeopathyI just read this blog, The Swiss Government’s Remarkable Report on Homeopathic Medicine, by Dana Ullman, who writes a regular blog about homeopathy for the Huffington Post. In this blog he discusses a report from the Swiss Government after extensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine. I’ve summarized some key points from his blog below.
People want homeopathyThere was strong demand from both consumers and physicians for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments:

• “Approximately half of the Swiss population have used CAM treatments and value them.”
• “About half of Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective.”
• “85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be a part of their country’s health insurance program.”

The assessment was thoroughThe Swiss government’s assessment was high quality and sought to not only evaluate existing evidence relating to homeopathy, but also the QUALITY and VALIDITY of such evidence, which is also important, since many researchers do not design studies that evaluate homeopathy (or many other natural therapies for that matter!) in the way that it is actually practiced!

• “Not only did this report carefully and comprehensively review the body of evidence from randomized double-blind and placebo controlled clinical trials testing homeopathic medicines, they also evaluated the “real world effectiveness” as well as safety and cost-effectiveness.”
• “This report evaluated systematic reviews and meta-analyses, outcome studies, and epidemiological research. This wide review carefully evaluated the studies conducted, both in terms of quality of design and execution (called “internal validity”) and how appropriate each was for the way that homeopathy is commonly practiced (called “external validity”).
• “some scientists and physicians conduct research on homeopathy with little or no understanding of this type of medicine,”
• “When such studies inevitably showed that the homeopathic medicine did not “work,” the real and accurate assessment must be that the studies were set up to disprove homeopathy”

So what were the results?

• “homeopathic high-potencies seem to induce regulatory effects (e.g., balancing or normalizing effects) and specific changes in cells or living organisms.”
• “The report cited 29 studies in “Upper Respiratory Tract Infections/AllergicReactions,” of which 24 studies found a positive result in favor of homeopathy.”
• “Further, six out of seven controlled studies that compared homeopathic treatment with conventional medical treatment showed that homeopathy to be more effective than conventional medical interventions (the one other trial found homeopathic treatment to be equivalent to conventional medical treatment).”
• “All of these results from homeopathic treatment came without the side effects common to conventional drug treatment.”
• “In evaluating only the randomized placebo controlled trials, 12 out of 16 studies showed a positive result in favor of homeopathy.”

About Dr. Kate Whimster, NDI am a Toronto Naturopathic Doctor described as passionate, knowledgeable, professional, and encouraging by my patients.

By Cindy Perlin, LCSW

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Pain patients are suffering more than ever. After decades of pushing opioids as “the” answer to chronic pain, patient access to prescription opioids is being curtailed, often abruptly and with apparently no concern for the welfare of the patients. These cutbacks are justified as a response to an out of control opioid abuse and overdose epidemic.
Cindy Perlin, LCSW
Denial is rampant. Dr. Jane Ballantyne, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP) says patients should just learn to accept their pain and not continue to demand treatment with opioids or otherwise. Her stance is a denial of the toll severe chronic pain takes on the patient’s body, mind and spirit. Most medical professionals and all insurance companies deny the proof of effectiveness of other, non-pharmacological treatments for pain and deny the often-terrible side effects of other pharmacological approaches to pain. And chronic pain patients deny the escalating piles of bodies at morgues, dead from opioid abuse and overdoses that often started with a painkiller prescription.
There is a sane way out of this. Does anyone want to hear it?
Step #1: Get the DEA out of doctors’ offices.
The #1 reason that pain patients are being rapidly tapered off their opioid medications, abruptly discontinued or can’t find a doctor to treat them has nothing to do with their medical condition, success of treatment or drug use behavior. The main reason is that doctors are terrified of being prosecuted for writing opioid prescriptions. Prosecution can and often does result in loss of licensure, loss of assets and long prison terms.
Successful prosecutions have occurred even in cases where the physician’s only actions were prescribing opioids for legitimate pain patients. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) deploys dozens of agents with guns drawn for these raids. They seize patient records and threaten arrests of all the practice employees. According to the website Doctors of Courage, run by a physician, Dr. Linda Cheek, who suffered this fate, more than 975 physicians have been victims. Doctors are particularly vulnerable if they are in independent practice without large institutions to back them up, and if they are members of a minority group. Doctors are prosecuted as drug dealers, their assets seized so that they have to rely on public defenders who don’t have the time or funds to mount an adequate defense.
These DEA arrests have been occurring for more than a decade but physician vulnerability has increased since the release of the “voluntary” CDC guidelines on opioid prescribing in March, 2016. Government guidelines are considered “standards of care” and when physicians don’t adhere to them they are at increased risk of having their medical judgements challenged, not only by the DEA, but also in malpractice suits and licensure challenges.
So, the #1 step in ending unwarranted termination of pain prescriptions is to bar the DEA from arresting doctors unless there is clear evidence of actual drug dealing, such as in pill mills. There would still be avenues for addressing poor medical decisions, if they exist. These include complaints to licensing boards, where other doctors would review whether decision were medically appropriate, and malpractice lawsuits, where expert testimony can be weighed in determining whether prescription practices are appropriate.
Step #2: Expand Access to Alternative Pain Treatments
While there may be many pain patients who can only obtain adequate pain relief with opioids, there are also millions of patients whose pain could be more safely and effectively managed with non-pharmacological treatments. Scientific knowledge and understanding of these alternative treatments has been growing for decades but is being blatantly ignored by the conventional medical community and health insurance companies.
Acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic, cognitive behavioral therapy, electrical stimulation therapies, energy healing, energy psychology, exercise, herbal therapies (including medical marijuana), homeopathy, low level laser therapy, meditation, nutritional therapies, physical therapy, stem cell therapy and many others are underfunded or completely ignored by insurance companies.
So, step #2 is to require insurance companies to adequately cover alternative pain therapies so all patients can have access to all of the treatments that have the potential to help them.
Step #3: Educate physicians and pain patients about all available pain treatment options
Currently, physicians receive, on average, less than two hours of education on pain diagnosis or treatment of any kind in medical school. This leaves them reliant for the most part on pharmaceutical representatives for their “education”. Little continuing education is available to physicians that is not sponsored by the drug companies. We need medical schools to present a required course in pain management that is comprehensive and unbiased in its presentation of pain treatment options and similar post-graduate educational opportunities.
We also need educational opportunities for pain patients in the form of courses and written material.
That’s it. Three steps to reducing suffering and the chance of addiction. It’s not rocket science.
Cindy Perlin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified biofeedback practitioner, chronic pain survivor, the author of The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free and the creator of the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory.

By Homeopathy Plus!
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Answer:  The two main reasons people give for using homeopathy are:

1. It works, and
2. It is a safe alternative to over-the-counter or prescription medicines.

But what about those with a wheat or dairy intolerance – is it safe and problem-free for them?
The answer is yes – but with some provisos. Let’s find out why.
Homeopathic remedies are dispensed in a number of ways – as tablets, globules, liquid drops, creams and sprays. They can even be inhaled.
The tablets, pills and globules act as carriers for the remedy and may contain lactose (a sugar found in milk) or wheat flour. Normally this isn’t a problem for those who are intolerant to lactose or gluten as the amounts are so small.
However, if the person is highly sensitive or has an allergy to lactose or gluten, remedies prepared with these two substances may affect them unless the remedy is being given by inhalation.
Fortunately neither substance is necessary for preparing a homeopathic remedy and, because of the increasing problem of food intolerances, many manufacturers now choose to avoid wheat altogether or use sucrose instead of lactose.
Alcohol is frequently used as a stabiliser and preservative when remedies are dispensed as liquids or sprays. While most alcohol (ethanol) used for medicine is prepared from sugar it may occasionally be derived from grain, but the distillation process removes all gluten.
Some homeopaths still prefer to use brandy or vodka as a stabiliser for the remedies they dispense, but these are also gluten free; the brandy is made from grapes and though some vodka is sourced from grain, the distillation process it undergoes removes all traces of gluten.
Conclusion: if you are sensitive to lactose or gluten, the small doses in the homeopathic carriers are unlikely to be a problem unless you are highly allergic. If this is the case, always check with the manufacturer or dispensing homeopath that the remedy has been prepared with gluten-free and lactose-free components or, if in doubt, take your remedy by sniff doses (the olfaction method).

By Scrutton Co/UK

Thrombophlebitis


Phlebitis is the inflammation of a vein. The inflammation is caused by blood clotting inside the vein. Often the vein walls themselves are damaged. It is usually experience on the lower legs. Superficial thrombophlebitis can be painful, with hard lumps forming under the skin, with much redness.


Conventional Medical Treatment for Phlebitis
As usual, I have used the NHS Choices website as a guide to the conventional medical treatment of Phlebitis. It rather plays down the seriousness, and the painfulness of the condition, "typically more annoying than serious". It says that the blood clot usually clears, and the inflammation dies down within a few weeks, that usually people with the condition are 'otherwise well',


               "This may be painful, but it shouldn't prevent you walking reasonably well."


As far as treatment is concerned NHS Choices does not seem to have much to offer. It says that as Phlebitis is inflammation and not infection antibiotics are not helpful, and provides the following advice "to help reduce any pain and swelling".


          •     raise the leg to help reduce swelling
          •     wear compression stockings to help reduce swelling
          •     keep active, to keep the blood circulating
          •     press a cold flannel over the vein to ease any pain
          •     take anti-inflammatory painkillers (aspirin is best) to ease any pain
          •     rub an anti-inflammatory cream or gel on the area if the affected area is only small


NHS Choices goes on to reassure the patient that when the inflammation settles there may be darkened skin and the lump which may take three or four months to gom but that most people make a full recovery. However says that if the thrombophlebitis occurred in a varicose vein it is likely that the varicose veins will keep coming back, possibly with further episodes of thrombophlebitis. The surgical removal of the vein is then required.


Homeopathic Treatment of Phlebitis
Homeopathy is a medical therapy that will avoid some of the side-effects and adverse reactions of conventional medical treatment. Homeopathy is the second most popular medical therapy in the world, and the most popular holistic system of medicine. Homeopathy is based on remedies made from a variety of different substances, all of which are known to cause symptoms of illness if taken in their normal form. However, homeopathy has discovered that substances that cause symptoms of illness can also cure those same symptoms of illness.


This is the principle of “Like cures Like” on which all homeopathy is based.


The task of the homeopath is to find a remedy whose symptom picture matches the symptoms of a person’s illness. These remedy symptom pictures have been developed over the last 220 years.


The selection of a homeopathic remedy is based on the individual’s symptoms of illness, not on any broad conventionally-defined illness. It is important to stress this. Homeopathy does not treat illness or diseases. Instead it treats an individual who has been diagnosed with a particular illness or disease. The distinction is important, and if you wish to read more about this, click on the chapter “Illness Diagnosis”.


As far as Phlebitis is concerned, homeopathy has highlighted a number of remedies that have been found to be useful in its treatment. The Dr Thind website has outlined some simple remedy pictures for a number of these remedies. All the remedies mentioned are safe, and any remedy that matches the patient’s symptoms will be effective. These simple remedy pictures give some indication of the types of symptoms they will treat.


Aseculus hippocastanum
     + Vein disturbances  with developments of varicose veins and hemorrhoids
     + Bone swollen and painful
     + Hemorrhoids with constipation and lumbar pain


Arnica Montana
     + Phlebitis from trauma
     + Bruising and bruised feeling
     + Helps in dissolving blood clots


Belladonna
     + Acute phlebitis
     + Sudden onset of inflammation with redness
     + Patient sensitive to motion


Bothrops lanciolatus
     + Muscular tissue filled with black blood
     + Numbness, swollen veins
     + Gangrene and gangrenous ulcer
     + Swelling and heaviness
     + Helps dissolving blood clots


Hamamelis virginiana
     + Painful thrombophlebitis, worse on movement
     + Varicose veins and dark blue coloring
     + Tendency to recurring inflammation
     + Vein fragility; body feels as if beaten up


Lachesis
     + Acute thrombophlebitis with typical inflammatory signs
     + Pain sensitivity with intolerance to warmth
     + Stronger inflammation with bluish skin
     + Indicated remedy for dissolving blood clots
     + Good for problems that are left sided


Many of these remedies can be found in simple home-use remedy kits that can be obtained from these Homeopathic Pharmacies.
However, for an accurate, individualised remedy selection, patients should consult with a qualified homeopath. This increases the likelihood of matching an individual with a remedy that will work for them. A remedy that does not match the symptoms of an individual’s illness will not work, but equally will do no harm!


Scientific Evidence Supporting Homeopathy
There is a significant and growing amount of scientific evidence confirming that homeopathy is a safe and effective medical therapy. However, this evidence remains only the third most important proof of this.


The most important proof for the safety and effectiveness of homeopathy is clinical experience, that is the many millions of patients who, having suffered serious illness, have been treated successfully with homeopathy. This is going on throughout the world, and been doing so for over 200 years.


Homeopathy has also developed a voluminous materia medica. This contains the intricate details of the healing properties of several thousand substances used to make homeopathic remedies. The short remedy pictures above are just a tiny part of this knowledge.
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