Homeopathy: A Healthier Way to Treat Depression?

Depression can be a temporary passing experience or a deeply disturbing condition that may lead to suicide. Except in cases of minor depressive states, professional attention is generally recommended to help a person go through this emotional experience in a conscious manner.

The Real Dangers of Conventional Medical Treatment

Recent studies published in leading medical journals have seriously questioned the efficacy of conventional pharmaceutical treatment of people with mild or moderate depression.

In early 2010, major media reported on a significant review of research testing antidepressant medications.(1) What is unique about this review of research is that the researchers evaluated studies that were submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), though the researchers discovered that many studies submitted to the FDA were unpublished (they found that the unpublished research consistently showed negative results of antidepressants).

This meta-analysis of antidepressant medications found only modest benefits over placebo treatment in published research, but when unpublished trial data is included, the benefit falls below accepted criteria for clinical significance.

Perhaps most startling about this research is the fact the FDA only requires drug manufacturers to provide them with two positive studies on depression to attain FDA-approval status, even if these same drug companies submit many more studies with negative results. Such information forces consumers to question the efficacy of “FDA approved drugs,” and it explains why so many conventional medications eventually get withdrawn from marketplace.

At the same time that the above review research was published, another review of research was published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), and they found similar results, “The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms.”(2) These researchers did find benefits from the use of antidepressants in the treatment of severe depression, but because the majority of people taking antidepressants today do not have “severe depression,” it is prudent for many people with depression to talk to their doctors about safer and more effective alternatives.

Sadly (and strangely), when conventional doctors today do not obtain adequately effective results with one drug, they often simply prescribe more drugs in hopes that one of them, or their combination, will be more effective (whether this increased use of drugs is effective or not, there are certain “benefits” that drug companies receive from this strategy). However, increasing research is finding that “polypharmacy” (the use of multiple drugs concurrently) may lead to worse, not better, results. New research has shown that polypharmacy with psychotropic medications in suicidal adolescent inpatients has been linked to a significantly increased risk for early readmission.(3)

Presented at Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the researchers found that suicidal adolescent inpatients receiving three or more different classes of psychotropic medications had a 2.6-fold increased risk of being re-admitted within 30 days of discharge.

Cynthia A Fontanella, PhD, the lead researcher, asserted, “Our finding that polypharmacy was associated with an increased risk of readmission is concerning, although not surprising.” Even though the serious problems with polypharmacy are known and expected, polypharmacy is growing in mental health care, not decreasing.

Other researchers discovered a disturbing trend among the over 13,000 visits of outpatients with mental disorder diagnoses: the number of psychotropic medications prescribed increased in successive years. Visits in which two or more medications were prescribed increased from 42.6 percent in 1996-1997 to 59.8 percent in 2005-2006, and those in which at least 3 medications were prescribed virtually doubled from 16.9 percent to 33.2 percent.(4)

Why Mental Illness is Increasing

There are numerous theories for why the number of people suffering from mental illness is increasing and why it is afflicting people at younger and younger ages. The Homeopathic analysis for this epidemic is unique and may provide additional insight as to why this is occurring.

Like most observers of health and medicine today, Homeopaths do not believe that there is simply one reason for the increase in mental illness, though many Homeopaths assert that iatrogenesis (doctor-induced disease) plays a much greater role than is commonly recognized.

Homeopaths, like modern-day physiologists, understand that symptoms of illness represent the body’s defenses in its efforts to adapt to and respond against infection, environmental assault, or stress of some kind. As discomforting as symptoms can be, they still represent the living organism’s best efforts at the time to try to defend and heal him or herself. Such defenses are an innate part of our evolutionary efforts to survive. The symptoms that a person experiences are a part of the body’s innate wisdom, commonly referred to as “vis mediatrix naturae” (the healing power of nature).

Using conventional medications to inhibit or suppress a symptom may be effective temporarily, but THIS is often the “bad news.” Because symptoms as diverse as fevers, coughs, nasal discharges, or even high blood pressure are recognized by physiologists as adaptations and defenses of the body, drugs that inhibit these symptoms may provide a short-term benefit, but such drugs also reduce the person’s ability to get over the illness. More significantly and more seriously, conventional medications may actually suppress the disease process and the wisdom of the body, thereby creating a deeper and more serious illness.

The irony to “modern scientific medicine” is that the evidence that doctors proudly show that a drug “works” is often actually evidence that the drug is effective in suppressing, not curing, a specific symptom (there are, of course, many exceptions to this general observation, such as antibiotics, but antibiotic drugs create other problems about which this writer and many others have commented already).

For over 200 years Homeopaths have observed the ability of many conventional drugs to suppress acute illness into more deep chronic illness. During this time, Homeopaths have also found that this disease suppression also creates more and greater mental illness. When reviewing the side-effects of many drugs, it is not uncommon to find that drugs are known to lead to various states of mental illness from depression to delusion to suicidal propensities.

Just as suppressing one’s emotions often leads to a later explosion of these emotions to someone who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, suppressing physical symptoms can lead to a more serious physical disease or a more disturbing mental illness. Using drugs to provide temporary relief does have some type of cost, and the cost is usually a later and more serious ailment.

Homeopathic Treatment of Depression

The Menninger Clinic is world-renowned as one of the leading mental health centers for research and treatment. Most people don’t know it, but the founder of the Menninger Clinic, Charles Frederick Menninger, MD, was originally a Homeopathic physician. He was even the head of his local Homeopathic medicine society and was so frequently impressed with the results that he got from Homeopathic medicines, he once said, “Homeopathy is wholly capable of satisfying the therapeutic demands of this age better than any other system or school of medicine.” (5)

Numerous studies have shown benefits in using the herb, St. Johns wort, to treat mild to moderate depression. However, Homeopaths generally find that it is preferable to prescribe individualized Homeopathic remedies to each patient to attain better long-term sustained results without having to take continual doses of any medicine (natural or otherwise). In fact, a recent study published in a medical journal published by Oxford University Press found that individualized Homeopathic treatment is as effective and is safer than Prozac in the treatment of people with moderate or severe depression.(6)

This study included 91 outpatients with moderate to severe depression who received an individually chosen Homeopathic medicine or fluoxetine (Prozac) 20 mg/day (up to 40 mg/day) in a prospective, randomized, double-blind double-dummy eight week trial. The primary efficacy measure was the mean change in MADRS depression scores (MADRS is a commonly used observer rated depression scale, with a score of 32 representing the “severe depression”). The average MADRS of patients in this study was 29.

The mean MADRS scores differences were not significant on the fourth (p=0.654) and eigth weeks (p=0.965) of treatment, which suggests that the two methods are treatment are equally effective. There were also no significant differences between the percentages of response or remission rates in both groups. The study also found a higher but non-significant percentage of patients treated with Prozac reported troublesome side effects, and there was a trend toward greater treatment interruption for adverse effects in the Prozac group.

Those people who claim to be “skeptics” of Homeopathy will be surprised and impressed to know that two specialty medical journals published a double-blind and placebo controlled study on mice and found that one of the medicines in the above study, Gelsemium sempervirens, had anxiety-related effects.(7)(8)

Jonathan Davidson, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University, conducted a small study of adults with major depression, social phobia, or panic disorder. He found that 60 percent of the patients responded favorably to Homeopathic treatment.(9) When one recognizes the considerable safety of Homeopathic medicines and the benefits that some patients get from this safer method of treatment, it is remarkable that the majority of psychiatrists and psychologists do not yet refer appropriate patients to homeopaths prior to prescribing powerful conventional drugs for them.

A clinical outcome study of interest involved 14 physicians of the United Kingdom’s Faculty of Homeopathy (13 NHS GPs and 3 private practitioners) who treated a wide variety of people with chronic ailments.(10) The outcome scores from 958 individual patient conditions having two or more appointments found that 75.9 percent experienced a “positive outcome,” 14.7 percent had no change, and 4.6 percent experienced deterioration in health. Patients with the highest positive scores (over 50 percent of patients who self-scored a +2 or +3 on a 7 point Likert scale from -3 to +3) were achieved in the treatment of anxiety, catarrh, colic, cystitis, depression, eczema, irritable bowel syndrome, and PMS. A total of 63.6 percent of patients with depression self-scored a +2 or +3 result from Homeopathic treatment.

More information on the Homeopathic treatment of mental illness and more scientific evidence verifying its efficacy is contained in a newly published textbook on the subject, Homeopathy and Mental Health Care: Integrative Practice, Principles, and Research .

How NOT to Use Homeopathy for Depression

In early 2010, Alexa Ray Joel, the daughter of singer Billy Joel and actress/model Christy Brinkley, supposedly tried to kill herself by taking a Homeopathic medicine, called Traumeel. Anyone with the simply elementary knowledge of Homeopathy knows that one cannot commit suicide taking Homeopathic medicines due to the extremely small doses in these medicines. Even Homeopathy’s most ardent skeptics must have had a good laugh at this media report.

After the initial media report about Alexa Ray Joel’s suicide attempt, she went public with the fact that she suffered from depression as a result of a break-up in a relationship. And yet, Ms. Joel did not correct the misunderstanding of Homeopathic medicine or the assertions made claiming that she (or anyone) could kill themselves with a Homeopathic remedy. Sympathy is certainly appropriate for anyone who experiences such emotional trauma from the break-up of a love relationship to consider suicide. However, we should be wary of actions that inappropriately seek to tarnish the reputation of good companies or safe medicines.

Why Homeopathy Makes Sense for Depression

Homeopathic medicines are not prescribed based on the person’s diagnosed disease but on the unique way the person experiences his or her disease. In other words, Homeopathic medicines are prescribed based on the SYNDROME of various physical and psychological symptoms, not just a single symptom or disease label. Although the selection of the correct Homeopathic prescribing is more complex than the use of conventional drugs or even many herbal preparations, the system of prescribing that is individualized to the whole person is intellectually sound… and its results are often significant if not substantial.

The premise behind Homeopathy is that symptoms of illness are not just something “wrong” with the person but are actually efforts of their ‘bodymind’ to fight infection and/or to adapt to stress. Instead of using large doses of pharmacological agents to inhibit or suppress symptoms, very small and specially prepared doses of medicinal substances are individually prescribed to a person for their unique ability to cause in overdose the similar symptoms that the sick person is having. By finding a medicine that matches the symptoms of the sick person, the medicine supports and augments the body’s defenses. Ultimately, Homeopathy is what Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, called “medical aikido” because it goes with, rather than against, the force of the disease. It is also a type of “medical biomimicry.”

There is, indeed, much more that could be said about the sophisticated system of healing that Homeopathy embodies and on the historical and scientific evidence that verifies its safety and efficacy, but the above information and insights provide a good introduction to why people with mild to moderate depression might be consider seeking professional Homeopathic care.

Psychiatrist Wants Homeopathy

Dubai: A psychiatrist called upon the mental healthcare community to adopt Homoeopathy as a tool to treat disorders, and move away from conventional medicine that can have severe side effects.

Speaking at the second conference on Integrative Medicine Conference on Thursday, organised by Dubai Healthcare City Authority’s Centre for Healthcare Planning and Quality (CPQ), Dr Vengalis Zafeiriou highlighted the benefits of integrating Homoeopathy in psychiatric health care.

He said Homoeopathy can reduce the duration of hospitalisation, quantity of the medicine needed, number of laboratory examinations, frequency of relapses, and the individual and state health care costs. This form of alternative medicine also improves overall health and helps all chronic diseases, excluding irreversible tissue damage; it has no side effects and can be successfully combined with any other kind of treatment, he said.

The conference, titled ‘Advances in Evidence Based Integrative Medicine, held under the patronage of Princess Haya Bint Hussain, chairperson of Dubai Healthcare City Authority, and wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, aimed to bridge the gap between conventional, complementary and alternative medicine through evidence-based integrative medicine case studies.

Dr Zafeiriou, Psychiatrist and President and Director of Education of the Hellenic Association of Homoeopathic Medical Cooperation in Greece, provided case studies of patients suffering from alcoholism and autism.

After his lecture, he spoke to Gulf News about the need to lobby for Homoeopathy in mental health care. “In psychiatry there aren’t any medicines designed to be curative, rather these relieve symptoms. Homeopathy can treat all kinds of disorders from anxiety and phobias to depression and schizophrenia. In mental hospitals, Homoeopathy can treat patients with severe mental disorders, contributing considerably to the therapeutic outcome of conventional psychiatric treatment.”

REFERENCES:

(1) Kirsch I, Deacon BJ, Huedo-Medina TB, Scoboria A, Moore TJ, et al. (2008) Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. PLoS Med 5(2): e45. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045 http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

(2) Fournier JC, DeRubeis RJ, Hollon SD, Dimidjian S, Amsterdam JD, Shelton RC, Fawcett J. Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity: A Patient-Level Meta-analysis. JAMA. 2010;303(1):47-53. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/303/1/47?home

(3) Fontanella CA, Bridge JA, Campo JV. Psychotropic medication changes, polypharmacy, and the risk of early readmission in suicidal adolescent inpatients. Ann Pharmacother. 2009 Dec;43(12):1939-47.

(4) Mojtabai R, Olfson M. National Trends in Psychotropic Medication Polypharmacy in
Office-Based Psychiatry. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67:26-36.

(5) Menninger, C. F. The Application as Well as the Similar, Transactions of the American Institute of Homeopathy, 1896, pp. 317-324.

(6) Adler UC, Paiva NMP, Cesar AT, Adler MS, Molina A, Padula AE, Calil HM. Homeopathic individualized Q-potencies versus fluoxetine for moderate to severe depression: double-blind, randomized non-inferiority trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009 Aug 17. http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nep114v1

(7) Bellavite P, Magnani P, Zanolin E, Conforti A. Homeopathic Doses of Gelsemium sempervirens Improve the Behavior of Mice in Response to Novel Environments. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009 Sep 14. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19752165?dopt=Abstract

(8) Magnani P, Conforti A, Zanolin E, Marzotto M, Bellavite P. Dose-effect study of Gelsemium sempervirens in high dilutions on anxiety-related responses in mice. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2010 Apr 20.

(9) Davidson, J, Morrison, R, Shore, J, et al., Homeopathic Treatment of Depression and Anxiety,” Alternative Therapies, January, 1997,3,1:46-49.

(10) Mathie, RT, Robinson, TW. Outcomes from Homeopathic Practice in Medical Practice: A Prospective, Research-Tarageted, Pilot Study, Homeopathy. 2006,95:199-205.

-Dana Ullman

Labor and Childbirth with Homeopathy

Homeopathic medicine can help enormously in the prenatal period, with the birth of the baby and in avoiding or reducing some of the problems associated with labor, as well as in dealing with postnatal symptoms.

False labor
Labor-like contractions may occur in the last few weeks of pregnancy and are felt irregularly, usually in the lower part of the abdomen. These are said to occur because the uterus (womb) is ‘toning-up’ in preparation for the birth. If the contractions become very frequent or regular, or if there is a ‘show’ of blood, the doctor or midwife should be called.

Symptoms:  Contractions that occur in the last few weeks of pregnancy. Inertia of the uterus. Labor delayed. Contractions have no coordination and may change in location. Labor is ineffectual. Prime indications for the remedy are the typical uterine dysfunction, with weakness and trembling, neuralgic or rheumatic pains mainly in the bladder, vagina and intestines. These pains are sharp, short and spasmodic and tend to fly about from place to place. Generally cold and worse from cold. There may also be apprehension and nervous excitability.
Medicine: Caulophyllum

Symptoms: Contractions that occur early in the pregnancy. Pain shoots across the abdomen, causing doubling up. Uterine dysfunction with pessimism, fear, and mental fragmentation. Feels something terrible is going to happen. Terrifying memories of previous births or miscarriages. May say something like “I feel enveloped by a black cloud.” Gloomy, morose, fears insanity. Sighing. Hysteria. Pain, headache, neuralgia, rheumatism, arthritis, chilly; worse cold (except headache which improves from cold.) Nervous phenomena (nausea, insomnia, palpitations, numbness, etc..) The mental state differentiates this remedy from Caulophyllum.
Medicine: Cimicifuga

Symptoms: Pain goes up the back and into the hips. Splendid remedy for dysfunctional labor with failure to dilate, especially when coupled with acute inflammation and fever, chilly, thirstless, achy muscles, great fatigue; profound muscular weakness, trembling, shivering, comes on from emotional excitement and/or anticipation. Vertigo. Face flushed and sleepy looking. “worn out” expression. Sleepy and weak during labor. Timid, quiet, reserved.
Medicine: Gelsemium

Symptoms: Specific remedy for uterine dysfunction, false labor and after pains. Keynotes are that the pains raidate from the sacrum into the pelvis and into the upper, inner thighs. Colicky, cramp-like pains.
Medicine: Viburnum opulus

Dosage:  Use the 12c potency.Take every hour until the pains cease.

Preparing for delivery
Taking Caulophyllum in the last weeks of the preg­nancy and Arnica, before delivery, will minimize much of the bruising and bleeding. Caulophyllum is also said to ‘tone up’ the uterus, helping to produce good contractions and lessening the chances of becoming over tired during labor.

Symptoms: Reduces the bruising and bleeding of normal labor.
Medicine: Arnica montana
Dosage: Arnica should be taken in the highest potency you can obtain — the 10m potency powder form if possible. If not, use the 30c potency in powder form. If you cannot obtain a powder, simply crush one tablet for one dose. Take one dose at the start of labor and one during labor just before delivery. It is useful to take a 30c dose three times a day for three days after the birth of the baby.

Symptoms: Used routinely to help uterine contractions and to bring about a smooth delivery.
Medicine: Caulophyllum
Dosage: Caulophyllum should be taken in the 30c potency — three doses on the same day each week from the 34th week onwards. There is no clinical evidence that this Homeopathic medicine causes women to go into labor too early. This is specifically mentioned because Caulophyllum in normal — that is, non-Homeopathic doses — may cause early labor. Used Homeopathically, it is given to prevent premature labor and to help normal labor.

Symptoms: May help if there was heavy bleeding in a previous pregnancy.
Medicine: Millefolium
Dosage: Millefolium should be taken in the 30c potency. Take three doses on one day in the last week of the pregnancy.

In early labor
A normal pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks. For a few weeks before the birth occasional painless ‘contrac­tions’ may be felt in the lower abdomen (see False Labor above). When labor proper begins, the con­tractions become noticeable but may be infrequent and irregular. As labor proceeds, they become more frequent and occur at regular intervals. They may also produce some discomfort. At first they are often felt in the back. The start of labor may be indicated by a small blood loss called a ‘bloody show’.

At some stage the membranes in which the baby is contained will rupture, producing a loss of a watery fluid from the vagina. This is perfectly normal. The actual duration of labor varies tremendously, but is lengthier with a first pregnancy, so there is usually plenty of time in which to get to hospital, birth center, or for the midwife to arrive if delivery is to be at home.

Symptoms: When the labor pains are frequent, but irregular. A good remedy if restless, anxious and frightened and convinced of dying during labor.
Medicine: Aconitum

Symptoms: Painful labor, with the pain starting in lower back and radiating to inner part of the thighs.The woman may be over-excited and angry, and resent being examined. Exquisitely intolerant of pain.
Medicine: Chamomilla

Symptoms: Spasmodic irregular pains in the small of the back. Feelings of exhaustion and being out of control.
Medicine: Cocculus

Symptoms: Contractions are very painful but ineffective. The woman is restless and agitated.
Medicine: Coffea cruda

Symptoms: Intermittent, relatively painless contractions with little progress. Excessive tiredness.
Medicine: Gossypium

Symptoms: Early labor pains in back.
Medicine: Kali carbonicum

Dosage: Use the 12c potency. Take every 30 minutes until relief is maintained.

Immediately after delivery
The Mother’s main problems after the birth will be related to bruising in the birth passage and surround­ing organs, such as the bladder and urethra.

With a prolonged labor, especially one that has caused much sleep deprivation, fatigue can also be a problem, but this is easily remedied by a good night’s sleep. The main problems after a birth by Caesarean section tend to be those that can occur after any surgical procedure.

Most of these complications are unlikely, however, if the woman has been treated with Arnica and Caulophyllum, as described above.

(See also the section on After-pains below.)

Postpartum Hemorrhage

Once a baby is delivered, the uterus normally continues to contract (tightening of uterine muscles) and expels the placenta. After the placenta is delivered, these contractions help compress the bleeding vessels in the area where the placenta was attached. If the uterus does not contract strongly enough, called uterine atony, these blood vessels bleed freely and hemorrhage occurs. This is the most common cause of Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH). If small pieces of the placenta remain attached, bleeding is also likely.

Postpartum Hemorrhage is excessive bleeding following the birth of a baby. About 1% to 5% of women have Postpartum Hemorrhage and it is more likely with a cesarean birth. Hemorrhage most commonly occurs after the placenta is delivered. The average amount of blood loss after the birth of a single baby in vaginal delivery is about 500 ml (or about a half of a quart). The average amount of blood loss for a cesarean birth is approximately 1,000 ml (or one quart). Most Postpartum Hemorrhage occurs right after delivery, but it can occur later as well.

PPH is a medical emergency. Excessive and rapid blood loss can cause a severe drop in the Mother’s blood pressure and may lead to shock and death if not treated.

*The use of Homeopathy should be in conjunction with seeking immediate medical attention.

Symptoms: Postpartum Hemorrhage. Bleeding is typically forceful and gushing, with bright red blood and Dark Clots. Girdle-like pains from sacrum to pubis in the process of expelling them. Retained placenta or after pains my also complicate the picture.
Medicine: Sabina

Symptoms: Postpartum Hemorrhage. Bright red blood; No Clots. This remedy should be considered when other important keynotes are present such as tremendous thirst for cold drinks, fear of being alone and of the dark, open, bright suggestible patients, who are anxious, and easily reassured.
Medicine: Phosphorus

Symptoms: Postpartum Hemorrhage. Splendid remedy for the treatment of passive uterine bleeding with muscle fatigue and general exhaustion with persistent oozing of dark, this or even watery blood. . Leading indications are shock-like symptoms, as would be expected from excessive blood loss: Faintness, thirst, and extreme chilliness with nervous shivering and relief from warmth in any form. Gassy distension, headache, heightened sensitivity to touch, noise, or other external stimulation.
Medicine: China

Other Issues

Symptoms: Difficulty passing urine. Restless, sleepless and frightened.
Medicine: Aconitum

Symptoms: Constipation. Rectum feels sore and anus itches. Even a soft stool is passed with difficulty.
Medicine: Alumina

Symptoms: Problems passing urine
Medicine: Arsenicum album

Symptoms: Irritation of the vulva. Cramp-like pains occur in the uterus (womb), mainly at night.
Medicine: Caladium seguinum

Symptoms: Retention of urine, especially after a long labor.
Medicine: Causticum

Symptoms: Nervousness and restlessness.
Medicine: Chamomilla

Symptoms: Excited, oversensitive and suffers from insomnia. Abdominal pains.
Medicine: Coffea cruda

Symptoms: Painful hemorrhoids.
Medicine: Collinsonia

Symptoms: Flatulence and abdominal colic.
Medicine: Nux moschata

Symptoms: Back pain. Itching between the breasts. Apathy.
Medicine: Phosporic acid

Symptoms: Hemorrhoids and anal prolapse occur.
Medicine: Podophyllum

Symptoms: Total exhaustion and overheating.
Medicine: Secale cornutum

Symptoms: To aid healing if there has been catheterization or an episiotomy.
Medicine: Staphysagria

Dosage:  Use the 12c potency. Take three times a day for five days.

After pains
These pains are similar to labor pains and may occur after childbirth. They are a result of the uterus (womb) contracting as it reduces to its size before the pregnancy.

The pains are more likely to occur to Breastfeed­ing Mothers, as Breastfeeding causes the pituitary gland to release the hormone Oxytocin, which helps with milk production, and may also stimulate some uterine contractions. Natures way of stopping the bleeding and reducing the uterus back to it’s normal size.

Symptoms: Used routinely after all labors, especially if labor has been protracted.
Medicine: Arnica montana

Symptoms: After pains with a headache, flushed face, nervousness, restlessness.
Medicine: Belladonna

Symptoms: Soreness felt all through the pelvis, making walking and standing painful.
Medicine: Bellis perennis

Symptoms: Severe, cramp-like pains.
Medicine: Camphora

Symptoms: Spasmodic pains occur which move across the lower abdomen, especially after a prolonged and exhausting labor. Quite specifically for after-pains.
Medicine:  Caulophyllum

Symptoms: Severe pain causing great irritability.
Medicine: Chamomilla

Symptoms: Intense pains like electric shocks in the groin. Agitated and intolerant of pain.
Medicine: Cimicifuga

Symptoms: Pains which feel as if they are in the intestines rather than the uterus.
Medicine: Cocculus

Symptoms: Extreme pain causing sleeplessness.
Medicine:  Coffea cruda

Symptoms: Distressing after-pains after pregnancy that is not the first.
Medicine: Cuprum metallicum

Symptoms: Anxious, apprehensive, sleepless.
Medicine:  Gelsemium

Symptoms: Severe after-pains shoot down the thighs and are worse on the right. Pain appears to be in the rectum or the bladder.
Medicine: Lac caninum

Symptoms: Large blood clots may be passed. Much flatulence.
Medicine: Nux vomica

Symptoms: Pain shoots forwards from behind.
Medicine: Sabina

Symptoms: A sensation of a weight in the lower bowel. Pelvic organs feel as though they are about to drop out. More often indicated after labor than in the middle of it, this is a great remedy and can relieve the characteristic heaviness and bearing down pains. Used chiefly for bleeding, retained placenta, prolapse, and other postpartum complaints. Pain radiates upwards.
Medicine: Sepia

Symptoms: Use this, if there are no other symptoms and no other Homeopathic remedy seems to fit.
Medicine: Xanthoxylum

Dosage: Use the 30c potency. Take four times a day for two days after delivery.

Happy Healthy Mother and Baby

Note: The information here is not intended to replace medical advice offered by your Health Care Provider, Midwife or Homeopath.

Please see your health care professional.

References:

Desktop Guide by, Roger Morrison, M.D.

Homeopathic Medicines for Pregnancy and Childbirth by, Richard Moskowitz, M.D.

Homeopathy for Women by, Dr Barry Rose and Dr Christina Scott-Moncrieff, published by Collins & Brown.

*Homeopathy is also safe and effective while Breastfeeding! Homeopathy is often useful in situations such as low-milk supply and/or over-supply, sore nipples, breast infection, weaning, etc.. This is a helpful modality of healing for new Mothers, as it is completely safe while breastfeeding, and for babies and children.

Please see: www.lactation-911.com/

www.lactation-911.com/homeopathy-and-breastfeeding

 

 

“I don’t know how, but Homeopathy really does work”

Do vaccines cause Autism?

Must-see new video reveals the systematic suppression of evidence of vaccine-damaged children

There is systematic suppression in the United States on the truth about the links between vaccines and autism. Drug companies and the federal government have conspired to deny parents of vaccine-damaged children their day in court by creating a kangaroo “vaccine court” that offers no due process whatsoever (and therefore violates the civil liberties of Americans).

Even so, this court has, numerous times, admitted that vaccines have irrefutably damaged children and caused autism. Parents of those children are offered “hush money” to quietly go away after signing an agreement that mandates they never talk to the press about their ordeal.

This systematic suppression of the truth about vaccine-damaged children is revealed in a must-see new video just released by the Canary Party (www.CanaryParty.org) and narrated by actor Rob Schneider, an outspoken advocate of parental rights when it comes to medicine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv_IaLHwgAQ

I urge you to share this video with everyone you know! It explains, in clear, rational language, an important part of the true story of how the vaccine industry suppresses the truth about vaccine-damaged children.

Why do vaccines harm children?
The entire vaccine industry — including all its bought-and-paid-for doctors, authors, “scientists” and PR flaks — has for decades knowingly lied to the world in claiming that vaccines have “zero risk” and “zero side effects.”

In truth, even the CDC still admits that vaccines contain four additives, each of which is a potent neurotoxic chemical. Those additives include:

• Mercury (still used as a preservative)
• Aluminum (used as an inflammatory adjuvant)
• Formaldehyde (used to “deactivate” live viruses)
• MSG / Monosodium Glutamate (used to caused immune system inflammation)

All of these substances are toxic to human biology when injected. There is no rational doctor or scientist in the world who can say they believe injecting infants and children with mercury, formaldehyde, MSG and aluminum is somehow “safe,” yet doctors inject children with these substances every single day in the form of vaccines.

Vaccine industry far worse than Big Tobacco
Just as the dental industry has for decades ridiculously denied the toxicity of mercury in dental fillings, the vaccine industry is also living in delusional state of total denial about the toxicity of mercury. What we are witnessing today with modern medicine is a vaccine holocaust that is killing and maiming our children in record numbers. And the “circle the wagons” strategy of suppressing all the scientific evidence to support this makes Big Pharma look even worse than Big Tobacco.

At what point will autism reach 1 in 10 children? It’s not that far off (it’s already over 1 in 100 children born today). If this level of disease were caused by anything other than vaccines, the CDC would have long declared it an epidemic and tried to push a vaccine for it. But because autism is linked to vaccines and mercury, the CDC downplays it and ridiculously pretends children aren’t being harmed. The FDA plays the same game of denial, hoping no one will notice as the condition multiplies to the point where one day potentially every fifth child in America will be autistic after receiving the hundreds of “required” vaccines that will be mandated in the near future.

We are talking about the downfall of a nation here, folks. If this vaccine holocaust is not stopped, America will not survive. No nation can survive the collapse in the health of its citizens. Injecting mercury into the population of America is just as idiotic as feeding the citizens of Rome drinking water laced with lead. Many historians say the lead poisoning of the citizens of Rome exacerbated its downfall. Today, vaccines are strongly contributing to the same sort of downfall of modern civilization.

What can we do about it?

• Get informed:

[box]

Science for Sale: How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits Hardcover – June 3, 2014 by, David L. Lewis PhD

Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases Hardcover – November 18, 2014 by, Kent Heckenlively, Judy Mikovits

Vaccines 2.0: The Careful Parent’s Guide to Making Safe Vaccination Choices for Your Family Paperback – February 3, 2015 By, Mark Blaxill, Dan Olmsted

The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Hardcover – November 11, 2014 by, Wayne Rohde

The Autism War: A Novel Hardcover – April 1, 2014 by, Louis Conte

The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public Hardcover – November 18, 2014 by, Anne Dachel Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children Paperback – September 1, 2012 by, Louise Kuo Habakus, Mary Holland, Kim Mack Rosenberg

[/box]

• Discuss your concerns with your doctor.

• Ask if your doctor vaccinates his or her children.

• Avoid any unnecessary vaccines.

• Delay your child’s vaccines if at all possible.

• See your Homeopath.

If you or your child have already been vaccinated, seek the care of a qualified Classical Homeopath.
Homeopathic medicine can reverse the effects of vaccine related illnesses, including Autism.

Classic Homeopath
877-503-HEAL (4325)

*Homeopathy is also safe and effective while Breastfeeding! This is a helpful modality of healing for new Mothers, as it is completely safe while breastfeeding, and for babies and children.

Please see: www.lactation-911.com/

www.lactation-911.com/homeopathy-and-breastfeeding

A Sudden Acute Attack of Arthritis

Once in a while, every Homeopath gets to experience the power of  Homeopathy by treating themselves. This is what happened to me last Summer.

While vacationing with my family in Germany, seemingly out of the blue, I experienced a sudden inflammation of my right knee joint. I woke up with a swollen, extremely painful knee. Nothing made the swelling or pain better. The only thing that helped was resting with the knee elevated. The knee got stiffer as the day went on and I was unable to bear any weight on it. The knee would just give out. I needed to borrow my mother’s neighbor’s crutches to move around.

[box] After a few days I felt horrible stabbing pains in my knee joint. I was unable to straighten or bend my leg… [/box]

In order to get to the best fitting remedy for my condition, I tried to understand what happened to me. This is just what I would do when I take a patient’s case. Going back to the onset of a health problem can bring an understanding of the case and really help when it comes to selecting a Homeopathic remedy. The only event that I thought could have affected me happened the night before the swelling started. I was really upset by an intense family blow out.

At first I ignored this fact and approached the situation from an acute perspective, just looking at the symptoms of the knee and the obvious remedies for these symptoms. Then an embarrassing amount of Homeopathic remedies followed. I started with Apis for the swelling (but there was no redness of the knee), Causticum (for the stiffness), Symphytum (for the severe bone pain), Arnica (for the injury in general) and at the same time I applied Traumeel crème. Nothing helped. Quite the opposite, I thought some of the remedies aggravated the knee.

After a few days I felt horrible stabbing pains in my knee joint.  I was unable to straighten or bend my leg due to the large amount of swelling. I was unable to walk and worried because I had to get back to the US. Once back, after a grueling return trip on crutches and a missed flight in Newark, I went to see an Orthopedic surgeon. He diagnosed me with a knee effusion and Osteoarthritis (caused by many years of competitive running). It seemed like I needed surgery. I was unable to work and was on medical leave for the first time in my nursing career.

[box] After a few days I felt horrible stabbing pains in my knee joint.[/box]

Trying to avoid surgery I went to Physical Therapy and very slowly started to walk again. It was a painful and a very slow process of improvement. I could still not work because the knee flared up whenever I moved around too much. I became more and more depressed, anxious and had difficulty sleeping. Still, I could not find the proper remedy to heal myself. So, one day I thought I no longer wanted to deal with this state of anxiety and remembered that Phosphorus had helped me for another anxiety state in the past. I then took one dose of Phosphorus 200C.

Within one day I noticed that the severe pains in my knee had decreased significantly, then everything improved progressively and then the pains disappeared completely. It was like a miracle cure. It then dawned on me that Phosphorus was a remedy that worked well for me in general. It was a Constitutional Remedy (the remedy that fits the patient’s entire symptom picture) for me. And as a Constitutional Remedy it stimulated my vital energy so much that the remedy addressed the anxiety and could also heal any injury or acute condition I might experience.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is often used for a variety of symptoms in a bright, open, enthusiastic, creative and sympathetic person with poor boundaries.  Someone who would be in need of Phosphorus is generally sensitive to external stimuli, becomes anxious easily and is easily reassured.  Any idea may become the cause of anxiety, but usually the anxiety of a person in need of Phosphorus stems from health concerns. Homeopaths call Phosphorus a “big” remedy or Polycrest, as it can help with an enormous number of symptoms.

These include mental symptoms, such as anxious when alone, anxiety about health, fear of disease, the dark, thunderstorms, death and that something bad could happen. Physical symptoms include peptic ulcers and gastritis, recurring respiratory infections and left-sided pneumonia, heart palpitations when laying on the left side – and a number of musculoskeletal symptoms. I experienced many of these symptoms including the anxieties, the tearing pain in the knees, and the paralytic weakness in the legs with arthritic rigidity in the knee.

Phosphorus is also a wonderful remedy for children and often does wonders with children of a weak Constitution with recurring respiratory infections.

It often helps children with many or serious nosebleeds, easy bruising and growing pains.

From, Audrey Cremer-Thursby, RN, CHom

Extreme Bias at Wikipedia on Homeopathic Medicine

A PERSONAL LETTER TO JIMMY WALES, FOUNDER OF WIKIPEDIA:

In April, 2014, I had the happenstance of running into you on the streets of Vancouver. I was there to lecture to a group of medical professionals, while you were attending the TED talks. I expressed my appreciation to you for creating Wikipedia. I also then expressed concern to you about the “unencyclopedic” tone and information in Wikipedia’s article on Homeopathy. You then encouraged me to express my concerns in writing, and this is that response.

It may surprise and even shock most people to learn that, according to The Washington Post, the two most controversial subjects on Wikipedia in four leading languages (English, French, German and Spanish) are the articles on “Jesus Christ” and “Homeopathy.”

Because I know that we all want Wikipedia to be the best modern resource of reliable information, my intent in writing is to show you where Wikipedia is falling below your high standards, and in fact, Wikipedia’s article on Homeopathy is providing strongly biased, inaccurate information. This strong bias is a symptom of a deeper problem at Wikipedia in select articles on topics that challenge dominant medical and scientific worldviews. After reading the below body of scientific evidence on the subject of Homeopathic medicine, I hope that we can engage in a dialogue that will help reduce the amount of misinformation that pervades certain subjects, such as Homeopathy.

Evidence of the strong bias against Homeopathy and against an objective encyclopedic tone is evident throughout the article. I will first focus on the second sentence of the first paragraph of the article and the six references which purport to substantiate these claims:

Homeopathy (also spelled Homoeopathy; from the Greek homoios which means “like-” and pathos which means “suffering”) is a system of alternative medicine created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann based on his doctrine of like cures like, whereby a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people.[1] Homeopathy is considered a pseudoscience.[2][3][4] Homeopathy is not effective for any condition, and no remedy has been proven to be more effective than placebo.[5][6][7]

References from Wikipedia’s article on “Homeopathy”:

1. Hahnemann, Samuel (1833). The Homeopathic Medical Doctrine, or “Organon of the Healing Art”. Dublin: W.F. Wakeman. pp. iii , 48-49 . “Observation, reflection, and experience have unfolded to me that the best and true method of cure is founded on the principle, similia similibus curentur. To cure in a mild, prompt, safe, and durable manner, it is necessary to choose in each case a medicine that will excite an affection similar to that against which it is employed.” Translator: Charles H. Devrient, Esq.

2. Tuomela R (1987). “Chapter 4: Science, Protoscience, and Pseudoscience”. In Pitt JC, Marcello P. Rational Changes in Science: Essays on Scientific Reasoning. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 98 (Springer). pp. 83-101. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-3779-6_4 . ISBN 978-94-010-8181-8.

3. Smith K (2012). “Homeopathy is Unscientific and Unethical”. Bioethics 26 (9): 508-512. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2011.01956.x .

4.  Baran GR, Kiana MF, Samuel SP (2014). “Chapter 2: Science, Pseudoscience, and Not Science: How Do They Differ?” . Healthcare and Biomedical Technology in the 21st Century (Springer). pp. 19-57. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8541-4_2 . ISBN 978-1-4614-8540-7. “within the traditional medical community it is considered to be quackery”

5. Ernst, E. (2002). “A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy”. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 54 (6): 577-82. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2125.2002.01699.x. PMC 1874503. PMID 12492603.

6. Shang A, Huwiler-Muntener K, Nartey L, et al. (2005). “Are the clinical effects of Homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of Homeopathy and allopathy”. Lancet 366 (9487): 726-32. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67177-2 . PMID 16125589 .

7. Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy – Science and Technology Committee , British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, 22 February 2010, retrieved 2014-04-05

Is Homeopathy really a “pseudoscience”?

Wikipedia Misinformation Homeopathy

Wikipedia asserts that “Pseudoscience is a claim, belief or practice which is falsely presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting scientific evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status.”

The “editors” at Wikipedia have deemed Homeopathy to be a “pseudoscience” even though randomized double-blind and placebo-controlled studies that have been published in many of the best medical journals in the world have shown efficacy of Homeopathic treatment for many common and serious health problems (below is a partial list of such studies):

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Frass, M; Dielacher, C; Linkesch, M; et al. “Influence of potassium dichromate on tracheal secretions in critically ill patients.” Chest. March, 2005;127:936-941. The journal, Chest, is the official publication of the American College of Chest Physicians. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

• Hay fever: Reilly, D; Taylor, M; McSharry, C; et al., “Is Homeopathy a placebo response? Controlled trial of Homeopathic potency, with pollen in hayfever as model.” The Lancet. October 18, 1986, ii: 881-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

• Asthma: Reilly, D; Taylor, M; Beattie, N; et al., “Is evidence for Homeopathy reproducible?” Lancet. December 10, 1994, 344:1601-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

• Fibromyalgia: Bell, IR; Lewis II, DA; Brooks, AJ; et al. “Improved clinical status in fibromyalgia patients treated with individualized Homeopathic remedies versus placebo.” Rheumatology. 2004:1111-5. This journal is the official journal of the British Society of Rheumatology. http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org.

• Fibromyalgia: Fisher, P; Greenwood, A; Huskisson, EC; et al., “Effect of Homoeopathic Treatment on Fibrositis (Primary Fibromyalgia),” BMJ. 299 (August 5, 1989):365-6.

• Childhood diarrhea: Jacobs, J; Jimenez, LM; Gloyd, SS. “Treatment of acute childhood diarrhea with Homeopathic medicine: a randomized clinical trial in Nicaragua.” Pediatrics. May, 1994,93,5:719-25. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

• ADD/ADHD: Frei, H; Everts, R; von Ammon, K; Kaufmann, F; Walther, D; Hsu-Schmitz, SF; Collenberg, M; Fuhrer, K; Hassink, R; Steinlin, M; Thurneysen, A. “Homeopathic treatment of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled crossover trial.” Eur J Pediatr. July 27,2005,164:758-767. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Jimmy, can you name ONE other system of “pseudoscience” that has a similar body of randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trials published in high-impact medical journals showing efficacy of treatment?

It is more than a tad ironic that this first paragraph in the Wikipedia article on Homeopathy references only one article that was published in a peer-review medical journal. This one article by Shang, et al. has been thoroughly discredited in an article written by Ludtke and Rutten that was published in a leading “high-impact” journal that specializes in evaluating clinical research. The Shang meta-analysis is highlighted on Wikipedia without reference to any critique of it. The fact that there is no hint of any problems in the Shang review, let alone a reference to the Ludtke and Rutten article that provides evidence of bias, is itself a cause for concern.

The Shang article is also the primary reference used by the widely ridiculed “Evidence Check” reports issued by the Science and Technology Committee of the British House of Commons, which also conveniently omits reference to the severe limitations of this one review of research. Further, the “Evidence Check” was signed off by just three of the 15 members of the original committee, never discussed or endorsed by the whole UK Parliament, and had its recommendations ignored by the UK Department of Health.

It should be made clear that the Shang meta-analysis was co-authored by M. Egger, who is a well-known skeptic of Homeopathy and who wrote to The Lancet that his hypothesis before conducting the review was that Homeopathy was only a placebo effect. Readers were never informed of this bias.

Wikipedia Disinformation

The meta-analysis by Shang evaluated and compared 110 placebo-controlled trials testing Homeopathic medicines with 110 testing conventional drugs, finding 21 Homeopathy trials (19%) but only nine (8%) conventional-medicine trials that were of “higher quality.” Ludtke and Rutten found that a positive outcome for Homeopathy would have resulted if Shang had simply compared these high-quality trials against each other. However, with some clever statistical footwork, Shang chose to limit the high-quality trials to only eight Homeopathic and six conventional medical trials, a result that led to a “negative” outcome for Homeopathy. Ludtke and Rutten determined this review as biased for its “arbitrarily defined one subset of eight trials” and they deemed the entire review as “falsely negative.”

By reducing the number of studies, Shang created convoluted logic that enabled his team to avoid evaluation of ANY of the above high-quality studies that were all published in respected medical journals. Further, seven of eight Homeopathic studies only tested one Homeopathic medicine for everyone with the similar disease even though one of the primary tenets of homeopathy requires individualization of treatment. Many other extremely scathing critiques of the Shang research were published in The Lancet shortly after publication, including the exclusion of one high-quality homeopathic study due to the questionable assertion that the researchers could not find a study in all of conventional medical research that treated patients with poly arthritis (arthritis that involves five or more joints).

Skeptics typically assert that the above high-quality studies published in high-impact medical journals are simply “cherry-picking” the positive studies, and then, they begin cherry-picking studies that had negative results. However, skeptics of Homeopathy fail to differentiate good, sound scientific investigations that are respectful of the Homeopathic method and those that are not. Just because a study was conducted with a randomized double-blind and placebo-controlled method does NOT mean that the study gave the appropriate homeopathic medicine for each patient or even each group of patients. This ignorance is akin to someone saying that antibiotics are ineffective for “infections” without differentiating between bacterial infections, viral infections and fungal infections. Ironically, skeptics of Homeopathy consistently show a very sloppy attitude about scientific investigations.

What the most comprehensive review of Homeopathic research found…

Skeptics commonly assert that various meta-analyses verify that Homeopathy doesn’t work and that Homeopathic medicines are equivalent to the effects of a placebo. These skeptics typically chose to ignore various meta-analyses that were published in highly respected medical journals and that show positive benefits from Homeopathic medicines. Skeptics also ignore the largest and most comprehensive review of research ever conducted… one that was funded by the government of Switzerland.

It is useful to know that the Shang/Egger meta-analysis was funded by the same Swiss government’s Complementary Medicine Evaluation Program that also funded a much more detailed and comprehensive review of clinical research, preclinical research (fundamental physio-chemical research, botanical studies, animal studies and in vitro studies with human cells), epidemiological evidence and cost-effectiveness studies.

This more comprehensive Swiss government-funded report found a particularly strong body of evidence to support the Homeopathic treatment of upper respiratory tract infections and respiratory allergies. The report cited 29 studies in “Upper Respiratory Tract Infections/Allergic Reactions,” with 24 studies having a positive result in favor of Homeopathy. Six out of seven controlled studies that compared Homeopathic treatment with conventional medical treatment showed Homeopathy to be more effective than conventional medical interventions. When the researchers evaluated only the randomized placebo-controlled trials, 12 out of 16 studies showed a positive result in favor of Homeopathy.

Ironically, the Shang/Egger meta-analysis acknowledged that there have been at least eight clinical trials of patients with acute infections of the upper respiratory tract and that there is “robust evidence that the treatment under investigation works.” And yet, Shang/Egger assert that this limited number of trials is inadequate for evaluating Homeopathy, while at the same time they assert that eight other trials provided unquestionable evidence for damning homeopathy (it should be noted that Shang/Egger somehow determined that some of the studies on respiratory infection and allergy were not “high quality,” even though numerous other meta-analyses have unanimously defined three trials by David Reilly as high quality (two were published in the British Medical Journal and one was published in The Lancet).

In actual fact, although some meta-analyses have had a “negative” result, there have also been a significant number of meta-analyses that have had positive results, including this partial list:

Linde L, Clausius N, Ramirez G, Jonas W. “Are the clinical effects of Homeopathy placebo effects? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials.” The Lancet. September 20, 1997. 350:834-843. Although a later review by some of these authors found a reduced significance, the authors never asserted that the significance was no longer present. Further, two of the lead authors of this article provided a very sharp critique of the Shang, et al. review of research (2005). Also, both Linde and Jonas wrote to The Lancet after the Shang/Egger article was published and asserted that The Lancet should be “embarrassed” by their publication of this article and the accompanied editorial (The Lancet, 366 December 17, 2005:2081-2). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Kleijnen J, Knipschild P, ter Riet G. “Clinical trials of Homeopathy.” BMJ. 1991, 302, 316-23. Of the 22 best studies, 15 showed positive results from homeopathic treatment. The researchers concluded, “there is a legitimate case for further evaluation of Homeopathy.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Jacobs J, Jonas WB, Jimenez-Perez M, Crothers D. “Homeopathy for childhood diarrhea: combined results and meta analysis from three randomized, controlled clinical trials.” Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2003;22:229-34. This meta analysis of 242 children showed a highly significant result in the duration of childhood diarrhea (P=0.008). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Kassab S, Cummings M, Berkovitz S, van Haselen R, Fisher P. “Homeopathic medicines for adverse effects of cancer treatments.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2009, Issue 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Taylor MA, Reilly D, Llewellyn-Jones RH, et al. “Randomized controlled trial of Homeopathy versus placebo in perennial allergic rhinitis with overview of four trial series.” BMJ, August 19, 2000, 321:471-476. The BMJ published an editorial in the issue in which this study was published asserting, “It may be time to confront the conclusion that Homeopathy and placebo differ…… This may be more plausible than the conclusion that their trials have produced serial false positive results” (This week in the BMJ. Homeopathic dilutions may be better than placebo. BMJ 2000;321:0). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Jonas WB, Linde K, Ramirez G. “Homeopathy and rheumatic disease.” Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America. February 2000,1:117-123. http://www.researchgate.net.

Is Homeopathy really “implausible”?

The third paragraph in the Wikipedia article, as it appeared July 15, 2014, (since revised) continued to show both strong bias against Homeopathy and inaccurate information.

Homeopathy lacks biological plausibility[11] and the axioms of Homeopathy have been refuted for some time.[12] The postulated mechanisms of action of Homeopathic remedies are both scientifically implausible[6][13] and not physically possible.[14] Although some clinical trials produce positive results,[15][16] systematic reviews reveal that this is because of chance, flawed research methods, and reporting bias. Overall there is no evidence of efficacy.[6][17][5] Continued Homeopathic practice, despite the evidence that it does not work, has been criticized as unethical because it increases the suffering of patients by discouraging the use of real medicine,[18] with the World Health Organization warning against using Homeopathy to try to treat severe diseases such as HIV and malaria.[19] The continued practice, despite a lack of evidence of efficacy, has led to Homeopathy being characterized within the scientific and medical communities as nonsense,[20] quackery,[4][21][22] or a sham.[23]

Ironically, the article makes reference to articles written by known antagonists to Homeopathy (such as E. Ernst and K. Atwood) that have not even been published in peer-review scientific or medical journals. Reference #11 by Ernst was published in The Skeptical Inquirer, a magazine that is not listed in Index Medicus or any other respected scientific indexing service, and reference #12 by Atwood wasn’t even published in a magazine but at a website. If and when any person tried to edit the article on Homeopathy in any way in which Homeopathy is presented in a positive light and makes reference to a “magazine” or a “website,” that person would be laughed off of Wikipedia, yet the editors of the Homeopathy article allow and even encourage the use of inappropriate skeptical references (according to Wikipedia‘s usual standards).

In the same way that Wikipedia‘s editors have inappropriately deemed Homeopathy to be “pseudo scientific,” they have also deemed that homeopathy lacks “plausibility.” The definition of plausibility is: “having an appearance of truth or reason; seemingly worthy of approval or acceptance; credible; believable.”

The journal Langmuir is the journal of the American Chemical Society, and in 2012, they published an important article that provided a plausible explanation for the actions of Homeopathic medicines. First, they verified using three different types of spectroscopy that nano particles of six original medicinal agents persisted in solutions even after they were diluted 1:100 six times, 30 times and even 200 times.

Avogadro’s number predicts that none of the original medicinal agents would have ANY persisting molecules of the original medicinal substance after 12 dilutions of 1:100. However, the scientists describe reasonable and even predictable factors that lead to the persistence of nano particles after their multiple dilutions. The scientists note that the use of double-distilled water in glass vials leads to varying amounts of silica fragments that fall into the water, as much as 6 ppm. The vigorous shaking of the glass vial creates bubbles and “nano bubbles” that bring oxygen into the water and increase the water pressure substantially (William Tiller, PhD, the former head of Stanford’s Department of Material Science, estimated this pressure to be 10,000 atmospheres).

Ultimately, this increased water pressure forces whatever medicinal substance that is in the double-distilled water into the silica, and every substance will interact with the silica in its own idiosyncratic way. Then, when 90% of the water is dumped out, the silica fragments predictably cling to the glass walls.

When skeptics of Homeopathy reference Avogadro’s number as “evidence” that Homeopathic medicines beyond 24X or 12C (dilution of 1:1024) have “no remaining molecules left,” they are simply verifying their own ignorance of Avogadro’s number, because this widely recognized principle in chemistry does NOT account for the complexities of the silica fragments, the bubbles or nano bubbles, nor the increased water pressure. In fact, any serious scientist or educated individual who asserts that a Homeopathic medicine is “beyond Avogadro’s number” has no ground on which they stand. And yet, Avogadro’s number is prominently a part of Wikipedia‘s article on Homeopathy.

Wikipedia

Despite the obfuscation throughout Wikipedia‘s article on Homeopathy, in actual fact, the Homeopathic pharmaceutical procedure called “potentization” is a clever, perhaps brilliant, method of creating nano particles of whatever substance is originally placed in the glass vial. Even more compelling is the significant and growing body of evidence that nano doses of medicinal agents have several benefits over crude doses of the same substance, including enhanced bio availability, absorptive capacity, intracellular accessibility, increased ability to cross cell membranes and even the blood-brain barrier, and of course, a substantially better safety profile.

The creation of nano doses actually increases various characteristics of a substance’s properties. Once a substance has an extremely small size but has larger surface-area-to-volume ratio, the nano dose properties create increased chemical and biological reactivity, electromagnetic, optical, thermal and quantum effects. Further, the idiosyncratic properties of nano medicines reduce the required doses by orders of magnitude and predictably reduce toxicity.

In light of the above, it is stunning and shocking that Wikipedia’s article on “Nano medicine” has no mention of Homeopathy, which rightly is deemed to be the original nano medicine and nano pharmacology. At a time in the history of medicine and science in which the field of nano medicine is becoming increasingly accepted and respected, Wikipedia seems stuck in the 20th century, or perhaps the 18th century. It is not surprising that there is an international and inter-disciplinary journal that focuses on the power of extremely small doses in various biological systems, not just medicine.

Given the above, it is no longer accurate to consider Homeopathic doses to be “implausible.” Wikipedia’s article on Homeopathy asserts otherwise, deeming Homeopathy to be “biologically implausible” (citing a non-peer-review magazine, called The Skeptical Inquirer, that is not listed in any scientific indexing service), “a sham” (citing a website!), and running “counter to the laws of chemistry and physics” (what is interesting here is that the article cites an article in the journal Homeopathy, and yet, whenever a positive statement, clinical trial or basic sciences trial is published in this same journal, the Wikipedia editors claim that this journal is not worthy of a citation).

Further, just one of the theories of how Homeopathic medicines work has been described as the “memory of water.” The Wikipedia article refers to this concept as “erroneous” without any acknowledgement that it is inaccurate to assert such a black-and-white statement. It is more accurate to say that this theory is “controversial,” because there is, in fact, evidence of a “memory in water,” as both verified by the above research on nanoparticles remaining in Homeopathically potentized water and as evidenced by research conducted by the French virologist Luc Montagnier, who discovered the AIDS virus and won the Nobel Prize for doing so. Dr. Montagnier not only has published research that provides evidence of this “memory of water” but was interviewed in the prestigious journal Science, and on July 5, 2014, the French government’s public television station showed an hour-long documentary entitled We Found the Memory in Water (On a retrouve la memoire de l’eau).

What is shocking about Wikipedia‘s article of Homeopathy is that there is NO reference to this Nobel Prize winner or to his interview in one of the most respected scientific journals in the world today or any reference to the French government’s documentary on this very subject. Obviously, the people who are editing the Homeopathy article have a profound bias.

Numerous people have sought to improve Wikipedia‘s article on Homeopathy, but they have been blocked or prohibited from editing the article. In my case, I was blocked from editing any article to do with Homeopathy because I was deemed to have a “conflict of interest” due to the fact that I am a Homeopath. Ironically, no medical doctor is prohibited from editing on any medical subject just because she or he is a medical doctor! Further, the bias against Homeopathy and against any positive evidence for Homeopathy is so strong that the vast majority of the articles from the high-impact medical and scientific journals are not referenced or described in the Wikipedia article on Homeopathy, while there are numerous low-level references to websites and to non-peer-review magazines that populate Wikipedia‘s article.

I could easily show over a hundred other sentences in Wikipedia‘s article that are either errors of fact or that are evidence of bias or spin against Homeopathy, but I think that I have adequately and accurately provided you with solid testimony proving serious problems with Wikipedia‘s article on Homeopathy.

I await your reply to this letter which you have requested, and I look forward to collaborating with you in improving the article on Homeopathy at Wikipedia as well as in establishing guidelines so that strong bias is minimized throughout your usually excellent website.

Pathological skepticism

Brian Josephson, Ph.D., won a Nobel Prize in 1973 when he was only 23 years old and is presently professor emeritus at Cambridge University. Josephson contends that many scientists today suffer from “pathological disbelief” — that is, an unscientific attitude that is typified by the statement “even if it were true I wouldn’t believe it” (Josephson, 1997).

Josephson asserts that skeptics of homeopathy suffer from a chronic ignorance of this subject, and he maintains that their criticisms of Homeopathy are easily refuted: “The idea that water can have a memory can be readily refuted by any one of a number of easily understood, invalid arguments.”

Dr. Luc Montagnier won a Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering the AIDS virus, and in an interview in Science (Dec. 24, 2010), he similarly expressed real concern about the unscientific atmosphere that presently exists around certain unconventional subjects such as homeopathy: “I am told that some people have reproduced Benveniste’s results [showing effects from Homeopathic doses], but they are afraid to publish it because of the intellectual terror from people who don’t understand it.”

Montagnier concluded this interview when asked if he is concerned that he is drifting into pseudoscience. He responded adamantly: “No, because it’s not pseudoscience. It’s not quackery. These are real phenomena which deserve further study.”

Ultimately, at Wikipedia there is a certain substantial body of editors who embody “pathological skepticism” and who do not allow good evidence from high-quality studies and meta-analyses published in high-impact journals to be included into the body of evidence for Homeopathy just because they provide a positive spin to the subject. On the other hand, these same editors allow references to non-peer-review sources, such as popular magazine and websites, when the information in these questionably valid sources is offensive to Homeopathy. Today, Wikipedia’s article on Homeopathy is a classic example of a biased, off-balance and non-encyclopedic review of the subject.

Practical solutions…

Jimmy, I assume that you want your website to be the most reliable resource possible, but it can not and will never become one unless you, as the founder of Wikipedia, provide some guidance and guidelines so that information for OR against a subject is fair and accurate. In 2009, at a TED talk, you claimed that Wikipedia‘s most important virtue is its objective reporting of information; you asserted, “the biggest and the most important thing [about Wikipedia] is our neutral point-of-view policy.”

Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia, quit the organization several years ago due to serious concerns about its integrity. He maintained:

“In some fields and some topics, there are groups who ‘squat’ on articles and insist on making them reflect their own specific biases. There is no credible mechanism to approve versions of articles. … The people with the most influence in the community are the ones who have the most time on their hands–not necessarily the most knowledgeable–and who manipulate Wikipedia‘s eminently gameable system.”

Ultimately, there are indeed subjects at Wikipedia that will probably remain highly controversial no matter what is or isn’t said, and it makes sense to inform readers about this issue. However, at present, the article on homeopathy strongly suggests that there is no or inconsequential evidence that Homeopathic medicines have biological activity and/or clinical efficacy, and this letter clearly dispels that myth. Objective reviews of both basic science research and clinical studies suggest that there are simply too many high-quality laboratory and clinical trials that show positive results.

One solution to dealing with Wikipedia’s article is to have two separate sections in the article that present the “skeptics’ point of view” and the “Homeopaths’ point of view.” Although one could have hoped that the article would have evolved into this multi-view perspective, there are simply too many anti-Homeopathy fundamentalists who have squatted on this article and have made it literally impossible to have any positive or even any slightly positive assertions about Homeopathy.

Because this letter proves that skeptics are incapable of presenting information on Homeopathy with even a modicum of objectivity, perhaps the best solution is to enable both viewpoints to be able to express themselves. Some people claim that debate is the best way to understand complex subjects, and therefore, allowing and even encouraging a multi-perspective viewpoint in articles at Wikipedia may be an important and worthwhile change in your website’s policies.

I can provide other specific suggestions for helping Wikipedia create a truly neutral point of view if and when you are open to constructive dialogue.

You have now been given strong evidence that Wikipedia is NOT maintaining a “neutral point-of-view” on the subject of Homeopathy. My question is to you now is: What do you suggest should be done to rectify this problem?

This letter was also signed by:
Michael Frass, MD, Professor of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna (Austria)
Paolo Bellavite, MD, Professor, Universita of Verona (Italy), Department of Pathology and Diagnostics
Paolo Roberti di Sarsina, MD, Observatory and Methods for Health, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; Charity for Person Centered Medicine-Moral Entity, Bologna, Italy; Expert for Non-Conventional Medicine (2006-2013), High Council for Health, Ministry of Health, Italy
Dr Clare Relton, Senior Research Fellow (Public Health), School of Health & Related Research, University of Sheffield (UK)
Stephan Baumgartner, PhD, Institute of Complementary Medicine, University of Bern, Switzerland; Institute of Integrative Medicine, University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany
Lex Rutten MD, Homeopathic physician, independent researcher.

References:

Max Ehrenfreund, “The Science of Wikipedia Flamewars.” The Washington Post. July 23, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com

Shang A, Huwiler-Muntener K, Nartey L, et al. (2005). “Are the clinical effects of Homoeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of Homoeopathy and allopathy.” The Lancet 366 (9487): 726-32. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67177-2 . PMID 16125589. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Ludtke R, Rutten ALB. “The conclusions on the effectiveness of homeopathy highly depend on the set of analyzed trials.” Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. October 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.06/015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Dana Ullman. “The Disinformation Campaign Against Homeopathy.” The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Zoe Mullan, senior editor at The Lancet, acknowledged in the publication’s press release for this article, “Professor Egger stated at the onset that he expected to find that Homeopathy had no effect other than that of placebo. His ‘conflict’ was therefore transparent. We saw this as sufficient” EHM News Bureau, 2005). The editors chose not to inform readers of this bias.

Bornhoft G, Wolf U, von Ammon K, Righetti M, Maxion-Bergemann S, Baumgartner S, Thurneysen AE, Matthiessen PF. “Effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of Homeopathy in general practice – summarized health technology assessment.” Forschende Komplementarmedizin. (2006);13 Suppl 2:19-29. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Chikramane PS, Kalita D, Suresh AK, Kane SG, Bellare JR. “Why extreme dilutions reach non-zero asymptotes: a nanoparticulate hypothesis based on froth flotation.” Langmuir. 2012 Nov. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Demangeat, J.-L, Gries, P, Poitevin, B, Droesbeke J.-J, Zahaf, T, Maton, F, Pierart, C, Muller, RN. “Low-Field NMR Water Proton Longitudinal Relaxation in Ultra highly Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Silica-Lactose Prepared in Glass Material for Pharmaceutical Use.” Applied Magnetic Resonance. 26, 2004:465-481.

Bell IR, Schwartz GE. “Adaptive network nanomedicine: an integrated model for homeopathic medicine.” Frontiers in Bioscience (Scholar Ed) 2013;5(2):685-708. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Bell IR, et al. “Advances in integrative nanomedicine for improving infectious disease treatment in public health.” Eur J Integr Med (2012). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Bell IR, Koithan M. “A model for homeopathic remedy effects: low dose nanoparticles, allostatic cross-adaptation, and time-dependent sensitization in a complex adaptive system.” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2012;12(1):191. http://www.biomedcentral.com [PDF]

Roduner E. “Size matters: why nanomaterials are different.” Chem. Soc. Rev. 2006;35(7):583-92. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Bell IR, MD PhD, Ives JA, Jonas WB. “Nonlinear Effects of Nanoparticles: Biological Variability From Hormetic Doses, Small Particle Sizes, and Dynamic Adaptive Interactions.” Dose Response. May 2014; 12(2): 202-232. Published online Nov 7, 2013. doi: 10.2203/dose-response.13-025. Bell. PMCID: PMC4036395. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Bell IR, Sarter B, Koithan M, et al. “Integrative Nanomedicine: Treating Cancer with Nanoscale Natural Products.” Global Advances in Health and Medicine. January 2014. 36-53. http://www.gahmj.com

Armstead AI, Li B. “Nanomedicine as an emerging approach against intracellular pathogens.” Int J Nanomed. 2011;8(3):188-96. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Ullman D. “Let’s have a serious discussion of nanopharmacology and Homeopathy.” FASEB J. December 2006 20:2661; doi:10.1096/fj.06-1205ufm. http://www.fasebj.org

Dose-Response: An International Journal. http://www.dose-response.com

Montagnier L, Aissa J, Ferris S, et al. “Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences.” Interdiscip Sci Comput Life Sci. (2009) 1: 81-90.

http://link.springer.com

Enserink M. Newsmaker Interview: Luc Montagnier. “French Nobelist Escapes ‘Intellectual Terror’ to Pursue Radical Ideas in China.” Science 24 December 2010: Vol. 330 no. 6012 p. 1732. DOI: 10.1126/science.330.6012.1732.

http://www.france5.fr

Sanger, Larry. “Why Citizendium?” http://blog.citizendium.org

Dana Ullman

Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH, is America’s leading spokesperson for Homeopathy and is the founder of Homeopathic Educational Services (http://www.homeopathic.com). He is the author of 10 books, including his bestseller, Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines. His most recent book is The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy (the Foreword to this book was written by Dr. Peter Fisher, the Physician to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II).

A Veteran With PTSD Gets Help From Homeopathy

Any chronic mental, emotional, or physical problem that results from severe trauma can be likened to a stubborn energetic vortex that refuses to release the suffering individual from its pull. Traumatic events, like the ones that trigger most cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can easily throw the bioenergetic life force into disarray. Homeopathic treatment is designed to restore balance by prescribing an energy of similar quality and intensity to match the energetic imprint of the illness of the suffering individual.

When homeopathy is applied to PTSD, it can serve to relinquish the condition’s energetic hold on its victim. Since it is the energetic “shock” of a trauma that sets up the subsequent pattern of dysfunction in PTSD, a chemical solution represented by conventional pharmaceutical therapy will commonly yield unsatisfactory results. Drug therapy only serves as a temporary straightjacket to “control” the symptoms precisely because it does not address the underlying energetic nature of the condition. Likewise, while talk therapy may help patients to psychologically manage the effects of PTSD, it is usually not capable of releasing the person from its recurring tendency. An energetically-induced illness like PTSD requires an energy-based therapy in order to achieve true therapeutic success.

Homeopathic medicine has been around for over 200 years and is practiced the world over by a variety of health care professionals. Homeopathy operates by the principle of similars, not unlike that old classic cartoon plot where the main character is hit on the head and loses his or her memory, only to have it return when accidentally hit on the head again. In my home, we routinely use the homeopathic medicine Apis mellifica, made from the honeybee, whenever a wasp or bee stings someone. Likewise, any effective psychotherapeutic process utilizes the same principle of similarity, which hinges upon the client’s willingness and capacity to go back and face the source of his or her suffering. Homeopathic practitioners take the same fundamental approach when treating any physical, mental, or emotional health problem.

The nice thing about homeopathy is that it takes as its basic assumption that body, mind, and emotions cannot be separated and must be treated as a whole. For example, homeopathic Aconite is derived from the poisonous monkshood plant, which when accidentally ingested can induce heart palpitations and a very sudden and intense state of anxiety. As such, it has been successfully employed in its diluted homeopathic form for almost two centuries to treat states of panic and fright that are accompanied by palpitations. Aconite can bridge the gap between mind and body, providing relief for both anxiety and palpitations. I have successfully prescribed Aconite many times in my own practice to treat the chronic consequences resulting from frightening experiences.

One given case of PTSD does not by any means reflect all other cases of PTSD. Therefore, an understanding of the unique nature of each individual case is of paramount importance in successful homeopathic prescribing. Good homeopathic care requires detailed history- and case-taking such that a clear picture of the symptom pattern and core issues of each individual client may be ascertained. All homeopathic medicines used in the United States have been FDA-approved and regulated for many years. I have used homeopathic medicines with good success over the years to treat many cases of PTSD and a variety of ailments resulting from traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The following is the case of Jack, who had survived a war but continued to carry within him deep scars that had been inflicted upon his psyche and soul.

By the time Jack contacted me for help, he had spent 14 years in the VA system receiving treatment for his PTSD, including six years of inpatient psychiatric care. As a combat veteran of Vietnam, he had witnessed and participated in tremendous violence, and had sustained mortar wounds to a shoulder and a knee. Having watched 13 men from his therapy group die over the past couple years, he presented to me complaining about the drug treatment prescribed to him and was determined to find another way. His regimen at that time included Trazadone for depression, Xanax and Restoril for sleep and anxiety, and Oxycodone and a Fentanyl patch for pain.

As he sat in my office, looking lethargic and over-sedated, he struggled to explain that after returning from the war he “wasn’t the same person,” and had become “a wild man” with “no values and no rules.” He had tried to run people over with his car, had stabbed a man during a “flashback,” and had held a knife to his wife’s head during another. At the time he consulted me he was still prone to suicidal thoughts, frequent flashbacks of rage, alcohol abuse, violent knee pains, and relentless nightmares from which he would wake “shaking and scared to death.” His daughter was in the custody of his mother and he was currently living in a hotel where he sat up many sleepless nights rocking in pain holding his knees. Jack believed that most of his trouble had come directly from the trauma of war and that some of it could be attributed to a head injury he had sustained about ten years prior.

After much deliberation, homeopathic treatment was begun with instructions for him to check in by phone or visits to my office on a weekly basis. As he began to show signs of improvement, he very slowly reduced some of the heavy doses of medications that he’d been on. His first observation was that he knew he was feeling better because he felt less suicidal and had begun to help his daughter with her homework. After five weeks the nightmares and knee pains hadn’t changed much but he was no longer suicidal, was helping his mother with some chores, and had decreased the dosage of his Fentanyl patch. At the two-month mark he had completely weaned himself from Fentanyl and the nightmares had subsided dramatically. He had less knee pain, stated that his “paranoia” was “pretty much gone” and, amazingly, he had begun to put in a few hours of work at his mother’s antique store. All the while, he continued his support services at the VA, which included daily AA meetings.

After three months, Jack was down to three of the original five drugs, was no longer having flashbacks, and stated, “My mind is starting to come back to me.” He declared himself “definitely motivated” and ready to enter a program at the VA in order to detox from his pharmaceutical dependency. After successfully completing the program, he began to sleep in four-to-eight-hour chunks at night. Over the ensuing months he continued to have small bouts of various symptoms, but they would always settle down relatively quickly, and his overall status steadily improved. He even began to cut down on his cigarette smoking. Seven months after beginning homeopathic treatment he enrolled in night classes to learn about computers. He was also beginning to identify long-buried emotions. “I’m trying to feel guilt. Before I didn’t know what reality was like. I was always on drugs.” He expressed having difficulty with the third AA step because it was hard to accept God given all the horrible things that he had experienced.

One full year from when I had first met Jack he moved into a new two-bedroom apartment where his daughter stayed with him on weekends. The changes were remarkable. He was no longer suicidal, was not having flashbacks, had minimal knee pain, had been off all medications for months, attended regular AA meetings, and was able to get an acceptable amount of sleep. Noting that he had begun proceedings to regain legal custody of his daughter he remarked, “I leave that up to my higher power.” I felt deeply privileged to be witness to this man’s courageous journey to reclaim his soul and gather together the shattered fragments of his life.

While several different homeopathic medicines had been prescribed for Jack at different points in his treatment, Belladonna had been particularly helpful in his case. It was indicated, among other reasons, because it matched the attacks of rage and the intense throbbing, pulsating pains he felt in his knees. It is important to emphasize that each case is unique, and chronic problems like PTSD are best handled by a qualified homeopathic practitioner.

When combined with proper medical management, emotional support, and spiritual counseling, a well-chosen homeopathic medicine that resonates with the energetic imprint of an individual’s symptom pattern can relieve a great deal of the suffering associated with PTSD.

Recommended Resources:
– Larry Malerba, DO. The Bioenergetic Basis of Illness (part I) (part II). www.docmalerba.com
– Edward Tick. War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. Quest Books, 2005
– Website: Healing Combat Trauma
– Nan Levinson. Mad, Bad, Sad: What’s Really Happened to America’s Soldiers

For more by Larry Malerba, D.O., click here.

For more on natural health, click here.

Larry Malerba, DO, DHt is a physician, educator, and author whose mission is to build bridges between conventional medicine, holistic healing, and spirituality. For more than 25 years he has been a trailblazer of new paradigm medical thinking. He is the author of Green Medicine: Challenging the Assumptions of Conventional Health Care. He writes for Huffington Post, Natural News, and the American Holistic Medical Association.