Diseases and Cures

[hallenrm]

It would be hoped that we might see more research $ spent on homeopathy and other Complimentary Medicines in the future in the USA and other wealthy Western countries.

 

Here's a section from the article about Homeopathy on Wikipedia, to help you see some sense

 

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, states that:[127]

The results of individual, controlled clinical trials of homeopathy have been contradictory. In some trials, homeopathy appeared to be no more helpful than a placebo; in other studies, some benefits were seen that the researchers believed were greater than one would expect from a placebo.

A common theme in the reviews of homeopathy trials is that because of these problems and others, it is difficult or impossible to draw firm conclusions about whether homeopathy is effective for any single clinical condition.

There is a point of view that homeopathy does work, but that modern scientific methods have not yet explained why. The failure of science to provide full explanations for all treatments is not unique to homeopathy.

Some people feel that if homeopathy appears to be helpful and safe, then scientifically valid explanations or proofs of this alternative system of medicine are not necessary.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine continues to fund research into homeopathy.

The UK National Health Service statement on homeopathy includes the following:

Around 200 randomised controlled trials evaluating homeopathy have been conducted, and there are also several reviews of these trials. Despite the available research, it has proven difficult to produce clear clinical evidence that homeopathy works. Many studies suggest that any effectiveness that homeopathy may have is due to the placebo effect, where the act of receiving treatment is more effective than the treatment itself.

Medical doctors and scientists do not generally accept homeopathy because its claims have not been verified to the standards of modern medicine and scientific method. Scientists argue that homeopathy cannot work because the remedies used are so highly diluted that in many there can be none of the active substance remaining.

Supporters of homeopathy counter the scientific arguments with claims for a high success rates in babies, infants, and animals. Others argue that much of the research conducted into the effectiveness of homeopathy is not representative of routine homeopathic practice and that homeopathic treatment cannot be properly tested through standard clinical means.

 

As regards your comment regarding herbal constituents, I would again quote Wikipedia

 

It is a common misconception that homeopathic remedies use only natural herbal components (akin to herbology). Herbs are used, but homeopathy also uses non-biological substances (such as salts) and components of animal origin, such as duck liver in the remedy oscillococcinum.

 

Anyway let me tell you I am not a professional Homeopathic practitioner, at best I can call myself an amateur/enthusiast who has indeed observed the efficacy of homeopathic medicine (and I doubt it very much that Homeopathic system has anything to do with surgery) personally and an old mother(age above 75). It has rescued her in many a moments of total despair!

[Michaelangelica]

Despite the available research, it has proven difficult to produce clear clinical evidence that homeopathy works.

So we are agreed?

[hallenrm]

If you think so!! :eek:

[hallenrm]

Here's a news story in the New Scientist Magazine that should really be an eye opener for people who blindly believe in modern medicine as a panacea for all ailments and diseases.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125683.900?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19125683.900

[Michaelangelica]

Here's a news story in the New Scientist Magazine that should really be an eye opener for people who blindly believe in modern medicine as a panacea for all ailments and diseases.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125683.900?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19125683.900

The ABC had a TV programme on this some time ago. It was really shocking. An African nation was trying to stop it. Their female health minister had death threats and attempts.

One aid group from the US, who operated on babies hearts, had to suspend operations because they could not be sure of the drugs they were getting and as a result babies were dying when they shouldn't have.

They showed a reporter going to a manufacturer in India, with a hidden camera. The manufacturer said he would make up the counterfeit medicine (anti-biotics, pain-killers you name it) in any strength required! The Indian Government seems reluctant or unable to do anything about it.

Attempts by drug companies to put holograms and other hard-to-print devices on their packs were quickly fooled by the counterfeiters.

 

This is a major problem with repercussions for the whole world. Using below-therapeutic strength anti-biotics, malaria and TB medicines will permit the development of resistant strains.

 

I don't think this is any indictment on modern medicine however; just of evil, amoral criminals. Western nations to my knowledge, have good government oversight of pharmaceuticals and herbs and such a problem is unlikely here.

[hallenrm]

They showed a reporter going to a manufacturer in India, with a hidden camera. The manufacturer said he would make up the counterfeit medicine (anti-biotics, pain-killers you name it) in any strength required! The Indian Government seems reluctant or unable to do anything about it.

Attempts by drug companies to put holograms and other hard-to-print devices on their packs were quickly fooled by the counterfeiters.

 

This is a major problem with repercussions for the whole world. Using below-therapeutic strength anti-biotics, malaria and TB medicines will permit the development of resistant strains.

 

I don't think this is any indictment on modern medicine however;

 

That's why allopathic medicines are losing popular support in India, and many people are veering towards alternative modes of cures (as I mentioned in my opening post)

 

....just of evil, amoral criminals.Western nations to my knowledge, have good government oversight of pharmaceuticals and herbs and such a problem is unlikely here.

 

Since when there is a boundary for evil around the western countries, if it is only because of immorality, I presume they must be much more susceptible. Only the criminals have been smarter to evade detection!

[leuv21]

I myself tried anything to get rid of my asthma.. any sports and ten years of medication. Nothing would really work for me,

then i tried to learn breathing techniques from a yoga teacher. At first, i was not really sure of how it was going to work for me... but afeter a year of doing it regularly.. i could cut down on most of my medications...

really i was surprised by the "traditional way"

[Michaelangelica]

see

13 things that do not make sense - space - 19 March 2005 - New Scientist Space

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Diseases, from which many people suffer are often much more mysterious then the medical science would like us to believe; so are their cures. Many people suffer from diseases which even good doctors cannot diagnose or prescribe a cure. On The other hand some people often claim to be cured using means for which conventional medical science has no explanation.

 

For example, now-a-days a so-called swami, Ramdev is much in vogue in India and several western countries. He often prescribes breathing exercises, funny yoga postures and concotations of herbs (which are supplied by his propreitory pharmacy) as cures for many diseases and thousands of people swear by the efficacy of his methods.

 

Similar is the case with Homeopathy, although allopathy practitioner pooh pooh the claim that a substance that is in a very dilute concentration can be effective, no one can dispute its growing popularity around the globe.

 

Can there be a scientific rationale for all these?:hyper:

 

Nature does not follow stereotyped formats of diseases. Every new combination of symptoms constitutes a different disease.

In India, ayurveda is being used for health problems for the last thousands of years. Practically every kitchen in India is a best example of ayurveda

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Well human beings are not like automta, medical science often leads us to believe. Each human body has characteristics which it may not share with all other human bodies. (It is like saying that the gene pool of two human beings can never be identical) The human body, or for that matter the body of any multicellular organism, has dimensions which the science has so far not unraveled. Perhaps as the time passes many of such dimensions would be scientifically proved. To me medical science, read allopathy, is somewhat akin to alchemy several centuries ago. Just as we discovered many new fields of chemistry, so shall we discover many facts about human body as the time passes, and then perhaps we may find that many of the claims of the so called alternative medicine are really not non-scientific.

 

Science changes with time, we must never forget that, and trash the claims of some people without giving even a serious thought or investigation!!

 

Many things in this world cannot be explained by 'science' and that is the beauty of life. You can either live in the mainstream and wait until alternative emdicine is widely accepted, then you believe it, or you can look back thousands of years and believe what your forefathers believed before 'science' came along.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Thosands of Clinical Trials have proved, over and over again, that the most powerful pill we have in our armory is made from sugar-the placebo.

It cures nearly everthing

So this tells you something about the power of the mind over disease.

 

Recently kids in a Children's Hospital cancer unit were given a "Star Wars" type computer game where what was being shot up was the kid's cancer cells.

It seemed to work in reality too!

 

Many ( not all) diasesase originate on the mental plane and then progress to physical plane ( in the form of manifestation of disease)

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

A big problem is the impact of those who exploit "alternative" medicines, and they give a bad name to things that when applied properly can have enormous impact. We may not have answers to some of these questions, but it would be wrong to suggest there are none out there to be found. :hihi:

 

Now, I'm all stressed and my blood pressure is up and my cortisol is pumping so I'm gonna do some tai chi and yoga and relax, deep breathing all the way. :hyper:

 

Any system of medicine when applied incorrectly will give horrible results.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

 

Similar is the case with Homeopathy, although allopathy practitioner pooh pooh the claim that a substance that is in a very dilute concentration can be effective, no one can dispute its growing popularity around the globe.

 

Can there be a scientific rationale for all these?:hyper:

 

Homeopathy’s popularity is growing by leaps and bounds. Homeopathy is now the second largest system of medicine in the world. Famous people who have used homeopathy successfully include Queen Elizabeth II, Mother Theresa, Tina Turner, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Pamela Anderson, Jane Fonda, Martina Navratilova, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, Boris Becker, David Beckham, Tony Blair, Prince Charles to name a few.

 

But the question is why it is getting so popularity when scientific studies are inconclusive about its efficacy.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Dear Michael, The fact that you cannot see something does not mean that it does not exist.

 

And that is a fact of science. :hyper:

 

Absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Yes

"First do no harm"

I don't think homeopathy has any basis in science.

It is a matter of faith.

If homeopathy does work, what is the concoction of chlorinated hydrocarbons and organo-phosphates and heavy metals doing to us? These are taken in varying amounts in our daily diet.

You have to believe that a minute (undetectable) dose of something will have an effect on your body.

If this is the case with the pollutants we have thrown around the planet in the last 50 years we are all in trouble.!

 

That means millions of people worldwide who have been benefited by homeopathy does not stand any chance to be listened?

 

The micro doses in homeopathy produces mega results in patients of homeopathy.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

I have some very recent thoughts on this subject. Nowadays diseases called Dengue and Chickengunia are much in news in many Asian countries. The cause of these diseases is a virus that is carried from one patient to another by a kind oh mosquito called Aegis. Now, the size and mass of a virus is common scientific knowledge.

 

Then would you explain how such a small mass can cause death so quickly. Obviously mass of the pathogen is not the determining factor.

 

Let us now consider the clinical trials that are often quoted to claim that Homeopathy is not effective.

 

Taking the same example again, it is very well known (scientifically) that there are three varieties of the virus that causes Dengue, if someone has suffered from the disease by one of these three kinds s/he is not susceptible to it again for life. So, the testing procedures for any system of medicine cannot be blind to the patient's history. One cannot test medicines by the conventional clinical procedures, simply because all patients are not like the same chemicals in different test tubes, they are most often different!

 

:hyper:

 

In India, when there was chickengunia virus on the go, people rushed in flocks to homeopathic physicians to have the preventive medicine for it. There are preventive medicines in Homeopathy.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

I agree with you that all people are different and can have very different reactions to drugs, herbs and pathogens.

One major and often un-measurable thing is the strength of the placebo effect. Still human-kind's most effective universal medicine/panacea.

 

I don't think you can say that because viruses are small and homeopathy has small doses of snake venom or some herb that they are comparable.

Viruses have a purpose, an intelligence and a reproductive ability that makes them 'alive' in my definition of life; where snake venom, or plant extracts are not 'alive' in the same way.

 

I have tried homeopathic remedies but was not impressed-others are. Regardless of what I or anyone believes we live in a rationalist society and Homeopathy needs to stand up to the same types of rigour and scrutiny that do, most if not all, other medicines.

 

I was even less impressed by an Australian who is marketing a range of Bush Flower Remedies a la homeopathy. I think they came to him in a dream. A dream of , obtained from the gullible, more likely

 

The beauty of life is that not everything works for everyone, e.g. the same medicine works for some, and not for others. you gotta find what works for you, and if it doesnt its not the right thing for you but still may be for someone else.

 

Like virus is an intelligent entity, medicine is also an intelligent entitity.

 

Unfortunately, you were not being cured, so you have everything against it. But think of those who have been benefitted?. No system of medicine can have 100% results.