Homeopathy

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Sacred Music Man' date='19 October 2009 - 12:01 AM' timestamp='1255928463' post='1987736']
The whole "science" though is the impression or resonance of the particle on the sugar/water/alcohol/all of the above. Isn't it?
[/quote]
As far as I understand it, the added particles are supposed to leave some sort of impression on the solvent. I don't know how that's supposed to work on a molecular or atomic level though.

[Innocent]

There's another factor I notice in this: Homeopathy (and Bach Flower Therapy too, which is very similar to Homeopathy) claim to cure emotional disorders and bad habits, even such habits which we Catholics would call sins.


For example, take a look at [url="http://www.mindstargroup.com/articles/archive/hiv_aids_tb_solution.htm"]this page maintained by Dr. S.V. Bulatov - registered Homeopath, Iridologist & Nutritionist[/url]. Here are some of what he claims homeopathic remedies can cure, along with the miasms ([url="http://www.hpathy.com/papersnew/payrhuber-psychosomatic-cancer-3.asp"]Link to Homeopathic website explaining the Miasma Theory of Homeopathy[/url]) which he claims are the cause of these problems.

The author explains the theory of miasms in brief:

[quote] The influence of miasms (miasma-stain, unwholesome influence) on the human race is accepted only by homeopaths. Any other health profession has not accepted it officially.

Definition: abnormal frequency integrated into the cells as a result of hereditary diseases incorrectly treated or acquired during person's life. This frequency will permanently undermine the person on spiritual, mental, emotional and physical level unless eradicated, using homeopathy.

The presence of a miasm can be revealed through countless symptoms depending on the person. Every homeopath knows these symptoms and can determine which one of the miasms is active at the time of consultation. Then the exact homeopathic remedy will be prescribed to eradicate it.

Many people wonder how did the idea about miasms come to existence? We need to go back in the history of homeopathy. Dr Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, spent 12 years in finding out why all of his chronic patients have not been cured permanently despite the exact prescription? He came to a very simple conclusion: the patients themselves or their ancestors had one or more of the following diseases:

* Syphilis
* Gonorrhoea
* Chronic Skin Diseases

Hahnemann decided to prepare homeopathic remedies from these diseases. He called them NOSODES. When he used them for those chronic patients who have not been permanently cured all of them got well and the disease did not come back. Hahnemann assumed that these diseases leave some kind of memory in the body lifetime, which undermines the vital force permanently. Many homeopaths observed the same picture and confirmed his conclusion.
[/quote]



Here are some examples of miasms given by this author:

[quote] [b]SYPHILITIC MIASM[/b]

Leads to: self-destruction, discharges, ulcers, despair, forgetfulness, dullness, depression, decline, decay, and death.
It is expressed in 3 major ways:

1. Chronic Alcoholism
2. Mental Illness
3. Criminal Behaviour

Other expressions are: auto-immune diseases, gangrene, cancer in children, and progress of any disease is fast and irreversible.

These people have revolutionary ideas, [b]deep emotions/feelings, deep dissatisfaction/discontent with everything, secrecy, conspiracy,[/b] saddle-like nose etc.

[b]The main homeopathic remedy to cure this miasm is: MERCURIUS SOLUBILIS.[/b] The nosode is called: SYPHILINUM (LUESINUM). MERCURIUS SOLUBILIS kills many viruses as well so it has double action
[/quote]


[quote][b]GONORRHOEIC MIASM[/b]

It leads to: excess on all levels, expressed in the following:

1. Extremes in relationships, study, work, eating, drinking, sleeping, sex etc.
2. Early heart attacks before 40's
3. Chronic pelvic inflammatory disease, reiter's syndrome (conjunctivitis, arthritis, prostatitis), endometriosis, excessive body hair, excessive phlegm, fiery red rashes, genital warts/herpes, moles, sleeping in knee-elbow position,[b] early masturbation, watching pornography, promiscuity, not using condoms, living in unreal world, postponing, feeling of guilt, obsessive-compulsive disorder, lack of commitment, wild unformed impulses,[/b] discharges have fishy smell, any disease progresses fast and is spread everywhere in the body.

[b]The main remedy is: THUJA OCCIDENTALIS.[/b] The nosodes are: MEDORRHINUM and CHLAMYDIA.

[/quote]<emphasis added>


Is it in tune with Catholic theology to believe that miasms are the root cause of such sinful habits as given above?

Edited October 19, 2009 by Innocent

[Innocent]

There have been some more developments in Homeopathy lately. Some Homeopaths are claiming that the Homeopathic concept of water memory actually expands further in that the water memory can be electronically stored (e.g., in an MP3 file) and transmitted (e.g., through the internet.)

Thus for example, if someone is worried that he might have swine flu, he can download an MP3 file with the embedded water-memory and play that file on his PC to cure the flu. This can be done at this website: [url="http://www.healingdownloads.com/swine-flu.php"]Healing Downloads[/url]



[quote]...[Benveniste's] latest theory, and the cause of the current flap, is that the "memory" of water in a homeopathic solution has an electromagnetic "signature." This signature, he says, can be captured by a copper coil, digitized and transmitted by wire--or, for extra flourish, over the Internet--to a container of ordinary water, converting it to a homeopathic solution.[/quote][url="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,991004,00.html"]SOURCE[/url]

[quote]Experiments by Benveniste have shown that we can transfer specific molecular signals by using an amplifier and electromagnetic coils. In July, 1995, he recorded and replayed these signals using a multimedia computer. A computer sound card only records frequencies up to about 20,000 Hz.

In the course of many experiments, he had led receptors (specific to simple or complex molecules) to "believe" that they are in the presence of their favorite molecules by playing the recorded frequencies of those molecules. In order to arrive at this result, two operations are necessary:

1. record the activity of the substance on a computer,
2. "replay" it to a biological system, sensitive to the same substance.

Therefore, there is every reason to think that when a molecule itself is in the presence of its receptor, it does the same thing: it emits frequencies which the receptor is capable of recognizing. This means that a molecular signal can be efficiently represented by a spectrum of frequencies between 20Hz and 20,000 Hz, the same range as the human hearing or music.[/quote][url="http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/digital-1.html"]SOURCE[/url]


From an interview with a Homeopath:
[quote]I realized that in bird flu, there was no possibility of distributing homeopathic pills worldwide, even if we discovered them and that they worked. The postal services will collapse, for example. There will be no air travel. Everything will close down for a period of three months and it will be a very hand to mouth existence.

A way to deliver and treat, it seemed to me, was via e-mail. So I decided to engraft the information to treat bird flu, instead of onto a pill, onto a sound, and I chose classical jazz. It's about 15 seconds long and it can be listened to on an MP3 player or a CD or even broadcast on the radio or TV. It is then a viable solution to bird flu. It only needs to be tried on a bunch of chickens and we would know ahead of time. But even that seemed to be an impossible task to achieve, without the clout of a serious medical research institution or pharmaceutical business.

But we've tried these sound resonances, healing downloads as we call them, on many other epidemic diseases and other diseases and they seem to work very well in some cases. Obviously in many situations the disease that appears on the surface is not the real problem, as there are many other ways the immune system is compromised. But in epidemic diseases they seem to work fine.

This then is the story of why I shifted from an oral delivery to an aural delivery. It's very much in line with quantum physics. In the old model of healing, it's a pharmaceutical process, and chemistry is the bottom line. In the quantum physics model of healing, its energy which is the core process and that's electromagnetism at its core. So this is really just keeping homeopathy up with science.[/quote][url="http://www.hpathy.com/interviews/peterchappell.asp"]SOURCE[/url]

Some homeopath blogs claim that such developments and recent discoveries regarding electromagnetic properties of biological solutions give scientific support to Homeopathy: [url="http://www.homeopathyworldcommunity.com/forum/topics/nobel-prizewinning-virologists-1"]1[/url].


Skeptic blogs have posts condemning this as unscientific: [url="http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2007/08/will-homeopathy-and-itunes-cure-aids.html"]1[/url] || [url="http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/peter-chappell-claims-to-cure-bird-flu-by-mp3-quackery-subjects-us-to-early-death-instead/"]2[/url] || [url="http://www.dcscience.net/?p=207"]3[/url] || [url="http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/07/hair-transmission-homeopathy.html"]4[/url] || [url="http://www.badscience.net/2007/09/homeopathy-gives-you-aids/"]5[/url] + [url="http://www.badscience.net/2007/09/a-homeopath-responds/"]follow-up[/url]||

Edited October 19, 2009 by Innocent

[Innocent]

Dr. Ben Oldacre's Bad Science Blog had a post on Homeopathy in 2007. The comments section of the post has a very lively interaction between supporters and opposers of Homeopathy.

[url="http://www.badscience.net/2007/11/a-kind-of-magic/"][b]The end of homeopathy?[/b] November 16th, 2007 by Ben Goldacre [/url]

While searching for this, I found an [url="http://catspring.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/in-defense-of-homeopathy/"]article in favour of Homeopathy[/url] and a blog post [url="http://jaycueaitch.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/in-defense-of-homeopathy/"]critically examining the article[/url]. Just posting the links here in case someone finds it interesting.

Edited October 19, 2009 by Innocent

[Innocent]

I came across this video (a negative criticism of the claims of Homeopathy) on YouTube today, and I thought I'd put Maximilianus' Hypothesis[sup]1[/sup] to test:


[center][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u6BZv6_DLc[/media]
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u6BZv6_DLc"]LINK[/url][/center]






____________________________________________________________________________________
[b]Footnotes: [/b]

1. When I say "Maximilianus' Hypothesis," I refer to his statement earlier today:
[quote name='Maximilianus' date='24 June 2010 - 07:39 AM' timestamp='1277341787' post='2133468']
Just throw in a Star Trek reference or pic and everything will be copacetic...you might even get a +1.
[/quote]

Edited June 24, 2010 by Innocent

[sistersintigo]

well, you're the one who bumped it to the top....
this post is to comment on my experience with homeopathy. Might as well state up front that reason and logic have nothing to do with my participation really.
My allopathic, board-certified, primary-care physician , my medical doctor, took it upon herself to become a homeopath in addition to her allopathic medical credentials.
From her, I have been examined in both viewpoints: they were separate examinations. She schedules the physical exam, a very thorough one, in the allopathic Western-civilization mode, at one time. She schedules the exam and evaluation in the homeopathic mode at a different time, often as not on an entirely different day. Same practitioner, different appointments, same patient. I cheerfully paid for both.
I can't speak for my physician. She has her own reasons/logic for her choices. But she has been my primary-care physician for, oh, fifteen going on twenty years or so. She has earned my trust. I believe in her as a practitioner, more specifically I believe in the partnership/relationship she and I have together.
Her prescriptions have been allopathic for one condition, and homeopathic for another. And yes, she considers the question of what happens when both treatments are done at the same time.
And yes, I have observed positive improvement and constructive results from both modalities within my relationship with this physician. What do you call that....blind faith? Who am I to deny it?

[Innocent]

[quote name='sistersintigo' date='27 June 2010 - 10:55 PM' timestamp='1277655920' post='2134915']
well, you're the one who bumped it to the top....

[/quote]

Just to clarify again, I don't have any personal vendetta against homeopaths. I'm just trying to look at Homeopathy from an objective Catholic viewpoint, since I think that such a discussion would be part of what lay Catholics are meant to do, given the recent emphasis in Church documents about the laity infusing the secular sphere with the Christian spirit through their everyday ordinary lives.

[Yaatee]

[size="3"][size="3"]The problem with homeopathic medicines is that most of them have not been tested using double blind studies, the gold standard for Western medicine. This involves trial groups of significant size; the patients not knowing if they're getting the trial medicine or placebo; AND the dispensers not knowing, either. The latter is crucial.[/size] Homeopathy tends to reply on theory and anecdotal reports; neither is reliable.

Some homeopathy appears to work. Glucosamine/chondroitin started out in Europe as a vet medicine, then moved to humans, then was studied with the above. Result: chondroitin doesn't appear to work alone, and glucosamine has mild benefit in osteoarthritic knees as g-sulfate.

Acupuncture also has been studied and appears to work--mechanism unknown.

Many homeopathic medicines are analyzed chemically for their active ingredients, relying on reports from those that use them,and then studied further. I am sure that digitalis was discovered this way, from empiric evidence that the foxglove plant (its source) appeared to help with congestive heart failure.[/size]

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Yaatee' date='10 July 2010 - 08:27 AM' timestamp='1278768454' post='2140714']
[size="3"][size="3"]The problem with homeopathic medicines is that most of them have not been tested using double blind studies, the gold standard for Western medicine. This involves trial groups of significant size; the patients not knowing if they're getting the trial medicine or placebo; AND the dispensers not knowing, either. The latter is crucial.[/size] Homeopathy tends to reply on theory and anecdotal reports; neither is reliable.

Some homeopathy appears to work. Glucosamine/chondroitin started out in Europe as a vet medicine, then moved to humans, then was studied with the above. Result: chondroitin doesn't appear to work alone, and glucosamine has mild benefit in osteoarthritic knees as g-sulfate.

Acupuncture also has been studied and appears to work--mechanism unknown.

Many homeopathic medicines are analyzed chemically for their active ingredients, relying on reports from those that use them,and then studied further. I am sure that digitalis was discovered this way, from empiric evidence that the foxglove plant (its source) appeared to help with congestive heart failure.[/size]
[/quote]
Glucosamine and chondroitin are not examples of homeopathy.

[jeffpugh]

Indeed. It seems there is a mixup between herbal medicine and homeopathy. Not the same.