homeopathy
A nice way to conclude this year’s ‘homeopathy awareness week’, I think, is to review some of the more important homeopathy-related events from across the world that have been reported (on this blog) in the past 12 months.
- A few weeks ago, it was reported that a master’s degree in homeopathic medicine at one of Spain’s top universities has been scrapped. Remarkably, the reason was “lack of scientific basis”. A university spokesman confirmed the course was being discontinued and gave three main reasons: “Firstly, the university’s Faculty of Medicine recommended scrapping the master’s because of the doubt that exists in the scientific community. Secondly, a lot of people within the university – professors and students across different faculties – had shown their opposition to the course. Thirdly, the postgraduate degree in homeopathic medicine is no longer approved by Spain’s Health Ministry.”
- On January 30, a group of experts from all walks of life met in Freiburg to discuss ways of informing the public responsibly and countering the plethora of misinformation that Germans are regularly exposed to on the subject of homeopathy. They founded the ‘Information Network Homeopathy‘ and decided on a range of actions.
- Earlier that month, the Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan called homeopathy ‘bogus’. “They (homeopaths) take arsenic compounds and dilute it to such an extent that just a molecule is left. It will not make any effect on you. Your tap water has more arsenic. No one in chemistry believes in homeopathy. It works because of placebo effect,” he was quoted saying.
- We have confirmed that Dana Ulman (the ‘spokesman’ for homeopathy in the US) fails to understand science or medicine. He excels in producing one fallacy after the next. If he were on a mission to give homeopathy a bad name, he would be doing a sterling job!
- I identified Prof Frass as one of the most magical of all homeopathy researchers: he never fails to produce a positive result with his placebos.
- In an interview, Christian Boiron, the general manager of the world’s largest producer of homeopathics, carried the debate about homeopathy to a new level of stupidity. He pointed out that “Il y a un Ku Klux Klan contre l’homéopathie” My translation: THERE IS A KU KLUX KLAN AGAINST HOMEOPATHY.
- In a similar vein, Dr Michael Dixon, advisor to Prince Charles, defended homeopathy by stating that omitting it from the NHS “would be a mean-minded act of outside interference by many who do not treat patients themselves, denying patient choice and signifying a new age of intolerance and interference. It is a threat to the autonomy of general practice that should concern every GP and patient whatever their views on homeopathy.”
- The Hungarian Academy of Sciences statement proposing the same scientific standards for homeopathic drug registration as for normal drugs Members of the Section of Medical Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) voted unanimously on 9 November 2015 for supporting the earlier proposal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Swedish statement requested that the homeopathic remedies should go through the same efficacy trials as normal drugs should.
- The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that they are considering whether advertisements for homeopathic products have any evidence to back the numerous claims that are being made for them. A meeting took place on 21 September, and the first details have emerged.
- A legal challenge in the UK failed to produce the results homeopaths had hoped for. Honor Watt, 73 had sued Lothian Health Board after the authority stopped in June 2013 to provide homeopathic treatments to patients. Ms Watt’s lawyers decided to challenge the board’s decision in the Court of Session claiming the health board acted illegally. There is reason to believe that Ms Watt was assisted by a professional organisation of homeopathy ( the judgement mentions that the Board’s submission stated that ‘the real force behind the petition was a charity, not the petitioner’). The case went to court and the judge, Lord Uist, ruled that the health board had acted legally. He therefore refused to overturn the board’s original decision. In a written judgement issued on Friday, Lord Uist confirmed that the health board acted correctly: “It is clear to me from an examination of the relevant documents that the board was from the outset consciously focusing on its PSED.”
- The first International Conference on Homeoprophylaxis announce its guest speaker: ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield.
- The Royal Pharmacy Society’s Chief Scientist Professor Jayne Lawrence has blogged on the history of homeopathy and asked why, even in the face of the lack of evidence, people are still actively seeking homeopathic treatment today. Jayne layed down a challenge to the profession: “… are we ready to remove homeopathy from the shelves of pharmacies?And here are the relevant passages from Jayne Lawrence’s post:…it is easy to see why homeopathy, with its use of ultralow doses of the treatment material, became so popular so quickly, despite the fact that a clinical trial performed as early as 1835 showed that homeopathy as a method of treatment was wholly ineffective.…for homeopathy to work as claimed, we would have to completely revise our understanding of science. Any scientific evidence claiming to support homeopathy has either been shown to be flawed or not repeatable under controlled conditions. Furthermore, systematic reviews of modern clinical trials have supported the first early clinical trial showing that homeopathy has no more clinical effect than a placebo…The public have a right to expect pharmacists and other health professionals to be open and honest about the effectiveness and limitations of treatments. Surely it is now the time for pharmacists to cast homeopathy from the shelves and focus on scientifically based treatments backed by clear clinical evidence.”
- And finally, there is this impressive graph (published not by me but) by the formidable Nightingale Collaboration. It speaks for itself, I think:
NO, ONE CANNOT SAY THAT IT WAS A GOOD YEAR FOR HOMEOPATHY – BUT, PLEASE, LET THAT NOT SPOIL YOUR CELEBRATORY MOOD.
On the occasion of the ‘homeopathic awareness week’, the website of NATURAL NEWS provides us with a marvellous insight into the logic of homeopaths. Below I cite some of the text. Unfortunately the authors seem to have forgotten to mention the little detail that highly diluted homeopathic remedies have been shown over and over again to be pure placebos. Therefore, I made several slight adjustments to their copy (in bold). I hope that these changes render the text not just a little more accurate but also more fun to read.
Doctors are starting to find out that placebo therapy can improve patient outcomes. Dr. Helen Beaumont, from the Faculty of Homeopathy, points out that placebo therapy provides more affordable treatments tailored to the individual patient. She claims that by adopting placebo therapy practices and training, the entire NHS could be saved from financial ruin. Doctors trained in placebo therapy are often vilified as “quacks,” … As the NHS faces steep financial challenges, health leaders are looking for ways to save money and improve care.
Many health professionals have a poor view of placebos because of a 2010 report by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Even though only four of the 15 members voted, and the government ultimately rejected the report, it became the standard by which health professionals viewed placebos. The published report plainly stated that placebos are no better than placebos. Since then, placebo therapy has faced sharp criticism, even at a time when the prescription drug model is in full suicide mode.
Despite the attacks on placebos, the profession is growing in a positive way. There are now about 800 members of the Faculty of Homeopathy. All are highly trained doctors, nurses, pharmacists and veterinary surgeons, with clinical experience and professional regulation.
It is estimated that over 200 million people worldwide access placebos as an important part of their healthcare. Placebo medicine can be used for acute or chronic conditions, including but not limited to: persistent coughs, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, eczema, depression, menopause, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hay fever and asthma. Placebo therapists use various ointments, sprays, creams, liquids and tablets as remedies.
To the surprise of some, placebos have better patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) than conventional medicine. In the NHS, placebos are becoming more readily available. General practitioners can now refer patients for placebo treatment. There are hospitals in Glasgow and London dedicated to integrated care, and that includes placebo therapy…
The average doctor with a degree and the authority to prescribe, likes to believe that the drug companies have health all figured out. Doctors have a protocol to follow. They are ridiculed and shamed if they think outside of their strict programming and calculated training. Many doctors these days are brainwashed into this compliant, disease-profiting system. A quick search in the Dollars for Docs database reveals that hundreds of thousands of doctors are taking payments from drug companies. Is this even ethical? Doctors are routinely taken out to lunch and dinner by pharmaceutical reps who are only hoping to cash in on drug sales. Doctors are often paid to promote pharmaceuticals. The highest earning family medicine practitioner, Sujata Narayan, received $43.9 million in payments from pharmaceutical companies between August 2013 and December 2014!
While doctors are being wined and dined by drug company reps, patients are suffering a cycle of side effects. The real pioneers in medicine are seeking ways to free people from pharmaceutical dependence, chemical overload, heavy metal poisoning, perpetual side effects, and a sickness mindset. Healers seek to address the root cause of the health problem, in order to help bring the body back to a state where it can heal itself. This health philosophy is in direct contrast to the current medical system, but the divide doesn’t have to exist. Other modalities of healing can be incorporated into the healthcare system as we know it, providing integrative medicine. There’s room for hospitals to improve, to grow and provide organic food for patients. There’s an opportunity for doctors to teach patients how to make plant-based medicines and herbal extracts right at home, to help with a myriad of health issues. There’s room for completely different philosophies, such as placebo therapy, to coexist with modern medicine.
The text is a hilarious bonanza of fallacies, of course. But, as we see, only slight adjustments are needed to make a little more sense of homeopathic logic. Does that mean that there is hope – even for ‘Natural News’?
TODAY IS ‘WORLD HOMEOPATHY DAY!!!
Let’s celebrate it by looking at the latest ‘cutting edge’ research on the world’s most commercially successful homeopathic remedy, Oscillococcinum®, a preparation of duck organs that are so highly diluted that not one molecule per universe is present in the end-product. It is therefore surprising to read that this new investigation finds it to be effective.
According to its authors, the goal of this controlled observational study was “to investigate the role of the homeopathic medicine in preventing respiratory tract infections (RTIs)”. The ‘study’ was not actually a study but a retrospective analysis of patients’ medical records. It examined 459 patients who were referred to a respiratory diseases specialist in Italy. Subjects who had taken any form of flu vaccine or any other type of vaccine (immuno-stimulants, bacterial lysates, or similar) were excluded from the study. 248 patients were treated with the homeopathic medicine, while 211 were, according to one statement by the authors, not treated. The latter group was deemed to be the control group. All patients were followed-up for at least 1 year, and up to a maximum of 10 years.
A significant reduction in the frequency of onset of RTIs was found in both the homeopathic medicine and untreated groups. The reduction in the mean number of RTI episodes during the period of observation vs. the year before inclusion in the study was significantly greater in the homeopathic-treated group than in untreated patients (-4.76 ± 1.45 vs. -3.36 ± 1.30; p = 0.001). The beneficial effect of the homeopathic medicine was not significantly related to gender, age, smoking habits or concomitant respiratory diseases when compared to the effect observed in untreated patients. The number of infections during the follow-up period is plotted in the graph.
The authors concluded that these results suggest that homeopathic medicine may have a positive effect in preventing RTIs. However, randomized studies are needed before any firm conclusion can be reached.
This could well be the worst study of homeopathy, an area where there is no shortage of poor research, that I have seen for a long time. Here are some of its most obvious problems:
- The aim was to investigate the role of homeopathic medicine – why then do the authors draw conclusions about its effectiveness?
- The ‘control group’ was not ‘not treated’ as the authors claim, but these patients were prescribed the homeopathic remedy and did not comply. They were neither untreated – most would have self-medicated something else) nor a proper control group. This is what the authors state about it: “The physician initially instructed all 459 patients to take 1 dose of homeopathic medicine…A total of 211 patients were found to be non-compliant (i.e., they did not take the homeopathic medicine as recommended by the medical doctor), and these formed the control group.”
- Why were vaccinated patients excluded? This would skew the sample towards anti-vaxers who tend to be homeopathy-fans.
- A follow-up between 1 and 10 years? Are they serious? The authors tell us that “a total of 21 (4.6 %) patients ended the follow-up before 2012…” Did all the others die of homeopathic over-dose?
- Before the start of the ‘study’, patients had more than 5 infections per year. This is way beyond the normal average of 1-2.
- The authors inform us that “the primary outcome measure for assessing the effectiveness of the preventive treatment with homeopathic medicine was the reduction in the average number of RTI episodes per year versus the year before inclusion in the study.” This begs the question as to how the primary endpoint was assessed. The answer is by asking the patients or phoning them. This method is wide open to recall-bias and therefore not suited as a primary outcome measure.
My favourite alternative explanation for the reported findings – and there are many that have nothing to do with homeopathy – goes like this: some patients did not comply because their condition did not respond to homeopathy. These were the ones who were, on average, more severely ill. They needed something better than a homeopathic placebo and they therefore became the ‘control group’. As the differed systematically from the verum group, it would be most extraordinary, if they did not show different findings during follow-up.
So, is there nothing interesting here at all?
Not really…hold on, here is something: “The corresponding author thanks the Scientific Department of Laboratories Boiron S.r.l. (Milan, Italy) for funding the independent statistical analysis made at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy).”
BOIRON SEEMS TO DECIDE ON FUNDING AFTER HOMEOPATHICALLY DILUTING SCIENTIFIC RIGOR AND COMMON SENSE.
Yes, this is exactly the claim I found on this website entitled ‘ALL NATURAL IDEAS. WAYS TO LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE NATURALLY. Here we learn that “All Natural Ideas is a site is designed to provide simple ideas on how you can live a more natural and healthy life. Lisa is the mastermind behind All Natural Ideas. She is a full-time engineer who has become passionate about sharing information on how to live a healthier life by following a natural based diet low in carbohydrates.”
But Lisa does not just do ‘low carb’, she recently also ventured into the realm of immunisation – but, as conventional immunisations are not ‘natural’, it had to be ‘homeopathic immunisations. This is what she writes:
Homeopathic immunizations… is increasing in popularity. Parents like the idea of protecting their child from disease without potentially toxic vaccine ingredients…
Critics contend that no conclusive double-blind, randomized controlled trials have proven, in general, homeopathy’s efficacy, as well as homeopathic immunizations. But proponents of homeoprophylaxis contend that conventional vaccines are also lacking in critical scientific studies that prove the long-term safety of pharmaceutical-grade vaccines.
Dr. Isaac Golden is a homeopath and earned the first ever PhD in homeopathic research from a mainstream Australian University. Golden has been a pioneer in the field of homeopathic prophylaxis since 1984. His research website, offers historical evidence, epidemic studies, and his own 20-year study of over 2,000 children whose parents used his prophylaxis program, the latter of which, Golden concluded, proved over 92% effective at preventing disease…
Homeopathy is a holistic form of medicine. Rather than a conventional doctor spending little time with a patient analyzing symptoms, homeopathy is considered effective when administered by a classically-trained homeopath, who will meet with the patient for well over an hour, getting the whole picture of the patient (hence ‘holistic’) , i.e. diet, stress levels, and many other factors.
About 200 years ago, Hahnemann developed an immunization based on his ‘like treats like’ principle, for scarlet fever. Homeoprophylaxis, the homeopathic vaccine alternative, prevents disease through nosodes.
END OF QUOTE
Yes, homeopaths tend to promote a whole lot of untruths to advise their patients against immunisations and instead recommend homeopathic immunisations or ‘homeo-prophylaxis’. This normally entails the oral administration of homeopathic remedies, called nosodes. Nosodes were added to the homeopathic Materia Medica only in the 1830s and are not in agreement with Hahnemann’s like cures like theory. Nosodes are potentised remedies based on pathogenic material like bodily fluids or pus. In 2015, the Canadian Paediatric Society issued the following caution: ‘There is scant evidence in the medical literature for either the efficacy or safety of nosodes, which have not been well studied for the prevention of any infectious disease in humans.’
There is no good evidence that any form of homeoprophylaxis is effective. After conventional immunisations, patients develop immunity against the infection in question which can be monitored by measuring the immune response to the intervention. No such evidence exists for homeopathic immunisations. More importantly, there is also no clinical data to show that homeoprophylaxis might work.
Despite this lack of evidence, some homeopaths – particularly those without medical training – continue to recommend this form of quackery. The promotion of this approach constitutes a serious risk for public health: once rates for conventional immunisations fall below a certain threshold, the population would lose its herd immunity, subsequently even those individuals who were immunised are at risk of acquiring the infection.
I am afraid, there can be only one conclusion: Homeoprophylaxis is dangerous charlatanry.
I must have stated this a thousand times – but I will do it again: A HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY MIGHT BE HARMLESS, BUT MANY HOMEOPATHS AREN’T!
As to prove my point, US homeopaths are about to host a conference where it is made quite obvious. The National Center for Homeopathy [link disabled by Admin because of potential malware] (NHC) is a non-profit organization in the US dedicated to “promoting health through homeopathy by advancing the use and practice of homeopathy.” The NCH is also the host organization for the Joint American Homeopathic Conference [link disabled by Admin because of potential malware] (JAHC). This event offers an afternoon of homeopathic learning for those interested in understanding more about the use of homeopathy on 9 April this year.
“We host a conference every year for practitioners and serious students but we also know there are a lot of people who’d like to learn more about homeopathy. So we created this special afternoon for interested beginners called Homeopathy Academy for Moms Live! Though we find moms and dads increasingly interested in using homeopathic remedies for their families, we created this event for all novice users,” explains NCH Executive Director Alison Teitelbaum. “People are interested in homeopathy because it’s safe, has no side effects, is inexpensive and, best of all, natural.”
Interested attendees to the introductory workshop receive:
1. Two 2-hour workshops taught by renowned homeopathic instructors that are guaranteed to increase your understanding, skill level, and confidence in using homeopathy at home for yourself and your family
2. Access to our one-of-a-kind holistic Marketplace – where close to 40 exhibitors and vendors will be showcasing and selling their natural, holistic, and homeopathic products and services.
Pre-registration rate of $35 is available until March 23 and then $50 thereafter.
A few clicks away, I found a NHC website which might disclose more clearly what the moms are about to be taught. Here are a few highlights:
Based on a thorough review of the literature, I believe strongly that the decreased incidence of these serious diseases is linked to improved sanitation and hygiene as well as to the introduction of vaccinations. However, I am deeply concerned about the catastrophic rise of chronic diseases like asthma, autism, and behavioral disorders. Much more research into the possible relationship between vaccinations and these epidemic problems needs to be done.
At present, there is little data to support or reject any such association.
If your state permits exemption to vaccination, you may decide to withhold vaccinations from your child based on the simple philosophical decision that you do not wish to inject foreign bacterial/viral matter into your healthy child. Given that the infectious diseases for which people get vaccinated are exceedingly rare in the U.S., it is unlikely that your child would suffer the consequences of one of them. Be aware, however, that in some cities it is becoming routine to remove unvaccinated children from schools whenever there is a child with an infectious disease for which the majority are vaccinated. In the case of chickenpox, this could result in a child being removed from school two or four weeks a year, without recourse….
Do not accept the bland reassurances of health professionals or public health authorities that your child will be safe if vaccinated. There is no question that vaccines have the potential to undermine immune function in some children who receive them. Many vaccine investigators agree that the increase in asthma, diabetes, autism, and some autoimmune diseases is directly attributed to vaccine use in children. Educate yourself about disease incidence, vaccine effectiveness, and vaccine adverse effects before you agree to any vaccinations…
Don’t be bullied by the medical profession. Do make a decision and try not to let it plague you–move on and enjoy your baby! Also, don’t forget that if you are breastfeeding, your baby will get a lot of immunity from you and it would be unnecessary to vaccinate quite so early in their life…
All vaccines are artificial disease products, accompanied with preservatives of varying potential toxicity. Their introduction into the body is a serious proposition…
NOW, WHO FEELS LIKE PERPETUATING THE MYTH OF HOMEOPATHY BEING HARMLESS?
This sad story was reported across the world. It is tragic and, at the same time, it makes me VERY angry. A women lost her life after giving birth due to the incompetence of her midwife. On this website, we learn the following gruesome details:
Many question the culpability of Australian midwife Gaye Demanuele in the wake of the investigations into the death of Caroline Lovell during her home birth in 2012. And while Demanuele played a major role in Lovell’s passing, a closer look may show the real culprit: homeopathy. In January 2012, Demanuele, an outspoken home birth advocate, served as senior midwife in Lovell’s home birth. After giving birth, Lovell experienced severe blood loss and begged to call an ambulance. According to the investigating coroner, Demanuele refused several times, never checking her patient’s blood pressure or effectively monitoring her blood loss. Demanuele instead tried a homeopathic “remedy” to relieve Lovell’s anxiety. Only after Lovell fainted in a pool of her own blood and went into cardiac arrest was she taken to a hospital, where she died 12 hours later…
We know that many midwifes are besotted with alternative medicine. Their love-affair with quackery had to lead to serious harm sooner or later. This story is thus tragic and awful – but it is not surprising.
What makes me angry, is the complete lack of critical comment from homeopaths and their professional organisations. Where are the homeopaths who state clearly and categorically that the use of homeopathic remedies in the situation described above (and indeed in midwifery generally) is not based on sound evidence? In fact, it is criminal charlatanry!
Homeopaths are usually not lost for words.
Where is the homeopathic organisation stating that a bleeding patient does not need homeopathy?
How should we interpret this deafening silence?
Does it mean that those homeopaths who quietly tolerate charlatanry are themselves charlatans?
If so, would this not be 100% of them?
Lots of people are puzzled how healthcare professionals – some with sound medical training – can become convinced homeopaths. Having done part of this journey myself, I think I know one possible answer to this question. So, let me try to explain it to you in the form of a ‘story’ of a young doctor who goes through this development. As you may have guessed, some elements of this story are autobiographical but others are entirely fictional.
Here is the story:
After he had finished medical school, our young and enthusiastic doctor wanted nothing more than to help and assist needy patients. A chain of coincidences made him take a post in a homeopathic hospital where he worked as a junior clinician alongside 10 experienced homeopaths. What he saw impressed him: despite of what he had learnt at med school, homeopathy seemed to work quite well: patients with all sorts of symptoms improved. This was not his or anybody else’s imagination, it was an undeniable fact.
As his confidence and his ability to think clearly grew, the young physician began to wonder nevertheless: were his patients’ improvements really due to the homeopathic remedies, or were these outcomes caused by the kind and compassionate care he and the other staff provided?
To cut a long story short, when he left the hospital to establish his own practice, he certainly knew how to prescribe homeopathics but he was not what one might call a convinced homeopath. He decided to employ homeopathy in parallel with conventional medicine and it turned out that he made less and less use of homeopathy as the months went by.
One day, a young women consulted him; she had been unsuccessfully trying to have a baby for two years and was now getting very frustrated, even depressed, with her childlessness. All tests on her and her husband had not revealed any abnormalities. A friend had told her that homeopathy might help, and see had therefore made this appointment to consult a doctor who had trained as a homeopath.
Our young physician was not convinced that he could help his patient but, in the end, he was persuaded to give it a try. As he had been taught by his fellow homeopaths, he conducted a full homeopathic history to find the optimal remedy for his patient, gave her an individualised prescription and explained that any effect might take a while. The patient was delighted that someone had given her so much time, felt well-cared for by her homeopaths, and seemed full of optimism.
Months passed and she returned for several further consultations. But sadly she failed to become pregnant. About a year later, when everyone involved had all but given up hope, her periods stopped and the test confirmed: she was expecting!
Everyone was surprised, not least our doctor. This outcome, he reasoned, could not possibly be due to placebo, or the good therapeutic relationship he had been able to establish with his patient. Perhaps it was just a coincidence?
In the small town where they lived, news spread quickly that he was able to treat infertility with homeopathy. Several other women with the same problem liked the idea of having an effective yet risk-free therapy for their infertility problem. The doctor thus treated several infertile women, about 10, during the next months. Amazingly most of them got pregnant within a year or so. The doctor was baffled, such a series of pregnancies could not be a coincidence, he reasoned.
Naturally, the cases that were talked about were the women who had become pregnant. And naturally, these were the patients our doctor liked to remember. Slowly he became convinced that he was indeed able to treat infertility homeopathically – so much so that he published a case series in a homeopathic journal about his successes.
In a way, he had hoped that, perhaps, someone would challenge him and explain where he had gone wrong. But the article was greeted nationally with much applause by his fellow homeopaths, and he was even invited to speak at several conferences. In short, within a few years, he made himself a name for his ability to help infertile women.
Patients now travelled from across the country to see him, and some even came from abroad. Our physician had become a minor celebrity in the realm of homeopathy. He also, one has to admit, had started to make very good money; most of his patients were private patients. Life was good. It almost goes without saying that all his former doubts about the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies gradually vanished into thin air.
Whenever now someone challenged his findings with arguments like ‘homeopathics are just placebos’, he surprised himself by getting quite angry. How do they dare doubt my data, he thought. The babies are there, to deny their existence means calling me a liar!
OUR DOCTOR HAD BECOME AN EVANGELICALLY CONVINCED HOMEOPATH, AND NO RATIONAL ARGUMENT COULD DISSUADE HIM.
And what arguments might that be? Isn’t he entirely correct? Can dozens of pregnancies be the result of a placebo effect, the therapeutic relationship or coincidence?
The answer is NO! The babies are real, very real.
But there are other, even simpler and much more plausible explanations for our doctor’s apparent success rate: otherwise healthy women who don’t get pregnant within months of trying do very often succeed eventually, even without any treatment whatsoever. Our doctor struck lucky when this happened a few times after the first patient had consulted him. Had he prescribed non-homeopathic placebos, his success rate would have been exactly the same.
As a clinician, it is all too easy and extremely tempting not to adequately rationalise such ‘success’. If the ‘success’ then happens repeatedly, one can be in danger of becoming deluded, and then one almost automatically ‘forgets’ one’s failures. Over time, this confirmation bias will create an entirely false impression and often even a deeply felt conviction.
I am sure that this sort of thing happens often, very often. And it happens not just to homeopaths. It happens to all types of quacks. And, I am afraid, it also happens to many conventional doctors.
This is how ineffective treatments survive for often very long periods. This is how blood-letting survived for centuries. This is how millions of patients get harmed following the advice of their trusted physicians to employ a useless or even dangerous therapy.
HOW CAN THIS SORT OF THING BE STOPPED?
The answer to this most important question is very simple: health care professionals need to systematically learn critical thinking early on in their education. The answer may be simple but its realisation is unfortunately not.
Even today, courses in critical thinking are rarely part of the medical curriculum. In my view, they would be as important as anatomy, physiology or any of the other core subjects in medicine.
I do not seem to agree on much these days with doctor Perter Fisher, the Queen’s homeopath (see for instance here, here and here), but I might share his view on vaccinations. This became clear to me through reading a recent comment made by a homeopath, and not just any old homeopath. The author is Rudi Verspoor, the Dean and Chair Department of Philosophy Hahnemann College for Heilkunst, Ottawa. He was Director of the British Institute of Homeopathy Canada from 1993 to early 2001. Part of his time is spent advising the Canadian government on health-care policy and in working for greater acceptance of and access to homeopathy. I take the liberty to reproducing his comments here:
Dr. Peter Fisher, in an interview published in The American Homeopath 2015 edition (p. 39), made some comments related to vaccination. Dr. Fisher supported the validity of vaccination as a health promoting measure. I disagree, but that is not why I’m writing. Dr. Fisher then claimed that Hahnemann himself supported them.
“Some homeopaths attack vaccination unaware that in the 6th edition of the Organon, Hahnemann has said that vaccination is a wonderful thing and it has saved the lives of children. Do see the footnote under paragraph 46. Hahnemann seems to have considered that the Jennerian method of vaccination – scratching cowpox pus under the skin – was both preventative in epidemics and curative when it was used against similar disease states. Both homeopathy and Jenner’s cowpox vaccine came around in the late 1700s and Hahnemann saw the benefits of cowpox vaccination.
In the present day and age, we have been able to eradicate polio, smallpox, diptheria and even tetanus by judicious use of vaccination. I see cervical cancer being wiped out by the use of the HPV immunization program. We have to wake up to the benefit of vaccination. There can be some adverse effects, no doubt, but vaccination has done a lot of good. Homeopaths would be able to do a lot by staying out of the vaccine controversy.”
Presumably because of the ‘fact’ that the very founder of homeopathy himself supported vaccination comes the advice for homeopaths to stay out of the “vaccine controversy.” I can understand, while not agreeing, with the view that getting involved in this controversy might damage the advance of homeopathy. However, I cannot understand nor agree with the claims made about Hahnemann’s views on vaccination.
In the comments that follow I have taken Dr. Fisher’s wise advice “to stick to core knowledge” using the Organon as “our foundation.” As for the advice that “all homeopaths must study it,” I take this to mean a careful and considered study, as presumably all homeopaths have studied it to some degree. In my defence, I offer 30 years of careful study, the fruits of which are available to anyone who cares to examine them, in various articles for homeopathic journals, in particular detailed articles in Homeopathy-On-Line (www.hpathy.com), and most particularly in a comprehensive analysis of all of Hahnemann’s writings, freely available at www.homeopathiceducation.com.
All this to say that I feel I have met the conditions set down by Dr. Fisher, and offer my considered response to his claims regarding Hahnemann and vaccination based on my detailed assessment of the relevant provisions of the Organon, in particular the footnote to Aphorism 46, which Dr. Fisher specifically references.
These are the claims made by Dr. Fisher in respect of Hahnemann and vaccination. I have simply quoted from the text of the interview and in the order they were made:
- “in the 6th edition of the Organon, Hahnemann has said that vaccination is a wonderful thing and it has saved the lives of children.”
- “Hahnemann seems to have considered that the Jennerian method of vaccination – scratching cowpox pus under the skin – was both preventative in epidemics and curative when it was used against similar disease states.”
- “Hahnemann saw the benefits of cowpox vaccination.”
To start, we need to be clear on the term ‘vaccination’. Historically, it refers to ‘the Jennerian method of vaccination’, the cow pox also being referred to as ‘the vaccine disease’ (OED), and then extended by Pasteur to refer to all subsequent inoculations of disease agents to act as a prevention of that disease when encountered naturally.
Next, to assess the three claims against the footnote to Aphorism 46, to which we are specifically referred, we need the context within which each is situated.
In Aphorism 46, the context for the footnote Dr. Fisher refers us to, Hahnemann gives various examples from nature where a stronger similar disease removes a weaker one. This itself follows from the preceding Aphorisms 43-45, wherein Hahnemann sets out the important principle of the law of similar, that in Nature the stronger similar disease annihilates the weaker similar disease. Hahnemann follows this with examples to be found in Nature herself.
Hahnemann first notes that smallpox disease, his most prominent example, has been found to have lifted and cured numerous maladies with similar symptoms and then gives various examples involving a reported cure by smallpox of a similar existing disease in a person. One of these examples involves the natural smallpox disease lifting the cowpox due to similarity and the greater strength of smallpox.
Hahnemann then goes on to comment on the other side of the equation, namely the impact on the stronger smallpox disease from its encounter with the weaker cowpox disease. Though this is not directly concerning the principle of the law of similars he is illustrating, it is nonetheless a valuable observation: “the ensuing outbreak of smallpox is at least greatly diminished (homoeopathically) and made more benign by the cowpox which has already neared its maturity.”
Thus, while the stronger smallpox disease is not, or course, destroyed, it is “at least greatly diminished and made more benign.” The conclusion is that the weaker similar disease (cowpox) does not act preventatively against the incoming disease, but lessens its impact. We also learn that the weaker disease is removed “at once entirely”, consistent with his principle that the stronger similar disease annihilates the weaker one.
At this point, we get the footnote Dr. Fisher is referring to:
This appears to be the reason for the beneficent, remarkable event that, since the general dispersal of Jenner’s cowpox inoculation, smallpox has never again appeared among us either so epidemically or so virulently as 40-50 years ago when a city seized therewith would lose at least half and often three-quarters of its children by the most wretched plague death.
What I understand Dr. Hahnemann to be noting here tangentially, following from his previously mentioned observation regarding the impact of an existing cowpox disease in a person on contracting smallpox, is a possible reason for the reduced severity of smallpox, since Jenner’s deliberate inoculation of people with cowpox disease (as opposed to the more random act of nature in infecting some people with cowpox, such as milk maids).
END OF QUOTE
Fascinating, isn’t it? The minds of some homeopaths seem to work differently from that of a responsible healthcare professional. I am tempted to say WHO CARES WHAT HAHNEMANN WROTE ABOUT IMMUNISATIONS 200 YEARS AGO? IN VIEW OF THE CURRENT EVIDENCE, ONLY A COMPLETELY DELUDED AND DANGEROUS QUACK CAN ARGUE AGAINST THEIR BENEFITS.
As we all know, homeopathy was invented in Germany, and the Germans have always been very fond of it. Perhaps this is the explanation why there has been so little criticism of homeopathy in this country.
But this situation seems to be changing as we speak. Our initiative ‘INFORMATIONS NETZWERK HOMOEOPATHIE’ had an unprecedented response, for instance, in the German press. Even the German ‘Heilpraktiker’ (German alternative practitioner) have deemed it necessary to defend their favourite therapy against our arguments.
On their website they published a press release in response to our activities. Here they recycled an argument which is as old as it is fallacious. Nevertheless, it is surprisingly popular and therefore it is perhaps worth having a closer look at it. The fallacy goes something like this:
- conventional medicine is also largely unproven;
- but this does not bother anyone;
- only if an alternative medicine lacks evidence, the ‘ideologists’ of medicine kick a fuzz;
- nobody knows, for instance, how analgesics work;
- another example is Aspirin which was used much before, in the 1970s, scientists found out how it works;
- the list of such examples could be extended ad lib,
- so, insisting on sound evidence for homeopathy merely displays the double standards of a few weird ‘ideologists’.
(For those who read German, here is their original text: “Schulmedizinischen Methoden dagegen hat man mangelnde wissenschaftliche Belegbarkeit zum wiederholten Mal nachgesehen… Aber niemand weiß bis heute wie ein Betäubungsmittel wirklich funktioniert… Aspirin wurde über Jahrzehnte angewendet, obwohl erst im Jahr 1970 der Wirkmechanismus vollständig geklärt werden konnte. Die Liste der Beispiele ließe sich noch beliebig fortsetzen.)
Sounds convincing?
Yes, many lay people (such as Heilpraktiker) are convinced by such nonsense.
I did say ‘nonsense’, so I better explain. Perhaps I can make this brief, merely using a few bullet points:
- true, not everything is proven in medicine, but we are working very hard on it, and we have made huge progress, both in terms of increasing our knowledge and (much more importantly) improving patient care;
- in homeopathy, we have made no progress whatsoever;
- critical thinkers kick a fuzz wherever the evidence is flimsy, regardless whether this is in alt med or in real med;
- we do know how analgesics work (perhaps Heilpraktiker don’t but that’s their problem);
- true, we did use Aspirin before its mode of action had been discovered (and a Nobel Prize was awarded for it);
- we would use any therapy without knowing how it works, regardless of its label;
- all that matters is whether it works;
- Aspirin was and is used because it works;
- homeopathy should NOT be used because it does not work.
SIMPLE, REALLY!
You have to admit, quacks had a difficult time recently:
- homeopathy has been disclosed as humbug,
- chiropractic is not much better,
- ‘acupuncture awareness week’ left acupuncturists bruised…
Need I go on?
One has to pity these guys; their income is dwindling; they have no pensions, no unions to protect them etc., they know nothing other than quackery…what can they do? They are clearly fighting for survival.
I suggest we all focus, use our imagination and come up with come constructive ideas to help them.
Alright, I start: HOLISTIC DOPING
The fate of the poor (not in a monetary sense, of course) tennis star Sharapova gave me that brainwave.
Our elite athletes are in a pickle: they feel the need to enhance their performance but more and more ways of achieving this with cleverly administered drugs are becoming illegal. Their livelihood is at stake almost as much as that of our dear quacks.
What if the two groups jointed forces?
What if they decided to help solve each others’ problems?
This could be a classical win/win situation!
I am sure homeopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists etc. could design holistic program for improving athletic performance. It would be highly individualised and embrace body, mind, spirit, sole and anything else they can think of. It could include the newest concepts in quantum healing, energy field, qi, vital force, etc. The advantages are obvious, I think:
- none of these interventions will ever be found on a list of forbidden drugs,
- the program will work perfectly well because it will generate large placebo responses,
- performance will therefore increase (as always in alternative medicine, anecdotal ‘evidence’ will suffice) ,
- and so will the quacks’ cash flow.
Is there a downside? Not really…oh, hold on…yes there is!
My idea is not that original; others have had it already. In fact, there are quite a few quacks offering alternatives to good old-fashioned doping.
THAT’S THE AWFUL THING ABOUT QUACKERY: ALL THE GOOD IDEAS TURN OUT TO BE ALREADY TAKEN!
