Planet Homeopathy

As in practicing homeopathic medicine, Homeopathic Physicians  touch many lives, and from time to time their own lives are touched by those they treat, I want to recall some of my most memorable patients in my 33 years of Homeopathic Practice.

While taking an escalator to reach the Sixth Floor regularly of the building where I had worked as Medical Officer (Homeopathy) for quite some time in 1980’s, I had a middle aged man, fair colored and of flabby musculature,  lift operator, who use to greet me while on duty. One day when I noticed that he has not been shaving his beard for quite some time, I asked him the reasons and he immediately showed big warts growing on his chin and in order to hide them, he was not shaving his beard.  Next day I brought  3 packets of Calcarea Carb 1M and asked him to take one dose fifteen minutes apart, early morning, empty stomach and told him to report to me after one week.  After that I did not see this gentleman for quite some time and just forgot him as another lift operator replaced him for quite a few weeks. One day when I stepped in the escalator noticed a handsome fair colored, clean shaven man sitting on the stool in the elevator, I asked him to take me to the sixth floor. As the lift moved he greeted me and to my surprise he was the same gentleman who I had given the medicine for warts. He explained me smilingly while  jumping up  from his seat , Doctor, “After third day of taking your medicine, I was taking bath and when  I wiped my face, all the warts fell on the towel and here I am clean shaven.” He then hugged me and I just thanking God, walked out of the lift. Calcarea Carb in this case proved to be his constitutional medicine and it has also one of the best remedies for warts on the face.

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases like Ulcerative Colitis,  which we occasionally saw  in our practice in India,  has been  found to be very common in Canada I remember that  during the year 1997-98 ( and until now),  many  patients started enquiring from me if there is any permanent treatment for this ailment. One gentleman who had come to me and begged me to treat him for Ulcerative Colitis which he has been suffering from last 15 years and had been taken prednisone/  Asacol    regularly and had lost tremendous amount of   weight and was about to go on disability. The homeopathic medicines given to him were : Sulphur 200 one dose in the morning, Colocynth 200 one dose in the evening and Merc. Cor 200 one dose  in the night for 1 month. This gentleman came to me after few years and now having been diagnosed for Oral Lichen planus for which there is no cure in Allopathy and Natrum Mur 200 one dose twice a day for 1 months cured him. Natrum Mur came to be as his constitutional remedy and resulted in permanent cure.

Another patient a child aged 7 years diagnosed as Ulcerative Colitis and on prednisone  for  a couple of months, came to me for rectal bleeding , nausea, loss of weight and was put on Phosphorus 30 / Ipecac 30 one dose each  once a day for 2 weeks and after the bleeding stopped was put  on the same trio as stated above for one month. The patient is ok now and growing happily and his other brother whom I diagnosed as Autistic and immediately advocated his parents to be put on the Speech therapy has been doing very good after some doses of Stramonium and Cina given in 200 c. He was 3 years old when he started the treatment and now started speaking and socializing with children except for some irritability which is tackled by some doses of Chamomilla 200 given S.O.S. Instant diagnosis and treatment was the result of his improvement and cure.

 Another memorable case is of  a  boy who was having problems with his stomach in November 1999 complaining of abdominal colic and stopped going to school for months. He turned very pale  always nauseous and simply had no energy. He was examined by a group of Specialists  at the  Montreal Children’s Hospital   but nothing could be diagnosed by them and the boy was kept to suffer. As the  time passed, over and above depression came dizzy spells which made the situation unbearable. All sorts of tests : brain Scan, Abdominal Scan, seeing a Gastroenterologist and psychiatrist proved futile. Furthermore the Specialist at Children’s Hospital ordered the insertion of a tube through his nose that was attached to a monitor around his stomach for 24 hours. Matters became worse and I was contacted in Toronto and agreed to take his case. Simple Trio of Sulphur Colocynth and Nux Vomica one dose each in 200c  -given single dose each in  morning , noon and evening cured the case and the boy became normal resuming his studies. His mother’s testimonials still exists on my web site.

While asking for the rationale for prescribing the homeopathic medicines,  Dr. Kent Says,  The artistic prescriber(Homeopathic Physician) must study Materia Medica long and earnestly to enable him to fix in his mind sick images, which, when needed, will infill the sick personalities of human beings. These are too numerous and too various to be named or classified. I have often known the intuitive prescriber to attempt to explain a so called marvelous cure by sayimg: “ I cannot quite say how I came to give that remedy but prescribed  him.”

The anecdotes included here are but a small sampling of the memorable patients  treated by me and in my next blog I would discuss  about other  memorable cases including  Cancer/Lymphoma cured by this magical (and logical )system of Homeopathic Medicine.

“ Not my merits, Thy Grace.”

As jobs continue to disappear in Canada and USA, many physicians including the Homeopathic Physicians, are seeing fewer patients because people have lost their health insurance and/or are simply reluctant to spend money on their health. I had seen patients who just come to my clinic cum dispensary, to buy homeopathic medicines as taken from Internet after simply entering their signs and symptoms. Some patients outsource their treatment to Asian Countries by calling a select list of doctors and then come to buy the prescribed medicines. I have seen this trend for from quite a time from now and have thought to resolve this problem as if this trend is not checked now, it would create adverse affects both for patients in so far as their health is concerned and the Doctor’s practice in future. In this connection I have organized various Public Awareness Seminars in homeopathy and is still looking for the outcome.

Homeopathy medicines are prescribed by the qualified homeopathic doctors on the basis of laws and principles of Homeopathy which were formulated by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy. A fully trained Homeopath have about 5 years of regular (full time) training in Educational Institution having expertise in Homeopathy including Medical Sciences/Differential Diagnosis etc. followed by taking Clinical training in Out Patient Departments of Hospitals/Clinics.

The consumer thinking that Homeopathy is the safest treatment and can even be taken as self medication by them is wrong. It is true that most of the Homeopathic medicines are so highly diluted that if they do not treat the ailment may not cause any harm and if there is slight aggravation then it may be got anti-doted by some well known Homeopathic Medicines like Nux Vomica, Camphor etc. Homeopathy medicines selected from the internet, without the prescription from the qualified Homeopaths, may cause unnecessary aggravation and even harm the patient in some cases and also if not well chosen, may cause even casualties, for which the people stands themselves accountable for self diagnosis and self prescribing. One day one gentleman came to my Clinic cum Dispensary just to buy a medicine and when asked to wait for sometime, as I was with a patient, got panicky. I called him in and he answered, when I asked about the prescription, that he has taken the name of the medicine from internet and when I questioned the accuracy, he said, “Doctor, a time will come when it will not be required to go to a doctor, as the medicines would just be a click away with the internet.”

Most of the developed countries like Canada and U.S.A. are facing acute shortage of Conventional Doctors and Nurses. So there is a great pressure on the health care system and the consumers opt immediately to try the alternative system of medicine which is booming by the availability of OTC Natural/homeoapthic remedies in health stores, Natural Herbal/homeopathic counters in big Grocery chains. However these locations sell only low potency/complex homeopathic remedies as permitted under the law. For a wider range of Homeopathic remedies the clients have to look for a specified Drug Store or Clinic which make available the complete range of Homeopathic remedies on demand.

This is the trend what we are looking at our present day medical practice as we are in age of E-medicine and Tele- medicine which is o.k. as they are monitored by Family Health Care teams consisting of Conventional Doctors/Nurses etc But most of the people who want a alternative treatment and uses internet surfing/prescribing, the system will not work well as it will further burden the present day health care system already facing a challenge to deal with the rise in Chronic Diseases etc. Integration of Alternative System of Medicine can only reduce the shortage of Doctors by adding Homeopaths, TCM Doctors, Yoga therapists, Ayurveds/ Naturopaths, etc., thus restoring the confidence of the Patients in the Health Care System. The patients will then have an official choice to try alternatives from the reliable sources of Health Care Providers and stop their indulgence on internet way of getting Alternative (including homeopathic) medicines/treatment. Ontario is the first province in Canada who has already started experimenting with this concept in order to make up its health care system stronger. It is a positive sign of introducing innovation for the betterment of the health care services to the community. This will encourage the patients to consult the variety of Alternative Medicine Doctors ( belong to Regulated Professions only) of their choice who(the doctors) will be able to assess and enjoy the inter-professional relations through integration with the main stream health care system and its impact will be felt positively even before the present global economical conditions stabilizes. Recent studies show that Homeopathic treatment is so much cost effective that it can save billion of dollars in the Health Care Spending.

After having returned from a Community Health Board meeting where I was updated about the measures taken by the Government to deal with the recent outbreak of Swine flue in Mexico, having spread to USA and now to Canada, I got a call from one of my patients from New York, in my Clinic, who spoke in a panic about suggesting some Homeopathic preventive for this new disease which has caused World Alert. The patient informed me about the closure of her child’s school on account of a influenza case noted by the school. I have been reading various Health updates in this regard and have not taken this so seriously until on reading the current news in daily news papers and listening to the news channels while driving. After having done some research on the signs and symptoms of this Swine flue, I told my patient in New York to buy a homeopathic medicine from the nearest drug store and take the medicine as preventive, as per instructions. While doing so I always advise my patients to keep in touch with their family physicians if they notice any noticeable signs/symptoms. This is how we work in India where Homeopathy has been practiced in in the  integrated health care system and we have best  inter-professional relations.

The patient called me after 15 minutes and informed that the drug store who sells the prescribed homeopathic medicine have refused her to sell the same on the context that the homeopathic medicine asked for has not yet proved to be preventive for the Swine flue and despite various requests refused to sell the medicine.  I had then given her new telephone contact for a well known homeopathic chain to procure the said medicine to whom I am known.  It was therefore a shock for me to know how the pharmacies tries to control the drugs with a view to push the sale of the profitable conventional anti viral drugs which are kept in their  stock to prevent and  treat the Swine flue,  in case of its outbreak. As per latest news, besides other countries, USA have already stock piled the antiviral drugs and in Canada there are 55 million doses of anti-viral drugs stockpiled with another 12 million doses accessible to use them in the event of outbreak. In some countries the stockpiling these conventional drugs have even given hope of some economic boost which can only be achieved by selling them to the consumers. But as the world is going through the global recession, the help of Homeopathy would definitely offer a very cost effective and safe treatment to combat the pandemic as it has shown in the past.

Homeopathy has been around for more than 200 years, the founder was a German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) who had great success in treating epidemics of scarlet fever Villages treated with his prophylactics entirely escaped dreaded epidemics, including the plague. The Journal of the American Institute for homeopathy in May 1921 reported the success of the homeopathic approach in the flu epidemic. A Dr McCann, from Dayton, Ohio reported that 24,000 cases of flu treated allopathically had a mortality rate of 28.2 per cent while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05 per cent. The most common remedy which were used during this epidemic were Gelsemium, with occasional cases needing Bryonia. [http://www.hpathy.com/papersnew/winston-homeopathy-epidemics.asp] 

Homeopathy is a system of medicine which is based on the principle of “symptom similarity” i.e. it treats the patient with a medicine which is capable of producing similar symptoms when given to a healthy human being. One of the merits of the Homeopathy is that even a new or unknown disease can be correctly and successfully treated when the symptoms of the disease are unknown. This happened in case of Asiatic Cholera, when Dr. Hahnemann without having seen or treated a single case of cholera mentioned the remedies that would be useful and his statements were subsequently verified. The same is verified from our day to day Clinical Experience. Homeopathy is the 2^nd largest system of medicines in the world as per W.H.O. Looking at its efficacy and high demand, the Government of Ontario have since already initiated the process of re-regulating Homeopathy vide Homeopathy Act, 2007.

For more information on the updates of the Swine Flue in Ontario, please go the following link: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/updates/archives/hu_09/swine_flu.html

The World Health Organization has since declared that the Swine Flue is on its way in becoming pandemic, if not checked and that it could take four to six months before the first batch of vaccines are available but some anti-viral drugs (which have been stock-piled by many countries- Tami flue & Relenza, do work once someone is sick.

Signs & Symptoms of Swine flue(influenza)

The symptoms of Swine flue in people appears to be similar to the symptoms of regular human influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some patients with Swine flue also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. However the Symptoms of Swine flue may include all or some of the following symptoms:-

- fever – Runny nose – Coughing – Sore throat – Muscle aches- Lethargy – Nausea – Vomiting

- Lack of  appetite – Diarrhea

Complications of Swine Flue: Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Sinus Infections, Ear Infections, Death.

Those at higher risk of catching Swine flue are :

• Patients under 5 or over 50 years old
• Children and adolescents on long-term aspirin therapy who might be at risk for Reye syndrome after flu virus infection
• Pregnant women
• Adults and children with underlying comorbidites.
• Adults and children who have immuno-suppression, including that caused by medications or by HIV
• Residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities

[However, deaths from the current H1N1 outbreak in Mexico suggest that the virus attacks younger adults, possibly because of exaggerated immune response. But the past epidemics and pandemics of flue have shown that during pandemics most people that are affected are health young adults,]

Conventional Treatment of Swine Flu

Swine Flu Vaccination / Swine Flu Shot

The best way to keep the disease from spreading is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent hand washing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well and reporting to the family physician.

We, homeopaths should therefore, brace up to take up the challenge to deal with this impending pandemic and reveal evidence based homeopathic cure in such cases. 

Homeopathic Remedies for Swine Flue.

Some homeopaths have suggested the names of the Medicines which would be effective in dealing with the present Swine flue and they are : Arsenicum Album, Canthraris, Phosphorus , Cuprum-met, Camphora, Veratrum-Album, Ipecac or Carbo Veg. However, Homeopathic remedies need strict individualization and are given as specifically prepared, non-toxic, micro-dose homeopathic potencies. Consult a qualified homeopath before taking any homeopathic remedy for Swine flu / influenza.

Past flu pandemics

While receiving “Hahnemann Award 2008” from the Chairman of Delhi Board of Homeopathic System of Medicine, New Delhi, in Toronto,  during the 2nd International Homeopathic Conference,  my eyes filled up with tears.