From: "Santosh Helekar" <chimbel...@yahoo.com>
--- On Mon, 7/13/09, isouza <icso...@sancharnet.in> wrote:
***I am reading this type of "nice articles" from
'allopathic' surgeons and physicians, but it is difficult to
"believe" them. Have they studied homeopathy, practised the
principles and compared with 'allopathy', as Dr.S.Chander
Madan, for example, has done for 30 years?
Edzard Ernst, one of the authors of this nice article is the world's first
professor of Complementary Medicine at University of Exeter. Unlike S.
Chander Madan, he was formally trained in homeopathy, and practiced it for
several years in a homeopathic hospital in Germany.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826531.400-interview-the-complementary-medicine-detective.html?full=true&print=true
***Edzard Ernst cannot speak for all homeopathic practitioners. His
"opinion" is being contradicted by everyday practice of thousands and
thousands of homeopathic practitioners around the globe. If for acute cases
sometimes 'allopathic' analgesics or bronchodilators/inhalers are used as
S.O.S., it does not defeat homeopathy. Allopathy cannot cure asthma, whereas
homeopathy can. This only enhances our statement that "all medical systems
should cooperate for the health welfare". In surgical cases, sometimes
surgery can be avoided through homeopathic drugs (for example, in cysts and
fibroids), though surgery is a must according to the 'allopathic'
practitioners. Wrist ganglion can be cured with homeopathic drugs only,
without surgery. Homeopathy can treat with success gynecological cases where
'allopathy' would prescribe hormonal drugs with serious side-effects.
Homeopathy can help in nephropathy. This is clear for Dr.S.Chander Madan,
but not for Dr.Edzard Ernst... who is not a true homeopath, inspite of his
title. Homeopathy requires an individualised treatment. Therefore, patients
cannot be subjected to double-blind trials. There are "formally trained"
'allopaths' who are not sucessful, so also there are "formally trained"
homeopaths who do not practise homeopathy and are not successful...
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
'The discrepancy between experience and evidence is easy to explain.
People
may benefit from the encounter with the practitioner and not from the
remedy; they might as well be given a placebo. That's very upsetting for a
homeopath but it is nevertheless true. Many alternative practitioners
develop an excellent relationship with their patients, and this helps to
maximise the placebo effect of an otherwise useless treatment. Having said
that, I believe the routine use of placebos is unacceptable for several
reasons. Doctors should never lie to their patients, for instance; it would
lead to a widespread culture of deception in medicine.
***People 'believe' more in 'allopathic' physicians than on 'homeopathic'
practitioners, yet the truth lies somewhere else. I repeat: All systems are
needed.
The physicians should be honest. There are 'allopathic' doctors who are
taking with success homeopathic drugs for asthma. There are some, perhaps, a
few, who reccommend it to their patients.
But the real reason, I have come to conclude, is that people are being
lied
to. Practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) often fail
to explain what the evidence shows and does not show. It is a triumph of
advertising over rationality: many of the 40 million or so websites on
alternative medicine promote outrageous lies. People seem quite gullible,
and the situation is not helped by high-profile supporters of CAM.
***How can we deceive them? All scientific lab tests do prove it.
Mainstream medicine is not always transparent, but complementary medicine
is
several degrees more murky. You don't have the big financial interests, it's
not big drug firms that are hiding data. Instead, it's the many people who
are obsessed with their conviction that the acupuncture needle is a panacea
or that homeopathy has to be good for you, and if the trial data doesn't
support it there must be something wrong with the trial. Plenty of negative
studies of alternative treatments don't see the light of day.
***More work should be done. More financial support should be given to all
so-called 'alternative' therapies... Accupuncture is not a panacea, neither
'allopathy' is.... But Dr.Edzard Ernst himself has found 5 per cent success
in accupuncture and 'herbal remedies". Therefore, CAM is valid at least for
a few cases... Homeopathy has been successful in his own family for so many
diseases, except for "kidney colic"... which requires special drugs.
Once when I had a kidney colic as a young boy, which I remember as being
immensely painful, he gave me conventional painkillers without hesitation;
there was no fumbling around with homeopathic alternatives.
Science taught me foremost is to apply critical thinking to everything I
do".
***Let us apply "critical thinking" while passing a verdict on homeopathy
and other medical systems...
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
