The Role of Homeopathy in Solving Public Health Problems
We wanted to contribute a nice presentation as a translation into Turkish so that you can see what kind of interest there is about homeopathy outside of our country. You can visit this page as the original source.
Hélène Renoux MD, Chair of the European Committee for Homeopathy (ECH) and Société savante d’homéopathie (SSH), discusses the various ways homeopathy can and should meet the needs of society.
Humane Homeopathy Organization (H2O) online symposium – presentation on 16 October 2020 by Hélène Renoux MD, President of the European Committee of Homeopathy (ECH) and Société savante d’homeopathie (SSH)
Abstract :
Current environmental and economic challenges are causing us to reconsider current paradigms in medicine and public health and accept the holistic paradigm as a necessary evolution.
Antimicrobial resistance, severe environmental pollution, global economic crisis are facts that will not change until we find tailored solutions to combat them. And now the Covid 19 crisis is making the situation worse.
Complementary and alternative medicine, generally speaking, and homeopathy in particular, has some solutions to offer and should be considered and approved by our health authorities. WHO has already prepared an ambitious strategy plan for this.
This presentation aims to explain the added value and impact that homeopathy can have in the future healthcare system. It also highlights the changes that need to be made in its promotion and presentation to achieve this goal.
Keywords:
Homeopathy – Public health issues – antimicrobial resistance – environmental crisis – Covid crisis
Introduction : Current Situation of Homeopathy in Europe
Homeopathy is an important medical system that already exists in the world. In Europe, 29% of the population uses homeopathy for daily health care [1] The practice of homeopathy is regulated differently in different European countries. In some countries the government is responsible for overseeing implementation, in others governments have delegated this oversight to national orders.
Some countries allow non-medical homeopaths to practice, while others limit this practice to medical practitioners only[2]. European medical practitioners can now benefit from a European standard that defines the expected services and training they must fulfill to justify their additional qualification in homeopathy.
This standard is a voluntary regulation that does not invalidate the laws when it exists and can fill the gap when it is missing[3]. Homeopathic medicinal products are regulated by the European Directive 2001/83 EC, which ensures equal quality and safety throughout the continent [4].
At the international level, the World Health Organization has published a strategic plan that aims to increase the integration and promotion of complementary and alternative medicines for the benefit of patients’ rights and safety[5].
Despite the many oppositions we face across the continent, this is the global framework within which homeopathy must exist and reach its full potential.
Homeopathy and Major Public Health Issues
antimicrobial resistance
As reported by WHO (World Health Organization) [6], antimicrobial overuse is responsible for the increased resistance of bacterial strains to current antibiotics.
For many bacterial diseases such as tuberculosis, some pneumonias and sepsis, antibiotics are no longer effective and we cannot cure them. This explains why deadly infections are re-emerging, and as before the age of antibiotics, we may fear to see more of them in the years to come.
This is why the World Health Assembly decided in 2015 to approve an international action plan aimed at raising awareness on this issue, reducing the incidence of infections and optimizing antibiotic use among member states. Leaders attending the United Nations General Assembly in 2016 pledged to coordinate their actions against antimicrobial resistance in relation to human health, as well as animal health and agriculture[7]
In fact, all homeopathic practitioners have long known that their treatments are effective against infections and help shorten recovery time for their patients, human and animal patients, pets or livestock.
Personalized treatments used by qualified homeopaths are particularly effective. But due to the skepticism of some colleagues and the stringent criteria of current Evidence-Based Medicine, it becomes necessary to formalize this knowledge with reliable and repeatable evidence. This was done by some of our more prominent researchers during the last ECH conference held in Paris in November 2019, which you can read now at La Revue d’Homéopathie [8]
Prejudiced debates have jeopardized exchanges and still impede the dissemination of quality information in the scientific and medical community. But environmental and public health concerns are so great that it’s our duty to get past these fights.
They are open-minded by taking the time to consider the arguments and assets of homeopathy.
Covid 19 crisis
Since the beginning of the Covid crisis, homeopathic doctors have been with their patients. The homeopathic approach, based on symptoms and not physiopathological assumptions, fits the situation very well. We simply observe accurately what patients are going through and do our best to relieve their suffering.
That’s why we noticed encouraging results that were shared informally in our internal networks. Advice on preventive treatment initiatives and successful prescriptions circulates among us. Later it became clear that there was a need to organize this data collection to make it usable.
The European Committee of Homeopathy (ECH) and Liga Medicorum Homoeopathica Internationalis (LMHI) decided to cooperate for this purpose and identified 3 main projects covering the main objectives of such a collection.
Lex Rutten, a Dutch epidemiologist, has launched a prognostic factor research based on cases of Covid 19 treated with homeopathy, with the most successful prescribed homeopathic remedies and more specific symptoms that can be included in an application for lay people to use. .[13]
Dutch epidemiologist Robbert van Haselen also developed with the software ‘Vithoulkas Compass’ another data collection of Covid cases successfully treated with homeopathy, quality criteria for these cases based on HomCase Care guidelines [14]
The Cliificol program, developed by Carlo Rezzani and colleagues and originally based on Radar software, also launched the Cliificol Covid project. The Cliificol Covid project aims to collect Covid cases treated by homeopaths, whether successful or not, to reflect the reality of the situation.(15)
Thanks to these studies, we can then have a faithful picture of the input of homeopathy and the involvement of homeopaths during the pandemic. But more ambitious goals can be envisioned.
We can already observe which drugs give results according to the evolution of prescriptions that can provide information about possible mutations of the virus(s), and we can even follow the change of symptomatology in time and space.
The ultimate goal would be to identify one or more types of epidemius remedies to facilitate prescriptions, although the volatile aspect of symptoms makes this really difficult.
The lack of accepted effective treatment for Covid 19 gives us the right to apply our symptomatic medicines to care for our patients. The future will teach us a lot about the importance of this approach.
Non-Communicable Diseases
They are also responsible for a high death rate, and traditional medicine often fails to stop them. Cancer is a particularly important public health problem.
A new case of cancer is diagnosed every 9 seconds in the EU. It is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease and places a huge strain on our health and social systems, puts pressure on government budgets and negatively impacts the productivity and growth of the economy, including a healthy workforce.
The fight against cancer is fundamental to Europe’s future. By 2035, cancer cases will double, and an estimated 40% of the population will experience cancer at some point in their lives. But at the same time, 40% of all cancers can be prevented if we apply what we already know. This is also the rationale for the EU Cancer Relief Plan launched by the European Commission in February 2019 (it is remarkable that economic issues are considered before human needs).
CAM and homeopathy in between has something to offer on two levels
We now have sufficient evidence to state that homeopathy is highly suitable as a supportive therapy in oncology.[16] Many centers across Europe offer such services, and fruitful collaboration with oncologists has shown that through homeopathy, patients can benefit from traditional treatments with fewer side effects and better outcomes.
We have less convincing evidence of homeopathy’s curative effect on cancer, but the Banerji protocols have certainly shed some light on this possibility, which requires further research.
Climate change and environmental problems
They’re becoming recurring concerns, and our young people ask us why we haven’t prepared for them a healthy, or at least livable and sustainable world. Homeopathy can offer interesting alternatives to environmentally toxic drugs when we know that all rivers in the world are contaminated with hormones and antibiotics [18]. This illustrates the necessity of seeking alternative and viable solutions, such as homeopathy.
The same considerations apply in agriculture, where agrohomeopathy is a way out of the deadly ballet of pesticides [19]
The Economic Crisis also becomes a health issue that fosters the spread of communicable diseases and poverty-related diseases when most of the advanced medicines are no longer affordable by a large part of the population. In this respect, the cost-effectiveness of homeopathy is a relevant issue.