H-WAVE (HOMEOPATHY)

New Drug Provings

2011-08-05T01:06:00.000-07:00

If you see the history of drug provings in Homoeopathy, it was quite brisk from the time of its inception with Hahnemann,and his followers. The net result was vast and voluminous materia medicas of Homoeopathic medicines.

Have we now reached our saturation point or are more efforts required to induct newer medicines? There are sporadic efforts even now which lack a systematic approach, as far as new drug provings are concerned, in my opinion.

Imagine what can be the result of our sincerest efforts when searching and then selecting a true similimum in cases that are out of the current Materia medicas? In all such cases we will never be able to reach the best selection for the required medicine from out of existing MMS.

Therefore I personally feel that we have to exert systematic efforts to add more medicines, after completed provings, in order to deal with 21st century diseases like HIV and advance stages of caricinoma etc.

Historical Homoeopathic Book by Ruddock

2011-08-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

This book by Dr. H. Ruddock, MD " Homoeopathic treatment for infant and children" was published in 1873 in London. It is quite amusing to find such old editions. I am providing this information to my fellow Homoeopaths, just for their academic interest.

HYPOTENSION

2011-07-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

Hypotension can be more fatal in certain circumstances than even hypertension. So we homoeopaths have to be very cautious in cases of severe hypotension.

Causes of Hypotension differ depending on whether symptoms are acute or chronic.

The most common causes of acute orthostatic hypotension include

Hypovolemia
Allopathic Drugs
Prolonged bed rest
Adrenal insufficiency

The most common causes of chronic orthostatic hypotension include

Age-related changes in BP regulation
Allopathic Drugs
Autonomic dysfunction

Postprandial orthostatic hypotension is also common. It may be caused by the insulin response to high-carbohydrate meals and blood pooling in the GI tract; this condition is worsened by alcohol intake.

As all of us know, homoeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. Therefore homoeopathic medicines for cases of hypotension must be selected after a full individualising, full lab examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution etc.

The most commonly indicated homoeopathic medicines in low blood pressure are:

Carbo-veg, Phos, Sepia, Thyroidinum, Baryta-mur, Aconite, Aranea, Cactus, Curare, Gelsemium, Halo, Histamine, Lachesis, Lyco, Naja, Rauwolfia, Reserprine, Visc., Radium, Theridion, Oleander, Laurocrasis, Acid flour, Adrenalin, Ars alb, Aurum mur, Bartya carb, Bryonia, Crataegus, China, Conium, Ferrum met, lycopus, Nat mur, Pulsatilla.

Personally I am of the opinion that homeopathic therapeutic carries little value and we must select the remedy as per the rules stated above.

When I say Homeopathic therapeutics, I want to say that the normal tendency of claiming that the Aconite, Bryonia, Belladonna, China etc are medicines for fever is an Allopathic way of thinking. I don't believe in this. I am of the firm opinion, that each individual case as per totality will decide the medicine and not these suggested therapeutics. I hope it clarifies my stand.

FOR THE STUDENTS OF HOMEOPATHY

2011-06-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

In the orthodox medical parlance, clinical entities of any origin, find its medical name as a specific disease, like Dyspepsia, Hemicranias, Neuralgias , Rheumatic heart disease, CHF( chronic heart failure), Gangrene, Pneumonia, URC (upper respiratory catarrh), PBC (Primary biliary cirrhosis), IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome) OA (Osteoarthritis) UC (ulcerative colitis), so on and so forth.

This traditional parlance and concepts about illness prevail so relentlessly upon the mind of ordinary student that it becomes too difficult to carry them to the fundamental ideas and concepts of Homeopathic therapeutics. And the maxim, “Treat the patient and not the disease” ever remain an empty slogan. Whole of their attention and efforts remain focused towards getting rid of these entities, called disease, and caring a little for the patient as an individual.

Many of the students, while treating, simple diseases like constipation, acne, bronchitis, on the basis of each one of these as a specific disease, struggle to find some positive results with homeopathic medicines, they change from one medicine to another still to another and majority of the time, without any result. They lose their confidence; rather some of them really get disappointed, and start having doubts. I don’t blame them, since they were taught like that only.

In order to practice Homeopathy, we must come out of this vicious circle. Yes, we are required to diagnose the disease for the purpose of prognosis and elimination of common symptoms, but it doesn’t carry much value in homeopathic therapeutic diagnosis. We must understand the concept of the disease, as explained in Organon.

And Organon explained to us:

1. At the outset, true dynamic disease must be clearly distinguished from the disorders which are due to any maintaining cause, which may be physical, chemical, physiological, or psychological. In such cases the vital force may be secondarily affected, but should revert to normal soon after
the maintaining cause is removed.

2.The different clinical entities, which are named as so many diseases-are not really themselves diseases, but are effects of disease and may constitute some part of the totality of symptoms, by which any diseased condition of the vital force manifests itself.

3.The Homeopathic treatment must never be directed to any of these isolated clinical entities, but to the whole totality of symptoms, individualized by some peculiar , characteristic symptoms by which a particular diseased condition of the vital force of the individual patient manifests itself.

Conclusion: We must understand Disease, cure, recovery, palliation, as per our science, rather than orthodox medical practices. Remember, we can never practice Homeopathy, Allopathic way.

Obesity Facts and figures WHO

2011-05-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

The challenge of obesity

The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008. According to country estimates for 2008, over 50% of both men and women in the WHO European Region were overweight, and roughly 23% of women and 20% of men were obese.
Based on the latest estimates in European Union countries, overweight affects 30-70% and obesity affects 10-30% of adults.
Estimates of the number of overweight infants and children in the WHO European Region rose steadily from 1990 to 2008. (1) Over 60% of children who are overweight before puberty will be overweight in early adulthood. Childhood obesity is strongly associated with risk factors for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, orthopaedic problems, mental disorders, underachievement in school and lower self-esteem.

Physical activity and diet

Participation in 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week (or equivalent) is estimated to reduce the risk of ischaemic heart disease by approximately 30%, the risk of diabetes by 27%, and the risk of breast and colon cancer by 21–25%. Physical activity also lowers the risk of stroke, hypertension and depression.
Country estimates of 2008 revealed that approximately 35% of all people in the WHO European Region are insufficiently physically active. Men were more active than women, particularly in high-income countries, where nearly every second woman was insufﬁciently physically active. The increased automation of work and other aspects of life in higher-income countries is a likely determinant of insufﬁcient physical activity.
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2005/2006 survey of countries in the WHO European Region and North America found that girls across all countries and age groups report being less active than boys, with the gender gap increasing with age. The survey found that in general 15-year-olds (average 16%) were less likely to report meeting the physical activity guidelines than 11-year-olds (average 26%) in the majority of countries. Only 22% of 11-year-old girls report engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for at least 60 minutes per day. For boys, the figure is 30%.

Socioeconomic status

Family afﬂuence was signiﬁcantly associated with overweight or obesity in around half of the countries surveyed in the HBSC study: those from lower afﬂuence families were more likely to be overweight or obese. This pattern was strongest in western Europe.
A daily breakfast and at least daily fruit consumption are seen as two of the most important healthy eating habits. In the HBSC study, eating breakfast daily was signiﬁcantly associated with higher family afﬂuence in the majority of countries for boys and over half for girls. Similarly, low family afﬂuence was signiﬁcantly associated with lower levels of fruit consumption among boys and girls in the majority of countries surveyed.

Prevention

WHO’s recommendations for preventing and managing obesity emphasize the need for early prevention to ensure lifelong healthy eating and physical activity patterns and the need for coordinated partnerships involving different government sectors, communities, the mass media and the private sector to ensure that diet and everyday levels of physical activity can be changed effectively and sustainably.

Spiritual Health And Homeopathy

2011-05-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

In Health

In the healthy condition of a person, the vital force, the dynamis that animates the material body (organism), rules with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, mind can freely employ this living healthy instrument for the higher purpose( Organon Aphorism 9)

Spirituality

Spirit is unique to each individual. Our “spirit” usually refers to the deepest part of us, the part that lets us make meaning of our world. Our spirit provide us with the revealing sense of who we are, why we are here and what our purpose for living is. It is that innermost part of us that allow us to gain strength and hope.

Finding Meaning

Spiritual wellness may not be something that we think much of, yet its impact on our life is unavoidable. The basis of spirituality is discovering a sense of meaningfulness in our life and coming to know that we have a purpose to fulfill.

For some, spirituality may be equated with traditional religions such as Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or Buddhism. For others, it may mean growing in your personal relationships with others, or through being at peace with nature. Spirituality is the way you find meaning, hope, comfort and inner peace in your life. Many people find spirituality through religion. Some find it through music, art or a connection with nature. Others find it in their values and principles.

Body, Mind, Spirit

No one really knows for sure how spirituality is related to health. However, it seems that the body, mind and spirit are connected. The health of any one of these elements seems to affect the health of the others. In Homeopathy, we understand that:

“DISEASE IS NOTHING BUT A DYNAMIC DERANGEMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL, SELF ACTING (automatic) ALL PERVADING VITAL FORCE.”

Homeopathy

If we focus on the fundamental peculiarities of homeopathy and its differences from conventional, allopathic medicine, then homeopathy differs in it's understanding as to the goal of treatment. Homeopathy does not address or seek to eliminate physical signs and symptoms but instead understands them to be expressions of the vital force.

In homeopathy we are not trying to manipulate physiology, change high fever to low, eliminate pain, swelling or redness. We are not even trying to eliminate anger, anxiety or sadness. Our ideal is "to restore health rapidly, gently, permanently." Therefore, to achieve complete health harmony, we don’t have any other alternative, except Homeopathy.

Materia Medica and Homeopathy

2011-05-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

Materia Medica and Homeopathy

Application of Homeopathy in practice is identical to Indian classical music where each raga carries definite notes and sequence (Materia Medica) and it is mathematical in nature (Organon), yet each of the performer creates the ragas, artistically with in the sphere of those notes, which is absolutely governed by the laws of rhythm and notes.Even the slightest deviation will change the color of that Raga. It is an art, but governed by certain stringent laws.

I will like us to dwell on the teachings of the Masters, on this subject

W.Boereick

"Homœopathy is essentially not only many-sided but all-sided. She investigates the action of all substances, whether articles of diet, beverages, condiments, drugs or poisons. She investigates their action on the healthy, the sick, animals and plants. She gives; a new interpretation to that ancient, oft quoted saying of Paul, Prove all things--a new meaning, a new application that acts universally. Elimination of the useless may gradually take place with the growth of accurate physiological and pathological knowledge."

Kent

The Materia Medica can be learned by careful study and by using it. It can be understood but not memorized. All who would memorize the Materia Medica must ignominiously fail. To be constantly at hand, it must be constantly and correctly used. The continuous study of the Materia Medica by the aid of a full repertory for comparison is the only means of continuing in a good working knowledge. To learn the Materia Medica, one must master Hahnemann's Organon, after which the symptomatology and the Organon go "hand in hand." The Organon, the symptomatology, and a full repertory must be the constant reference books, if careful homeopathic prescribing is to be attained and maintained.

Allen H.C.

The life-work of the student of the homoeopathic Materia Medica is one of constant comparison and differentiation. He must compare the pathogenesis of a remedy with the recorded anamnesis of the patient; he must differentiate the apparently similar symptoms of two or more medicinal agents in order to select the similimum.

Farrington

What you want to know is exactly what this medicine will do. What would you think of a machinist who undertook to build a machine when he did not know how the, parts fitted together? what would you think of a physician who does not know the use of the tools he is about to employ ? You now intend to try the effects of this drug on some healthy person or persons. Will it produce alterations in the function or the nutrition of the body or of its organs? If so a symptom or symptoms will be the result. Symptoms, then, are indications of alterations in the functions or the nutrition of a part or of parts of the body. I have been accused of stepping down from the lofty heights of pure homeopathy and dressing myself in physiological livery. The statement made against me is that we cannot know what changes are taking place except through symptoms, therefore if one begins to talk about altered tissue, he at once pollutes homeopathy. This is true and it is false. It is true if you take this altered tissue alone. It is not true if you regard this altered tissue as a manifestation of the change in the vital force. I cannot see how there can be a symptom which is not at least the result of a change of function. I do not mean that you must give Bryonia because it acts on serous membranes ; I do not mean that you must give Aconite because it produces dry skin, heat, etc. I do not say that you shall give Belladonna because it produces hyperaemia of the brain and dilatation of the pupil; but I do say that these drugs produce these effects, and if these effects are not alterations in function what are they ? We can know changes in the vital forces only by results, and these results are symptoms.

Dunham

In the exercise of any art which involves the use of tools or implements of any kind, the first condition essential to success is this:

That the scope and limits of the art be clearly defined and well understood, in order that no attempt may be made to exercise the art under circumstances which do not call for it, and which would necessarily preclude success.

A second condition no less essential is a thorough familiarity with the tools or implements of the art; the origin, nature, powers and capabilities of each, and their relations to each other. This knowledge will teach us properly to select our tools according to the work we have to perform.

NASH

To fasten upon the mind of the reader the strongest points in each remedy. Good off-hand prescribing can be done in simple uncomplicated cases if we have fixed in our minds, for ready use, the characteristic symptoms

The elder Lippe was remarkable for such ability.

To try to discourage the disposition to quarrel over Symptomatology and Pathology. Neither can be ruled out, and it is foolish for our school to divide on such a bone of contention. Every symptom has its pathological significance, but we cannot always give it in words; but the fact that it has such meaning is sufficient reason for prescribing on the Symptom or Symptoms without insisting on, or trying to give, the explanation.

C.M.BOGER

Our pathogeneses, in spite of showing many features due to the provers idiosyncracies, the translator’s command of idioms, clinical experiences and misinterpretations, are nevertheless excellent resumes which place the keynotes in their true light, as points of departure only for their abuse distorts natures image and often brings disaster which ends in scepticism or mongrelism. A concise view not only includes the time and order in which symptoms arise, but also the things which modify them—the modalities.

Of course this is not an end, we may add many more from the modern era, also.

Chest Pain As An Acute Emergency

2011-05-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

Chest pain is a most common complaint. Many patients are well aware that it is a warning of potential life-threatening disorders and seek evaluation for minimal symptoms. Other patients, including many with serious disease, minimize or ignore its warnings. Pain perception (both character and severity) varies greatly between individuals as well as between men and women. However described, chest pain should never be dismissed without an explanation of its cause.

The heart, lungs, esophagus, and great vessels provide afferent visceral input through the same thoracic autonomic ganglia. A painful stimulus in these organs is typically perceived as originating in the chest, but because afferent nerve fibers overlap in the dorsal ganglia, thoracic pain may be felt anywhere between the umbilicus and the ear, including the upper extremities.

Painful stimuli from thoracic organs can produce discomfort described as pressure, tearing, gas with the urge to eructate, indigestion, burning, aching, stabbing, and sometimes sharp needle-like pain. When the sensation is visceral in origin, many patients deny they are having pain and insist it is merely “discomfort.”
Etiology
Many disorders produce chest pain or discomfort. These disorders may involve the cardiovascular, GI, pulmonary, neurologic, or musculoskeletal system.
Some disorders are immediately life threatening:

Acute coronary syndromes (acute MI/unstable angina)
Thoracic aortic dissection
Tension pneumothorax
Esophageal rupture
Pulmonary embolism (PE)

Other causes range from serious, potential threats to life to causes that are simply uncomfortable. Often no cause can be confirmed even after full evaluation.
Overall, the most common causes are

Chest wall disorders (ie, those involving muscle, rib, or cartilage)
Pleural disorders
GI disorders (eg, esophageal reflux or spasm, ulcer disease, cholelithiasis)
Idiopathic
Acute coronary syndromes.

Homeopaths are well equipped to take care of such acute emergencies.

The following rubrics can be of great help to take care of the patient’s chest pain:

ACHING: agar., arn., bap., bry., carb-v., chin., cimi., dulc., eup-per., gels., hyd., ign., lach., merc-i-f., nux-v., phyt., rhs-t., ver-v.

ANGINA PECTORIS: amy-n., arn., ars., cact., cimi., cup., glon., kalm., lach., naj., nux-v., ox-ac., spi., spo., tab.

ANXIETY, fearsome: aco., arg-n., arn., ars., aur., borx., bry., calc-c., cam., carb-v., dig., gels., graph., hyd., ign., lyc., nat-m., nit-ac., nux-v., opi., pho., pul., rhs-t., sec-c., sep., spo., stra., sul., ver-a.

BORING, grinding, etc.: arg-n., asa-f., aur., bell., calc-c., colo., dio., hep., lach., merc., mez., plat., plb., pul., ran-b., spi., zin.

CHEST, backward, in: ars., calc-c., caps., carb-v., chel., con., cup., kal-bi., lil-t., lyc., merc., nat-m., sep., spi., sul., ther.

CHEST, internal: aco., ant-t., arn., ars., bry., calc-c., chel., chin., dul., fer-p., iod., ipec., kal-c., lyc., opi., pho., pul., ran-b., rhs-t., sang., seneg., spi., squ., stan., sul.

COMPRESSION, squeezing, pinching, as of a cap: alu., ant-t., berb., cact., carb-v., cocl., colo., graph., ign., men., merc., nat-m., nit-ac., plat., rut., thu., val., verb., zin.

CONGESTION: aco., alo., apis, aur., bell., bry., cact., calc-c., cup., fer-p., gels., glon., lach., nux-v., pho., pul., rhs-t., sep., sul., ver-v.

CONSTRICTION, tight band, gathered together, squeezing: anac., arg-n., ars., bell., cact., carb-ac., carb-v., chel., chin., con., hyo., ign., lach., lyc., merc., nit-ac., nux-v., pho., plat., plb., pul., sil., sul.

HEART, circulation and pulse: aco., ars., aur., bell., bry., cact., calc-c., carb-v., chin., dig., fer-p., glon., iod., kal-c., kalm., lach., lil-t., lycps., naj., nat-m., pho., pul., sep., spi., spo., sul., ver-a., ver-v.

HEAT,PARTIAL, local, etc: aco., apis, ars., bell., bry., calc-c., canth., caps., carb-v., caust., cham., lyc., merc., nux-v., pho., pul., rhs-t., sep., sul., ver-v.

NERVES, nervous patients, etc.: aco., arg-n., asa-f., aur., bell., caus., cham., chin., cimi., cocl., coff., con., cup., fer., ign., iod., kal-p., lach., lil-t., mag-p., merc., mos., nat-m., nit-ac., nux-m., nux-v., pho., pic-ac., pul., sep., sil., tarn-h., ther., val., vib-o., zin.

NEURASTHENIA: agar., ars., calc-c., ign., kal-p., lach., lyc., nat-m., nux-v., pho., pic-ac., sep., sul.

RESTLESSNESS: aco., apis, ars., bell., cham., cimi., cina, fer., hyo., merc., pho., rhs-t., sep., stra., sul., tarn-h., zin.

SHATTERED, or flying into pieces, explosions, etc, as if: aeth., ars., bell., bry., carb-a., coff., dig., glon., mur-ac., nit-ac., nux-v., pul., rhs-t., sil., stan., stap., sul., ver-a.

SPASMODIC or convulsive effects, twitchings, etc.: agar., ars., bell., calc-c., caus., cham., cic., cimi., cina, cup., hyo., ign., ipec., kal-c., lach., mez., nux-v., opi., plat., plb., rhs-t., sep., stan., stra., sul., thu., ver-v., zin.

STERNUM, region of, also throat, etc.: ars., bro., bry., caus., cham., hep., kal-bi., lach., pho., rhs-t., rum., sang., sep., sul.

WEIGHT, as of, a heavy: aco., ars., bar-c., bell., bry., cact., dio., lach., nux-m., nux-v., petr., pho., pul., sep., zin.

Contemporary Abuse of Steroids

2011-04-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

Like antibiotics, steroids are one of the most abused class of drugs in the orthodox medical field .

At one time, they were reserved for the extreme emergency cases. Today, they are being used on the most trivial of conditions. Why? They give the appearance of an instant miracle cure which matches the expectation level of the client..

Steroids mimic the action of the adrenal glands, the body's most powerful regulator of general metabolism. Far from being a wonder drug, steroids cannot cure one single condition. All they do is suppress the body's ability to express a normal response.

The medical community seems to have a particular blind spot about these drugs, refusing to believe that steroids can cause the terrible carnage.

Also the patients who had already consumed steroids, become exteremly difficult cases for Homeopaths to cure, because of it's power to supresss the normal responses of the patient.

We Homeopaths must stop steroid in all such cases, gradually or immediately depending upon the prognosis of the case and commence with the miasmatic treatment.

Understanding Disease

2010-10-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

In order to understand disease, we must know what is health in its real sense.
In the healthy condition of a person, the vital force, the dynamis that animates the material body (organism), rules with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, mind can freely employ this living healthy instrument for the higher purpose( Organon Aphorism 9)

Aphorism 9 must be read along with Aphorism 10, with its footnote.:"
The material Organism, with out the vital force is capable of no sensations, no
function, no self-preservation-----------and the footnote" It is dead and
now only subject to the power of external physical world; it decays, and is
resolved in to its chemical constituents.

The material organism is always in intimate relation with external physical
world, consisting of light, heat, cold, air, water, food materials, various
poisonous materials, various forms of germs, friendly, inimical, or indifferent
etc, etc. .So long the vital force is in full power and rules with unbounded
sway, this external physical world can't affect it. Rather Vital force retains
all the parts of the organism (beginning from its chemical constituents, cells,
tissues, organs) in admirable, harmonious ( i.e. free from all disproportion or
any form of relative excess or deficit in activity or composition or structure
of the any of the constituents of the organism, among themselves or in relation
to any of the constituents of the external world.)Vital operation( i.e.
nutrition, growth, development, reproduction, selective utilization of
environmental factors, elimination of waste products and so on.)

All these sensations and functions, entail some conscious or subconscious sensations, which in a state, of health, reflects, pleasant and congenial feelings. A slightest deviation, if occurred, start indicating or signaling the deviation of these sensations, which in turn get not only expressed in words, but also by various expressions of the whole body, especially the face and the eyes.

However in ideal state of health, the indwelling, mind can freely employ this living healthy instrument for higher purpose of our existence As already mentioned any deviation from the state of health is immediately signaled to the sensations, but in actual life most of these signals are
neglected by the organism, so long as these are not intolerably intense, or
until the condition passes on to the next step of functional disorder or even
structural or constitutional disorders. Following reasons may contribute to
such disorders:

A. Often the disturbances of sensations are too insidious and too mild to draw the notice of consciousness (This happens mostly in sycotic cases)

B. The mind and sensorium are too callous to notice these signals( again a sycotic trend)

C. The environmental factors, or stress and strain of life are so intense that sensorium and mind hardly find any opportunity to notice these signals, and even if noticed, one may not pay any heed to them.

D. Repeated suppression of these sensorial or functional signals, with various forms of palliations, until the signals are blunted and the disease, all the while proceeding further and deeper, effecting
structural/organic changes.

Thus if a thorough check up is made on any person with apparent health, there will always be many indications or signals of disease in emotional plane( Mind), sensorial plane( Nervous system) functional plane ( physiological, immunological etc)structural plane(tissue, organs)
constitutional plane ( biophysical, biochemical)

As no two things are identical in this universe, no two persons can have exactly identical norms of health, so there exists, a wide range for each of the criteria for health, both real and apparent.

Now perhaps we can understand that what disease is. The meaning of the disease has ben expounded in various aphorisms of organon, but primarily in 11 to 16 and 7.

DISEASE IS NOTHING BUT A DYNAMIC DERANGEMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL, SELF ACTING (automatic) ALL PERVADING VITAL FORCE.

It may be caused by dynamic influence of any mobific agent( miasm) and not by any removable exciting or maintaining cause( mechanical, chemical, physical, physiological, psychological etc)

Manifested to the sufferer by various feelings and sensations (subjective symptoms) and to the other persons,( objective symptoms)

Orthodox, school, on the other hand, basing itself on crude pathology, fails to comprehend, dynamis and dynamic activity. Their idea of disease is material constituent of the body, beginning from cells to body fluid to tissues and organs and the changes caused by some living or non-living
external poison, infecting the body. And each set of material changes is given a
disease name .The advocates of orthodox school strive to keep their mind shut
against any prior cause of those material changes and try to explain away the
cause, which makes the offending organism, which had been ineffectively lurking
inside or outside the body of the host, turn active and infest the latter. Various
inflammations or degenerations or ulcerations, excess or deficit growth etc are
taken as actual diseases.

After understanding the disease definition of Homoeopathy, we can very well understand the difference in therapeutic diagnosis of Orthodox school and Homoeopathy. Our prescriptions
are solely based upon subjective and objective symptoms rather than name of the
disease.

M.D. Talks About Homeopathy

2010-10-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

Homeopathy, Science and Scientism

2010-10-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Recovery, Palliation and Cure

2010-09-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

In order to understand what is cure in Homoeopathy, we must understand,the meaning of Recovery and Palliation. It is Homoeopathy alone that makes a sharp, logical and scientific distinction among these terms.

RECOVERY: We all know that a living organism has an inherent tendency to revert to normal balanced equilibrium, in more or less time, after being disturbed by any force. This tendency is manifested in both acute as well as chronic diseases. More in case of acute diseases. Even in chronic diseases,the troublesome manifestations do not remain constant and the same perpetually. There are periods of recrudescence alternating with long or short spells. And this phenomenon of recovery occurs irrespective of any sort of treatment, if not too violently heterogeneous. The Physician may make his claims, yet the patient recovers of his own,even if the Rx was not accurate.

PALLIATION: All of us are very clear on this terminology, which means removal or temporary suspension of any of the manifestations or even the end product of the disease process. This is far from cure, or even natural recovery.

CURE: This term signifies, total and permanent removal of the totality of symptoms. This totality of symptoms, not only includes the present and past symptoms, but also inherited abnormal tendencies and traits. This removal of totality of the system, must be according to an easily comprehensible principle," A LAW OF NATURE". A law, a rule or a theory created by man, if doesn't tally with the law of nature, then it will be difficult to comprehend. So a true art of cure must depend upon a true principle. And such a principle is the sole basis of Homoeopathic therapeutics (Like cure Like).

All these three terms are of utmost significance, in the practice of Homoeopathy.

LIMITATIONS

2010-09-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Homoeopathy has many brilliant cures to it's credit right from the days of Hahnemann. Homoeopathy can boast of producing the stalwartness like Boenninghausen, Kent, Lippe, Guernsey, Allen, Nash, Boger, Clark, Hughes, Burnett and many more. Also, in the modern era, we are having many eminent Homoeopaths, who are rendering their services to the humanity for its better and sound health.

Each day we find many cases being treated successfully by Homoeopaths where conventional methods of treatments failed.

But, unfortunately, even today, all the cases which we take are not completely curable. This is despite our best efforts. What can be reasons for such failures?

There are various factors responsible for this, and some of which are as follows:

1. Extreme weakness of the vitality, which either fail to react or harmfully react to the stimulus of similimum.

2. Lack of therapeutically dependable characteristic symptoms. This again may be due to irreversible weakness or vitiation of the vitality, by the disease itself or due to prolonged inappropriate treatment, disabling the vitality to manifest it's symptoms. Further it may possibly be due to the lack of adequate vigilance and perseverance on the part of the physician.

3. Though we have a vast Materia Medica at our disposal, yet we can't claim it to be complete, we may have to add more remedies, which we don't know today. And perhaps, we could hit the similimum, in case these yet to be discovered remedies were available.

4. Possible lack of genuineness and purity of drugs, or any defect in preparation and storage.

5. Shortcomings on the part of the physician. Viz, lacking in mastering the Principles of Homoeopathy and it's correct application, improper case taking, and allopathic way of thinking while treating the patient, etc.

6. The maintaining causes like unsuitable or adulterated food and drink, unhygienic environments, constant mental tension, worry and anxiety.

Beside these, which relates to true diseases and their cure, there are emergencies, due to physiological, mechanical and other external causes.

You may agree with me that proportion of incurable diseases are fast increasing, and part of it can also be due to unbalanced spiritual, moral, cultural and economic development along with ever increasing contradictions and complexity in the human society.

EXPERIENCE

2010-09-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

How many of us with several years of Homoeopathic practice can boast of gaining real experience in Homoeopathy.Some of us had practised Homoeopathy for more than 30, 40 years,How can we establish that we really gained experience.

Of course some of the Homoeopaths with experience, had carried homoeopathy to new heights.

But unfortunately, some of us continued practising Homoeopathy for decades after decades, but with partial or superficial understanding and application of its principles. These Homoeopaths, may take some symptoms , or may even take pages of symptoms, but hardly ever analyse or evaluate them.

Often lacking in power of observation, and missing the vital individualizing features of the case.Their Rx are based on some partial aspect of the case or on some unimportant common general symptoms, or particular symptoms, which may happen to be most troublesome.

They treat the symptoms only, and the patient as an individual always remains outside their view and grasp.By and large they learn very little from their success and failures in the individual cases dealt by them.This sort of practice is blind and sterile, and has nothing to do with the experience.

As a matter of fact the term theory, practice, and experience are closely interlinked and are mutually complementary.

Theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of
circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; "theories can
incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses"

Practice, if it is to be lively and fruitful, must be scrupulously scientific that is must be animated and guided by theory through the process of deduction.Such conscious and conscientious practice will gradually carry us to the deeper and deeper significance of the theory and widen the scope of the same.

Experience really means a synthesis of the above two--Theory and practice.It will thus be the knowledge resulting from actual observation of facts and events. A wisdom derived from trials.If each case of our practice fails to add something to our knowledge , if it doesn't enrich or improve our grasp on theory and principles, , we are far from gaining an experience, however long we may practice.

TOTALITY OF SYMPTOMS

2010-09-16T01:52:00.000-07:00

Totality of symptoms in Homoeopathy doesn't mean a haphazard conglomeration of all the symptoms of a patient or a drug. It really means a combination of certain group of symptoms in definite settings with a definite back ground and certain individualizing characteristics set appropriately on the symptom complex, so that it can point to the drug having similar peculiar symptom complex.

For drawing a picture of the whole totality of the symptoms, one need not to pay importance to all the symptoms of the patient or drug, but only to those ones with their characteristic peculiarities, which in their proper setting, help to distinguish the case from all others.

The term totality not only refers to patient but equally to a drug also.

The sole feature of the phrase is that it must represent, the outwardly reflected picture of the internal essence of the disease, that is of the affection of vital force.

We should remember that in chronic cases, the present totality, may fail to represent the whole extent of disease and may not point towards curative remedy. In such cases, beside the present guiding symptoms, many accessory symptoms and circumstances of the past and family history, must be included. I order to spot out the curative remedy the fundamental cause or causes are also required to be considered.

HOMOEOPATHIC PHYSICIAN

2010-09-10T23:10:00.000-07:00

A Homoeopathic physician must consider the diseased person as an individual with unique body, mind, soul.This is the basic difference between Homoeopath and all other medical practitioners.

He must select a single remedy, depending upon, the personal totality of the symptoms.

The minimum dose, must be allowed to work unhampered for sufficient period of time.
He must refrain from injecting the medicines/ Drug transmissions etc and only apply the prescribed methods of administering the remedy.

But he, who doesn't care for any of the above aspects and uses medicines or specifics based on nosological names, may not be able to treat patients effectively. And his claim to be a full- fledged Homoeopath may not be in line with Hahnemann’s teachings.

The Physician's only mission is to cure the sick. It may look simple, but unfortunately, it is not so simple. Hahnemann has told us to cure the sick, he never told us to remove any physical or metaphysical substances or one or more symptoms. He expected us to understand the meaning of Sickness, Disease, Symptom and cure.

In the present age, understanding about disease is associated with many types of infections, altered pathology, troublesome symptoms/ symptom groups or any organic derangement ( e.g. Headache, Gastric colic, Paralysis, Skin eruptions, Tumors,Pneumonia, Typhoid etc) and removal of those troublesome symptoms is associated with cure.

A bit deeper thinking will show that none of these are basic disease. All these
are only associated affairs or manifested signs and symptoms of the deranged
organism, according to its own peculiarities and environment.

Therefore disease has no separate existence, independent of the organism. It is
simply a deranged state of the whole organism with its body, mind, and life.
The entire totality of the symptoms is the real manifested image of the
internal derangement or disease. And it is this entire totality of the symptoms
that is the object of the treatment, as well as also the guide.

Cure is nothing but bringing the deranged state to healthy state of body, mind and soul. In the path of cure symptoms will disappear in definite order.

It will be an error to look to any particular symptom, in isolation, however troublesome or dangerous it may look.

In nut shell A homoeopathic physician is one , who considers the diseased person as an unique individual and selects a remedy similar most to the personal totality of the symptoms of the case and use a single remedy,in dynamic form and in minimum dose, allowing it to work for a sufficient time.

All other Physicians, who practice Homeopathy, providing therapeutics measures, depending upon the names of the diseases or for removing the symptoms, may not be justifying the homeopathic way of treating the patients.

Homeopathic and Non Homeopathic Palliative Therapeutics

2010-09-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

As all of us are aware that in certain acute conditions, we have to take recourse to palliative therapeutics. Also it is true that non-homeopathic methods of therapeutics are easier to practice, as it requires much less exercise to select the medicine, because for a given diagnosis, it has a set number of medicines readily available. That is one of the reasons that some of us may be tempted to adopt such short cuts. But, unfortunately, these non-homoeopathic palliations almost invariably disturb the vital force, pushing the prospects of real cure still further.

Physiological doses of such drugs, may eliminate the troublesome symptoms, but ultimately works in the direction of enhancing and prolonging the same symptoms. Purgatives aggravate the constipation, antacids aggravate the acidity of the gastric juices, soporifics aggravate insomnia and so on.

These palliatives take into consideration, one or two distressing symptoms or organ, and medicine is selected on the basis of such symptoms, in order to eliminate the symptoms or to modify the function of that organ. The prolonged use of anti-malarials damage the kidney, analgesics and sedatives depress the nervous system and such complications vary with different formulations. Therefore palliation with non-homoeopathic drugs are more harmful and the suppurations caused by them, may lead to more chronic manifestations.

On the contrary homeopathic palliative therapeutics, are far less harmful and if the remedy is selected correctly may provide an immediate relief to the patient. Practically, if the doses are controlled, it can't cause any harm to the patient and there are no side effects. General conditions of the patient as a rule remains unaffected--rather often get improved.

Sometimes such palliative treatment clears up the picture of the case and many spurious and confusing symptoms are cleared, thus enabling the physician to make the selection of a truly curative remedy. Occasionally, even the palliative remedy may prove to be real curative remedy, giving permanent relief to the patient.

Homoeopathic therapeutics as such, has one difficulty and sometimes that difficulty becomes insuperable--that is finding out the similar drug, without which homoeopathy is absolutely useless. This difficulty in turn give rise to over drugged, incurable cases, and it is very difficult to get true drug picture of the patient who moves from one homoeopathic doctor to another. Fortunately not all incurable cases are of this type and it is our responsibility to tackle all such cases in the best possible manner.

Looking to the above it is certainly preferable to lay emphasis on the selection of curative remedies, unless and until we are forced to take recourse to the homeopathic way of palliation, in the cases, which requires a palliative remedy, as in cases of cancer, acute pains, acute emergencies, and some of the other conditions.

Non Homeopathic palliative methods may be avoided, as far as possible.

Allergies and Heart disease

2010-08-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

Common allergies that bring on wheezing, sneezing and watery eyes could be next to join the list of factors linked to heart disease, suggests a large new study.

However, the researchers stress that the findings do not prove that allergies actually cause heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.

Common allergies that bring on wheezing, sneezing and watery eyes could be next to join the list of factors linked to heart disease, suggests a large new study.

However, the researchers stress that the findings do not prove that allergies actually cause heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.

To look for ties between common allergic symptoms and heart disease, Dr. Jongoh Kim of Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and colleagues analyzed data on more than 8,600 adults aged 20 or older who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted between 1988 and 1994.

They found that common allergies and heart disease frequently paired up.

Eighteen percent of the adults reported wheezing and 46 percent suffered bouts of a stuffy nose or itchy and watery eyes -- a combination of allergic symptoms known as rhinoconjunctivitis.

Heart disease was present in 6 percent of the adults overall. It was found in 13 percent of wheezing cases, 5 percent of rhinoconjunctivitis cases and 4 percent of people without any allergic symptoms.

After adjusting for other related factors, such as age and asthma, there was a 2.6-fold increased risk of heart disease with wheezing and a 40 percent increased risk with rhinoconjunctivitis, compared to no allergies. The association was mainly seen in women younger than age of 50.

Kim suggests that the intermittent inflammation that comes with allergies may lead to the thickening of artery walls, and eventually heart disease. It could also be that some people simply carry genes that are linked to the development of both allergies and heart disease, Kim added.

But given the nature of the study, the researchers are not yet able to say if allergies truly have a role to play in the development of heart disease.

Much more study is needed to "clearly see" whether there is a cause and effect relationship, Kim said. "And even if there is a cause and effect, it is not clear whether treating allergic disease can reduce the risk," Kim noted.

Dr. Carlos Iribarren, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, who was not involved in the study, said: "Because common allergic symptoms are highly prevalent in asthma, these findings are consistent with prior research conducted at Kaiser Permanente showing a significant association between self-report of asthma and future risk of coronary disease, particularly among women."

But he cautioned, in an email to Reuters Health, against jumping to any "premature conclusion, consumer-level advice or public health recommendation based on these findings."

Iribarren also noted that study subjects with allergy (particularly wheezing) had a greater burden of heart disease risk factors (for example, smoking, obesity, high blood pressure), compared with allergy-free subjects. Therefore, "allergists, internists and cardiologists should be made aware of this link and intensify cardiovascular risk profile assessment and modification among patients presenting with allergy."

Dr. Viola Vaccarino, of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, told Reuters Health that the current findings also fit with studies she and her colleagues have done, "finding of an association of chronic inflammatory conditions such as asthma and other allergic conditions with coronary disease in women but not in men."

"Young women may have a stronger inflammatory response due to allergic conditions than men, perhaps due to estrogens," explained Vaccarino, who was also not involved in the current study.

It's also possible, she said, that "people with history of coronary heart disease are sicker with respiratory symptoms just because they have coronary heart disease and not vice-versa."

"I really wouldn't draw any strong message from this study," said Vaccarino. "I would not alarm the public with the news that common allergic symptoms (other than asthma) increase the risk of coronary heart disease in women, based on this study."

SOURCE ; REUTER health

HOMEOPATHY AND THE WORLD

2010-08-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Numerous surveys over the past 150 plus years have confirmed that people who seek homeopathic treatment tend to be considerably more educated than those who don't (1). What is not as well known is the fact that homeopathic medicine is the leading "alternative" treatment used by physicians in Europe...and growing numbers of the citizenry.

And despite homeopathy's impressive popularity in Europe, it is actually even more popular in India where over 100 million people depend solely on this form of medical care (2). Further, according to an A.C. Neilsen survey in India, 62 percent of current homeopathy users have never tried conventional medicines and 82 percent of homeopathy users would not switch to conventional treatments (3).

Skeptics of homeopathy insist that homeopathic medicines do not work, but have difficulty explaining how so many people use and rely upon this system of medicine to treat themselves for so many acute and chronic diseases; and a very large number of these people do not have to use anything else. A previous article that I wrote at this site presented a strong case for the scientific and historical evidence for homeopathy. Further, other articles here have provided additional scientific evidence for the use of homeopathic medicines in respiratory allergies and in pediatrics. Although a small and vocal group of skeptics of homeopathy continue to deny its viability, homeopathy's growing popularity throughout the world amongst physicians, other health professionals, and educated populations continue to prove that skeptics are really simply medical fundamentalists.

The entire field of "alternative and complementary medicine" was so hot in the 1980s that, according to a respected market survey, the field of alternative and complementary medicine in Europe was second only to the computer industry for growth during this decade (4). This explosion of interest in natural medicine has continued in the 21st century.

In 1998, homeopathy was the most frequently used CAM therapy in five out of 14 surveyed countries in Europe and among the three most frequently used CAM therapies in 11 out of 14 surveyed countries (5). Three out of the four Europeans know about homeopathy and of these people 29 percent use it for their own health care. In other words, approximately 100 million Europeans use homeopathic medicines (6).

The sales of homeopathic and anthroposophical medicines grew by 60 percent between 1995 and 2005, from 590 million Euros in 1995 to 775 million Euros in 2001 and to $930 million Euros in 2005 (7). Because of homeopathy's impressive and growing popularity in Europe, this alternative treatment poses a significant threat to conventional medicine, which may explain why there are ongoing efforts to attack it (and homeopaths) using devious and questionably ethical means.

France
Homeopathy is particularly popular in France, where it is the leading alternative therapy. In 1982, 16 percent of the population used homeopathic medicine, rising to 29 percent in 1987, and to 36 percent in 1992 (8). In 2004, 62 percent of French mothers used homeopathic medicines in the previous 12 months (9). A survey of French pharmacists was conducted in 2004 and found that an astounding 94.5 percent reported advising pregnant women to use homeopathic medicines (10).

Homeopathy is popular not only among the French public but also among the French medical community. As many as 70 percent of physicians are receptive to homeopathy and consider it effective, at least 25,000 physicians prescribe homeopathic medicines for their patients. Homeopathy is taught in at least seven medical schools: Besancon, Bordeaux, Lille, Limoges, Marseille, Paris-Nord, and Poitiers, and there are numerous postgraduate training programs. Courses in homeopathy are taught in 21 of France's 24 schools of pharmacy, and also taught in two dental schools, two veterinary medical schools, and three schools of midwivery.

United Kingdom
England's Royal Family has been homeopathy's strongest advocates, thereby confirming that this system of natural medicine is not some "new age" therapy. There are five homeopathic hospitals working within the National Health Service, some of them with a two-year waiting list for non-emergency visits to a homeopath.

According to a House of Lords report (2000), 17 percent of the British population use homeopathic medicines (11). The respect accorded homeopathy and homeopathic practice by British physicians is evidenced by a 1986 survey in the British Medical Journal that showed that 42 percent of physicians referred patients to homeopathic doctors (12). Other evidence of support from health professionals was a 1990 survey of British pharmacists that found 55 percent considered homeopathic medicines "useful," while only 14 percent considered them "useless" (13). The normally conservative British Pharmaceutical Association held a debate in 1992 to decide whether pharmacists should promote homeopathic medicines (14). They concluded by a large majority that they should.

The field of complementary medicine has gained much support in the 1990s. In 1993 the British Medical Association published a book entitled, Complementary Medicine: New Approaches to Good Practice (15). Britain's health minister (in 1994), Dr. Brian Mawhinney, stated, "Complementary medicine has generally proved popular with patients, and a recent survey found that 81 percent of patients are satisfied with the treatment they received" (16). Another health minister stated that 80 percent of general practitioners want training in complementary therapies; 75 percent now refer patients to complementary therapists.

Despite the use and acceptance of homeopathy throughout the U.K., there is a very active group of skeptics, with significant Big Pharma funding, who work vigorously to attack this system of natural medicine. Even though there is a wide variety of serious and significant pressing issues in British medicine and science today, an active group of skeptics of homeopathy successfully resurrected in October, 2009, a House of Commons committee, called the Science and Technology Committee, with the intent to issue a report on homeopathy. A leading skeptics organization, Sense about Science, that has been pushing for the re-creation of this Committee is led by a former public relations professional who worked for a PR company that represents many Big Pharma companies. Of additional interest is the fact that other Directors of the Sense about Science organization are a mixture of former or present libertarians, Marxists, and Trotskyists who also, strangely enough, seem to advocate for the GMO industry (ironically, libertarians normally advocate for a "live and let live" philosophy, but in this instance, it seems that they prefer to take choice in medical treatment away from British consumers).

Sense about Science is a registered UK charity despite being a political pressure group. As such they have to divulge their sources of income which they do on their website. Not surprisingly, much of this comes from named pharmaceutical manufacturers.

One of the investigators for the House of Commons Science Committee is a Liberal Democrat MP, Evan Harris. He has collaborated with Sense About Science on various projects, and he was also one of the skeptic demonstrators against the national pharmacy chain, Boots, which sells homeopathic medicines. This advocacy role does not make him an unprejudiced observer as is required for this type of investigation.

A report from this kangaroo court was issued recommending that the National Health Service stop funding for homeopathy and homeopathic doctors, despite the support for homeopathy and for consumer choice from Mike O'Brien, the country's present Health Minister. This report is only of an advisory nature, and because the Health Minister has already expressed his support for consumers' right to choose their own health care, it is uncertain what, if anything, will result of this report. What was most surprising about this report was that it verified that when people repeat a lie frequently enough, such as "there is no research on homeopathy," many people actually believe it, despite its transparent falsity.

Any rational person should and must be very suspicious of this "report." The MPs (Members of Parliament) who were a part of the Science and Technology Committee which voted for this anti-homeopathy report comprised of five members, with three members barely eking out their victory. Of the three votes, two members did not attend any of the investigational meetings, one of whom was such a new member of the committee that he wasn't even a member of the committee during the hearings, and the remaining "yes" vote was from Evan Harris, a medical doctor and devout antagonist to homeopathy. This report was not exactly a vote of and for the people.

In Scotland, 12 percent of general practitioners use homeopathic medicines and 49 percent of all general practitioner practices prescribe them (at least one medical doctor in a group practice)(17).

The use of homeopathic medicines is not simply popular in the treatment of humans but also animals. Although there is little data presently available on this subject, one survey discovered that 20 percent of Irish milk producers have tried homeopathic medicines to treat mastitis or high cell count cows, and 43 percent believe that they work. In the herds surveyed, 50 percent added homeopathic medicines to the cow's drinking water, 27 percent administered medicines via injection, six percent orally doses the cows, and six percent of herds placed the medicines in the cow's vagina (18).

Ireland
A survey in Ireland was conducted at 13 pediatric settings over a 4-month period (19). They found that 57 percent of parents reported using CAM for their child. Use was significantly higher in the two to four years age group. The most common medicinal CAMs used were vitamins (88 percent), fish oils (27 percent) and Echinacea (26 percent). The most common non-medicinal CAMs used were homeopathy (16 percent) and craniosacral therapy (14 percent). Only 13 percent of parents had informed their pediatrician of their child's CAM use.

Germany
The German people are so supportive of natural medicine that the German government mandated that all medical school curricula include information about natural medicines. Approximately 10 percent of German doctors specialize in homeopathy, with approximately 10 percent more prescribing homeopathic remedies on occasion. In 1993, there were 1,993 medical doctors who had formally qualified in homeopathy, while in 2006, this number jumped over 100 percent to 6,073 (20). In Germany there are 9,000 natural health practitioners called heilpraktikers in 1993 and over 20,000 in 2007. Approximately 20-30 of heilpraktikers specialize in homeopathy.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a large random sample of 516 German outpatient care physicians with qualifications in 13 medical fields representative of a basic population of 118,085 statutory health insurance physicians in November and December 2005 as part of a national healthcare survey (21). In this survey, 51 percent were in favor of CAM use (26 percent were very much in favor, 25 percent were in favor). This survey found that 38 percent of the medical doctors prescribed homeopathic medicines.

A survey of departments of obstetrics in hospitals in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, found that acupuncture and homeopathic medicine were the two most commonly used CAM practices (22). A total of 187 department of obstetrics were identified, and 138 (73.4 percent) responded to a questionnaire. Almost 96 percent of the obstetrical departments offered homeopathic medicines for obstetrical care.

The 2003-2006 German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) found a higher than expected use of homeopathic medicine amongst German children (23). The survey found that pediatric homeopathy is quite popular in Germany, particularly among children from families with a higher socioeconomic status. Nearly half of the homeopathic preparations were obtained by prescriptions from medical doctors or Heilpraktiker (non-medical practitioners) and used most often to treat certain self-limiting conditions. About 60 percent of homeopathy users concomitantly received conventional medicines. Homeopathy use was closely related to socioeconomic factors, with a significantly higher prevalence rate found in the zero to six year age group, among children residing in the former West Germany or the south of Germany, among children with a poor health status, with no immigration background , who received breast-feeding greater than 6 months, were from upper social-class families, and whose children's mothers were college educated.

In 2002, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported that 75 percent of Germans have used complementary or natural medicine (24). They also reported that 5,700 doctors received specialized training in natural medicine, with this number doubling to 10,800 by 2000. Homeopathic medicine is practiced by 4,500 medical doctors in Germany, almost twice as many as did so in 1994. The German government conducted this survey, and it also discovered that there was a 33 percent reduction in sick days if people used natural therapies, especially homeopathy or acupuncture. It was also reported that women used natural therapies more than men did, but when men used them, they benefited more than women did.

In 2009 a survey of Germans who used homeopathy or acupuncture was published (25). This survey found that seven percent of the population used homeopathy and 10 percent used acupuncture. Individuals who had a high education level used homeopathy (68 percent), as compared with 53 percent who used acupuncture.

A survey of patients in Germany with chronic lymphocytic leukemia found that 44 percent had used alternative treatments. No correlation was seen with educational level, gender, or previous or current chemotherapy. The most common alternative or complementary treatment modality was vitamin supplementation (26 percent), followed by mineral (18 percent), homeopathic (14 percent), and mistletoe therapy (9.2 percent) (26).

A 2008 survey of German children with cancer was conducted and which found that 35 percent of the responders had used CAM (27). The most frequently used methods were homeopathy, dietary supplements and anthroposophic medicine including mistletoe therapy. Factors which increased the probability of using CAM were the previous use of CAM, higher social status and poor prognosis of the child's disease. An impressively high percentage of parents of patients (89 percent) reported that they would recommend CAM to other parents.

The use of homeopathy and CAM in Germany by people with other chronic disease is also high, as was observed in a survey of German's with multiple sclerosis (28). A 53-item survey was mailed to the members of the German Multiple Sclerosis Society, chapter of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Surveys of 1,573 patients were analyzed. In comparison with conventional medicine, more patients displayed a positive attitude toward complementary and alternative medicine (44 percent vs 38 percent, P less than 0.05), with 70 percent reporting lifetime use of at least one method. Among a wide variety of complementary and alternative medicine, diet modification (41 percent), Omega-three fatty acids (37 percent), vitamins E (28 percent), B (36 percent), and C (28 percent), homeopathy (26 percent), and selenium (24 percent) were cited most frequently. Most respondents (69 percent) were satisfied with the effects of complementary and alternative medicine. Use of complementary and alternative medicine was associated with religiosity, functional independence, female sex, white-collar job, and higher education (P less than 0.05). Compared with conventional therapies, complementary and alternative medicine rarely showed unwanted side effects (9 percent vs 59 percent, P less than 0.00001).

Sales of homeopathic medicines in Germany were approximately $428 million in 1991, growing at a rate of about 10 percent per year. Evidence of the significant support from the German medical community is the fact that 85 percent of these sales are prescriptions from physicians. Surveys indicate that 98 percent of pharmacies sell homeopathic medicines.

Switzerland
A government-sponsored survey was conducted in Switzerland that evaluated patient satisfaction and side effects in primary care and that compared homeopathic treatment and conventional medical treatment (29). A total of 3,126 adult patients responded to a questionnaire, 1,363 of whom received conventional medical treatment and 1,702 who received homeopathic treatment. This survey found that a higher percentage of homeopathic patients had chronic and severe conditions than the conventional medical patients, that homeopathic patients were more often "completely satisfied" with their treatment (53 percent vs. 43 percent), that homeopathic patients experienced significantly fewer side effects (7.3 percent vs. 16.1 percent), that the proportion of patients reporting complete resolution of symptoms was non-significantly higher in the conventional medical patients (28 percent vs. 21 percent). What is particularly important about this survey is the observation that homeopathic patients had a higher percentage of seriously ill patients but they expressed a much higher amount of satisfaction with their treatment than the patients who received conventional medical treatment. This survey also confirmed a common observation about people who seek homeopathic treatment and that is they were much more educated than those who didn't (32.4 percent vs. 24.7 percent received "higher education").

The Swiss Federal Office for Public Health issued a report to the government of Switzerland which concluded that "the effectiveness of homeopathy can be supported by clinical evidence, and professional and adequate application be regarded as safe" (30).

Other European countries in which homeopathy has a relatively strong presence include Switzerland, where different surveys have suggested that somewhere between 11 percent and 27 percent of general practitioners and internists prescribe homeopathic medicines; Italy where nine percent of the medical doctors prescribe homeopathic remedies sometimes; and the Netherlands where 45 percent of physicians consider homeopathic medicines effective and 47 percent of medical doctors use one or more complementary therapies, with homeopathy (40 percent of these select doctors) being the most popular (31).

The prevalence of CAM use in a sample of Swiss patients undergoing kidney transplant was 11.8 percent. The most frequently used alternative therapy used among these was homeopathy (42.9 percent) (32).

Italy
In 2004 a total of 7.5 million Italians use homeopathic medicines, 2.5 million more than a survey showed in 2000 (33). Approximately 14 percent of Italian women and 10 percent of men prefer homeopathic medicine to conventional medicine. A total of 9.6 percent of children between three and five years of age are treated with homeopathic medicines. Almost 90 percent of Italians who have used such medicines say these treatments helped by them, with 30 percent saying that they used homeopathic medicines for pain syndromes and 24 percent for severe or chronic diseases.

A 2005 survey on the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among cancer patients in Europe reported that 73 percent of the Italian cancer patients had used CAM, a number well above the European average of 36 percent (34). The most popular treatment modalities used by cancer patients in Italy were high use of homeopathy, herbal medicine, and spiritual therapies. A 2008 survey in Tuscany, Italy found that the incidence of CAM use after cancer diagnosis was 17 percent, with the most widely used forms being herbal medicine (52 percent), homeopathy (30 percent) and acupuncture (13 percent) (35). Use was higher in the urban area and among women, breast cancer patients, and persons with a higher education.

A survey of Italian children with cancer who were being treated at a conventional pediatric oncology unit found that 12.4 percent of the children used at least one type of CAM, with homeopathy being the most popular (36). Eighty-three percent of the parents of these children reported benefits, ranging from improved immune defenses, regression of diplopia, or improved blood values. This study confirmed the observation of many other surveys which found that users of CAM tended to be more educated than those who did not use CAM (37)(38)(39).

Five hundred and fifty-two patients who had inflammatory bowel disease and who were under treatment at an Italian tertiary medical referral center completed the questionnaire (40); 156 (28 percent) reported using alternative and complementary therapies, of which mainly involved homeopathy (43.6 percent), followed by controlled diets or dietary supplements (35.5 percent), herbs (28.2 percent), exercise (25.6 percent) and prayer (14.7 percent). An improvement in well-being (45.5 percent) and inflammatory bowel disease symptoms (40.3 percent) were the most commonly reported benefits. A higher education (P equal to 0.027), a more frequently relapsing disease (P equal to 0.001) and dissatisfaction with the doctor's communication (P equal to 0.001) correlated with alternative and complementary therapy use. Non-compliance with conventional drugs, disease severity and curiosity regarding novel therapies were predictors of alternative and complementary therapy use.

Spain
In Spain, homeopathy has gotten so popular that INE, the country's statistic institute, added expenditures on homeopathic medicines to their calculations for monthly inflation rates (41). Sales of homeopathic medicines in Spain are growing at 10-15 percent annually, with approximately 15 percent of the population saying that they have used a homeopathic medicine and 25 percent said that they would be happy to try one (42).

Eastern Europe
When the Iron Curtain was up, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany banned homeopathy, but this medical iron curtain fell with communism. Homeopathy holds a unique place in Russia, where it has been widely accepted, but is not sanctioned by the state medical bureaucracy. Thus, homeopathic care is not free and has been a part of the new Russian economy where fees are paid for health services. Demand for homeopathic care is so great that Russians prefer to pay for homeopathic care than to receive free conventional medical care.

Some skeptics have asserted that homeopathy and natural medicines are becoming increasingly popular in Russia because "real medicine" is either unavailable or too expensive (43). However, this assumption has been disproven, because the trend toward homeopathic and natural medicine is particularly popular among those Russians who are more educated and are in higher economic classes. Journalists and skeptics tend to assume that homeopathic medicines simply do not work, and thus they create fanciful theories about why the use of homeopathy is increasing.

A survey of Russian physicians in three academic hospitals in St. Petersburg was published in 2008 (44). This survey found that 100 percent of the respondents had practice CAM and/or referred patients to at least two CAM therapies. On average, each physician had practiced or referred patients to 12.7 different CAM treatments. Homeopathic medicine was the 8th most popular, with 58 percent using or referring for homeopathic treatment, 31 percent using on themselves, 29 percent using it on their own patients, and 38 percent referring for homeopathic care.

In Hungary, homeopathic literature was banned for 40 years until 1990. Homeopathy has now been accepted and integrated into regular medical education and is taught in two medical schools. The Hungarian Homeopathic Medical Association started with 11 members in 1990, grew to 75 after 18 months, and grew further to 302 members in 1994.

After the fall of communism in Czecholslovakia, a homeopathic organization in the Czech Republic was established in November, 1990, and it was immediately accepted and integrated within the larger conventional medical society. Within a year, the Ministry of Health officially recognized homeopathy as a medical specialty.

REFERENCES:

(1) Rothstein, W. Physicians in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.
(2) Prasad R. Homoeopathy booming in India. Lancet, 370:November 17, 2007,1679-80. (Additional note: Even though the overall mortality rate in India is quite poor compared with most modern First World countries, this is primarily due to the large number of exceedingly poor people. The mortality rate of urban middle and upper class people in India is comparable, if not better, than similar populations in the USA.)
(3) A C Neilsen survey backs homeopathy benefits. Business Standard. September 4, 2007. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/a-c-nielsen-survey-backs-homeopathy-benefits/295891/
(4) "Alternative Medicine/Alternative Medical Market," Frost and Sullivan Ltd. Report #E874, London, 1986.
(5) Norges offentlige utredninger, NOU 1998:21 Alternativ medisin. (Official report published by the Norwegian Department of Health. Available at: http://www.regjeringen.no/en/ministries/hod/Documents/NOUer/1998/NOU-1998-21.html?id=141407
(6) di Sarsina PR, Iseppato I. Looking for a person-centered medicine:non convent8onal medicine in the conventional European and Italian setting. eCAM, 2009; doi:10.1093/ecam/nep048.
(7) ECHAMP, Facts and Figures, Second edition, 2007. www.echamp.eu
(8) L'Homeopathie en 1993. Lyons: Syndicat National de la Pharmacie Homeopathique, 1993 (Quoting COFREMCA and IFOP public opinion surveys).
(9) Transactions, Nutrition Business Journal, July 7 2004.
(10) Damase-Michel, C., Vie, C., Lacroix, I., Lapeyre-Mestre, M., Montastruc, J.L. Drug Counselling in Pregnancy: An Opinion Survey of French Community Pharmacists, Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2004 March, 18;13(10):711.
(11) House of Lords Science and Technology Report, November, 2000
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldselect/ldsctech/123/12303.htm
(12) Richard Wharton and George Lewith, "Complementary Medicine and the General Practitioner," British Medical Journal, 292 (June 7, 1986): 1498-1500.
(13) Nelson, op. cit.
(14) Steven Kayne, "Homeopathic Pharmacy: Education, Research and Optimism," British Homoeopathic Journal, October, 1993: 225.
(15) British Medical Association, Complementary Medicine: New Approaches to Good Practice, Oxford: Oxford University, 1993.
(16) Universal News Services, June 16, 1994.
(17) Ross, S, Simpson, CR, McLay, JS. British Homoeopathic and herbal prescribing in general practice in Scotland. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 62,6: December 2006, 647-652.
(18) Buss, Jessica. Irish Turn to Homoeopathy. Farmers Weekly, October 16, 1998.
(19) Low E, Murray DM, O'Mahony O, O'B Hourihane J. Complementary and alternative medicine use in Irish paediatric patients. Ir J Med Sci. 2008 Apr 22.
(20) Joos S, Musselmann B, Miksch A, Rosemann T, and Szecsenyi J. The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany - a focus group study of GPs.
BMC Health Services Research 2008, 8:127. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-8-127
(21) Stange R, Amhof R, Moebus S. Complementary and alternative medicine: attitudes and patterns of use by German physicians in a national survey. J Altern Complement Med. 2008 Dec;14(10):1255-61.
(22) Munstedt K, et al. Clinical indications and perceived effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine in departments of obstetrics in Germany: A questionnaire study. Eur J Obstet Gynecol (2009), doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2009.05.013
(23) Du Y, Knopf H. Paediatric homoeopathy in Germany: results of the German health interview and examination survey for children and adolescents (KiGGS). Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2009 Feb 23.
(24) Tuffs, Annette, Three out of Four Germans Have Used Complementary or Natural Remedies, BMJ, November 2 2002;325:990.
(25) Bussing A, Matthiessen PF, Ostermann T. Differential usage of homeopathy and acpunture in German individuals. 2009 North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine, May 2009, Minneapolis, MN. Published in Alternative Therapies. May/June 2009, 15,3:S141.
(26) Hensel M, Zoz M, Ho AD. Complementary and alternative medicine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Support Care Cancer. 2008 May 6.
(27) Laengler A, Spix C, Seifert G, Gottschling S, Graf N, Kaatsch P. Complementary and alternative treatment methods in children with cancer: A population-based retrospective survey on the prevalence of use in Germany. Eur J Cancer. 2008 Oct;44(15):2233-40.
(28) Schwarz S, Knorr C, Geiger H, Flachenecker P. Complementary and alternative medicine for multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2008 Sep;14(8):1113-9.
(29) Marian F, Joost K, Saini KD, et al Patient satisfaction and side effects in primary care: an observational study comparing homeopathy and conventional medicine. BMC Comp Alt Med 2008, 8:52. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-8-52.
(30) Bornhoft, G, Wolf, U., von Ammon, et al, Effectiveness, Safety, and Cost-Effectiveness of Homeopathy in General Practice--Summarized Health Technology Assessment, Forschende Komplementarmedizin, 2006;13(suppl 2):19-29.
(31) Fisher, Peter and Ward, Adam. "Complementary Medicine in Europe," British Medical Journal, 309, July 9, 1994: 107-10.
(32) Hess S, De Geest S, Halter K, Dickenmann M, Denhaerynck K. Prevalence and correlates of selected alternative and complementary medicine in adult renal transplant patients. Clin Transplant. 2008 Sep 11. Clin Transplant. 2008 Sep 11.
(33) ANSA English Corporate Service, 7.5 Million Italians Use Homeopathic Drugs, May 20, 2004.
(34) Molassiotis A, Fernadez-Ortega P, Pud D, et al, Use of complementary and alternative medicine in cancer patients: a European survey. Ann Oncol, 16: 655-663, 2005.
(35) Johannessen H, von Bornemann Hjelmborg J, Pasquarelli E, Fiorentini G, Di Costanzos F, Miccinesi G., Prevalence in the use of complementary medicine among cancer patients in Tuscany, Italy. Tumori. 2008 May-Jun;94(3):406-10.
(36) Clerici CA, Veneroni L, Giacon B, et al., Complementary and alternative medical therapies used by children with cancer treated at an Italian pediatric oncology unit. Pediatric Blood Cancer. June 2009. doi 10.1002/pbc.22093.
(37) Gomez-Martinez R, Tlacuilo-Parra A, Garibaldi-Covarrubias R. Use of complementary and alternative medicine in children with cancer in Occidental, Mexico. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2007;49:820-823.
(38) Gozum S, Arikan D, Bu¨yu¨kavci M. Complementary and alternative medicine use in pediatric oncology patients in eastern Turkey. Cancer Nurs 2007;30:38-44.
(39) Nathanson I, Sandler E, Ramı´rez-Garnica G, et al. Factors influencing complementary and alternative medicine use in a multisite pediatric oncology practice. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2007;29:705-708.
(40) D'Inca R, Garribba AT, Vettorato MG, Martin A, Martines D, Di Leo V, Buda A, Sturniolo GC, Use of alternative and complementary therapies by inflammatory bowel disease patients in an Italian tertiary referral centre, Dig Liver Dis. 2007 Apr 10.
(41) Reuters (Madrid) Tummy tucks join inflation calculation. February 12, 2007.
(42) Izmirlieva, Milena. Global Insight, March 28, 2007 (found in Homeopathy Today, May/June 2007, p.9).
(43) Clines, F. "With Medicine Itself Sick, Russians Turn to Herbs," New York Times, December 31, 1990.
(44) Brown, Samuel, Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by Physicians in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine Apr 2008, Vol. 14, No. 3: 315-319.

SOURCE: The Huffington Post( Dana Ullman)

Combination medicine in Homeopathy

2010-08-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

There are many successful homoeopaths practising with combinations and patent medicines and giving good results.

Question is if only one similimum is required for cure then how these doctors are getting success???

Opinions differ when it come to combinations and patent medicines.Honestly, all the opinions are belief based, so no one can conclude for sure.Since combination medicines are easy to prescribe, so there can be a natural tendency to this short cut, as it doesn't involve repertorization,study of MM or individualization, for selection of medicine.

Also the major concern: None of the combinations/patent had been proved,as an entity, so how any one can claim that these are homoeopathic medicines.Where is the principle of likes cure likes involved!

More over it may at the most act as palliative only, and therefore, is contrary to the second aphorism – “The highest ideal of cure is rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health, or removal and annihiliation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable and most harmless way, on easily comprehensible principles.“

The fundamental question is not whether these combination medicines are providing relief or not.The question is whether there is any homoeopathic principles of prescribing is involved or not. Day in and day out, various combinations are being prescribed by Allopathic Doctors and more or less their patients are also satisfied, under normal circumstances.So what is difference between these two prescriptions, except that one is prescribed by Allopath and another by a Homoeopath.

A medicine does neither become Allopathic or Homoeopathic by dint of its name , nor according tothe name of the manufacturer or even the professional label of the prescriber.

In fact a drug becomes a medicine when made suitable for prescription. A medicine becomes a remedy, when applied against a particular diseased condition.

A remedy becomes Homoeopathic only when applied on the basis of symptom similarity. Any remedy prescribed on any other basis or principles, can be any thing, other than Homoeopathic medicine.

I feel we must conduct in-depth studied on combinations, to prove its action as an entity.

Homeopathy and improvements

2010-08-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

In order to bring the perfection in prescribing the homoeopathic medicines, we must understand few facts, which are worth consideration, before we think of improvements.

Definitely there are some brilliant doctors in Homoeopathy, who had impressed the world, with total cure.Still we find that misconceptions are more when it comes to Homoeopathy.We have to act to remove the misconceptions about Homoeopathy,which is governed by stringent laws of Organon , at the same time these laws encourage us to move forward for betterment and improvements, with time.

Broadly speaking, all of us tend to improve at individual levels and many among us are open to the new innovations, based upon scientific findings. Several Homoeopaths are using homoeopathic softwares.

Continuous improvement is always required and needed.But capabilities,adaptation, limitation of each individual, varies.

Medical fraternity and patients, behave and interact with each other depending upon their own capabilities, irrespective of any pathy.All Allopaths are not brilliant and similarly all Homoeopaths may not be very successful in their practice.

Doctors and Patients of Allopathy as well as Homoeopathy, have some limitations, on an average plane .

Looking to that it is always better to effect improvements in system, rather than individual.
Poka yoke( mistake proofing) is one technique , where chances of errors are eliminated completely.

Poka-Yoke is a device or method that prevents people from making mistakes.We must improvise and evolve methods,for the betterment of Homoeopathy, which are consistent with such QMS techniques.The younger generation of Homoeopaths must work hard to contribute for the improvement in system, so that an average mind also apply homoeopathic principles, with ease.

Homoeopathy for students teachers professionals & patients

2010-08-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is the one place which I admire and like personally

Homoeopathy for students teachers professionals & patients

Sleep Patterns

2010-08-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wondered how some people can sleep through anything while others wake at the slightest disturbance, then a group of US scientists may have the answer: they found that sound sleep has a distinct brain pattern.

To learn how Dr Jeffrey Ellenbogen, Chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues made their discovery you can read their paper published online on 10 August in the journal Current Biology.

Quality sleep is important for our health and wellbeing, wrote Ellenbogen and colleagues in their background information, yet fractured sleep is now common in our society, and part of the reason is "insults from a variety of noises".

They decided to investigate the mechanisms that might play a role in determining why some people can sleep soundly through any disturbance while others experience very fragile sleep.

For the study, Ellenbogen and colleagues observed electroencephalograph or EEG brain patterns of 12 volunteers as they slept in a lab at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital for three nights.

On the first night, the researchers exposed the volunteers to little noise, it was quiet.

However, on the second and third nights, the researchers exposed them to a variety of disturbing noises: a phone ringing, people talking, mechanical sounds from the hospital, aircraft sounds, and so on.

Ellenbogen, who is also Assistant Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, told the press that they learned a lot from these observations:

"The more sleep spindles your brain produces, the more likely you'll stay asleep, even when confronted with noise," said Ellenbogen.

Sleep spindles are brief brief bursts of faster-frequency 11-15 Hz waves that intersperse the slow and organized rhythms that prevail during sleep. They originate in the thalamus, a part of the brain that initially processes all our sensory information apart from smell.

Ellenbogen said the thalamus is probably stopping sensory information from getting to the parts of the brain that perceive and react to sound: like setting up a roadblock that stops the signal traffic from reaching these other parts of the brain.

He said their study showed that "the sleep spindle is a marker of this blockade. More spindles means more stable sleep, even when confronted with noise".

"We found that individuals who generated more sleep spindles during a quiet night of sleep went on to exhibit higher tolerance for noise during a subsequent, noisy night of sleep," he and his colleagues wrote in their paper.

They also showed they were able to predict an individual's ability to stay sound asleep through the noises from the spindles that appeared on their EEG chart.

However, what really surprised them was the size of the effect.

Ellenbogen said "the effect of sleep spindles was so pronounced that we could see it even after just a single night".

What Is Asthma?

2010-08-08T00:48:00.001-07:00

Asthma occurs when the passageways to the lungs become inflamed, making it difficult to breathe. When an asthma attack happens, the small tubes that carry air through the lungs react to the asthma trigger and begin to swell. This tightens the airway and allows less air to flow through. At the same time, the muscles that surround the tubes also constrict and close the tubes even further. Inside the tubes is a mucous lining. When the tubes start to tighten, the lining produces more mucous, which collects inside the tubes, also blocking air flow.

Causes of Asthma

There is no single cause of asthma, but you're more likely to develop it if you have a family history of it. Asthma can develop at any age, especially if you have allergies or are sensitive to other irritants in the environment. In most cases though, asthma results from reactions to triggers. These can either be allergic or non-allergic.

They include:

Allergens, like pollens, molds, pet dander, dust, or cockroaches
Air pollution or irritants like farming chemicals, nail polish, hair spray, paint fumes and home cleaning products
Respiratory infections, like the common cold or sinusitis. And we all know children pick up these infections more frequently because they're exposed to them at school.
Exercise
Exposure to cold air
Smoking and second-hand smoke
Certain medications
Sulfites, which are preservatives that are added to a lot of processed foods

If you have GERD, or acid reflux, this may also worsen your asthma symptoms.

Childhood Asthma

There are certain factors that increase a child's chance of developing asthma, including:

Having a parent with asthma
Living in a polluted city
Exposure to second-hand smoke, especially at home
Being overweight

Asthma Symptoms & Asthma Attack Warning Signs

Asthma symptoms are unique to each person. The signs and symptoms can range from mild to severe and each episode may vary. Avoiding asthma attacks starts with knowing the triggers but all asthma attacks give warning signs, which can include:

Shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing during the day or night
Chest tightness or chest pain
The need to use inhalers or other medications more often
High-pitched whistle when exhaling
Coughing spasms

If you think you or your child may be having an asthma attack, stop all activity, sit down, and take long, slow, deep breaths. You may need to call your doctor, or even visit the emergency room.

Diagnosing Asthma

Diagnosing asthma can be difficult because the signs and symptoms can range from mild to severe and a lot of times can look like other conditions.

Your doctor will ask about your medical history and then start with a full physical exam. You may also be given a series of pulmonary function tests, or PFTs. They will reveal how much air moves in and out of your lungs as you breathe, both before and after using an inhaler.

The results of your physical exam and PFTs will help your doctor classify how severe your asthma is and how it should be treated.

There are four main classifications of asthma:

Mild intermittent – This is the mildest form of asthma. When uncontrolled, it will cause symptoms up to two days per week and up to two nights per month.
Mild Persistent Asthma - If you have this form of asthma, you have symptoms more than two nights per month and more than twice a week but not more than once in a single day.
Moderate Persistent – This type causes symptoms every day and more than one night per week.
Severe Persistent - This is the most serious form of asthma. It will cause symptoms throughout the day almost every day and frequently at night.

Heart Attacks Increase With Use of Calcium Supplements

2010-08-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

This study documents that modern medicine has no authority in nutrition. Its methods of reductionism and partitioning the body into units that can be treated separately are deeply flawed.

by Heidi Stevenson

8 August 2010

In a finding that should come as no surprise, the British Medical Journal reports that taking calcium supplements results in heart attacks. A supplement that doctors routinely tell women to take to prevent osteoporosis is implicated in heart disease. What's a woman to do?

A good place to start is to realize that your doctor most likely does not have a good understanding of nutrition. A combination of reductionist thinking about how health is produced, with an attitude that parts of the body can be partitioned from the whole, is a recipe for disaster—as this study documents.

Mainstream medicine has simply assumed that, since calcium is a major part of bone composition, then a lack of calcium must be a cause of osteoporosis. That assumption does not consider that calcium is part of a synergystic balance in a host of body functions, including heart beat, nerve function, muscle contraction, and blood clotting—and that it interacts with other nutrients.

The Magnesium Connection

Nutrients are synergystic. They don't act by themselves, but as part of a process, or more accurately in the case of calcium, many processes. Calcium is not taken into a void. In fact, studies have documented that excess calcium can interfere with magnesium absorption, and that magnesium may be a more significant factor in osteoporosis than calcium.

Calcium and magnesium compete for the same absorption mechanisms. Excessive amounts of calcium can prevent adequate absorption of magnesium.

Magnesium is required by every organ in the body. It helps regulate blood sugar, energy production, protein synthesis, blood pressure, and heart rhythm. Anything that interferes with the body's ability to absorb adequate magnesium can obviously have a negative impact on heart health. Excess calcium does just that. Obviously, supplementing calcium on a just-because basis is, at best, a bad idea—and it's certainly not surprising that it can lead to heart attacks.

Why We're More Likely Require Magnesium Supplementation

Our ancestral pre-agricultural diets did not include significant grains or dairy. The hunter-gatherer diet provides approximately equal amounts of calcium and magnesium. We must have evolved to achieve optimal health with that balance. However, the modern diet usually provides a far higher amount of calcium, about twelve times as much as magnesium.

Therefore, since calcium and magnesium compete for absorption, we are far more likely to lack adequate magnesium than calcium.

Homeopathy Hope for Encephalitis - Homeopathy World Community

2010-08-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Homeopathy Hope for Encephalitis - Homeopathy World Community

ACUPUNCTURE

2010-08-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

Study seeks to show how acupuncture really works

Scientists are presenting a new theory on the mechanism of acupuncture—a traditional Chinese healing technique that seems to work for some ailments, though Western researchers don’t understand why.

Eastern practitioners say acupuncture works by changing energy flows in the body. Western scientists tend not to buy this account, arguing that the proposed energy fields have never been seen or measured.

An acupuncture needle commonly used today. (Credit: Takumi Fujita )

Acupuncture involves inserting thin needles into the skin at selected points to treat a range of conditions. Several studies have shown that it works for certain kinds of pain; a study last year found that acupuncture beats conventional treatment for chronic lower back pain.

The new study, published in the May 30 online issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggests that acupuncture works by activating pain-suppressing receptors, or molecules, in the area of the body where the needle is inserted.

In the research, Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and colleagues inserted fine needles into the mouse equivalent of a traditional acupuncture point near the knee. The researchers rotated these needles intermittently as is practiced by acupuncturists.

This eased the pain reactions of mice with an inflamed paw, the researchers found. It also strongly boosted the local tissue concentration of a neurotransmitter, or a molecule that transmits signals through nerves, called adenosine.

Pain relief required the presence of a particular receptor for adenosine, the research team found. A receptor is a molecular structure on the surface of a cell that acts as a sort of gateway for allowing specific types of “messenger” molecules to deliver a signal.

The receptor in question, called the adenosine A1 receptor, is known to lie on pain-transmitting nerve fibers and to reduce the activity of these fibers when activated, according to Nedergaard and colleagues.

The team found that no pain relief or adenosine elevation was observed when the needles were inserted into the acupuncture point without rotation. They also noted that a drug that prolongs the lifetime of adenosine in live tissue helped to prolong the pain-easing effect of mouse acupuncture.

“Thus, medications that interfere with A1 receptors or adenosine metabolism may improve the clinical benefit of acupuncture,” the researchers wrote.

Homeopathy and Media

2010-08-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

In Homeopathy, many times at many places, we had shown very impressive results. There is no doubt about it. At the same time it has been observed that many enthusiasts in Homeopathy claim that they can treat and cure, each and every disease, however complicated it may be or even in such cases, where the prognosis may be extremely poor.

Diseases like Cancer of advance stage, HIV Aids, Anthrax, Botulism ,ETEC, E.coli, Ebola, Chronic heart failure etc, might have been cured by Homeopathy . Unfortunately we may not be lucky each time; therefore we must not lay such claims. Media often use such statements against us,
and start challenging Homeopathy, for such claims. The more such claims the more Media attacks on Homeopathy, and more ferociously they put these as false claims.

Some of them had gone to WHO, requesting to denounce Homeopathy, as they claim to cure Aid, Cancer etc.
Recently in UK, they have asked Govt to stop aiding Homeopathy in NHS.

As all of us know Homeopathy has tremendous potentials, so let our result speak, instead we speak of our cure to the world. We can spread Homeopathy by improving the quality of its application to our patients showing the successful results, than our claims to do so.

Homeopathy and it's applications

2010-08-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

Homeopaths are of the firm opinion that homeopathy is a therapeutic
process, with a basic law " Likes cure Likes, and it is quite effective
and more than 200 hundred years of it's practice around the Globe is a
testimony enough to prove it's credential beyond doubts. This is beside,
the people,who are of the opinion that Homeopathic medicines are
nothing but placebo.

Lot of research work is on, for proving physical basis
of homeopathy, clinical and biological experiments, theoretical
discussions on the scientific validity of homeopathy, requirement of
research in homeopathy and scientific protocols etc,But still with many
theories put forward, including one by Noble price winner, the
scientific world is in denial mode.

In this complex situation, suddenly we stat finding more claims coming from Homeopaths, practicing
Drug energy transmission through hair.Selection of medicine by pendulum
and some more methods, which are not with in the scope of homeopathic
laws, originally.Practitioners of such methods are also claiming
brilliant results.Many of us are severely critical of such methods, and I
am one among those who instantly object to such methods even to be
labeled as homeopathy.Am I prejudiced ?

Should researchers include, these also as research topics for in-depth study and analysis of these methods!

’प्रतिसाद ’ Pratisaad –a Marathi movie with a journey of a Homeopathic Doctor « होम्यो

2010-07-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

‘Pratisaad’ is a Journey of a Homeopathic Doctor Aditya Deshmukh. Story unfolds during a Live Television Interview. This Journey Includes Struggle of this Doctor with the Patients, Media, Police & people around and how he goes on to prove his Treatment & Homeopathy a reliable & proven science.
’प्रतिसाद ’ Pratisaad –a Marathi movie with a journey of a Homeopathic Doctor « होम्यो

timeanddate.com

2010-07-21T03:44:00.000-07:00

THIS IMPORTANT SITE CAN KEEP US CONNECTED TO THE WORLD TIMINGS, ANY WHERE ANY TIME.

timeanddate.com

HOMEOPATHY- HOW IT WORKS

2010-07-19T02:03:00.000-07:00

ANOTHER GOOD VIDEO EXPLAINING HOW HOMEOPATHY WORKS

TRIGLYSERIDES

2010-07-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

Triglycerides are the chemical form taken by most of the fat in our
bodies and our diet, and they're important because they provide energy
the body needs. The fats, carbohydrates, and proteins we eat are
converted in the body into simple triglyceride molecules and repackaged
with special proteins called lipoproteins, which ferry the triglycerides
to the cells. Blood triglyceride levels spike right after we eat, when
these triglyceride/lipoprotein packages get dumped into the bloodstream.
Levels drop over the next few hours as the triglycerides are taken up
and used for energy. Those not needed immediately are transported to fat
cells for storage.

Excessive triglycerides are not good for the arteries. Research has found links between high triglyceride levels and a
high risk of stroke and heart disease, especially in postmenopausal
women.

Some people have an inherited predisposition to high triglycerides. Other contributing factors are obesity, excessive alcohol
use, a diet high in saturated fats, and various medical conditions,
such as poorly controlled diabetes, low thyroid hormone, or chronic
kidney or liver disease. Triglyceride levels can also be raised by
certain Allopathic medicines, such as prednisone, estrogens used in oral
contraceptives or hormone therapy, thiazide diuretics, isotretinoin
(Accutane), tamoxifen, and some beta blockers.

It makes sense to try to lower triglycerides to normal levels, that is, below 150
milligrams per deciliter. If there are medical reasons for your high
triglycerides, you'll need to work with your clinician to address them,
possibly with medications. If not, concentrate on lifestyle strategies,
including a diet that emphasizes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and
healthy fats. Also, get at least 30 minutes of moderate to
vigorous-intensity exercise most days, and keep your alcohol intake to a
minimum.

If lifestyle changes don't work, or if your triglyceride level is very high, you may need to take a medication.

Homeopathic medicines for each individual can be prescribed depending upon his or her individual, peculiar symptoms,by differentiating these from the symptoms common to heart conditions with raised triglyserides .

HOMEOPATHY EXPLAINED

2010-07-13T23:33:00.001-07:00

Keynotes by H.C. Allen

2010-07-12T03:43:00.000-07:00

This Materia Medica is a little gem in Homeopathy.If one understand to apply Allen key notes in practice, he can expect wonderful results.My teacher J.N. Kanjilal, taught me to understand its value. I have seen him observing these in the patients in acute emergencies and selecting the most similar medicine with in minutes and with out consulting any repertory and MM.

Keynotes by H.C. Allen

Find homeopathic remedy - Webhomeopath

2010-07-12T02:52:00.000-07:00

This repertory is really very convenient to use .It's basic format is free for the users. It also provide you the Materia Medica for reference.

Find homeopathic remedy - Webhomeopath

Boger's Repertory

2010-07-09T05:04:00.000-07:00

Boger's Repertory

Cyrus Boger was a homeopathic doctor who practiced in West Virginia in the first third of of the twentienth century. He is probably best known for translating Boenninghausen's repertory into English. The card repertory is a distillation of Boenninghausen's method. The original version of the card repertory had one card for each symptom. Each remedy with that symptom had a hole punch in the card. To do a repertorization, you took the cards covering the symptoms of the illness, lined them up, and looked for the holes that went through all the cards. Thus it was an eliminative repertorization. A remedy had to be present in all the symptoms to show up in the results. This script has the same symptoms and remedies as Boger's, but instead of doing an eliminative repertorization, it counts how many times each remedy occurs in the symptoms and displays the remedies occurring in the most symptoms.

A SYNOPTIC KEY OF THE MATERIA MEDICA By Cyrus Maxwell BOGER

2010-07-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

A SYNOPTIC KEY OF THE MATERIA MEDICA By Cyrus Maxwell BOGER

HOMEOPATHY AND MASS MEDIA

2010-07-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

Homeopathy -Science and art

2010-07-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Application of Homeopathy in practice is identical to Indian classical music.where each raga carries definite notes and sequence( Materia Medica) and it is mathematical in nature( Organon), yet each of the performer creates the ragas, artistically with in the sphere of those notes, which is absolutely governed by the laws of rhythm and notes.Even the slightest deviation will change the color of that Raga.It is an art, but governed by certain stringent laws.

Similarly Homeopathy is governed by laws of Organon, knowledge of Materia Medica and other laws.Thus each one of us develop and create the pictures of drug personalities, in our mind by reading various Materia Medicas and we look for these drug pictures in the real individuals, who come to us for their treatment.A slight mismatch and we may land with wrong prescription.Even after the use of proper repertory, we have to make final decision for the selection of remedy,depending upon most close drug picture.The same medicine Aconite may match with different patients, suffering from different diseases, in different situations.Selection of Homeopathic medicine is an art, embedded in science.
The book by Margery Blackie about the drug pictures is a suitable example.

Regulation and prevalence of homeopathy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2010-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Regulation and prevalence of homeopathy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ENEXPECTED ROLE OF WATER IN BP

2010-07-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

Name a drink that can make you more alert for late-night studying, prevent you from fainting after giving blood, and even promote a teensy bit of weight loss.

Chances are you didn't say water. But that's the right answer.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have shown that ordinary water - without any additives - does more than just quench thirst. It has some other unexpected, physiological effects. It increases the activity of the sympathetic - fight or flight - nervous system, which raises alertness, blood pressure and energy expenditure.

David Robertson, M.D., and colleagues first observed water's curious ability to increase blood pressure about 10 years ago, in patients who had lost their baroreflexes - the system that keeps blood pressure within a normal range.

The observation came as a complete surprise, said Robertson, professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Neurology.

"We had to unlearn the idea that water had no effect on blood pressure, which is what all medical students had been told until the last couple of years."

Although water does not significantly raise blood pressure in healthy young subjects with intact baroreflexes, the investigators found that it does increase sympathetic nervous system activity and constrict blood vessels (which prevents pooling of blood in the extremities).

These findings prompted the American Red Cross to conduct a study of water drinking as a method for reducing fainting responses. The study found that drinking 16 ounces of water before blood donation reduced the fainting response by 20 percent.

"This response to water may turn out to be very important for retaining blood donors," Robertson said. "If you pass out after giving blood, you pretty much never give blood again. If we can reduce fainting by 20 percent, we can reduce the unpleasantness of passing out and really bolster the number of people who can continue to be blood donors."

Julia McHugh, a student in Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's Medical Scientist Training Program, tackled the questions of where water is acting, and how, in a series of studies in mice. The team's latest findings are reported in the June issue of the journal Hypertension.

McHugh and colleagues found that water introduced directly into the stomach or duodenum (the first part of the small intestine) raised blood pressure, which ruled out an oral or esophageal mechanism for the response. They also tested a similar volume of saline (salt-containing solution). This did not raise blood pressure, which suggested that stretch of the tissues was not part of the mechanism and that perhaps water's lack of salt might be important.

The investigators ultimately determined that water dilutes the plasma in the blood vessels leading away from the duodenum and that this short-lived reduction in salt concentration (hypo-osmolality) is responsible for water's blood pressure-raising (pressor) effect. They implicated a protein called Trpv4 in the mechanism: mice lacking the Trpv4 gene did not have a pressor response to water.

While it is clear that water evokes a pressor response, the normal role for this physiological system is not certain.

Because it raises sympathetic nervous system activity - and consequently energy expenditure - it does promote weight loss, Robertson said.

"I calculated it might be as much as five pounds a year if you drank three 16 ounce glasses of water a day and nothing else changed. This is not going to be the answer to the weight problem in the United States, but it's interesting that activation of the sympathetic system is enough to do that."

McHugh said she found it fascinating that mice and humans share "such a primitive system, and yet we don't know why it's there or what beneficial effects it might have."

The newly discovered system and its molecular mediators - such as Trpv4 - may be targets for blood pressure regulation, particularly in situations of low blood pressure and fainting, the investigators said. The findings also suggest that investigators who use water as a control substance (a "non-drug") in studies may need to take water's pressor effects into account.

Robertson is the Elton Yates Professor of Autonomic Disorders. The National Institutes of Health provided funding for the research.

Source:
Leigh MacMillan
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

HOW FLU VIRUS ATTACK

2010-07-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

ANATOMICAL HOMOLOGY

2010-07-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

Anatomical Homology – A definition
Homology refers to similarity between characteristics in different species of organisms. Bats and butterflies are quite different from each other, yet both have wings to fly; bats fly and whales swim, yet the bones in a bat’s wing and whale’s flipper are strikingly similar. While ‘analogy’ refers to different structures which perform the same function, ‘homology’ refers to similar structures which perform different functions. Prior to the advent of Darwinism, homology was attributed to the existence of archetypes: biological structures are similar because they conform more or less to pre-existing patterns.

Charles Darwin, however, offered a different explanation for homology. Darwin proposed that bats and whales possess similar bone structures, not because they were constructed according to the same archetype (which would imply design and thus intelligent causation), but because they were inherited from a common ancestor.

Anatomical Homology – Does evolution have the goods?
Clearly, in the common ancestor, there would have been just one organ, with the current homologues being modifications of it. Thus, if the evolutionary account of homology is correct, then derivation from a common ancestral organ should be reflected in the homologous organs being derived from a comparable embryological source -- equivalent to that of the organ in the common ancestor. In other words, if two organs are derived from different embryological sources then it should be possible for them both to appear in the same organism (conjunction).

Combined with this understanding that homologous structures should be derived from comparable embryological tissues, it was thought that they should also be formed by similar developmental processes. So, if evolution is to provide an adequate explanation for homology, it is necessary to show that there is a viable route by which today’s homologues could have arisen from a common predecessor. Most obviously this implies a common embryological source, and secondly the use of comparable developmental processes. The problem is, in many cases, organs and structures which appear identical (or very similar) in different animals do not in fact develop from the same structure or group of embryo cells. It is not uncommon to find fundamental structures (e.g. the alimentary canal) that form from different embryological tissues in different animals. For example, in sharks the alimentary canal is formed from the roof of the embryonic gut cavity; in frogs it is formed from the gut roof and floor; and in birds and reptiles it is formed from the lower layer of the embryonic disc or blastoderm.

It is difficult to envisage why or how developmental processes should evolve dramatically differently yet still lead to substantially the same morphology which is the principal object of natural selection. Nevertheless, some see the different developmental mechanisms to ‘homologous’ structures not as a challenge to evolution but simply as evidence that developmental mechanisms have evolved while still retaining a similar end structure. But surely that is circular reasoning -- predicated on the assumption that the various groups with similar morphologies but different developmental mechanisms have evolved from a common ancestor.

Anatomical Homology – Conclusion
It is clear that the expected harmony between homology and evolution is lacking. Evolution no longer explains the facts of morphological homology and -- as a consequence -- homology is no longer the evidence for evolution that it was once believed to be. Indeed, not only is homology no longer the support for evolution that it was once believed to be, but the inconsistency between morphological homology and supposed phylogenetic relationships delivers a further blow to the theory of evolution -- if evolution does not explain homology, then the facts of homology are at odds with the theory of evolution. In particular, if similar morphological structures (structures that appeared homologous and had initially been seen as evidence of common ancestry) actually develop from different embryological sources, then this is strong evidence pointing away from an evolutionary relationship for the organisms concerned.

Source : Science

RESEARCH IN HOMEOPATHY

2010-07-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

RESEARCH IN HOMOEOPATHY: PRESENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

Dr Archana Narang M.O. (T), Dr Saurav Arora (SRF), Dr Latika Nagpal (SRF)

Dr. B. R. Sur Homoeopathic Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre,

Nanak Pura, Moti Bagh, New Delhi 110021

shmc.thyroidclinic@gmail.com

Research is an endeavour to discover answers to intellectual and practical problems through the application of scientific method.

CITATIONS FROM THE ORGANON

* Experimentation is for one of the two purposes, observation for induction, or verification of inductions. Experimentation is analysis, deduction, analytic deduction…….We observe by contrast.
* “....not, however, to construct so called systems, by interweaving empty speculations and hypotheses....”
* “.....cease to deceive suffering mankind with mere talk, and begin now, instead, for once to act, that is, really to help and cure.”

ABSTRACT

Research is a necessity in the ever growing era of modern science and we are now more prone for criticism and authenticity. Research and science is nothing new to us, we have been rooted on these grounds
since the “Apple” fall on “Newton’s head”. Hahnemann was one of the four
epochal figures in the history of practice of medicine. His experiment with
materialistic doses of cinchona bark is the
root of logical thinking. From Hahnemann’s era we have been scientific,
logical and philosophical. We need upgradation in the field of homoeopathy to
compete in today’s world and to make ourselves more strong, clear and confident.
Many a times we are questioned about our principles and methods of practice. To
answer all the queries, we must prepare ourselves so strong that our existence
doesn’t go in vain. The hard work of our forefathers has brought us where we
stand today. The need of hour is scientific research, and this doesn’t mean
only test tubes and laboratories, but it is a step ahead of it. Research can be
done in numerous ways. The right research depends upon our insight and aims.
There is a researcher and a scientist in every one of us, the need is to bring
it to the front and think logically, the same way our master taught us. This
article will try to touch the latest research methodologies in Homoeopathy,
keeping in mind the basis of our philosophy.

INTRODUCTION

A basic research process can be defined as, “An inquiry process that has clearly defined parameters and involves discovery and creation of knowledge for testing, building, revision, confirmation,
refutation of knowledge and theory by means of investigation of a problem for
local decision making”. The first basic thing Hahnemann did to prove, there
exists a science beyond the materials, was by means of experimentation and observation,
observing it to the levels of criticism and analysing it to the depths of
history. Research not only means noting down the observations and findings but
to analyse them and to reach to a conclusion which is the landmark for
future research.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH

The purpose of research is to discover answers through the application of scientific procedures. Until and unless we are not clear about our objectives we cannot lead to a fruitful finding. The
objectives can be:

* To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it – Exploratory or Formulative Research. This kind of research is key point to our
trials regarding the action of remedies onto various systems in our body.
* To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group – Descriptive Research, i.e., drug pictures,
disease pictures, individualized case studies, research regarding group
studies.
* To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else – Diagnostic Research, i.e., action
of various remedies in specific conditions and vice versa.
* To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables – Hypothesis-Testing Research, i.e., clinical trials of (new or old) drugs on conditions
which were not appeared drug proving but were benefitted in therapeutics, for
example action of certain remedies on cancers.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD RESEARCH

A good research has some characteristics associated with it, without these it is nothing but a bundle of papers on table. The characteristics help us to learn the simple meaning of research
methodologies. These characteristics also help us to understand the
outcomes of such research; it is likewise applying a constitutional remedy to
an individual. The purpose of the research should be clearly defined. The process
which we are planning to adopt should be detailed. Once we have decided upon
the area we want to work research protocol should be thoroughly made and
planned. To make the protocol scientific and unbiased high ethical standards
should be applied. If any limitations to the study are present they should be
clearly defined and accepted. Once data is collected its proper analysis should
be done by an expert, such as bio statistician. Logic is to be applied to every
possible test to validate the data collected and conclusions reached. The
outcomes of research should be presented with rationale and truthfulness and
once the analysis is properly done the justified conclusions should be drawn
from it and should be published for other’s benefit.

So, the linear research process consists of:

TYPES OF RESEARCH

There are numerous ways by which we can do research activities. The type of research depends upon our aim. There can be a mixed type of research on one topic also. The common types are:-

· Descriptive: as in description of drugs and their Symptomatology.

· Analytical: as in analysing already proved drugs for new spheres of actions.

· Conceptual: as in making new treatment concepts in different diseases.

· Empirical: research based on experience or observations.

· Quantitative: as in drug standardization.

· Qualitative: as in action of different potencies in different conditions.

· Applied: as in application of remedies in specific conditions.

· Fundamental: as in clinical proving, clinical verifications and collaborative research.

· Diagnostic: as in action of various remedies in specific conditions and vice versa.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN HOMOEOPATHY

Following are the few areas worth discussing regarding research in Homoeopathy:

· Drug standardization: Aphorism 122, “In
these experiments - on which depends the exactitude of the whole medical art,
and the weal of all future generations of mankind - no other medicines should
be employed except such as are perfectly well known, and of whose purity,
genuineness and energy we are thoroughly assured.” This drug
standardization is conducted to ensure quality, genuiness, and authenticity of
raw drugs and to evaluate the safety and efficacy of drugs. Physico chemical standardization
studies include ash values, extractive values, colour reactions, physical
constants of mother tinctures and thin layer chromatography (TLC) profiles of
extracts and mother tinctures. Pharmacogonostic studies include morphology,
anatomy, histochemistry, powder-microscopy and prelimiary chemical tests.
Pharmacological tests include toxicity studies, antifertility activity, motor
activity, hypoglycemic effects, Blood Pressure, CNS toxicity study etc.

* Homoeopathic pathogenetic trials (HPTs): Human pathogenetic trials or commonly known as Drug Proving is the core activity we aim for. This goes in accordance with our philosophy and laws to know the effect of medicines on healthy human
beings. Drug proving technique has been the same since the first time it
was introduced by Hahnemann some 200 years ago. In the recent times the process
and methodology of HPTs has improved greatly. The techniques have been
unified to record and process the results of HPTs.
* Clinical research: Clinical research is one of the major research activities in Homoeopathy in the past few years. The concept of “Evidence based medicine” is propagated
through clinical research everywhere, and is welcomed everywhere.
Councils, institutions, agencies, associations and physicians are now
coming together in clinical research activities to promote Homoeopathy as
“Evidence” based science. In the past few years many clinical research
papers have been published in peer reviewed journals. The aim of the
clinical research process is to gather scientific data at one place and to
support & propagate Homoeopathy as evidence based science.
* Clinical verification: To make clinical proving and research more authentic and scientific, clinical verifications are done at multicentric levels. This helps us to
gain finer shades of remedies in terms of ethnicities, climates,
populations etc.
* Collaborative and fundamental research studies: Collaboration component of research is necessary to explore more on ground level. Collaborative studies are critically analysed and presented to larger masses of other fields. Further there are many areas
where Homoeopathy is new as a science, thus collaborating with other
institutes and individuals helps Homoeopathy to be rooted to those areas.
This generates waves of new dimensions and horizons. Collaboration also
provides us with the latest techniques and methods which otherwise are
difficult to approach in day to day practice. Many of the research studies
are done with renowned institutes like AIIMS, ICMR, BHU, INMAS etc.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Homoeopathy, the rational art of healing is based on scientific fundamental principles. As we all know that in today’s world research is an imparative part of any science, so for further development
of homoeopathic practices and for the affirmation of the fundamental principles
on which Homoeopathy is based, we have to focus on research oriented activities
in our system of medicine. To strengthen the scientific base, improving
Homoeopathic practice and verifying the clinical efficacy, research in
Homoeopathy should be carried out and encouraged.

Research in Homoeopathy should aim at making Homoeopathy more effective and reliable in wider range of conditions. Research should improve the practice of Homoeopathy and at the same time evolve
methods to make it easier to practice. We can achieve scientific credibility
only by collecting clinical evidences for the efficacy of our drugs in various
clinical conditions.

Sometimes it is very difficult for many of us to correlate scientific attitude with homoeopathy we are doing at our clinics and hospitals. Most of the time, we are afraid of the complexity of
research, funding issues, absence of proper data collection, difficult access
to published studies; online resources, and many more unaswered issues. Our aim
towards research is very clear, to cure and benefit our patients, to become
more scientific, to gather data, to grow stronger on philosophical and logical
grounds.All practicing Homoeopaths can contribute to the progress of
Homoeopathy by making data of their clinical experiences, by applying drugs on
large number of cases and writing down the outcomes carefully. We can also
identify the most reliable indications of each drug on which prescriptions can
be made even while working at bedside in IPDs, OPDs or in our clinics. Every
one of us can contribute to the data verification, repertory verification and
proving the efficacy of drugs of our Materia Medica. Unbiased observation and
data verification has been emphasised by, Hahnemann in aphorism 6 of Organon of Medicine, “The unprejudiced observer is well aware of the futility of transcendental speculations…..”

REFERENCES

1. Organon of Medicine, Vth Edition.

2. Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India. Good clinical practices for clinical
research in India, 2006.

3. Central council for research in Homoeopathy. Workshop on research
methodology and standardization, 2006.

RECENT RESEARCH REPORT SHOWS HOW HOMEOPATHY ACTS

2010-06-12T01:49:00.000-07:00

Nobel Prize winner reports effects of homeopathic dilutions

In a recent study Professor Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who co-discovered HIV and who won the Nobel Prize in 2008, and his team report the results of a series of rigorous experiments investigating the electromagnetic properties of highly-diluted biological samples.

The study demonstrates that some bacterial DNA sequences are able to induce electromagnetic waves at high aqueous dilutions. It appears to be a resonance phenomenon triggered by the ambient electromagnetic background of very low frequency waves. The researchers used aqueous solutions that were agitated and serially diluted (the researchers note that the solutions were 'strongly agitated' and that this step was 'critical for the generation of signals'). In other words homeopathic potencies, although the word 'homeopathy' is not mentioned in the article.

The researchers found that pathogenic bacteria and viruses show a distinct electromagnetic signature at dilutions ranging from 10^-5 to 10^-12 (corresponding to 5D to 12D) and that small DNA fragments (responsible for pathogenicity) were solely accountable for the electromagnetic signal. The researchers also noted that one experiment found significant effects from dilutions as high as 10^-18 (equivalent to 18D). The electromagnetic signature changed with dilution levels but was unaffected by the initial concentration and remained even after the remaining DNA fragments were destroyed by chemical agents.

They observed that the electromagnetic signal was destroyed by heating or freezing the sample. Also, a 'cross-talk' effect was found whereby a negative sample inhibits the positive signal in another sample if they are left together overnight in a shielded container. The researchers propose that specific aqueous nanostructures form in the samples during the dilution process and are responsible for the electromagnetic effects measured.

The researchers also detected the same electromagnetic signals in the plasma and in the DNA extracted from the plasma of patients suffering from Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

This study is an important contribution to the growing evidence base in fundamental research with direct relevance to homeopathy.

ANGINA PECTORIS

2010-05-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

Angina Pectoris is a term for chest pain caused by the heart not getting enough oxygen. This lack of oxygen is also called myocardial ischaemia.

Although the arteries supplying the heart may provide enough blood (and therefore oxygen) for daily activities, this may not be possible at high-demand times such as during exercise (even just walking), stress, or extreme temperatures. The symptoms may disappear when, for example, exercise is stopped.

An attack of angina means that you are at increased risk of a heart attack(acute mycordial infraction) and should see a doctor right away.

There are three main types of angina:

Stable angina is characterised by predictable periods of discomfort that occur during exercise or periods of stress. This pain may be relieved with rest and/or glyceryl trinitrate (GTN)

Unstable angina is characterised by sudden and unexpected onset of pain, usually during periods of rest. The pain may be more severe than with typical angina. People with unstable angina are at increased risk for , severe cardiac arrhythmia, and cardiac arrest. This is an acute emergency and should be treated immediately.

Variant angina (Prinzmetal’s angina) almost always occurs during periods of rest – usually at night. The cause is a spasm of a coronary arteryA doctor can identify which type of angina a patient may have based on information obtained from your medical history, and a range of investigations such as ECG and exercise tolerance test

MAJOR TEST REQUIREMENT

EKG
STRESS TESTING
CHEST XRAY
CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY AND CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION
BLOOD TESTS

HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES

AMYL NITRITE

In acute attacks of this disease Amyl nitrite is usually the remedy given, and it is given by olfaction of the crude substance, Its action is to produces a speedy dilation of the capillaries in the upper part of the body, the face becomes flushed, the heart's action is rapid and tumultuous, there is a feeling as of a band around the head, constriction about the heart and oppressed breathing. It is very useful in relieving the paroxysm, and if the symptoms correspond it will be found useful at other times. Aconite is especially useful during a attack of vaso-motor angina from exposures to cold, with intense anxiety. Coldness pain radiating from head in all directions, with numbness, tingling, paraesthesia.

GLONOINE

Or Nitro glycerine is a very similar remedy. It has been proved and its action is fairly well known. Its grand characteristic is throbbing all over the body in every vessel, a feeling of fulness in region of heart, and perhaps sharp pains radiating in all directions from heart, labored breathing, and fluttering of the heart, it feels contracted.

CRATAEGUS

Sudden, terrible pain in the left breast, radiating over the heart and down left arm, despondent and fearful of death. Use tincture in water, frequent doses.
Has pains radiating all over the chest and a sensation as if the left arm were bound to the side The patient may become unconscious;us, the heart's action suddenly ceases, there is a sense of impending suffocation,l and the pulse is weak and feeble. Kalmia has shooting pains above the heart to the scapula, anguish about heart, pressure form epigastrium to heart. Kali carbonicum has stitches from heart to scapula and there is great weakness. Magnesia phosphorica 6x in hot water will frequently greatly relieve the paroxysms of angina and lessen their duration. It has contraction of the chest with pains radiating from the heart in all directions. Aurum produces a pressure on sternum as from a heavy weight

SPIGELIA

Is a useful remedy in anguishing substernal pain which radiates to neck and arms, irregular pulse, tendency to syncope, palpitation and sharp stitches in heart, pulse weak and irregular, or full and bounding with aggravation from the least motion. Cuprum has a slow pulse, and clinically it has proved useful in angina, where there is an uneasy feeling about the heart. In cases ;of "tobacco heart," or uneasy pains about the heart due to tobacco, Nux vomica, Staphisagria and Tabacum have proved useful. Tabacum 3x has cured cases of angina pectoris in patients with arterio-sclerosis. Especially useful in anginas caused by tobacco also in the intermittent hearts of the aged. If organic disease of the heat be present as a cause of the angina, Cactus may be the remedy when the grasp of the "iron hand" is present. Arnica has a sudden pain in the heart as if squeezed and pain in left arm and left arm and left chest. If the sore, bruised feeling be present the choice is easy. An other remedy to be thought of in tobacco heart is Kalmia. a numbness of the right hand and arm should suggest Lilium, which is an excellent remedy in heart troubles. Latrodectus mactans deserves to be studied, as it has worked well in many cases

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

2010-01-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HEALTHY, HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS 2010. HOMEOPATHY SHALL STAND TO HELP YOU IN ALL YOUR HEALTH NEEDS.

DR. SBAHL

DR S.BAHL'S HOMEOPATHIC CLINIC

2009-04-21T03:31:00.000-07:00

http://drsbahl.tripod.com/

FOR YOUR CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS, YOU MAY CONSULT US.

SEASONAL ALLERGIES

2009-04-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

As all of us are aware that seasonal allergies can be quite trouble some, despite taking the conventional medicines.Homeopathy, on the other hand, is very successful with the treatment of seasonal allergies without the horrendous toll on your system that is generally associated with conventional medicines.

As you are aware, no two cases of seasonal allergies are the same, which is why it is always important to a homeopath how an individual manifests his/her particular symptoms.

We will give a few examples of homeopathic remedies that may help for the most common symptoms of seasonal allergies.

Take one dose every four hours as needed in a 30CH potency.

If after a couple of days, you do not find any noticeable relief, you should try the next remedy that closely matches your individual symptoms or consult a homeopath.

•Allium cepa—This remedy is indicated for symptoms that include watering eyes, runny nose, and frequent sneezing. The discharge from the nose irritates the upper lip. The symptoms usually are worse in a warm stuffy room. Usually the symptoms are better in the open air.

• Arundo mauritanica—Indicated when there is annoying itching in the nostrils and roof of the mouth. Lots of sneezing and itching of nostrils some times accompanied by bluish- coloured phlegm.

• Sabadilla—Indicated when there are red, burning eyelids with a hot face. The person is very sensitive to odors, and the sinuses seem to be the most affected. The symptoms are sometimes better when exposed to a warm wind.

• Wyethia helenoides—Indicated when there is a lot of itching in the throat that extends to the ears. The person seems to be clearing their throat often with constant desire to swallow. There can also be hoarseness associated with the symptoms. Itchiness of the roof of mouth with inclination to rub it with tongue.

ACE Test

2009-04-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

Why get tested?
To help diagnose and monitor sarcoidosis(A chronic disease that causes granulomas and affects organs throughout the body; T lymphocytes and other immune-related cells infiltrate areas and change the structure of surrounding tissues); to help differentiate this systemic condition from other disorders causing similar symptoms

When to get tested?
When you have granulomas(Special form of chronic inflammation; often forms one or more nodules that can involve the skin, lymph nodes, lung, liver, spleen, or other organs. Granulomas often form in response to certain types of infection ,especially to mycobacteria such as in tuberculosis and to fungi or to foreign bodies, but sometimes have no known cause, as in sarcoidosis) that create small bumps under the skin, a lingering cough, red watery eyes, and/or other symptoms suggestive of sarcoidosis; regularly when you have active sarcoidosis to monitor its course

Sample required?
A blood sample drawn from a vein in your arm

eAG a new term in diabetes control

2009-04-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

Diabetics may soon hear a new term and see new numbers that describe how well their disease is being controlled.

That term, “estimated average glucose (eAG),” refers to the result of a diabetic’s glycated hemoglobin (A1c) test, converted into an average blood glucose level in the units of measure seen on glucose meters. Both the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) hope that using eAG helps patients and their doctors make the necessary changes to diet and physical activity to improve overall diabetes management.

While AACC has called upon laboratories to express A1c results as eAG, it favors a cautious approach to using this new term and number. In a recently released statement, AACC has asked labs to report eAG along with the A1c results patients are used to seeing. The basis of AACC’s position is what it identifies as the need for more data. “At the current time, there is inadequate data to justify sole reporting of eAG without the A1c result,” the statement notes. In particular, AACC calls for further study of whether it’s appropriate to use eAG in certain ethnic groups, pregnant women, and adolescents.

A1c tests, administered during doctor visits, measure average blood glucose control over the previous two to three months. With results stated in percentage points (i.e., A1c of 7%), A1c has long been an important tool in diabetes management. In general, A1c results indicate how successful a patient has been over a period of time in keeping glucose levels in a healthy range through daily self-testing and adjustments to insulin doses.

Diabetics test blood glucose levels several times a day, often before every meal. The readings from self-monitoring help patients fine-tune insulin doses to maintain their glucose levels within an acceptable range. These results are reported in different units than A1c, mg/dl (i.e., 170 mg/dl). Readings from self-monitoring represent the level of glucose in the blood at that moment in time, but do not give any indication of what glucose levels are at other times of day nor what average levels may be over several weeks as do results from the A1c test.

Like A1c, eAG evaluates a patient’s overall success at controlling glucose levels. However, by converting A1c percentage points to the same units as the meters patients use for daily self-monitoring (mg/dl), eAG results have the added advantage of giving physicians and patients a way to correlate A1c results to the daily readings, says ADA. With eAG, patients will see figures that differ greatly from the A1c results they have been receiving. For example, the usual A1c goal of 7% is the same as an eAG of 154 mg/dl. ADA hopes that using eAG will help patients better monitor their long-term glucose management.

A recent ADA recommendation that health professionals begin discussing eAG with patients in diabetes management education comes after a recent study, called ADAG for A1c-derived average glucose, showed a reliable correlation between A1c readings and average blood glucose levels. By comparing the measurement of A1c with the average glucose levels, study investigators were able to derive an equation allowing accurate interpretation of A1c levels as an eAG, according to ADA.

While eAG figures will help patients more directly see the difference between their individual meter readings and how they are doing with their glucose management overall, ADA notes that an eAG value is unlikely to match the average glucose level shown on a meter. That’s because diabetics are more likely to monitor their glucose first thing in the morning or before meals, when their blood glucose levels are low. So the average of these readings on glucose meters is likely to be lower than their eAG, which represents an average of their glucose levels 24 hours a day, including post-meal periods of higher blood glucose when people are less likely to test.

Multi-generational living hard on women's hearts

2009-04-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women, but not men, who live in households with a spouse, children, and parents have double the risk for a coronary event, such as a heart attack or need for heart surgery, as women who live only with a spouse, according to research from Japan.

Stress may play a role in this increased risk, as about a quarter of the women living in a three-generation household or living with a spouse and parent reported high stress. Fewer women were highly stressed when they lived alone, with a spouse, or with a spouse and child, Professor H. Iso and colleagues report in the journal Heart.

Iso, of Osaka University, and colleagues assessed coronary heart disease events and deaths in relation to the living arrangements reported by nearly 91,000 Japanese men and women who were 40 to 69 years old.

Over 11 years of follow up, Iso's team noted no significant impact on CHD incidence among the men in the study.

However, among the women, those living in three-generation households had twice the risk for heart-related events as women living only with a spouse. Moreover, women living with spouses and parents had triple the risk for heart problems compared with women living only with a spouse.

These findings are relevant for Japanese health policy, Iso and colleagues surmise, particularly in light of the increasing female workforce, the declining marriage rate, and the rapid aging of the population in Japan.

HOMEOPATHY AND UNEXPLAINED INFERTILITY

2009-03-13T00:56:00.000-07:00

Homeopathic medicine can help couples achieve pregnancy when the causes of the infertility are not known (unexplained fertility) because homeopathy stimulates the healing force within the body to heal itself. When couples seek advice from a homeopathic practitioner, they men and the women are treated constitutionally and a remedy selection is made based on their unique characteristics. The first homeopathic interview lasts for at least 2 hours and the person is asked questions about their likes and dislikes, how the weather changes affect their state of health and what makes their symptoms better or worse.

If it is the woman suffering from infertility, homeopathy can help regulate the menstrual cycle, treat endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome. If the cause of infertility is due to a mental or emotional aspect of the woman’s life, like a stressful career or relationship, past abuse, shock, and guilt, homeopathic medicine can help restore balance at the mental and emotional state, allowing for healing to occur at the physical level.

When the male partner is the one suffering from infertility with symptoms of low sperm count, abnormal sperm morphology, erectile dysfunction and varicocele, homeopathic medicine can assist restore strength by increasing sexual vitality. In these cases, homeopathy works best if a healthy diet follows, especially when coffee is reduced and alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking is given up.

HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY

2009-03-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

It is quite common among the patients or some time among Doctors also, to take any medicine as homeopathic, if it is labeled as homeopathic medicine by the manufacturer.If we ask :

Is Quinine a homeopathic remedy?
Answer : No

Is Tinct. Cinchona a homeopathic medicine?
Answer : Some say no, some yes, some hesitant.

Is cinchona Q a homeopathic medicine?
Answer : yes

Is china 200 a homeopathic remedy?
Answer : Yes of course.

But the reality is neither quinine nor Tinct. Cinchona, nor Cinchona Q, nor China 200, is an allopathic or homeopathic medicine per se. These are all simply medicines.A medicine does neither become allopathic or homeopathic by dint of its name , nor according to the name of the manufacturer or even the professional label of the prescriber.

In fact a drug becomes a medicine when made suitable for prescription. A medicine becomes a remedy, when applied against a particular diseased condition.

A REMEDY BECOMES HOMEOPATHIC ONLY WHEN APPLIED ON THE BASIS OF SYMPTOM SIMILARITY. ANY REMEDY PRESCRIBED ON ANY OTHER BASIS OR PRINCIPLE, CAN BE ANY THING, OTHER THAN HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE.

INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN SCIENCE OF HOMEOPATHY

2009-03-11T01:55:00.000-07:00

IT IS AN INTERESTING VIDEO, ON HOMEOPATHY.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/introduction-to-the-modern-science-of-homeopathy/3824340024/?icid=VIDURVTEC12

MAJOR MEDICAL MISTAKES 05

2009-02-21T01:54:00.000-08:00

In what was, perhaps, the most publicized case of a surgical mistake in its time, a Tampa (Florida) surgeon mistakenly removed the wrong leg of his patient, 52-year-old Willie King, during an amputation procedure in February 1995.

It was later revealed that a chain of errors before the surgery culminated in the wrong leg being prepped for the procedure. While the surgeon's team realized in the middle of the procedure that they were operating on the wrong leg, it was already too late, and the leg was removed. As a result of the error, the surgeon's medical license was suspended for six months and he was fined $10,000. University Community Hospital in Tampa, the medical center where the surgery took place, paid $900,000 to King and the surgeon involved in the case paid an additional $250,000 to King.

MAJOR MEDICAL MISTAKES 04

2009-02-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

In St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a patient was submitted at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital to have one of his kidneys removed because it had a tumor believed to be cancerous. Instead, doctors removed the healthy one.

"The discovery that this was the wrong kidney was made the next day when the pathologist examined the material and found no evidence of any malignancy," said Samuel Carlson, M.D. and Park Nicollet Chief Medical Officer. The potentially cancerous kidney remained intact and functioning. For privacy and family's request, no details about the patient were released.

MAJOR MEDICAL MISTAKES 03

2009-02-21T01:47:00.001-08:00

Joan Morris (a pseudonym) is a 67-year-old woman admitted to a teaching hospital for cerebral angiography. The day after that procedure, she mistakenly underwent an invasive cardiac electrophysiology study. After angiography, the patient was transferred to another floor rather than returning to her original bed. Discharge was planned for the following day. The next morning, however, the patient was taken for a open heart procedure. The patient had been on the operating table for an hour. Doctors had made an incision in her groin, punctured an artery, threaded in a tube and snaked it up into her heart (a procedure with risks of bleeding, infection, heart attack and stroke). That was when the phone rang and a doctor from another department asked “what are you doing with my patient?” There was nothing wrong with her heart. The cardiologist working on the woman checked her chart, and saw that he was making an awful mistake. The study was aborted, and she was returned to her room in stable condition.

MAJOR MEDICAL MISTAKES 02

2009-02-21T01:43:00.000-08:00

17-year-old Jésica Santillán died 2 weeks after receiving the heart and lungs of a patient whose blood type did not match hers. Doctors at the Duke University Medical Center failed to check the compatibility before surgery began. . After a rare second transplant operation to attempt to rectify the error, she suffered brain damage and complications that subsequently hastened her death.

Santillán, a Mexican immigrant, had come to the United States three years before to seek medical treatment for a life-threatening heart condition. The heart-lung transplant that surgeons at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., hoped would improve this condition instead put her in greater danger; Santillán, who had type-O blood, had received the organs from a type-A donor.

The error sent the patient into a comalike state, and she died shortly after an attempt to switch the organs back out for compatible ones failed. The hospital blamed human error for the death, along with a lack of safeguards to ensure a compatible transplant. According to reports, Duke reached an agreement on an undisclosed settlement with the family. Neither the hospital nor the family is allowed to comment on the case.

MAJOR MEDICAL MISTAKES 01

2009-02-21T01:38:00.000-08:00

When Nancy Andrews, of Commack, N.Y., became pregnant after an in vitro fertilization procedure at a New York fertility clinic, she and her husband expected a beautiful new addition to their family. What they did not expect was a child whose skin was significantly darker than that of either parent. Subsequent DNA tests suggested that doctors at New York Medical Services for Reproductive Medicine accidentally used another man's sperm to inseminate Nancy Andrews' eggs.

The couple has since raised Baby Jessica, who was born Oct. 19, 2004, as their own, according to wire reports. But the couple still filed a malpractice suit against the owner of the clinic, as well as the embryologist who allegedly mixed up the samples.

Study Suggests Multivitamins Don't Work

2009-02-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Long-term multivitamin use has no impact on the risk of common cancers, cardiovascular disease or overall mortality in postmenopausal women, a new study finds.

The message is simple and echoes the advice of most researchers who have looked into the effects of diet: Eat real food.

Several other studies have shown vitamin supplements to be next to worthless and in some cases harmful.

"Get nutrients from food," said study leader Marian L. Neuhouser of the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center. "Whole foods are better than dietary supplements. Getting a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains is particularly important."

Multivitamins because they are the most commonly used supplement in the United States, used by more than half of residents, who spend more than $20 billion on these products each year, Neuhouser said.

"To our surprise, we found that multivitamins did not lower the risk of the most common cancers and also had no impact on heart disease," she said.
The results were published in the Feb. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Study details

The study was big. It assessed multivitamin use among nearly 162,000 women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative, one of the largest U.S. prevention studies of its kind designed to address the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women. The women were followed for about eight years.

Of the participants, 41.5 percent reported using multivitamins on a regular basis. Multivitamin users were more likely to be white, live in the western United States, have a lower body-mass index, be more physically active and have a college degree or higher as compared to non-users. Multivitamin users also were more likely to drink alcohol and less likely to smoke than non-users, and they reported eating more fruits and vegetables and consuming less fat than non-users.

During the eight-year study period, 9,619 cases of breast, colorectal, endometrial, renal, bladder, stomach, lung or ovarian cancer were reported, as well as 8,751 cardiovascular events and 9,865 deaths. The data showed no significant differences in risk of cancer, heart disease or death between the multivitamin users and non-users.

These findings are consistent with most previously published results regarding the lack of health benefits of multivitamins, Neuhouser said. But this study provides definitive evidence.

"The Women's Health Initiative is one of the largest studies ever done on diet and health," she said. "Because we have such a large and diverse sample size, including women from 40 sites across the nation, our results can be generalized to a healthy population."

Since the study did not include men, Neuhouser cautions that the results may not apply to them.

Homeopathic and conventional treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints

2009-01-05T02:50:00.000-08:00

Homeopathic and conventional treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints: A comparative study on outcome in the primary care setting

Background

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of homeopathy compared to conventional treatment in acute respiratory and ear complaints in a primary care setting.

Methods

The study was designed as an international, multi-centre, comparative cohort study of non-randomised design. Patients, presenting themselves with at least one chief complaint: acute (≤ 7 days) runny nose, sore throat, ear pain, sinus pain or cough, were recruited at 57 primary care practices in Austria (8), Germany (8), the Netherlands (7), Russia (6), Spain (6), Ukraine (4), United Kingdom (10) and the USA (8) and given either homeopathic or conventional treatment. Therapy outcome was measured by using the response rate, defined as the proportion of patients experiencing 'complete recovery' or 'major improvement' in each treatment group. The primary outcome criterion was the response rate after 14 days of therapy.
Results

Data of 1,577 patients were evaluated in the full analysis set of which 857 received homeopathic (H) and 720 conventional (C) treatment. The majority of patients in both groups reported their outcome after 14 days of treatment as complete recovery or major improvement (H: 86.9%; C: 86.0%; p = 0.0003 for non-inferiority testing). In the per-protocol set (H: 576 and C: 540 patients) similar results were obtained (H: 87.7%; C: 86.9%; p = 0.0019). Further subgroup analysis of the full analysis set showed no differences of response rates after 14 days in children (H: 88.5%; C: 84.5%) and adults (H: 85.6%; C: 86.6%). The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of the primary outcome criterion was 1.40 (0.89–2.22) in children and 0.92 (0.63–1.34) in adults. Adjustments for demographic differences at baseline did not significantly alter the OR. The response rates after 7 and 28 days also showed no significant differences between both treatment groups. However, onset of improvement within the first 7 days after treatment was significantly faster upon homeopathic treatment both in children (p = 0.0488) and adults (p = 0.0001). Adverse drug reactions occurred more frequently in adults of the conventional group than in the homeopathic group (C: 7.6%; H: 3.1%, p = 0.0032), whereas in children the occurrence of adverse drug reactions was not significantly different (H: 2.0%; C: 2.4%, p = 0.7838).
Conclusion

In primary care, homeopathic treatment for acute respiratory and ear complaints was not inferior to conventional treatment.

SOURCE: BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-01-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2009.

DR. S. BAHL

BHABA ATOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE INDIA

2007-12-12T04:05:00.000-08:00

The electronic division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed a novel instrument ‘medical analyser’ capable of giving physiological parameters with variations in large numbers and recording autonomic response of the body with homœopathic medicines in higher dilution.

With just one signal, the analyzer is able to derive variability, according to J D Jindal, chief coordinator of the analyzer department.

The parameter include heart rate, respiration rate, stroke volume, cardiac output and peripheral blood flow in upper extremities in a quietly lying down subject.

“In addition, the same hardware with the help of different software packages could be used to diagnose peripheral vascular occlusive diseases in out patient departments and monitor cardiac output continuously in the intensive care unit”, Jindal told PTI.

“Encouraged by the study on various parameters, the department took keen interest to look for significant changes in the autonomic response of the human body with homoeopathic medicines in higher dilution,” he said.

“We observed that significant changes occur in variability spectrum after the administration of the homeopathic medicines. Also the changes observed are different for different medicines,” he said.

Replying to a query why the department chose to study the response of homoeopaths medicine, Jindal said “Although the homoeopathic medicine of the 12^th or higher potency does not contain even one atom or molecule of the medicinal substance and still cure most of the diseases, no specific study was conclusively evidenced significant difference between the homoeopathic medicines and pure solvent till today.”

“Furthermore, the efforts to record changes caused by these medicines in physiological parameters are also highly specific in nature and can not be reproduced on demand.” he added.

Considering these limitations, the ‘medical analyser’ has recorded variability in heart rate and peripheral blood flow in 24 unbiased control subjects before and after the administration of homoeopathic medicine in 30,000 and 10,000 potency, Jindal said.

“The observations are important as they are recordable and reproducible and no specificity is required in choosing the control subject or the medicine,” he said.

Secondly, these changes are brought about by the homoeopathic preparation having no material existence even at atomic or molecular level, he said and added that there was a scope to document specific autonomic responses during systematic proving of the drug to act as template during patient management.

“Medical analyzer system has a potential to act as a tool for unfolding mystery of action of material-less medicine,” the BARC scientist added.

SOURCE PTI

__________________

YOUR QUERY/CUROSITY/QUESTIONS REGARDING HOMEOPATHY

2007-10-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

We welcome all our readers for their Queries/Questions/Curiosity pertaining to any aspect of Homeopathy.You write the details of your query to Dr. S. Bahl & he will be more than happy to provide your the most suitable answer.

Kindly address all your queries to Dr. S. Bahl at his Email

drsbahl@gmail.com

FOR YOUR ONLINE CONSULTATION

2007-09-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

DR S BAHL'S HOMEOPATHIC CLINIC

HOMEOPATHY PORTAL

2007-09-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.hpathy.com/homeopathy

CLINICAL SURVEYS & HOMEOPATHY

2007-09-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

Evidence-based practice depends upon good and relevant research, but it will also benefit from effective clinical outcome evaluation. Such issues are explored further in a review of clinical outcome studies published by the Faculty of Homeopathy. Similar comments are applicable in other areas of healthcare, such as dentistry and veterinary medicine.

Homeopathy's clinical potential may be much wider than current RCT evidence alone would indicate. There might be many more medical conditions - not listed at present in any of our categories of evidence that can become included in a future list of those confirmed by research to be effectively treated by homeopathy. While the RCT may be considered the 'gold standard' of clinical research, outcome studies are a useful way to assess the effectiveness of homeopathy in a 'real world' clinical setting, and their findings should be included in evidence-based decisions on which conditions are most likely to respond positively to homeopathic treatment.

We summarise here the results from outcome surveys conducted at two of the UK's Homeopathic Hospitals:

Bristol Homeopathic Hospital, 1997-2003
One of the most comprehensive outcome surveys is an analysis of over 23,000 outpatient consultations at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital from November 1997 to October 2003. This represented over 6,500 individual patients whose overall outcome was recorded at follow-up. More than 70% of these follow-up patients reported clinical improvement following homeopathic treatment. Many of the patients in the analysis had previously received mainstream medical intervention at the secondary care level and had either failed to respond satisfactorily or had been unable to tolerate the medication prescribed. summarises some of the key findings. Homeopathy therefore achieves positive clinical outcomes in certain conditions that have not yet been proven in RCTs (e.g. Crohn's disease, depression, eczema, headache, menopausal syndrome).

Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, 1999
This study followed up 100 sequential patients after 1 year, with 80% returns.At presentation, 81% of patients had failed to respond to conventional treatment; 47% had seen a Consultant for the problem. After 1 year, 60% of patients improved in the presenting complaint, 61% improved in well-being, 49% had a sustained improvement of value in daily living, and 37% had a sustained reduction in conventional therapy.

Individualization and SELECTION OF HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY

2007-09-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

Individualization is one of the most important factors in selection of homeopathic remedy. There fore it is very important for each one of us to pay utmost intention to individualization and we must not make any compromise on it. Also adoption of short cuts must be avoided under all circumstances.

Comparison, individualization, and difference in the nature of things most similar, are points that must be carefully considered.

The substitution of one remedy for another cannot be thought of, or entertained in Homoeopathy.

The homoeopathic physician must individualize, he must discriminate.

He must individualize things widely dissimilar in one way, yet similar in other ways.

Take for instance the two remedies, Secale and Arsenicum ; they are both chilly, but the patient wants all the covers off and wants the cold air in Secale, and he wants all things hot in Arsenicum.

The two remedies thus separate at once ; they are wholly dissimilar as to the general state, whilst wholly similar as to particulars.

A mere book-worm symptom hunter would see no difference between Secale and Arsenicum.

You go to the bedside of a case of peritonitis, and you will find the abdomen distended, the patient restless ; you will find him often vomiting blood and passing blood from the anus ; you will find horrible burning with the distended abdomen, unquenchable thirst, dry, red tongue, lightning-like pulse.

Well, Arsenicum and Secale have all these things equally ; they both have these things in high degree ; but when Secale is indicated he wants all the covers off, wants to be cold, wants cold applications, wants the windows open ; cannot tolerate the heat, and the warm room makes him worse.

If Arsenicum is indicated in such a case, he wants to be wrapped up warmly, even in the month of july, wants hot food and hot drinks.

The whole Materia Medica is full of these things and is based upon this kind of individualization.

Without the generals of a case no man can practice Homceopathy, for without these no man can individualize and see distinctions.

After gathering all the particulars, one strong general rules out one remedy and rules in another.

Physicians by the questions they ask often show that they have not been able to grasp this idea of individualization.

They pick out two symptoms, or one symptom common to two remedies, and say,

"Now, both of these remedies have this same symptom, how are you going to tell them apart ?"

Well, if you are acquainted with the Materia Medica, with the art of individualization, you will at once easily see how to get the generals ; the generals of one are so and so, and the generals of the other are so and so, and this will enable you to distinguish one of these remedies as best adapted to the constitution, when the two remedies have the one symptom in any equal degree.

Now, this rules out the idea of substitution. If one does not work, they say, try all down the list alphabetically, until you hit it.

Why a remedy that has never been known to produce that symptom may cure the case, because it is more similar to the generals of that case than any other.

This is the art of applying the Materia Medica. Many times a patient brings out that which is so strange and rare that it has never been found in any remedy.

You have to examine the whole case and see which remedy of all remedies is most similar to the patient himself. From beginning to end, the homoeopath must study the patient .

If he become conversant with symptoms apart from the patient, he will not be successful.

Par. 118 reads : "Each medicine produces particular effects in the body of man, and no other medicinal substance can create any that are precisely similar."

That is the beginning of a doctrine showing that there can be no substitution.

There are cases that are so mixed that man, no matter how much he studies, cannot see the distinctions ; but, remember one thing, there is one remedy that is needed in the case, whether it is known or not ; it is needed in the case, and it has no substitute, for that remedy differs from all other medicines, just as this individual differs from all other individuals.

It may be that we cannot see that it is needed, it may not appear to be indicated, but it is needed all the same, though the intimation may not have come to the eye or ear of the physician.

That shows the necessity of waiting and watching. In Homoeopathy medicines can never replace each other, nor one be as good as another.

As we hasten along with this subject, we find in Par. 122, Hahnemann says :

"In circumstances of this nature on which depend the certitude of the medical art, and the welfare of future generations, it is necessary to employ only medicines that are well-known."

Purity is important, medicines as they are proved should be kept unmodified and preserved and possessed of their full energy.

Now, it is important that you shall use the same substances, as nearly as possible, as were proved.

Among the potencies that we are using here as high potencies, made by Fincke and others, we have in a large number of instances the very identical substances that were proved by the provers.

It is important not to change. A plant bearing the same name as the one proved, but grown in a different climate and on a different soil, should not be used.

Procure the one that was proved originally. Fincke recognized this when he procured the substances that Hering proved.

We have the same Lachesis that Hering proved. I have a sample of the original Lachesis that I am preserving in a little vial marked with Hering's own name.

The medicine should be well-known ; its history should be well-known, with all the steps and details.

The question of potentization should be taken into account, the different hands they have been through ; all the little particulars of our high potencies should be well known.

You should not be careless in this and not gather potencies from Tom, Dick and Harry.

When able, go to headquarters and get your potencies.

Hahnemann writes in Par. 144:

"A Materia Medica of this nature shall be free from all conjecture, fiction or gratuitous assertion - it shall contain nothing but the pure language of nature, the results of a careful and faithful research."

We have formed, built and established the Materia Medica by provings upon the healthy, and observations that are pure and honestly made.

Par. 145: "We ought certainly to be acquainted with the pure action of a vast number of medicines upon the healthy body, to be able to find homoeopathic remedies against each of the innumerable forms of disease that besiege mankind ; that is to say, to find out artificial morbific powers that resemble them."

At the present time it will rarely be found that a fully developed disease has not its simillimum, its remedy and cure, in our Materia Medica.

It is only those mixed cases that are not developed that puzzle us.

Organon § 118,( Individualization)

How To Use The Repertory

2007-07-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

The call from the members of our school for an index of the symptoms of our materia medica has been insistent ever since the first edition of the Materia Medica Pura. This call has resulted in the publishing of several repertories, from the earliest ones, which covered the few remedies then proven to the last edition of Kent, which is an index to all the remedies proven homoeopathically or confirmed clinically to the present time. When members of our school turn to this vast work for assistance they are confronted with a maze of material, which, to the uniniated, is more confusing than the materia medica.

In using Allen’s Slip Repertory care must be taken not to give too high a standing to the nosodes or your final results will be apt to point to Psorinum or Tuberculinum.

The repertory was never made or intended to take the place of the materia medica; I cannot lay too great stress on the fact that it must never replace our constant study and use of the pathogenesis of our remedies, it should be used as an index to lighten the task of memory in storing the vast symptomatology of our remedies.

After the repertory has led us to the remedy which we believe covers our symptom picture, the selection of this remedy should be confirmed by reading its pathogenesis as given in one of our complete materia medicas. This not only acts as proof of the results obtained in the solving of our problems, but also acts as a check on hurried careless work and at the same time time continually increases our knowledge of materia medica.

The use of the repertory is one of the higher branches of our art and before it can be mastered the laws governing the homoeopathic treatment and cure of diseases, as given to us in the Organon and the Chronic Diseases, must be learned. Philosophy is rather like trying to explain a complicated problem of geometry to one who cannot use arithmetic, to try to teach the use of the repertory to one who does not comprehend Homoeopathic Philosophy.

I firmly believe that if Homoeopathy is to survive in this age of theraputic nihilism, when so many bastard practices are being fostered as Homoeopathic, its survival will come from a comprehensive study of the Organon. Constantine Hering said: “If our school ever gives up the strict inductive method of Hahnemann we are lost and deserve only to be mentioned as a caricature in the history of medicine.”

Homoeopathy is form the beginning to the end and art of individualization. We have to individualize remedies and patients. However convenient it may seem to be, and however, greatly it appeals to us, to think of our remedies in connection with disease in the treatment of which they may be frequently called for, it must always be kept in mind that to allow our conception of our remedies to be limited by nosological terms will hinder us from utilizing our remedies to the fullest extent. To get the greatest good from the materia medica we must recognize our remedies as powerful curative agents ready to serve us in any case no matter what the name of the disease may be or what the laboratory findings may designate.

It is not alone what the author has to offer to a reader that tells, it is what the reader can get out of the author, and in the last resort every homoeopath must be his own materia medica maker. I think that you will be amply repaid for the time given to a careful study of this analysis, not only for the usable knowledge of the remedies that you will have acquired, but also, - and perhaps, of the greatest importance, - the help it will be to you in enlarging and compiling your own materia medica.

Glen Irving Bidwell, M.D.

Homeopathy Video Courses - Vithoulkas

2007-07-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Homeopathy Video Courses - Vithoulkas

This is quite a good site to understand Dr. Vithoulkas way of interpretation of our materia medica for practical utilization of the homeopathic remedies , by understanding the full applicable range of these medicines.You will agree with me that these videos contents are of excellent quality.

An Evaluation Of Women At Risk For Premature Labor

2007-07-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

A study appearing in the July issue of the Journal of Periodontology found bacteria commonly found in the mouth and associated with periodontal diseases in the amniotic fluid of some pregnant women.

The study, which evaluated 26 pregnant women with a diagnosis of threatened premature labor, found the presence of periodontal bacteria, P. Gingivalis, in both the oral cavity and amniotic fluid in 30% of the women. Amniotic fluid is a liquid that surrounds an unborn baby during pregnancy. Any disruptions in the amniotic fluid, such as a bacterial infection, could potentially be dangerous to both the mother and baby.

"We evaluated women who were at risk of premature labor," said study author Gorge Gamonal, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Chile. "We know that there are many reasons a woman can be diagnosed with threatened premature labor, including bacterial infection. Past research has shown a relationship between adverse pregnancy outcomes and periodontal disease, a chronic bacterial infection."

"While this study's findings do not show a direct causal relationship between periodontal diseases and adverse pregnancy outcomes, it is still important for women to pay special attention to their oral health during pregnancy," explained Preston D. Miller, Jr., DDS, President of the American Academy of Periodontology. "Woman who are pregnant or considering becoming pregnant should speak with their dental and health care professionals about their oral health during pregnancy."

HOMOEOPATHY MYTHS AND FACTS

2007-07-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

WHAT EXACTLY IS HOMOEOPATHY

HOMOEOPATHY is a scientific system of medicine based on the discovery that a substance can cure the same problems it can cause, usually by varying the dosage of that substance.

Any herb, mineral or animal product given to a healthy person in a suitable dose often enough will cause that person to become ill in a specific pattern unlike any other. That is, each substance produces on the healthy individual unique symptoms. The same substance, in an extremely tiny dose, will remove just those symptoms it is capable of evoking, 'Let likes be treated by likes' is the homoeopathic ' password'.

MYTHS AND FACTS

Homoeopathy is slow acting

It is unfortunately a false impression that homoeopathy is slow acting. The reason may be that despite tremendous potential of it in curing common acute ailments, homoeopaths are approached only for treatment of uncommon, chronic ailments. It is considered good only when common ailment becomes uncommonly troublesome and chronic, or when there is a difficult condition which defies current allopathic treatment or there is a proposed surgical treatment which is despised. Naturally, these conditions will take some time to be cured. Even then, by its effectiveness and remote success, it has earned good reputation and patronage. The use of these medicines in Government dispensaries in various localities has proved their quick effect where 90 percent of patients come only for acute problems like diarrhoea, fever, cough cold and pains.

All medicines are same, small and white

These white sugar pills have no medicinal property. They are simple pills used as vehicles to dispense alcohol based bitter medicines and they can be taken easily, otherwise medicine can be dispensed directly on tongue or dissolved in water also.

Homoeopathy first aggravates the disease and then improves

It is a myth. It does not happen to all cases and always, if the chosen remedy matches the patient's need. But if repeated more than the need, often increases the complaints, but it would subside on its own as soon as medicine is withdrawn. Sometimes a patient who is dependent on some other medicines, for example, steroids, stops them, then he gets the original disease symptoms, and considers that the disease has aggravated.

Dietic restrictions
It is a myth regarding restriction in diet like onion, garlic, perfume, paan and tobacco. These medicines have been used on patients who are habituated to coffee and betel. IT ALWAYS ACTS. But with certain medicines when given, such restrictions are must. Otherwise the action may be nullified. Asking not to chew paan. or smoke are on the other hand are safe and healthy restrictions.

Can diabetics take these pills as it contains SUGAR?
Yes they can take as the amount of sugar is negligible. If necessary, medicines can be given in distilled water also.

Whether other medicines can be taken in emergency?

No, because this will confuse the physician in assessing which medicine is helpful and which is not. Yes, because a patient who is dependent on some drugs will not be able to leave them at once. They can be allowed if initially homoeopathic medicines do not help. As the disease is controlled gradually the patient himself will leave.

Can homoeopathy treat anything and everything?

Like any other system of medicine, homoeopathy has its own limitations. By homoeopathy any ailment acute or chronic, local or general can be treated except diseases where surgery is unavoidable. Furthermore, readers may note that many surgical diseases are treatable by homoeopathy to a great extent like enlarged tonsils,kidney stones, warts, piles, fissure and fistula.

No side effects

It is a fact that homoeopathic medicines have no side effects. The term 'side affects' of a medicine comes from modern pharmaceuticals. These drugs are aimed at one area of the body such as the cardiovascular system, the gut, the kidneys, etc. Though they have a primary area of action, they also effect other areas of the body. If these other effects are undesirable, they are known as adverse side effects. Streptomycin, an excellent anti-tuberculosis agent, has been known to cause deafness. The deafness is an adverse side effect. Homoeopathic medicines are not employed against one particular area or organ of the body. The homoeopathic remedy is chosen because it matches as closely as possible the totality of symptoms of the patient . Side effects, such as tissue destruction, do not occur under homoeopathy.

Efficacy

Homoeopathy is not only a therapy which can effectively cure acute or chronic diseases, but it is a method of stimulating the defense mechanism and balancing the constitution of patients. It is capable of enhancing the degree of productivity, creativity and serenity of people by removing the susceptibility to disturbing influences. More and more people are being successfully treated.

Homoeopathy is becoming more popular and accepted, and also becoming part of the establishments, and of an alternative holistic approach to health. With a track record proven over 200 years, homoeopathy is a natural medicine which is safe, and has no side effects, non-addictive, it is relatively inexpensive and treats the whole person.

Scope

If there is evidence that surgery is warranted, the homoeopathic physician too is anxious that it be done promptly. Major surgery often necessitates a long, difficult recovery period. Homoeopathic medicines, by stimulating and strengthening the body's defense mechanism, can aid this enormously. Fortunately, good homoeopathic prescribing has made many operations unnecessary. Fractures, of course, must be set and cast by an orthopaedic surgeon. Manipulation of the musculo-skeletal system is referred to a qualified osteopath, chiropractor, rolfer or massage therapist. In each of these situations, homoeopathy can provide corollary assistance. For example, a homoeopathic medicine can speed the union of a fractured bone; a bad bruise or sprain can be helped greatly by the specific homoeopathic remedy.

Homoeopathy cannot cure birth defects whether biochemical or structural. It can, however, improve the level of health of persons born with congenital weakness.

The range of problems to which homoeopathy can be effectively directed is extensive and included first aid, acute illnesses and all manner of chronic conditions.

An Interview :George Vithoulkas, by Peter Morell

2007-06-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

In addressing a meeting of the AIH in Washington DC on 21 June 2000 [1], George Vithoulkas said that in his view allopathic medicine was "destroying the American people" [2]. This comment stood out to me as very important, and I wanted to discuss it with him.

The following day [22 June 2000] I meant to ask him some questions publicly after his second address [9am-10am], but he left the stage too quickly for me to act. I caught up with him right outside the hall and we spoke for about ten minutes. I later presented to him an account of our discussion by email. He did not like some of the content, but agreed to answer a set of questions on the same subject, as an interview, which would be suitable for publication.

Before getting to the interview, let's review some of Vithoulkas's published comments pertaining to his contention that allopathic medicine is adversely affecting western civilisation's overall health.

"Classical homeopathy is the most powerful healing technique existing in the world. " [3] "I see the health of people in general so degraded, with no hope of regeneration. And homeopathy holds the hope of regeneration. " [4]

"... with the massive way antibiotics are being prescribed they are going to destroy the immune system. It is going to be open to new diseases, that are going to be incurable. AIDS is a disease which we have created. " [5]

"It's grotesque, but it's a fact... what you would see in this society would be terrible shouting, fighting, aggression, moodiness, fits... panic... but then you would see the real picture of what the state of health is! Never mind the statistics that say we are living longer. Look at the heart diseases, cancer, the chronic diseases, and now AIDS. We are facing a problem here... " [6]

"I claim that diseases of the human race have never been tackled properly by conventional medicine; on the contrary, they have been treated wrongly - suppressively - and therefore while the symptoms were masked, the real disorder underneath progressed and finally was pushed to the interior of the organism, which is the central and peripheral nervous system.
"Let me give you just a few facts to judge for yourself: Multiple sclerosis, a disease that eventually leaves its victims totally paralyzed, is one which thousands of people are suffering from in the western world. Yet it is entirely unknown to Africans, Asians or South Americans, who have not had the 'benefit' of the excellence of western medicine. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a terrible disorder of the neuromuscular system, is also unknown to all these people. Myopathy and muscular dystrophy is the same, known only to westerners. Epilepsy, which is rampant in the western world, is seldom encountered in these countries.

"Anxiety neurosis, compulsive neurosis, and in general mental disorders of a severe nature from which millions of patients are suffering in the western world, are almost unknown in these groups that have not had the 'benefit' of modern medicine and vaccinations. Chorea and a host of other nervous system disorders are also unknown to them.

"The model suggests that all these chronic diseases, including hay fever, asthma, cancer and AIDS, are the result of wrong intervention upon the organisms by conventional medicine. It claims that the immune systems of the western population, through strong chemical drugs and repeated vaccinations, have broken down and finally admitted the diseases deeper and deeper into the human organism, to the central and peripheral nervous system.

"In short, this model claims that conventional medicine, instead of curing diseases, is actually the cause of the degeneration of the human race. It is also very simple for anyone to think that if conventional medicine were really curing chronic diseases, today we would have a population in the west that was healthy, mentally, emotionally and physically.

"Due to this model, I had already, in 1970, predicted the appearance of AIDS, saying to a group of medical doctors in Athens that if conventional medicine continued to use antibiotics the way it did, there would come a time when the immune system would break down and new incurable diseases would emerge. It was an unfortunate but precise and timely prediction of the appearance of AIDS.

"Today, I want to make another prediction. If conventional medicine does not take notice of what we say and drastically change its practices and its logic in treating with chemical drugs; if it does not also change the direction of its research, soon diseases will go to the very center of the organism, which is the nervous system, and most of the population on earth will be mentally ill individuals. " [7]

The Questions

Here below are given the original questions I subsequently sent him and his complete answers:

Why did you say that the American people are being destroyed by allopathy? Not just why you believe this, but why you chose to say it?

Do you accept the responsibility that comes with the impact of what you say? This applies to any leader of any movement and the public remarks they make. Should you not be more cognizant of the possible misinterpretation of your public words? It seems to me that the social impact of the statements you make are perhaps more important than the claims you make. Unless you can supply good evidence for your statements and predictions, is there any point in bringing them to the public's attention?

You have not said these things "just to homeopathic converts, " as you previously claimed to me, but also to Swedish Parliament in 1996. Do you not think that such public remarks could be misinterpreted?

Does not your desire to say this about allopathy outweigh your social responsibility for saying it? In other words, does not your desire to say point 1 above [to get the message across dramatically] outweigh your awareness of points 2 and 3?

Do you really believe that the true significance of what you say can be grasped fully by allopaths and non-homeopaths? If not, then why keep saying it?

In many of the things you say - such as in the 2000 Links article - and your response to the reactions, you appear alone, isolated, dogmatic and arrogantly dismissive of all other homeopaths; you appear entirely dominated by insisting on the rightness of your own opinions and strongly dismissive of other people's. Are you aware of making this impression? In addition, does it not bother you? Does it not damage homeopathy?

I do personally agree with you on this matter of disease, but all beliefs and predictions are inevitably based upon a field of certain assumptions, experiences and probabilities. As allopaths do not have or share this field of assumptions, beliefs and experiences, so it is difficult to see how they can ever fully or clearly comprehend your predictions and statements; therefore, they seem likely to reject them out of hand. How do you think this can be remedied?

Do you not believe that a much more rigorous and scientific approach is required and might be undertaken, first by yourself and other homeopaths, to accumulate actual data in support of your opinions, as a good first step, before you make statements like this again?

Vithoulkas's Reply

George Vithoulkas faxed his reply on July 20, 2000.

"I will try to answer your questions as best as possible. I have reduced, as you will see, the questions to the essentials. "

1. Why did you say that American people are being destroyed by conventional medicine? Not why you believe, but why you chose to say it?

What I am saying is that the overuse of chemical prescription drugs is producing such devastating side effects that rapid changes in the overall health status of the western population will be apparent within the next few generations (two or three). We will witness outrageous consequences.

I am not saying this for the American people only, but for the entire civilized world that is overusing conventional therapeutics (prescription drugs and vaccinations). The American people are using such drugs excessively and therefore they will be the first to manifest lasting health consequences.

It is scary to see the explosion in the form of epidemics of chronic conditions, like Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, asthma, neuromuscular diseases such as multiple sclerosis, connective tissue diseases, allergic conditions, panic attacks, anxiety states, phobic states, insanity, etc., and all of these predominantly in the western world while undeveloped countries that do not possess the means to provide their populace such strong chemical drugs are free from such diseases. I believe that anyone who has come to this realization would want to warn those in danger. [2]

2. Do you accept the responsibility for what you are saying?

Absolutely. This is a warning I have been voicing for the last 25 years in all my public talks. It seems that certain nations, like Germany, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and Italy, are taking this, and other similar, warnings seriously. In consequence, they are turning to alternative methods of treatment, especially to homeopathy, in big numbers. The authorities in these countries are also taking action.

I wonder what you would have done had you my experience and conviction of the truth of this assertion? Would you remain mute and let a race, whether African, Asian or Caucasian, be devastated? Or would you choose to voice the warning as loudly as possible, even if it is the last moment, so those who will listen could be spared?

The American people are a relatively new society, composed of many races, with much charisma, vitality, originality, and sincerity; it is a society that is just and fair, and of great importance to everyone in the world. It is important that the American people be as healthy as possible and remain so, mentally, emotionally and physically.

In many departments of life, scientists have warned us about the many dangers that are threatening the planet (e. g., ecological crises). Slowly they are managing to make the world aware of these dangers despite vested interests that resist change and seek to hamper their efforts. It is my opinion that the greatest threat — the healthcare crisis — to the survival of the peoples of the western world, especially Americans, is imminent. I do not say this because I am an advocate of homeopathy. All those who really know me, know that I would say the same even if it went against my personal interests.

3. Do you think that such remarks could be misinterpreted? Would you accept the responsibility of such misinterpretation?

Sure, I am afraid that I might be misinterpreted, but would this fear prevent me, you or anybody from voicing a warning that might save a large number of people?

Here we are concerned with the health of the people, a life and death issue. Recently, it was published that 300, 000 patients died from prescription drugs in a given time period. If such numbers are correct, then we have to assume that a very large number of patients experienced similar, though non-fatal, side-effects from these drugs.

Many of the cases we try to treat with homeopathy have their origin in such side-effects. I believe that the long-range side-effects of the massive drugging of the world affects millions of people every year and contributes to the degeneration of the health of the general population on a grand scale.

Since I have seen and realized the extent of the damage from the overuse of chemical drugs, I have a responsibility to voice such a warning. I am also willing to discuss this issue with any health/medical authorities who are interested in doing so. It is my hope that corrective measures can be adopted to reverse this disturbing trend.

4. You have not said these things just to homeopaths but also to the Swedish Parliament in 1996 in your speech of acceptance of the Alternative Nobel Prize. Do you not think that such remarks could be interpreted wrongly? Could they be considered as scare stories? Wouldn't one need more convincing evidence before making such sweeping statements?

I have been voicing this warning for thirty years, always in a different way each time according to the situation. The essence is the same, but I speak in a different way when I speak to homeopaths than when I speak in a public lecture. I voiced this warning in the Swedish Parliament when I was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize.

The essence of my message to the world was that there is danger for the planet in the way chemical drugs are used and, at the same time, there is a way out of this danger; there is a solution. I did not do a sterile criticism only; I also offered a solution, how to get out of the situation. I voiced the same warning and the same hope when recently I was awarded the Gold Medal of the Hungarian Democracy.

I am not alone in proffering this warning; many other authors before me have spoken openly and in no uncertain terms about this danger. To mention only a few classics that come to my mind — Medical Nemesis by Ivan Illich, Pills, Profits and Politics, There's Gold in Them Thar Pills by Klass, Chronic Disease and Public Health by Lilienfeld and Gifford, etc.

The medical literature is full of these warnings, and the fact that periodically the medical establishment recognizes these failings and abandons the previous "miraculous" medicines confirms my assertion. The reader can refer to my book A New Model for Health and Disease (North Atlantic Books, USA; ISBN: 1556430876. April 1992) for more information.

The difference between these authors and myself is that simultaneously with the warning I proposed a solution: the acceptance and implementation of Homeopathy on a massive scale. To prepare such a solution I have worked hard the last forty years.

I have strived to implement this healing system to a level acceptable to the scientific world. I have educated doctors to produce respectable results. I have prepared a computer system that will help them with their diagnosis. I have written several books to explain and to educate, and I am in the process of writing a new materia medica of 16 volumes (nine volumes have been completed so far). I have held innumerable courses in different countries.

And lastly, I established a full school for re-educating the doctors: The International Academy of Classical Homeopathy. This program is now being taught in several countries.

5. Do you really believe that the significance of what you are saying can be fully grasped by conventional medical people? Can they fully comprehend your predictions and statements?

I do not only believe that conventional medicine has started listening; we have the facts that prove such a change. Already two medical universities in Europe, the Basque University in Bilbao, Spain and the Kiev Medical Academy in Ukraine, have given me the status of Professor, in their respective medical faculties. Several other universities are preparing to include homeopathy in their curriculum.

I have this year signed a protocol of collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Moscow, which is planning to assist in the re-education of Russian medical doctors in the science of Classical Homeopathy. They seem to be well informed and to care about the health of their own people more than any other European country.

I can also say that the European Union, after my conversations with the President of the Parliamentary study group concerned with alternative therapies and with the Minister of Health, passed, by a substantial majority of the Parliament, a directive recommending that the various European governments assist in the promotion of homeopathy.

The Health Ministry in Italy is proposing a new law to its parliament to insure that Homeopathic Medicine will be official. I suppose it is not necessary to continue enumerating the facts that prove this point.

If the medical authorities and the Department of Health in U. S. A. choose to ignore these matters, it is their problem and their responsibility. After my warning, perhaps they will not be able to invoke as their justification the myth that they did not know. But I believe that the American people are intelligent, progressive and aggressive enough to initiate their own grass-roots revolution. The fact that medical visits to alternative therapists in U. S. are almost double those to conventional medical practitioners proves that the American people are becoming more and more aware of this situation.

6. Do you believe that a much more rigorous scientific approach is required and might be undertaken by yourself and other homeopaths before you make a statement like this?

I agree that more research is required to find out the real damage done by chemical drugs and the real limits of homeopathy. That is why when I received the Alternative Nobel Prize, accompanied by a substantial amount of money, I distributed all of it to several research centers all over the world. But this money (US$85, 000) is peanuts in comparison with the money that goes to conventional research, which amounts to billions. Yet everyone in positions of authority says, "Give us more research. " The Commissioner of Health in the EU said the same thing and my position was: "Give us more money to produce more and better research. " They promised to give us some money. So far, the amount is very meager in comparison with the money that is shoveled into conventional Institutions, but it is a beginning.

7. My feeling is that by saying what you say you not only isolate yourself, but also might be hurting homeopathy.

I do not agree with your assumption. Just to give you a few facts. When I spoke at the LIGA Medicorum Homeopatica Internationalis in Budapest this year in May, they opened two auditoriums of three hundred seats each for my speech. (In the one, the participants could listen through a closed circuit TV). Both were packed and in the auditorium in which I was speaking about fifty people were standing and did not move a bit during my one-and-a-half-hour of speaking. For all other speakers one auditorium was used and was never full. You call this isolation?

When in January I gave a course in India, 2, 500 homeopaths were gathered from all over India in the largest auditorium of the country. Do you call this isolation? In Germany in 1997 when I spoke at the World Congress, the auditorium was full with 1, 500 homeopaths on the day I spoke. This year in Germany about two thousand homeopaths attended my lectures. Do you call this isolation that may hurt homeopathy?

Nonetheless, it is true that many remain uninformed of the possibilities of homeopathy or are not convinced about the side effects of chemical drugs. The work of informing the public falls upon all of us in homeopathy, and I hope that everyone will do his duty. There is no question that we still have to do a lot of work to make the world aware of the weakness of conventional medicine and the possibilities that homeopathy can offer to ailing humanity. There is no question either that homeopathy soon will take the place it deserves in the therapeutic arena. I feel that it is my duty and the duty of my students to prepare practitioners who can absorb the impact of such a change in medicine. "
George Vithoulkas

Footnotes [added by P Morrell]
AIH Conference and Hahnemann Monument Re-Dedication 21-25 June 2000, Washington DC; Opening ceremony - 21 June 1900
Vithoulkas has expressed a similar idea many times before: Homeopathic Links Interview April 1999; Jonathan Sale, "Greek Bearing Gifts Of Healing, " The Times, 8 September 1984, p. 6; Patrick Curry, George Vithoulkas Article, The Guardian, 1 July 1987; G Vithoulkas, 1985, "Homeopathy, Health And Humanity, " The Homeopath, 5. 1 [Summer 1985]; G Vithoulkas, 1983, "Homeopathy Today, " World Health Forum 4, pp. 99-101; G Vithoulkas, 1995, "Homeopathy Art Or Science?, " Homeopathic Heritage 20, pp. 301-4; see especially A New Model for Health and Disease, by George Vithoulkas, April 1992, North Atlantic Books, USA; ISBN: 1556430876
Jonathan Sale, "Greek Bearing Gifts Of Healing, " The Times, 8 September 1984, p. 6
Patrick Curry, "George Vithoulkas Article, " The Guardian, 1 July 1987
Ibid.
Ibid.
Extract from "Acceptance Speech to the Swedish Parliament at the Presentation of the Right Livelihood Awards" by George Vithoulkas, 1996

OXIDATION AND EXERCISE

2007-06-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

In a paper published in The Journal of Physiology, Helge, Stallknecht, Richter, Galbo, and Keins from Copenhagen shed light on fat oxidation during exercise and physical activity. Their observations suggest that fat oxidation during exercise reflects a fine interplay between the cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine and muscle metabolic systems.

During exercise and physical activity, the primary fuels used by muscles are carbohydrate and fat. When mild exercise is performed there is a tendency to burn relatively more fat and less glucose, but as exercise becomes more intense, a higher fraction of the energy demands of the muscle are supplied by glucose, until at the highest intensities almost only carbohydrates are used. Is this shift in fuel source a property of the muscle itself, or does it represent the interplay between what is happening in the muscle and the exercise-related responses in the rest of the body"

The study, performed at the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen, examined muscle fuel utilisation in response to graded exercise performed with only one leg. Nine healthy males performed one-leg exercise at 25, 45, and 85% of maximal workload. Their results showed that, when only a small mass of muscle is contracting, and blood flow and oxygen supply are not limited by central circulatory capacity, the shift in fuel source from fat to glucose as exercise intensity increases does not occur.

Helge et al.'s findings show that the adaptations in the rest of the body are the key to this fuel source shift during whole body exercise. They also help scientists understand why athletes "hit the wall" during events like the marathon, and they have implications for the adaptations made in middle-aged adults who are using exercise to prevent or treat conditions like diabetes and obesity. If the mechanisms can be fully understood, it may be possible to develop agents that allow fat oxidation to be maintained even during intense exercise with a large muscle mass.

National Center for Homeopathy

2007-06-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

National Center for Homeopathy

Mission at the National Center for Homeopathy is to promote health through homeopathy. By providing general education to the public about homeopathy, and specific education to homeopaths, They help to make homeopathy available throughout the United States

13 BASIC MEDICINES OF HOMEOPATHY

2007-06-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

The following 13 medicines of homeopathy are of utmost important in clinical practice.You can't practice , Homeopathy with out mastering these medicines

Sul * Calc * Lyc * Ars * Thu * Aco * Nux-v * Pul * Sil * Hep * Chin * Bell * Bry

HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINES ARE SAFE

2007-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

IT IS VERY SAFE TO TAKE HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINES.THESE MEDICINES DON'T HAVE ANY SIDE EFFECT.THESE ARE EASY TO TAKE,AND VERY EFFECTIVE EVEN IN CHRONIC CASES.

HINTS FROM MASTERS

2007-06-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

Psorinum has lack of reaction after serious diseases.
Mezereum may be frequently indicated during the months of January and February (in Canada)
Glonoin: It is stated that if administered just previous to the period then menses will fail to appear.
Zincum valerianicum is to be thought of in nervous affections when apparently well-chosen remedies fail to act.
Sulphur: Cases spoiled by the use of Aconitum napellus can often be adjusted by giving it.
Kali carbonicum: Acidum nitricum is especially active when it follows this drug.
Hydrastis Canadensis is frequently indicated when the patient has taken potassium chlorate for sore throat.
Bovista: Smoke from Bovista acts more decidedly on bees than any other substance of which we know.
Coffea cruda, Nux vomica, Pulsatilla, Asarum, Chamomilla, China, Ignatia, Teucrium marum verum, Valerian, Zincum valerianicum, may be used at times to correct over-sensitivity of life force, hyperaesthesia and /or irritability.
Mercury: Hepar sulph alternately with Acidum nitricum may be given for over-excitement from abuse of this drug.
Colchicum if given in massive doses for rheumatism, is said to frequently produce Bright's disease.
Chamomilla (low) to quiet the storm, which is set up by being deprived of morphia.
Ferrum met: Its action in syphilis is to intensify it.
Phosphorus: Curative effects most marked on the third day after its administration. Look for thirty-six hour aggravation after giving it in chronic diseases.
Rhus will not cure sciatica when the bowels are constipated.
Belladonna is said not to affect idiots to any appreciable extent
Phosphorus antidotes the nausea and vomiting following the administration of chloroform.
Borax: The symptoms that disappeared after taking it returned after taking vinegar.
Ambra grisea given in the evening is opt to cause an aggravation.
Opium: The narcotic effect is much diminished by great pain or grief.
Lachesis--- if sudden fright interrupts the good effect of other medicine.
Tarentula: All the symptoms aggravated by seeing others in trouble.
Arnica acts injuriously after the bite of a dog or other rabid or angry animal.
Lac caninum: When Belladonna and Lachesis fail in croup or diphtheria then turns to the polychrest.

BELLADONA

2007-06-12T17:56:00.001-07:00

Definition and Measure of Health by George Vithoulkas

2007-06-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

The Definition of Health for the Physical Body

Disease, whether expressed through pain, discomfort or weakness, always tends to restrict the individual. Its opposite, health, gives a sense of freedom. This is the reason why in the definition that follows I have used the word "freedom" as a key word.
I also give a separate definition of health for each of the three planes since I know that an individual can be sick on one level while on another level he may appear completely healthy. For example, a schizophrenic that is deeply disturbed in his mental- emotional plane appears to be extremely healthy in his physical body. It is a well-established fact that severely mentally ill patients almost never get sick with physical ailments, even under the most adverse conditions, while others that suffer from physical ailments can be very healthy in their emotional and mental spheres.
As we have already stated, every pain, discomfort, uneasi- ness, distress or weakness of the physical body results in a limitation of freedom and a feeling of bondage to the pain or discomfort. The individual necessarily directs all his attention to the pain, to the exclusion of everything else, and of course loses his general sense of well-being. It is for this reason that health on the physical plane can be defined as follows: Health is freedom from pain in the physical body, having attained a state of well-being.

The Definition of Health on the Emotional Plane

On the emotional plane, that which enslaves the individual and absorbs all his attention is excessive passion - passion in the broadest sense and not with only a sensual connotation.
Excessive, inordinate passion for anything shows a degree of imbalance within the emotional plane. For instance, when an overwhelming erotic passion for another person reaches a point where murdering this person is contemplated because of jeal- ousy, we definitely have a disease state rather than a love state. Passion for a cause, even a lofty one, that brings the individual to the point where he contemplates destructive actions against others is definitely a diseased state rather than justified ideal- ism. A healthy state of the emotions never goes so far as to bring Ot Ë Mew Model For Health ana uisease about destruction, but rather tries to follow the "golden mean" of the ancient Greeks.
Fanatical and dogmatic attitudes that divorce themselves from logic and understanding show a degree of unhealthy emotional involvement that usually results in some type of catastrophe, either for the individual or for others. Passionately loving somebody may mean that the degree of attachment is so great that if the love is not reciprocated, the individual may commit some kind of crime (homicide or suicide).
We too often mistake our emotional needs and insecurities for real love and affection. The latter two presuppose giving without reservation. It is emotional attachment that constantly makes demands of others under the pretense of giving. Certainly the opposite of passion - apathy - is no more desirable. Apathy is an extremely unhealthy emotional state, very much akin to the idea of death. What is desirable is a state of serenity and calm that is dynamic and creative, not passive, indifferent or destruc- tive - a state where love and positive emotions prevail, as opposed to hatred and other negative emotions.
In order to justify their origin and destiny, human beings have to transcend their animal nature, and have to make conscious efforts to evolve, not so much in their physical body as in their mental and emotional spheres.
I believe that it is clear now that passion comes from weak- ness rather than strength on the emotional plane. Thus the definition for this plane should be: Health on the emotional plane is freedom from passion, having as a result a dynamic state of serenity and calm.

The Definition of Health on the Mental-Spiritual Level

To give a concise definition of health on the mental-spiritual plane is a rather difficult task because one must identify the most important mental-spiritual qualities, which if disturbed may seriously injure the mental equilibrium.
After much deliberation I have come to the conclusion that peace of mind can be drastically affected by egotism, selfishness and acquisitiveness. The more egotistical and selfish an indi- vidual is, the greater his potential for mental derangement.
It is a known fact that a person who is very egotistical can be quite upset when his authority, knowledge or attainments are challenged. A humble man with the same attainments will hardly react to the unjust criticism of others, and will actually see the positive side of the criticism and correct his course of action accordingly. The same "shocks" that can set off an egotist and destroy him can leave a humble man almost unaffected.
An egotistical industrialist who fails in his business and loses his factory cares more about the opinion that others now have of him than the fate of the families, including his own, that will have no means to support themselves. It is his ego that has been hurt. Even if he has plenty to live on without the factory, he will feel miserable after the failure and is bound to develop a host of symptoms because of his "false" and selfish grief.
In a similar way, acquisitiveness could become the core of mental disturbance. Can you imagine how an avaricious man might react to the loss of his physical wealth and the deep symptomatology that could result?
Hardly anyone today is totally free from the feelings of egotism, selfishness and acquisitiveness.
It is also a fact that the person engrossed in his own ego can neither see objectively nor perceive the truth. He thinks he always knows everything and knows it better than anyone else. Humanity has suffered great disasters because of such atti- tudes. Looking back in history we frequently recognize this quality and label it insanity.
We speak about the insanity of Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, even of the captain in charge of the Titanic whose arrogance cost the lives of hundreds. In our own way, every one of us is dealing with similar issues on a smaller scale. This "disease" called egotism and selfishness seems to be universal. That is why we are so likely to admire and worship the saints; we believe that they actually managed to subdue their egotism and sacrifice their own lives for the sake of others. We worship them as "superior" human beings because their accomplishment seems beyond our comprehension. Although rare, this "saint-like" attitude is the healthiest to possess; in such a state true peace of mind and happiness is achieved.
It is peculiar, though, that this state of health can only be achieved through conscious efforts of the individual, while the state of health of the physical body is a birthright.
There is a natural legacy and an inherent urge for human beings to evolve into people of "Love and Wisdom." Only then A New Model For Health and Disease will there be hope for the human race. Not until we start seeing the issue in all of its dimensions will there be hope for a better state of health.
This imbalance we feel on the mental-spiritual plane is perhaps the most challenging and complicated issue we have to face. Nobody is exempt from this imbalance, though there are different degrees. The greater an individual's egotism and selfishness, the greater are his possibilities for a mental break- down.
We can therefore define mental health as: Freedom from selfishness in the mental sphere, having as a result total unification with Truth.
So now we summarize the whole definition of Health: Health is freedom from pain in the physical body, a state of well being; freedom from passion on the emotional plane, resulting in a dynamic state of serenity and calm; and freedom from selfishness in the mental sphere, having as a result total unification with Truth. A truly healthy indi- vidual should therefore combine both divine qualities of Love and Wisdom.
It is obvious that such a state of health is an ideal and that nobody can possess it in its entirety; but the definition points to an ideal Model of health toward which therapeutic treatments should aspire. The more a patient under treatment approaches this state, the healthier he becomes; and the more he moves away from it, the less healthy he becomes.

The Measure of Health

It is obvious at this point that we need some parameters to measure health.
Some questions are required of us. For example: If we cure somebody of asthma and as a consequence he develops a heart condition, how do we know that this new state of health is better or worse than his previous condition? If we treat a patient with a cardiac condition and he improves, but after a certain period of time he develops a phobic state or an anxiety neurosis, can we say that the treatment benefited the patient?
We shall see that in order for a treatment to be successful it has to push the disorder's center of gravity more and more to the peripheral, the skin being the final avenue of expression, leav- ing the deepest parts of the human being - his mental and emotional levels - intact.
As I have said, the issue of determining an individual's exact degree of health is a complicated task requiring much research and involving a number of parameters before precise answers are possible. But as a general rule of thumb, we can say that a good parameter for measuring the health of an individual is the degree to which he is free to create. Anybody who is basically healthy will seek to create rather than destroy. By creativity, as I have stated previously, I mean all those actions that promote the interests and good of oneself and others. To the degree that one commits destructive acts toward either himself or others, the degree to which he is diseased is apparent.

HOMEOPATHY

2007-06-05T15:26:00.001-07:00

HOMEOPATHY

Homoeopathy is the system of treatment based on demonstrable laws and principles, which are -
a) The Law of Similars - It is also called the Law of Cure. This law demonstrates that the selected remedy is able to produce a range of symptoms in a healthy person similar to that observed in the patient, thus leading to the principle of Similia Similibus Curentur i.e. let likes be treated by likes. To give a simple example the effects of peeling an onion are very similar to the symptoms of acute cold. The remedy prepared from the red onion, Allium cepa, is used to treat the type of cold in which the symptoms resemble those we get from peeling onion. The principle has been verified by millions of Homoeopaths all over the world.

b) The Law of Single Remedy - This law directs to choose and administer such a single remedy, which is most similar to the symptom complex of the sick person at a time.

c) The Law of Minimum Dose - The similar remedy selected for a sick should be prescribed in minimum dose, so that when administered there is no toxic effects on the body. It just acts as a triggering and catalytic agent to stimulate and strengthen the existing defense mechanism of the body. It does not need to be repeated frequently.

Holistic as well as Individualistic approach in Medicine through Homoeopathy

This is a key point and unique to Homoeopathy. Even though it may sound strange, Homoeopathy does not treat disease per se. A Homoeopath does not concentrate his therapy on, say arthritis or bronchitis or cancer. In other words he does not limit his treatment to painful joints, inflamed bronchi or a malignant growth. Rather, he treats all aspects mental, emotional and physical of the person who happens to be suffering with arthritis or bronchitis or cancer. Homoeopathy regards each patient as a unique individual, e.g. six persons with hepatitis might get a different Homoeopathic remedy, each one aimed at the individual’s totality of symptoms rather than at his liver alone. The physicians’ interest is not only to alleviate the patients’ present symptoms but also his long-term well being.

Concept of Vital Force

Dr. Hahnemann discovered that the human body is endowed with a force that reacts against the inimical forces, which produce disease. It becomes deranged during illness and the best-selected Homoeopathic remedies stimulate this failing vital force so that, as Hahnemann said "it can again take the reins and conduct the system on way to health".

Concept of Miasm

Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis are the three fundamental causes of all chronic diseases that afflict the human race as discovered by Dr. Hahnemann and called them miasms. This word is derived from Greek word miainein meaning ‘to pollute’.
Syphilis and Sycosis are the venereal and contagious chronic diseases, whereas Psora is a non-venereal chronic disease. Psora is present from the beginning to end of life and is the root cause of most of the diseases.

Principle of Drug Proving

To apply drugs for therapeutic use, their curative powers should be known. The proving of the drug is the method employed to know these powers and is unique to Homoeopathy as they are proved on healthy human beings. The symptoms thus known are the true record of the curative properties of a drug or the pathogenesis of a drug.

Drug Dynamisation or Potentisation

Drugs are prepared in such a way that they retain maximum medicinal powers without producing any toxic action on the body. It was found experimentally by Dr. Hahnemann that when diluted drugs are powerfully succussed they develop lasting medicinal powers.

DIABETES

2007-06-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Diabetes (medically known as diabetes mellitus) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose, or sugar. It occurs when your body produces little or no insulin or when your cells don’t respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced. Diabetes usually can’t be cured; left untreated — or poorly managed — it can lead to serious long-term complications, including kidney failure, amputation, and blindness. Moreover, having diabetes increases your risk for cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke.

The odds are that you or someone you know has diabetes already or is at risk of developing this disease. The number of Americans with diabetes currently tops 18 million, or roughly 1 out of every 15 people, and many more are at risk.

Of course, if you or someone you love has diabetes, the disorder is about much more than a statistic. It means a new way of life. Eating a meal, planning a vacation, or going for a run requires forethought and planning. From testing your blood sugar, to planning your meals, to injecting yourself with insulin, managing your diabetes takes effort and discipline.

What’s more, you not only have to think about keeping your blood sugar levels as normal as possible from day to day, you also have to worry about finding ways to avoid long-term complications that may develop as a result of having diabetes. People with diabetes face an increased risk of such complications as blindness, kidney failure, amputation, and heart attacks and stroke.

Small wonder, then, that a diagnosis of diabetes may seem overwhelming. Both people with diabetes and their families may find themselves struggling with negative emotions — fear, frustration, anger —as they learn more about the disease and the lifestyle changes it requires.

However, there’s plenty of good news emerging about diabetes. Research shows that keeping your blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible is worth the time and effort. Rigorous blood sugar control can enable you to delay or even prevent the progression of diabetes and its debilitating long-term complications. Such tight control is now possible thanks to recent innovations such as high-tech monitoring devices, improved medications.

Patterns of Brain Activity and Anxiety

2007-06-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Brain Activity and anxiety

All anxiety is not created equal, and a research team at the University of Illinois now has the data to prove it. The team has found compelling evidence that differing patterns of brain activity are associated with each of two types of anxiety: anxious apprehension (verbal rumination, worry) and anxious arousal (intense fear, panic, or both).

Their work appears this month online in Psychophysiology.

"This study looks at two facets of anxiety that often are not distinguished," said U. of I. psychology professor Gregory A. Miller, co-principal investigator on the study with psychology professor Wendy Heller. "We had reason to think there were different brain mechanisms, different parts of the brain active at different times, depending on what type of anxiety one is facing."

According to a recent national survey, anxiety disorders are the most commonly reported psychiatric disorders in the U.S. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classifies nearly a dozen different anxiety disorders, from acute stress disorder to obsessive-compulsive disorder to panic attack and PTSD. But those who study and treat patients with anxiety disorders do not always differentiate the patients who worry, fret and ruminate from those who experience the panic, rapid heartbeat or bouts of sweating that characterize anxious arousal. These two kinds of anxiety may occur alone or in combination, with potentially important implications for treatment.

To test whether neural activation patterns supported the hypothesis that these two categories of anxiety are distinct, the researchers selected 42 subjects from a pool of 1,099 undergraduate college students, using psychological tests to categorize them as "high anxious apprehension," "high anxious arousal," or neither.

Other psychological assessments standardized the pool of participants by removing those with mood disorders or other complicating factors.

The researchers used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to map the brain areas with heightened neural activity during a variety of psychological probes.

As the researchers had predicted, the anxious apprehension group exhibited enhanced left-brain activity and the anxious arousal group had heightened activity in the right brain. The anxious apprehension group showed increased activity in a region of the left inferior frontal lobe that is associated with speech production. The anxious arousal group had more activity in a region of the right-hemisphere inferior temporal lobe that is believed to be involved in tracking and responding to information signaling danger.

Other studies using electroencephalographic (EEG) methods had found that patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder had heightened activity in the left brain, whereas patients with panic disorder, panic symptoms or those subjected to high stress situations exhibited enhanced activity in the right hemisphere.

This is the first study, however, to localize the affected regions to identify areas within each hemisphere that seem to matter.

Miller stressed the importance of a related finding: The researchers distinguished the left-brain region involved in anxious apprehension from a nearby structure that is associated with positive emotional processing.

"Left and right is not the only distinction we made," Miller said. "We did left/right comparisons with groups, but we also did comparisons within the left hemisphere to show that these different areas are doing different things."

"This is biological validation of the proposal of the psychological differentiation of types of anxiety," Miller said. "Whether you want to treat anxiety psychologically or biologically - and we know that either type of intervention affects both the psychology and the biology of the person - these findings are a reminder that you might want to assess people carefully before you embark on a particular type of treatment."

NUX VOMICA. (Strychnos Nux Vomica.)

2007-06-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

Natural order.- Loganiaceae.

Common name.- Poison Nut.

Nux Vomica acts preeminently upon the spinal cord, including the motory and sensory centers at the base of the brain ; affecting chiefly that portion of the spinal tract which presides over reflex functions.

The condition produced is one of excessive irritation and excitability, giving rise to incoherent muscular action, which, in the extreme, constitutes violent tetanic contractions, and which finally may end in entire cessation of muscular movement, or paralysis.

These tetanic convulsions affect particularly the limbs and trunk ; the former being rigidly flexed, and the body arched as in opisthotonos, the respiratory muscles rigidly contracted, rendering breathing laborious, even to asphyxia, while at the same time there are present spasmodic conditions of the face, jaws, throat, oesophagus, and of the intestinal and urinary tracts.

The entire condition thus presents a horrible aspect, but through it all the mind is unaffected, though it is probable that little pain is experienced.

The paroxysms are usually interrupted " by periods of calm, from which, however, the least noise, a breath of air, or the lightest touch, may act with the suddenness of lightning to renew the scene." (Stram.) Death finally results, either from asthenia or asphyxia.

In addition to this remarkable action upon the muscular system, Nux Vomica affects profoundly the organs and functions of nutrition, the secretions being altered, the functions perverted, and the organic substance changed, giving rise to a long train of symptoms, presenting accurate pictures of gastric, hepatic, and intestinal affections, which may be only appreciated and understood by a careful study of the pathogenesis of the drug.

The same character of irritation which, in the mucous membrane of the alimentary tract, gives rise to dyspeptic symptoms and aids in the production of constipation, produces in the respiratory sphere a dry catarrhal condition, giving obstruction in the nasal passages, and dry cough.

Nux Vomica also affects prominently the genito-urinary sphere, producing at first an increased activity of these organs, followed by depression and relaxation.

The chief peculiarity of Nux is its adaptation to disorders of digestion, especially when resulting from long-continued errors of diet, from highly seasoned foods, stimulating drinks, hot medicines, and drug mixtures in general, and especially when occurring in persons of sedentary habits.

WHO AND SMOKING BAN

2007-05-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Coinciding with today being World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging all countries to bring in a 100 per cent ban on smoking in indoor public places and workplaces and has released its new policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

"The evidence is clear, there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in a prepared statement earlier this week.

"Many countries have already taken action. I urge all countries that have not yet done so to take this immediate and important step to protect the health of all by passing laws requiring all indoor workplaces and public places to be 100 per cent smoke-free," she added.

Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 known chemicals, with more than 50 of them known to cause cancer, said the WHO.

More than 5 million deaths a year are caused by tobacco, making it the leading preventable cause of death in the world. The developing world is seeing the fastest growth in tobacco use, and half of tobacco-related deaths occur there. If this growth continues, 80 per cent of tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.

Also, exposure to second hand smoke causes heart disease and premature death in adults due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Workplace exposure to tobacco smoke is estimated to kill 200,000 workers a year, and the WHO estimates that 700 million children, that is half the world's minors, breathe in tobacco smoke, mostly at home.

In the six years between 1999 and 2005, the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted the Global Youth Tobacco Survey where youngsters aged 13 to 15 in 132 countries were interviewed about their exposure and attitude to tobacco smoke. More than three quarters of the youngsters favoured a ban on smoking in public places.

The survey also showed that 44 per cent of the young interviewees breathed in tobacco smoke at home while 56 per cent of them were exposed to it in public places.

The WHO is not alone in highlighting the dangers to children from second hand smoke. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), breathing in second hand smoke harms children by causing "asthma, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis and pneumonia and ear infections".

The EPA suggests that American children's exposure to second hand smoke is responsible for:
An increase in the number of asthma attacks and severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1 million children with asthma.
Between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (for children under 18 months), and
Respiratory tract infections that result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospital admissions every year.
They point out that young children's lungs are particularly susceptible to second hand smoke because they are still developing, breathe more rapidly than adults and they don't control their environment. Children exposed to high levels of second hand smoke, and this is particularly the case if their mothers smoke, are more likely to have poor health.

The WHO's new policy recommendations draw on the conclusions of three new major reports:
Monograph 83 Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC),
The United States Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, and
The California Environmental Protection Agency's Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant.
The WHO are also keen to highlight the cost that smoking incurs on people, businesses and society, not just as a result of disease. This includes loss of productivity and material costs to enterprises that have to renovate and clean workplaces, pay higher insurance premiums, and run an increased risk of fire.

The end of next month, on 30th June in Bangkok, sees the start of the Second Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, where participating countries will discuss the practicalities of protection against exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

Acting Director of the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative, Dr Douglas Bettcher, speaking about the Second Conference of the Parties, said that:

"This topic should matter to everyone, because everyone benefits from smoke-free places."

"With this year's theme, we hope that everyone, especially policy makers and employers, will be inspired to claim, create and enjoy spaces that are 100 per cent free from tobacco smoke. By doing so, we keep the bodies inside those spaces smoke-free too, and greatly increase our effectiveness in preventing serious diseases and saving lives in future generations," he added.

World No Tobacco Day is celebrated all over the world in different ways, with marches, workshops to help people stop smoking, educational meetings, and various campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of second hand smoke.

Last year, Michael R Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, announced his intention to donate 125 million dollars over the next two years toward ending the global tobacco epidemic. The money will be awarded in the form of grants, and applications are sought from the 15 high burden countries in particular: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, the Russian Federation, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.

CONSULT FOR THE CHRONIC AILMENTS

2007-05-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

DR S BAHL'S HOMEOPATHIC CLINIC

ACONITUM. (ACONITUM NAPELLUS.)

2007-05-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

Acts predominantly upon the cerebro-spinal nervous system, producing an exalted activity in the arterial circulation, paralyzing the arterial capillaries, and, as a result, giving congestions and inflammations of various parts, especially of the brain, spinal cord, serous and mucous membranes, muscles, and joints.

According to Dr. Bartholow, Aconite affects the sensory nerves before the motor. It paralyzes first the end organs, next the nerve trunks, and finally the centers of sensation in the cord. It also impairs the reflex function of the spinal cord ; but this effect is secondary to the sensory paralysis.

It causes an arrest of motility through its action on the motor centers of the cord, and subsequently on the nerve trunks.

Applied directly to the heart, Aconite lessens the number and force of its beats, and finally arrests its action in the diastole.

It also lowers the arterial pressure. It is, therefore, a direct cardiac poison, affecting all the structures of the heart, the ganglia, nerves, and muscular substance.

Aconite also paralyzes the muscles of respiration, through its action upon the peripheral fibers of the pneumogastric.

From a therapeutic standpoint, however, all these features of the physiological effects of Aconite are of secondary importance, as compared with its power to produce and remove congestions and inflammations of the various organs and tissues of the body, though its use in functional and organic cardiac disease, and in affections of both the sensory and motor nerve centers, giving rise to neuralgic and paralytic states, has proved it to be of incalculable service in such conditions.

Aconite also causes an increase of elimination by the skin and kidneys, the solids being excreted in proportion with the fluids.

The leading expression of Aconite is a feverish, nervous restlessness, which characterizes its entire action.

Natural order.- Ranunculaceae.

Common name.- Monk's Hood.

ABSINTHIUM. (ARTEMISIA ABSINTHIUM.)

2007-05-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

Absinthium exercises a specific influence upon the nervous system, inducing symptoms of an epileptiform character, muscular tremors, tonic and clonic spasms, foaming at the mouth, involuntary defecation and discharge of semen, together with hallucinations and delirium, the brain and spinal cord being in a state of congestion, especially in the region of the medulla oblongata.

It also, secondarily, affects the vegetative sphere, producing at first increased appetite, promoting digestion, accelerating the circulation, and to some extent augmenting the secretions, this condition, after a time, giving way to one of an opposite character,-impaired digestion, with its usual train of symptoms.

Its action is similar to that of alcohol, its chronic effects being much more serious in their character.

Natural order.- Compositae.

Common name.- Wormwood.

Atrial Fibrillation

2007-05-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

Patients and their physicians will breathe a little easier if a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, and UT Medical Center succeeds. People who have undergone coronary bypass graft surgery frequently experience atrial fibrillation within 48 hours of surgery. This heart rhythm abnormality means longer hospital stays, higher costs, more medications, and increased risk of clot formation and strokes. The goal is a system that forewarns of this cardiac rhythm disorder from surface heart waves. The technology development is led by ORNL's Lee Hively and is based on an R&D 100 Award-winning method that can provide as much as four hours' forewarning of an epileptic seizure. Other potential applications include warning of additional heart rhythm disturbances, including ventricular fibrillation, non-invasive blood glucose monitoring, detection of breathing difficulty and detection of sepsis, a toxic condition resulting from the spread of bacteria or their toxic products from infection. UT Medical Center collaborators include Drs. Tina Dudney, Michael McCormack and Trent Nichols. The UT collaborator is Ethan Farquhar

MALARIA AND MOSQUITOES BITE

2007-05-20T22:18:00.001-07:00

A new study suggests that bites from mosquitoes not infected with malaria may trigger an immune response limiting parasite development following bites from infected mosquitoes. The researchers from the Center for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, University of Notre Dame, Indiana and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland report their findings in the May 2007 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.

Malaria, a major public health threat resulting in 3 million deaths annually, is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. Emerging drug and insecticide resistance emphasize the urgent need for effective new vaccines.

In the study researchers compared immune responses of mice preexposed to uninfected mosquito bites followed by bites from mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite, Plasmodium spp. and those of mice only exposed to infected mosquitoes. Results showed that in the early stages, mice preexposed to uninfected bites exhibited reduced parasite burdens in the liver and they remained lower during the blood-stage of the life cycle of infection.

"These data suggest that the addition of mosquito salivary components to antimalaria vaccines may be a viable strategy for creating a Th1-biased environment known to be effective against malaria infection," say the researchers. "Futhermore, this strategy may be important for the development of vaccines to combat other mosquito-transmitted pathogens."

HOMEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA

2007-05-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

If you are to be a good prescriber,and want to master the materia medica of homeopathy, in that case, your drugs have got to be people for you, with whim, fancies and terrors, with tempers and idiosyncrasies and characteristics, you have got to see them talking about the world, speaking and moving and halting, with the bodies-minds-souls of men. You have got to travel with them in bus, train and tram and they will betray themselves, buttoned up and shrinking together or loose and jolly and open, fidgety, restless, fearful, dull and inert, quarrelling for an open window, growling at the draught with the windows closed. You have got to dine with them and the will reveal themselves in their relation to food and drink and in the mental revelations such convivial moments of relaxation call forth. You may spot them standing for preference or sinking always into the nearest seat, stoop shouldered and drooping or erect and full of ‘go’, depressed and querulous, restless and anxious as their deeply sinned faces testify, smooth and smug, dirty complexioned and careless of appearance, chalky faced and flabby of superlative tissue, compact and hard as nails, fault-finding-affectionate and mild – responsive to every wave of sentiments and emotions – dull and indifferent. Look for them everywhere and learn them and they will betray themselves at every turn, and you will often save yourselves hours of solid work, by spotting them as they enter your consulting room.( Dr M Tyler )

STRANGE SENSATIONS AND HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINES

2007-05-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

During the course of our illness, sometime we develop strange sensations, which are indicative of homeopathic medicines.Following sensations tell you the remedy you need.

Bed-clothes were about to crush one :- Pic-ac.
Bee, had stung her :- Apis.
Burning, like small transient flames in spots here and there :- Viol-o.
Burning, whole body were :- Rhus-t.
Caged, each wire being twisted tighter and tighter, whole body were :- Cact.
Clothing were too tight :- Arg-m.
Crawling, in all parts :- Ign.
Distending, within him, something were suddenly :- Coc-c.
Electric, shock in whole body on dozing off to sleep :- Arg-m.
Failing, all strength were :- Coloc.
Fire, he were on :- Visc.
Heavy, limbs could not carry, body so :- Euphr.
Hot, parts were internally :- Staph.
Needle pricked here and there, a very fine :- Spong.
Paralyzed, about to be :- Syph.
Pricking, needles, in bones :- Kali-bi.
Salt were put on a wound :- Sars.
Shaken inwardly, whole body were :- Agar.
Sleep, parts had gone to :- Caps., Ign.
Soreness of parts lain upon :- Ruta.
Stabbed with knives :- Thuj.
Strength, to breathe, there were not :- Cyc.
Swell, parts would :- Puls.
Tight, clothing were too :- Arg-m., Nux-v.
Tired :- Calend.
Tired, as after hard work or as if beaten :- Arn.
Trembling, inside, all nerves were :- Sol.
Vibrating through whole body :- Carb-s., Clem.
Warm, room were too :- Still.
Weakness, great :- Viol-t.
Worked hard, he had :- Apis.

Asthma And Domestic Violence Link

2007-05-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

The link between environmental exposures and asthma has been clearly described, but a new study from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) finds a strong association between domestic violence and asthma. The study, in the upcoming June issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology, raises questions about the role of stress in the development of this common respiratory condition.

"Classic environmental triggers for asthma have been carefully studied, but there is less information on the role of stress in asthma episodes," says lead researcher S.V. Subramanian, Assistant Professor in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at HSPH. "The risk posed by domestic violence - and perhaps other psychosocial factors - could be as high as some well known environmental risk factors such as smoking."

The authors performed their research using a large nationally representative database of 92,000 households in India, where domestic violence is highly prevalent. Each respondent was surveyed in a face-to-face interview in one of 18 Indian languages. Respondents were asked if anyone in the household suffered from asthma, and were also asked about a personal history of experiencing or witnessing domestic violence. Researchers also accounted for many other factors that have been associated with asthma, including exposure to tobacco smoke and level of education and income.

The study found that women who had experienced domestic violence in the past year had a 37 percent increased risk of asthma. For women who had not experienced domestic violence themselves but lived in a household where a woman had been beaten in the past year, there was a 21 percent increased risk of asthma than for women who did not live in such households. In addition, living in a household where a woman experienced domestic violence also increased the risk of reported asthma in children and adult men.

While the authors caution that the study cannot prove a causal link between domestic violence and asthma, there are several possible mechanisms to explain such a strong relationship between the two. Exposure to violence, and other major psychosocial stressors, is known to affect the immune system and inflammation, which have a role in asthma development. In addition, those exposed to violence may adopt certain 'coping' behaviors that predispose them to asthma, such as cigarette smoking.

This study is the first to examine the relationship between violence and asthma in India, where domestic violence is at relatively high levels, and where the World Health Organization estimates 15-20 million asthmatics live. Subramanian adds, "Our study suggests a new method for identifying stress-induced episodes and also reveals another terrible health risk of domestic violence

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND RISKS

2007-05-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and renal failure, but one out of four people don't even know they have it.

If you're over 60, there's a good chance that you have hypertension. High blood pressure affects at least 65 million Americans, rarely presents any symptoms, and, if left untreated, can have fatal consequences, according to UCLA's Healthy Years.

Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in a recent issue of the American Heart Association's (AHA) journal Hypertension, revealed that in 2003?"2004, only 37 percent of people with hypertension were successfully keeping their blood pressure under control.

Hypertension was reported as the primary or contributing cause of death in more than a quarter-million Americans in 2002. "The biggest danger from uncontrolled hypertension is, of course, the risk of a brain hemorrhage (hemorrhagic stroke and lacunar stroke)," says Arun Karlamangla, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at UCLA. "Blood pressure does not have to be high for long periods of time for these events to happen.

"Other risks are of blood clots forming in the coronary arteries (a heart attack) or arteries to the brain (ischemic stroke). If blood pressure is high for years, it can also lead to increased atherosclerotic plaques in these same arteries and the arteries of the legs, which then become substrates for clot formation."

According to the AHA, even a small reduction in high blood pressure especially in people over 60 can help decrease the incidence of strokes and heart attacks. The recent study showed an improvement in the percentage of people with controlled blood pressure, particularly those over 60, compared to a similar study conducted in 1999?"2000; the AHA attributes this improvement to public education and a better awareness of the condition and recommended treatments.

Prevention. To avoid the potentially life-threatening consequences of uncontrolled hypertension, the most important thing you can do is have your blood pressure checked regularly, and work with your doctor to keep it under control.

"While genetic factors may account for as much as 30 percent of the blood pressure increase seen in the population, a number of environmental factors have a definite role in causing high blood pressure," says James Davis, MD, a professor of medicine at UCLA. "Increased salt intake, excessive alcohol intake, and obesity are modifiable risk factors for the development of high blood pressure. Reducing salt and alcohol intake, and reducing weight through a combination of dietary modification and exercise can both prevent hypertension and reduce blood pressure in those already afflicted. Atherosclerosis is also linked to hypertension, and aggressive identification and treatment of patients at risk will reduce hypertension as well."

Treatment. For some patients, it may be difficult to keep blood pressure at a safe level without the help of medication. There are many different kinds of medication to treat high blood pressure; your doctor can customize a treatment regimen that works best for you .

Even without any symptoms, you could be at serious risk for some very dangerous complications. "High blood pressure is asymptomatic, and that is why screening for hypertension is so important. Periodic health examinations beginning early in life and continuing into old age are the best way to identify patients with hypertension," Dr. Davis states. "Health fairs and community-based screening programs also can lead to early identification of the condition. Those who have relatives or family members with hypertension or have a family history of stroke or heart disease should be especially concerned about having their blood pressure checked."