The Placebo Effect
The placebo effect is a mechanism where someone is taking a medicine that contains really nothing. They think the medicine that they are taking helps them to get rid of their ailment. The person automatically becomes better even though the medicine contained no real substance.
Many critics point out that homeopathy works because of the placebo effect. Many homeopathic medicines contain no active substance so any benefits realized with homeopathy must be due to a placebo effect. So much does the placebo effect actually help is brought into question?
Some research studies have shown that inactive substances made with sugar or water can help patients approximately 1/3 of the time. Patients psychologically believe that this type of medicial treatment is helping them. These are small research studies and they are certainly not conclusive.
The placebo effect can also be difficult to measure due to the fact
that many people can cure their illness just on their own. The body's
own immune system helps to fight diesease and taking the placebo pills
really would not speed up that process. However, the placebo pill may
make the person feel better since they are inclined in thinking the medicine given has helped them.
Another interesting question is how do dogs, cats and babies respond to
a placebo? These groups are not aware that they are taking medicine so
the placebo effect does not really exist within these groups. However,
the placebo effect may exist with the person giving the medication.
The person giving the medication may feel an improvement in the
condition within these groups because they had provided a remedy. How
much a dog, cat or baby would get better on their own is not know if they had not taken a placebo.
The effects of placebo in allopathic or western medicine has not been studied extensively. A large percentage of allopathic medicine has never been properly research and tested. Most people are not sure how western medicine works. The exact way aspirin cures headaches is unknown today. However, many people take aspirin even though they have no idea how it works.
Homeopathic trials comparing homeopathy versus allopathic medicine usually have come out quite favorable to homeopathy. Most trials generally show that the homeopathic medicine works as well as the allopathic medicine. Examples of this would be a trial of 146 people that showed homeopathic nasal spray treated hayfever as well as the allopathic spray.
Homeopathic trials with placebos are much more of a mix bag of trials. Some of the research studies come out quite positive but others have not show too much difference than the placebo. Certainly many of these trials did not follow procedures as homeopaths would practice. It would interesting to see how some of the untested allopathic medicine compare to a placebo.
A placebo effect may exist in all forms of medicine just not homeopathy. How much a placebo effect can help a patient is unknown? Research does suggest that placebo can be help patients cure their ailments but this is far from conclusive.
How much does the placebo effect play in homeopathy?
How big a role does the placebo effect play in allopathic or western medicine?
Are people taking too much medication when they may just get better by themselves?
Homeopathy Flourishing In India
This article is going to talk about homeopathy in the country of India. Homeopathy has been around 200 years and invented by Samuel Hannehman. Homeopathy was introduced in India by Dr.
John Martin Honigberger from Transylvania in 1839. He was actually in Lahore to treat the maharaja's horses who were suffering from leg ulcers. The maharaja was impressed with the results of this type of treatment. Maharaja Ranjit lated asked the homeopath to treat him for paralysis of vocal cords and oedema. The maharaja was quite satisfied with the treatment which cured his paralysis.
Homeopathy continued spreading in India since 1839. Every major city in India has pharmacies dispensing homeopathy medicine. Many states in India also have homeopathy colleges teaching this type of alternative medicine to prospective students. Currently there are 186 homeopathic medical colleges in India. 37 of these colleges are government run. The other colleges are privately run.
The Indian government created the Central Counil Of Homeopathy which requires uniform education at the graduate level and diploma level in
homeopathy. This has lead to
standardized practice in India preventing unqualified homeopaths to
prescribe medicine and treatments. Currently, there are over 300,000 homeopathic doctors practicing medicine in India.
Homeopathic medicine is significantly cheaper than conventional drugs. This makes this type of medicine more available to India's population many of whom do not have access to allopathic prescription drugs. Homeopathy is the third most popular medicine in India after allopathy and ayurveda. Approximately, 10% of the population in India uses homeopathy. This makes India the largest consumer of homeopathy medicine in the world.
India has become the mecca of homeopathic research. There are over 37+ homeopathic research centers in India carrying out various types of clinical trials. The government helped form many of these reseach centers.
Some of this research includes Dr. Prasanta Banerji & Dr. Pratip Banerji scientific papers on brain cancer. This research was collaborated with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The study showed that Ruta 6C and Calcarea Phosphorica 3X helps to kill cancerous brain cells but does not damage normal brain cells or fuctions.
The Banerji family has also been successful in treating other type of cancers as well. Their clinics in Calcutta will see 1000 people per day. Their cancer success rate is between 30 to 40%.
Homeopathy is an accepted form of medicine by the Indian government.
It is generally regarding in the same light as allopathic medicine. India is one of the few countries that generally accepts homeopathy.
Why does the Indian governement accept Homeopathy? Why have many other governments not accepted homeopathy as a system of medicine? Do you see other governments accepting homeopathy in the future?
References
Homeopathy In India
Homeopathic Research
Homeopathy Links of The Week Ending 09-21-08
Homeopathy Links of the Week
From Poison to Pill Homepathic Medicine Dilutes Some of Nature's Nastiest-and Nicest Ingredients to Treat Ilness and Pain.
This talks how homeopathy has helped people with many ailments. Cancer, type 1 diabetes and low thyroid are some of the conditions that homeopathy cannot treat. Most research points to homeopathy working. Some critics point out that homeopathy has never proven to be conclusively effective for any single medical condition.
Can water remember???
This article talks about recent research on water memory. The research is promising but not conclusive. More research needs to be done on water memory. The article also talks about French Scientist Jacques Benveniste who showed water had a memory in an experiment. However, it was later proven that this trial had issues and researcher bias.
Patient satisfaction and side effects in primary care: An observational study comparing homeopathy and conventional medicine
This news article talks about a trial comparing homeopathy patients to conventional medicine patients. They sent a customer survey to see how satisified people were with the treatments that they received. The survey showed the homeopathy group was much more satisified with respect to health status, the treatment they received and the side effects that they felt.
100 Best Herbs For Your Health
Talks about 100 best herbs for your health. Many of these herbs have homeopathic preparations. This just gives you a summary of some of the herbs that can be used to treat your health problems.
Send us your news about homeopathy or alternative health. It may get posted on to our blog on the links of the week if it is interesting, accurate and informative. You can also add some more interesting homeopathy news in the comments section.
Effects Of Homeopathy In Weight Loss
Power Point Presentation On A Homeopathy Weight Loss Trial
Above is a link to a series of power point slides discussing a trial testing homeopathic medicine for weight loss. We will summarize the power point presentation below.
This is a trial to find out if homeopathy promotes more weight loss than a placebo.
The product used was weight control by Dolisos. This product is no longer available. However, it was a combination of the following single remedies.
Anacardium orientaleAntimonium crudumCalcarea carbonicaGraphitesIodiumNuv Vomica 35 patients were in the trial, 30 completed the trial. This was a 4 week trial to see if homeopathy promotes weight loss. It was a double blind placebo trial.
At the end of 4 weeks, body measurement between the placebo group and homeopathy group showed no difference.
Patients in the homeopathy group reported more exercise than the placebo group. The daily questionnaire filled out by the homeopathy group showed better quality of life than the placebo group.
In conclusion, the homeopathic product did not show that it promoted weight loss. However, an interval of one month maybe too short to draw a conclusion. The product did show that the homeopathy group was exercising more and living a better quality of live than the placebo group.
A larger study with a longer time interval would help to determine if homeopathy may help with weight loss.
Trial provided by Dr. Mike Smith, a homeopathic doctor with Carolinas Natural Health Center.
Homeopathy Links of The Week Ending 09-14-08
Links of the Week 09-13-08
Homeopath To Her Majesty
Dr. David Fischer, the homeopath to the queen of England, is coming to Australia to show evidence that homeopathy is an effective form of alternative medicine. He is going to Australia to show doctors how effective homeopathy is with clinical trial evidence.
Actress Jane Seymour Finds Inspiration
This article talks about Jane Seymour's new book Open Heart. It talks about her new love of painting and helping people with live threatening illnesses. Jane is a big advocate of alternative medicine. She has seen amazing things with homeopathy and used acupuncture herself. She believes alternative medicine combined with western medicine responsibly can be the best medical combination.
Homeopathy: Treatment by wishful thinking
The commentary here is about homeopathy works by wishful thinking. Regardless of this, homeopathy seems to be growing. Since homeopathy has no real side effects, the FDA does not really monitor homeopathic medicine other than the labeling.
Who uses alternative medicine and for what
This story talks about what people use alternative medicine for. It also tells how many males uses alternative medicines compared to females. The number one use of alternative medicine was back pain.
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