Lack of evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy Homeopathic medicines are not vaccines Laws and regulation of homeopathic medicines Choose a qualified and registered practitioner Homeopathy treatment Conventional medicine and homeopathy Where to get help Things to remember. Homeopaths say they aim to treat the whole person, taking into account personality, lifestyle and hereditary factors, as well as the history of the disease.
Since all people are unique, homeopathic medicines are prescribed to treat individuals. The effectiveness of homeopathy is yet to be proven by medical science. There is no such thing as a homeopathic vaccine, and homeopathic medicines are not a replacement for conventional medical treatment of serious diseases or infections. While homeopathic medicines are not considered in themselves harmful, homeopathy can be considered dangerous if a person relies on it as a medical treatment and uses homeopathic medicines as a replacement for conventional medical treatment when dealing with serious diseases or infections.
If you choose to consider homeopathy, you should do some research into its effectiveness. Always seek the services of a registered homeopath and tell your doctor if you are planning to start any new treatment, including homeopathy. Lack of evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy The effectiveness of homeopathic preparations is disputed within medical science. Scientists question how a highly diluted substance could retain any biological effect.
NHMRC concluded there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective for any health condition. People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness.
People who are considering whether to use homeopathy should first get advice from a registered health practitioner. Those people who choose to use homeopathy should tell their doctor and keep taking any prescribed treatments. Research conducted by the highly regarded Cochrane reviews which examine the most rigorously conducted clinical research trials also has failed to find evidence of the benefit of homeopathy beyond the placebo effect.
Immunisation is a medical term and refers to the process by which the body is stimulated to develop resistance to a variety of infections. Vaccines are made from germs and work by stimulating the body to form antibodies specialised germ-fighting cells to produce immunity.
Homeopathic medicines are not based on specific antibody or germ-fighting cell formation and are not an acceptable alternative to conventional vaccines. The Victorian Department of Health continues to advise parents of their responsibility to have their children immunised in accordance with Australian Government recommendations. Laws and regulation of homeopathic medicines Homeopathic medicines are made from a variety of sources, such as plants, animals and minerals.
They are prepared according to guidelines set out in international pharmacopoeias. Homeopathic medicines are considered safe and free from serious adverse reactions. Choose a qualified and registered practitioner If you want to use homeopathic treatment, you should consult a registered practitioner.
The "medicines" used in homeopathy are called remedies. They can be made from just about any substance known to man , including plants, minerals, animal products, and energy fields. More than 5, substances have been prepared and "proven. They are FDA approved. Homeopathic research is conducted through the process of a proving, which determines the curative properties of a substance by observing and cataloging its effects. The proving process involves giving substances to healthy individuals and observing and recording symptoms, unusual sensations, and alterations from normal health, including what makes each of these better or worse.
This is what Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, did when he took cinchona bark quinine. He found that by taking doses of cinchona, which was already the treatment of choice for malaria in those days, he went on to develop the symptoms of malaria himself-fever, chills, sweats, and body pains that he documented in detail. This was the classic example of "like treats like.
Once a substance is proven, it is used to treat people who have the same symptoms as those produced by the substance in healthy individuals.
For example, people who develop symptoms of malaria take a remedy made from cinchona. If a person with specific symptoms takes the right homeopathic remedy, their system will correct, and the existing symptoms end. Substances become remedies through a very specific process called "potentization," which involves sequential dilution and succussion , which is a hard pounding or shaking.
A somewhat different process of diluting , is used to create remedies in a form called LM, which are kept in liquid form and often administrated daily. We will not speak in detail about those remedies in this module.
Remedies are labeled by the ratio of dilution and the number of times diluted. Such labeling helps to discriminate a homeopathic remedy from an herbal or mineral supplement. In this process, a substance may be repetitively diluted labeled X scale or labeled C scale or , labeled M scale.
Then the number of times it is diluted and succussed is noted, e. The fascinating and scientifically confusing thing about homeopathic remedies is that the more diluted they are, the stronger they become -that is, potentized. In chemistry, there is a concept of how many molecules of a substance are present in a defined solution it is called one gram mole. This is called Avogadro's number, and it is 6. Therefore, if you dilute a solution 1 to 10, twenty-four times, or 1 to , twelve times, there cannot be any molecules of the original substance left!
That is why homeopathy is considered a process that works through "sub-molecular" interventions. With homeopathic remedies, the higher the dilution, the less "material" in the remedy and the stronger the energy appears to be.
Lower dilutions may still have some material in them and work more on the physical plane, while higher dilutions seem to work more on the mental and emotional planes, and are often observed to result in deeper and longer lasting effects.
Because of this, remedies in the range of up to 30C are considered low potencies, while those of C or above are considered high potencies.
Negative health effects from homeopathic products of this type have been reported. A systematic review of case reports and case series concluded that using certain homeopathic products such as those containing heavy metals like mercury or iron that are not highly diluted or replacing an effective conventional treatment with an ineffective homeopathic one can cause adverse effects, some of which may be serious. Liquid homeopathic products may contain alcohol. The FDA allows higher levels of alcohol in these than in conventional drugs.
Researchers have not found much evidence of this reaction in clinical studies; however, research on homeopathic aggravations is scarce. Always discuss changes in your symptoms with your health care provider. The FDA has warned consumers about different products labeled as homeopathic. For example, in , it alerted consumers that some homeopathic teething tablets had excessive amounts of the toxic substance belladonna; in , it warned consumers not to rely on over-the-counter asthma products labeled as homeopathic, because they are not evaluated by the FDA for safety and effectiveness.
Regulation of Homeopathic Products. More to Consider. If you are considering using a homeopathic product, bring it with you when you visit your health care provider. The provider may be able to help you determine whether the product might pose a risk of side effects or drug interactions. Follow the recommended conventional immunization schedules for children and adults. Take charge of your health—talk with your health care providers about any complementary health approaches you use.
Together, you can make shared, well-informed decisions. For More Information. Toll-free in the U. MedlinePlus To provide resources that help answer health questions, MedlinePlus a service of the National Library of Medicine brings together authoritative information from the National Institutes of Health as well as other Government agencies and health-related organizations. Key References. Abbasi J. Use of complementary health approaches among children aged 4—17 years in the United States: National Health Interview Survey, National health statistics reports; no Cartwright SJ.
Degree of response to homeopathic potencies correlates with dipole moment size in molecular detectors: implications for understanding the fundamental nature of serially diluted and succussed solutions. Solvatochromic dyes detect the presence of homeopathic potencies. Trends in the use of complementary health approaches among adults: United States, — Evidence of clinical efficacy of homeopathy: a meta-analysis of clinical trials.
European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Der Marderosian AH. Understanding homeopathy. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Homeopathy use by US adults: results of a national survey. American Journal of Public Health. Ernst E. A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
Medical Journal of Australia. The truth about homeopathy. Structural and thermal analyses of zinc and lactose in homeopathic triturated systems. A critical overview of homeopathy.
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