August 10, 2008
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August 12, 2008
Homeopathy is used to treat diseases in children ranging from semi-serious illnesses to the common cold. Although homeopathy works in a number of ways, its most basic function is to help strengthen and focus a child's immune system when they are sick based on the symptoms and root cause of the ailment. Once their own immune systems become stronger, they are able to fight off diseases more effectively.
What makes homeopathy particularly suited to pediatrics is that the medicine is often sweet and appealing, and has little to no side effects. The pleasant taste combined with the low incidence of side effects such as nausea or drowsiness, ensures that the child will be more likely to take the medication on a regular basis.
Typical Applications of Homeopathy in Pediatrics
Homeopathic treatment usually falls into two categories; either acute or chronic conditions. Acute conditions refer to a sick child that is suffering from such illnesses as colds, sore throats, or the stomach flu. Chronic conditions refer to ailments such as allergies, asthma or any number of skin diseases.
Whether dealing with acute or chronic conditions in children, homeopathy has proven to be quite effective. In the case of acute conditions, parents often can treat the child at home with homeopathy. However, in the case of chronic conditions, meeting with a well-trained homeopathic professional may be necessary to treat the child.
Over the Counter Products
Parents who choose to treat children with an acute condition at home may consider a home prescription kit with homeopathic remedies in 12c or 30c concentrations. Home prescription kits containing homeopathic remedies can be brought online or at stores and range from $60 to $100 dollars. Many homeopathic products are available as over the counter medicines.
Parents can also purchase manuals and books on homeopathy for under $30.
Homeopathic medicines are free of artificial colors and chemicals and are usually considered safe for infants and children.
Homeopathic medicines come in pills and liquid form. The medicine that is prescribed depends on three things: the type of medicine that is being given, its strength, and the condition of the patient.
Some Other Interesting Facts about Homeopathy
·Homeopathy is based on clinical and experimental data.
·The founding father of homeopathy was Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a German physician, who developed the basic principles of homeopathy in the late 1700s.
·Homeopathy is recognized by medical professionals and government agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), and is regulated as medicine.
·Sugar pills are commonly used as a binding agent in homeopathic medicine and as carriers for the medicine.
·Homeopathy uses the principles of dilutions to achieve extremely low concentrations of high potency herbal and other remedies.
·Homeopathic medicine can work fairly fast in acute cases. In chronic cases, the medication works at a slower pace.
·When a person is uses homeopathic treatments they should abstain from certain foods like tea, coffee and alcohol.
·Homeopathic medicines are based on naturally occurring remedies, are usually not patented and are therefore cheaper then other types of conventional medicines.
·Homeopathic medicines usually do not have any side effects.
August 12, 2008
The most recent homeopathic trials include a trial done by A Swiss-UK review of 110 trials found no convincing evidence the treatment worked any better than a placebo. However, there seems to be many problems with this type of trial.
We are going to examine the better done trials since 1991. We will not examine all of them but look at a fair amount of promising and not so promising evidence of properly conducted homeopathic trials.
Homeopathy Trials and Information Below:
Trials when comparing Homeopathy to A Placebo
A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of 242 participants aged 18 to 55 years. Trial compared an oral homeopathic treatment to placebo in asthmatic people allergic to house dust. Authors found the homeopathic treatment "no better than placebo." They noted "some differences between the homeopathic immunotherapy and placebo for which we have no explanation."
This was actually an attempt to replicate a successful homeopathic trial with allergies and asthma. No one could explain why the replication was not successful. This trial was much larger than the initial trial that proved successful.
Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of 126 children 116 completed the study. Individualized homeopathic treatments improved digestive problems in children with acute childhood diarrhea. Results are consistent with findings of a previous study.
Randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of 519 people 400 completed the study. Homeopathic remedies, including arnica, are not effective for muscle soreness following long-distance running.
Meta-analysis of six controlled clinical trials. Controlled clinical trials indicate that homeopathic remedies appear to work better than a placebo in studies of rheumatic syndromes, but there are too few studies to draw definitive conclusions, and efficacy results are mixed.
The most promising remedy for Homeopathy according to our research is Oscillococcinum. There were several large trials showing positive results for Oscillococcinum in shortening the duration of the flu. Oscillococcinum shows that is has no effect on prevent the flu.
Other successful trials on a smaller scale include perennial allergic rhinitis. The trials showed increased nasal flow as compared to the placebo. This was the fourth replication of this trial. It is noted the trial size was quite small.
In conclusion, more research needs to be done but some Homeopathic remedies are showing promising results in large double blinded placebo studies. Larger studies after 1991 showed approximately a 1 to 1 ratio of successful and not successful homeopathic trials.
Better quality studies before 1991 showed approximately a 2 to 1 ratio. A couple of the trials have been reproduced in several studies. Oscillococcinum was the only study that we found that was reproduced successfully several times by different researches with a large study group.
August 12, 2008
If alternative medicine is something which interests you then perhaps you should take a closer look at homeopathy training. If you are not sure what homeopathy is have a look at some of my articles below or throughout this website, this will give you a good understanding of homeopathy. In short, homeopathy is the practice of creating an infusion, which is ingested to relieve illness. In homeopathy training you would be learning about all the different ingredients involved with homeopathy as well as how to mix the ingredients and to dilute them.
Many things are involved in homeopathy training. The first thing to learn is the ingredients that normally going into the dilution. These can be medicines already in use or herbs. They are mixed together based on properties and then diluted. The dilution process is complicated, which makes it necessary for homeopathy training in order to be able to dilute the substances accurately.
There were schools up until 1920 in the United States devoted completely to homeopathy training. However, science and the advancement of modern medicine has pretty much lumped homeopathy and homeopathy training in the previous era of blood letting and faith healing.
In fact, many people believe that homeopathy training is actually just training in a pseudoscience since it cannot be backed by clinical or scientific methods. The reason for this is the dilution. Depending on the number of times a compound is diluted it can literally be nothing but water without even a trace of the original compound in it.
The theory behind it is that each time the solution is diluted the spirit or life force of the ingredients is released little by little into the solution giving it the ability to aid in helping the disease. There are other aspects to homeopathy however; it is this particular aspect, which has placed it into the realm of alternative medicine and faith healing.
During the era of blood letting and purging, homeopathy was a welcome change and often had better results than the then currently acceptable medical practices. It was not until the 1920’s that the homeopathy practices finally lost the majority of their strength within the acceptable medical practices.
Another aspect that keeps homeopathy from being a considered acceptable practice is that many people who practice homeopathy treatments advise their patients not to seek any other form of medical care.
Since there is no scientific or clinical evidence that homeopathy actually has anything more than a placebo effect for some illnesses this can be quite dangerous. There are some illnesses however, that the right dilution may provide relief from. Whether or not to consider homeopathy is a matter of personal choice.
Before deciding if homeopathy is something you want to study further have a look around this site, try some of the products yourself. Then if are convinced, which I think you will be, go ahead and find some homeopathy training near you.
August 12, 2008
This discriminatory and highly questionable policy of our government and regulators has definitely helped the five star homeopathy clinics to gain market share and turn out to be big businesses for their promoters. We all know despite tremendous advancement in medicine many of the common diseases and conditions are yet not curable and only can be treated to some extent but when someone claims to cure them through some holistic system and natural substance the appeal is huge and that's why people flock to these clinics hoping against hope that some cure might be there in the knowledge of these self proclaimed prodigal doctors which can change the lives of the affected people.
It is not surprising that these super specialty homeopathy clinics always target the diseases and conditions that are very common in incidence like hair loss yet having very limited treatment success in scientific medicine system. You can clearly see the hype if you closely look at their advertisements. You will see the scramble between these competing homeopathy clinics to claim who has the India's first trichologist (another bad science) as if only the person who studies a science first can have all the knowledge.
The author has some first hand knowledge about the treatment procedure of Dr Batra's clinic which raises eyebrows about the genuineness and ethical dimension of the business. If you happen to see a doctor in these clinics you will not be given a prescription and you have to buy the medicines only from them. It sounds very strange but it is true that whether you go for hay fever, eczema, headache or hair loss all the treatment will cost at least few thousands and the same treatment period which is generally one year.
But you need not develop a bias from one incident or an individual experience; there are hundreds of reviews written in product review sites and blogs, which you may read, and find out that many of the actual recipients of treatment in these clinics, have openly questioned the claim and efficacy of this form of medicine. Also there are news in press about raids in Dr Batra's clinics and recovery of spurious drugs and medicines. So all these put together do not paint a good picture of these marketing oriented homeopathy clinics.
Let us also not forget the fact that the very foundation of homeopathy is yet to be backed by any credible scientific evidence. In most countries including India it is not covered under any insurance scheme and there is strong suspicion in public about the claim of homeopathic water and its healing property.
Despite all this it is highly unfortunate that the Indian consumers are made to fall prey to some unfounded alternative medicine system just because these companies have money and are allowed to advertise in way that is completely illegal otherwise. The holistic way of treatment is highly questionable and so also its natural cure claim but one thing is very clear that super specialty Homeopathy is selling fast in this country of ever increasing affluent middle class who do not have problem to pay a big sum of money if someone can make them feel better and give hope.
I have not seen any study conducted in a scientific way by these clinics which support their tall claims but they are minting money in the name of cure. Also I don't see any reason why the doctors of these clinics can't issue a prescription if they consider it be a branch of medicine and not a para science. Many of these questions continue to be unanswered and there is an uncomfortable silence but it does not matter as the repackaged Homeopathy has turned out to be a big money spinner lately.