Allergies Respond to Homeopathy
“A study found that allergy sufferers who were given homeopathic treatment were ten times more likely to be cured than those given a dummy pill instead.”
That’s according to an article on the Daily Mail’s Mail Online. It’s also the experience of tens of thousands of homeopaths, doctors practising homeopathy and patients over the last 200 years.
Hives on person with anaphylaxis
Homeopathy is effective in treating allergies, whether hay-fever, urticaria (hives) or other allergic reactions because it builds up the patient’s health and removes the susceptibility to symptoms which no other treatment can do. It does it without suppressing the symptoms as does conventional treatment, possibly leading to deeper problems later on (suppressed symptoms, although giving relief, have to go somewhere, and as Hahnemann showed, they go deeper) and homeopathy does not cause drowsiness or other side-effects.
Sometimes, particularly with allergies to certain foods, it is better not to ingest them (the most common being strawberries and strawberry flavoured foods, shellfish, prawn flavoured “Skips” as I’ve discovered, kiwis, nuts, etc). Where the cause is exogenous, originating outside the body (such as perfumes, plants, animal hair and dander, Garnier deodorant – as I’ve recently discovered – and household flowers like lilies, the reaction can be easily modified or removed altogether with homeopathy.
The important thing about treatment, as is usual with proper homeopathy, is to treat the person not the symptoms which requires the skill and knowledge of a qualified practitioner. Many homeopaths treat the allergy symptoms. This can be beneficial but is frequently futile. The totality of the person’s symptoms, history and constitution have to be treated, even during the acute exacerbation of symptoms. Treatment needs to be continued when symptoms are not present as this is when the underlying disposition to allergies can be removed, not just the symptoms.
Too often people practising complementary therapies tell clients they are allergic when they are not, they may be sensitive to something rather than allergic.
Allergies can be hidden. I remember someone telling me that as a child he had hives every May. His wise old grandmother told him it was because the cows were eating wild garlic to which he was reacting by drinking the milk. The garlic was passed through the milk. “You could even smell the garlic in the milk,” he said.
The article reporting the research at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital is below¹:
‘Homeopathy works!’
Homeopathy really does work and doctors should recognise its healing effects, say researchers.
A study found that allergy sufferers who were given homeopathic treatment were ten times more likely to be cured than those given a dummy pill instead.
Doctors should be more positive about the alternative medicine, which is the only complementary therapy available on the NHS, the researchers said.
Their study attempts to settle the controversy over homeopathic treatment, which critics say is not effective because of the tiny level of active substance used in most remedies.
It works on the principle that a substance which in large doses will cause the symptoms of an illness can be used in minute doses to relieve the same symptoms.
Critics argue that the active substance is so diluted that homeopathic remedies have no more effect than placebo or dummy treatment.
The study put homeopathy to the test in 50 patients suffering from nasal allergies. They were given either a homeopathic preparation or a placebo.
Each day for four weeks patients recruited from general practices and a hospital in London measured their nasal air flow and recorded symptoms such as blocked, runny or itchy nose, sneezing or eye irritation.
Both groups reported that they got better – but on average patients who received homeopathy had a 28 per cent improvement in nasal air flow compared with 3 per cent among those in the placebo group.
The study was carried out by doctors in Glasgow, led by Dr David Reilly of the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, one of five specialist hospitals in Britain. He said the difference in results from the two treatments was statistically significant.
Dr Reilly said this was the fourth trial carried out by his hospital, all with similar results. In addition, there were positive findings in 70 per cent of a further 180 clinical trials.
‘I hope this will encourage doctors to examine the volume of evidence supporting homeopathy – they might be quite surprised at the positive outcome in many trials,’ he said.
He added that it would take consistent scientific investigation to persuade some doctors, but attitudes were changing.
About 20 per cent of doctors in Scotland have basic homeopathic training compared with one per cent 15 years ago.
‘It isn’t just about the remedies, which can be put to the test in trials, but about a greater holistic approach in encouraging self-healing and self-recovery.’
Dr Bob Leckridge, president of the Faculty of Homeopathy – the body for doctors, vets, nurses and other health professionals – said: ‘This latest research builds on existing evidence that homeopathy works, something that hundreds of doctors and their patients have known for 200 years.’
1. I have fond memories of the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital. A friend of mine and surgeon whose son I used to treat moved to Glasgow to work in the hospital there. But whenever his son was ill, he would take him around the corner to the Homeopathic Hospital.
Image: Wikimedia Commons