Lesley,
Yes, there are always some risks with any type of medicine. Herbs are not
completely safe and neither is modern, allopathic medicine.
Unfortunately, I did word my previous post to sound like homeopathy is
completely safe. It is not entirely free of risks but, it is very safe
and the risks are minor. Even though some of the information from the
book you quoted is correct, the conclusions that the author comes to are
not.
Yes, many homeopathic remedies are made from something poisonous. But, I
have never heard this worry about the final remedy being poisonous.
Homeopathy is usually refuted as a placebo effect medicine because it is
so highly diluted. " In a series of painstaking experiments, Hahnemann
discovered that remedies continued to be effective at concentrations too
small to be measurable chemically, and that mechanical shaking or
"succussion" of diluted remedies actually enhanced their healing effect
in some way that has never been fully understood. " (Moskowitz, 8 ) The
concept of infintisimal doses is controversial. But, it is hard for many
to believe that a medicine that contains no chemical markers of the
original substance could have any effect on the body. Let me give you a
brief overview of the dilution process used ( this example is for C
potencies ). It starts with the mother tincture which is just like an
herbal tincture. Now, 1 part of the MT is mixed with 99 parts of water or
alcohol. This mixture is succussed ( a combo of shaking and pounding ).
From this new mixture, 1 part is taken and again diluted into 99 parts of
alcohol or water and succussed. For a 30C potency, this process is
repeated 30 times. For X potencies, the dilution is 1 part to 9 parts.
"When 26X is reached, a chemist cannot find any of the original remedy in
the preparation. " ( Frye,59 ) A 12X potency has one part of the original
substance to each 1,000,000,000,000 parts of solvent. Of course, the C
potencies would have an even longer row of zeros there. Despite being
diluted to this point, these remedies work very well. Homeopathy is over
200 years old. The theory that it is based on - like cures like - is much
older.
Instead of working on a chemical level like most of the medicines that we
are all used to, homeopathic remedies work on an energy level to get the
body to heal itself and return to a state of balance. This leads me to
another point - with a homeopathic remedy, it doesn't matter how many of
the pellets or pills that you take at one time. "...the exact amount of
the dose is not critical. Giving more in no way increases the strength of
the bodies response. The frequency of the dose's repetition is
important." ( Cummings, 41 )
Certainly, if someone took some of the mother tincture it could be
harmful. The mother tinctures are just herbal tinctures, they are not
homeopathic in that form. The tincture of chamomillia (chamomile )
wouldn't be a problem but the tincture of arsenicum ( arsenic ) would be.
This is what happened in the first case mentioned below.
As for the second case that he sites, there are over 2000 remedies and
this one is not in my materia medica. It must be a very obscure remedy.
This person may have "proved" the remedy - it was taken in it's material
form as in the first case and this person showed the symptoms of taking
it. In it's homeopathic form, you can prove a remedy by taking a remedy
that doesn't fit the persons disease state ( which looks at emotional and
mental as well as physical ) repetitively. But, a homeopathic remedy
could not contain "a high concentration of iodine salts". I also question
this case because it goes against the way that homeopathy works. That is
that like cures like. For example, the remedy Rhus Tox is made from the
poison ivy plant. We all know what a poison ivy rash looks like. So, if
someone has an actual poison ivy rash or a rash with similar
characteristics ( I used it for the chicken pox ) you would give that
person Rhus Tox. I assume that this remedy, kelpasan is made from a type
of kelp ( which is high in iodine ) which in its natural state could
cause a goiter. So, a homeopathic remedy made from kelp would be given to
someone who already has a goiter.
In our midwifery practice, we use herbs and homeopathy. We never hesitate
to give a woman a homeopathic remedy. There is a constant rash of posts
on this list about this medicine or that medicine and should the woman
pump and dump. Dr. Newman says often that the amounts of these medicines
that the baby will get from the breastmilk will be minimal. The baby
won't get anything from a homeopathic remedy which is a lactose pill
carrying the energy of the material substance it was made from. I know
that this sounds amazing but the stuff works. I have used it on my whole
family- including the cats and the dog - with great results. I would give
a homeopathic remedy before an allopathic medicine in any case that
wasn't critical.
Anyone who would like to have more information about homeopathy should
check out this webpage : http://www.dungeon.com/~cam/homeo.html
References :
Cummings M.D., Stephen and Ullman M.P.H., Dana . Everybody's Guide to
Homeopathic Medicines. G.P.Putnam Books, 1991
Frye, Anne. Holistic Midwifery Volume 1. Labrys Press, 1995
Moskowitz M.D., Richard. Homeopathic Medicines for Pregnancy &
Childbirth.
North Atlantic Books, 1992
Keli
On Mon, 15 Sep 1997 21:28:08 +1000 Lesley McBurney
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Thought I would quote what Talalaj & Czechowicz say in "Herbal
>Remedies:
>Harmful and beneficial effects':
>"It is a basic principle of homeopathy that only highly diluted herbal
>extracts are used and there is a general belief that such medicines
>cannot
>be harmful if used in this way. One important aspect which might be
>overlooked needs attention, namely that most homeopathic tinctures are
>obtained from the most toxic medicinial plants. These plants, such as
>aconite or nux vomita, which are classified as poisons and restricted
>to
>medical personnel, are used in homeopathic prearations but carry no
>warning
>of their highly poisonous ingresients.
>When homeopathic medicines are properly made by specialised
>laboratories,
>erroneous concentrations of poisons are made only very rarely and
>there is
>little reason for concern. So cases of poisoning by homeopathic
>medecines
>are extremely uncommon; nevertheless such cases may occur. For
>example, a
>severe heart arrhythmia was reported after an accidental ingestion of
>the
>undilued homeopathic 'mother tincture', a highly concentrated extract
>from
>the extrmemly toxic aconite root. In another case, an iodine overdose
>and
>resulting giotre occurred after the use of a homeopathic preparation
>known
>as kelpasan which contains a high concentration of iodine salts..."
>
>Lesley McBurney
>Brisbane, Australia
>NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor (Clayfield/Wilston Group, Qld)
>Publications Revision & New Publications Working Groups
>Admin Assistant, NMAA Qld Branch office
>International Conference Registrations Committee
>[log in to unmask]
>
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