...one of my main priorities is to inform the general public about this wonderfully effective system that can help the body to heal quickly and without the toxic side effects of conventional medications. However, few people understand the principles and practice of homeopathy. Most people that I encounter at my public speaking engagements confuse homeopathy with herbalism. Homeopathic remedies come from different sources and although many are derived from plants there are a number of remedies that come from the animal and mineral kingdoms. The FDA regulates the manufacture of all homeopathic remedies sold within the United States.
The interesting point about these remedies is that they are made in a way that renders them so dilute that in most cases there is nothing of the original substance in the pill. As a result of this process there is no danger of toxic substances building up in the body and producing unwanted side effects. Homeopathy is probably the safest type of medicine that you will ever find. Many people say that homeopathy must work because of the placebo effect. The truth is that no one has been able to explain exactly how the remedies work but for the past twenty years or so veterinary medicine has contributed to the development of homeopathy. It has shown that this system of healing works on animals that are unaware of what they are taking. There has been at least three large scale double – blind placebo –controlled trials to treat people with flu or influenza – like syndrome. Each of these large scale studies were conducted by independent researchers, and a treatment is considered proven when at least three independent studies verify positive results.
During the 1918 influenza pandemic fifty million people died worldwide, much more than those struck down by bullets in the trenches of wartime France. Scientific evidence indicates this was an avian influenza that managed to mutate and infect the human population. It was young people, in the prime of their life, 25 -34 years of age, which were most severely affected; they appeared to have no immunity and succumbed to a pneumonia that would kill within days. It was not uncommon for someone physically strong and in good health to get up feeling well in the morning and by bedtime they would be dead.
Remedies are prepared from natural substances that are similar to the illness in contrast to conventional or allopathic medicine, which treats and often suppresses the patient’s symptoms with large amounts of drugs, which then have the opposite effect.
Homeopathic remedies are prescribed according to the Law of Similars.This law states, “That which makes sick shall heal.” This means that the symptoms caused by an overdose of a substance are the symptoms that can also be cured by a small dose of that same substance. As an example, we know that when we cut up an onion most people experience an acrid runny nose, soreness in the throat and stinging runny eyes. A homeopath will prescribe Allium Cepa, this is the homeopathic remedy made from the onion for the individual who has a cold and a sore throat with these symptoms. Therefore, homeopathy uses remedies
A well chosen remedy acts as a signal, which energizes or stimulates the body’s self healing powers, mobilizing the defense systems and working on all aspects of the body - mental, emotional and physical. Homeopathic literature, both past and present, documents cases, sometimes of severe pathology, that have been cured or significantly helped by homeopathy.
The Flu Pandemic of 1918 – 1919: Homeopathy – the beacon of light
Since its discovery two hundred years ago, homeopathy has provoked much controversy, criticism, acclaim and impassioned support. It is interesting to note that during the 1918 flu pandemic large numbers of people sought homeopathic care and were restored to good health; in numerous cases their lives were saved. (In one book I read the statistics for survival were 99% if treated by a homeopath and 70% if treated by an allopath(traditional medicine) This was a time when homeopathy truly won its laurels and was a beacon of light to so many. If an influenza victim was seen as soon as symptoms began to develop and a good homeopathic remedy was given their life was spared and they went on to make an excellent recovery. The only patients whom homeopathic doctors tended to lose were people who presented late into their illness, usually with pneumonia, and often drugged by large toxic doses of aspirin.
The flu pandemic of 1918 – 1919 was devastating and it was about as deadly as the Black Death. People who lived through it reported that someone who was up and well in the morning could be dead by the evening. 50 million people died world wide and 548,000 in the USA alone. From information recorded and published by these doctors we know that homeopathy was highly successful and in most cases only one or two homeopathic remedies were needed. They were referred to as the “genus epidemicus” and became known through careful observation of the flu cases that were brought to the attention of the homeopathic community.
In an article published in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1921 Dean W.A.Pearson of Philadelphia collected 26,795 cases of influenza treated by homeopathic physicians with only a mortality rate of 1.05%, while the average conventional medical approach had a mortality rate of 30%. Dr Frank Wieland of Chicago says that in a plant of 8,000 workers there was only one death, the patients were not drugged with the conventional medicines of the time and no vaccines were used. Most workers were given just one homeopathic remedy, Gelsemium. Dr.T.A Mc Cann from Dayton. Ohio wrote: “I have treated 1,000 cases of influenza. I have the records to show my work. I have no losses. Please give all credit to homeopathy.”Dr.W.F Edmundson of Pittsburg related how one physician in a Pittsburg hospital asked a nurse if she knew anything better than what he was doing, because he was losing so many cases. The nurse replied, “Yes, Doctor, stop aspirin and go down to the homeopathic pharmacy and get homeopathic remedies, as the homeopathic doctors for whom I have nursed have not lost a single case.”1500 cases were reported to the Homeopathic Medical Society of the District of Colombia with only 15 deaths. Recoveries in the National Homoeopathic Hospital were 100%.*
A homeopathic remedy is prescribed upon the totality of an individual’s symptoms taken from the mental, emotional and the physical levels. The homeopathic Materia Medica has well over 3,500 remedies. There is no one remedy that is specific to the flu because individuals will manifest symptoms in different ways that are unique to them. The most important point to remember about homeopathy is that it treats the individual.
