NJH News
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2003 Mar / Apr VOL VI NO 2.
THE HINDU, Wednesday, July 9, 2003
By Our Staff Reporter
HYDERABAD, July 8. Leading homeopathic practitioners, teachers and students came forward to defend the scientificity, effectivity and utility of homeopathy in response to the statements of the former CCMB director, P. M. Bhargava. Dr. Bhargava had started on Sunday that homeopathy was "conceptually absurd and scientifically untested" and had called for its de-recognition as a medical system.
At a press conference organized jointly by many organizations, speakers pointed out that "millions of people had benefited from homeopathic treatment over two centuries and their experiences could not all be put down to the ‘placebo effect."
K. Gopala Krishna, general secretary, AP Homeopathic Association, said that this system was very different from "allopathy." Double blind drug trials were not part of this system, but homeopathy had its own system of "proving" which had proven its effectiveness over continents and centuries.
The AP Homeopathic Medical Officers’ Association president, B. Sohan Singh, showed statistics on Japanese Encephalitis collected by VBRI in Nalgonda, Anantapur and Prakasam districts to show that the use of homeopathic kits had reduced the incidence of disease and deaths to zero in 2002. Compared to this, in 1999, before the use of homeopathic medicines, the surveyed villagers had 1036 cases of JE with 203 reported deaths.
N. Srinivas Rao of the Indian institute of Homeopathic Physician informed that research on effect of homeopathic medicines on fish physiology and on plant viruses had been awarded PhD degrees by respected in situations, including the Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University. There were innumerable examples of homeopathic medicines curing small children. "How can placebos work on plants and animals?" countered Dr Rao. He also argued that placebos could not cure tumours, thyroid or hypertension cases, for which there were numerous examples in homeopathy.
Dr Rao said homeopathy was being increasingly recognized as an important part of medical strategies world wide by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In the UK, the government runs a Royal College of Homeopathy and its National Health Scheme has registered homeopaths on its rolls. He informed that Queen Elizabeth second and Prince Charles regularly use homeopathy. A Dutch study had found 63 per cent patients were "conclusively cured" by homeopathy, he added.
Dr Rao wondered whether the growing acceptance of homeopathy was making MNC drug conglomerates "uneasy" and leading to such attacks on this system.
The press conference was addressed by representatives from the Homeopathic Medical graduates Association, the Indian Institute of Homeopathic Physicians, the AP Homeopathic Medical Association, the Homeopathic Chemists Association and the Homeopathic Students Union of Hyderabad, Kadapa, Rajamundry Gudivada.
In other reactions, the AM Charitable Trust which provides palliative care to cancer patients claimed that homeopathic medicines have proved effective in countering the debilitating effects of cancer and even led to regression in a few cases. In a press release, the trust said that most cancer patients came in advanced stage practically given the "death certificate" by doctors. But with homeopathy, ayurveda and yoga these patients had been able to control their symptoms, reduce pain without the use of morphine as well as improve their general quality of life. The press release said that "people believe persons of the eminence of Dr. Bhargava" and added that this should not lead cancer patients to despair.
Venugopal Gouri, homeopathic physician, questioned the
competence of Dr. Bhargava to speak on a system of medicine which of which he
knows nothing. In a statement, Dr. Gouri agreed that it was still a challenge to
science how homeopathy worked and called on "senior and experienced
scientists" to research on this, rather than make "irresponsible"
and "harmful"
statements.
