Do you know Homeopathic physicians spend twice as much time with their patients, order half as many lab -oratory tests and procedures, and prescribe fewer drugs. Since treatment of chronic illness accounts for a large proportion of health care expenditures, the cost-effectiveness of homeopathic medicine should be investigated by comparing homeopathy with conventional treatments for specific chronic illnesses such as recurrent childhood ear infections, allergies, arthritis, headaches, depression, and asthma.
Clinical outcomes should be measured as well as such factors as utilization of health services, number of missed days of work or school, patient satisfaction, and overall cost of health care. History Homeopathy originated in the late 1700s and was developed by a German scientist Samuel Hahnemann. It comes from the Greek words-homeo (similar) and pathos (pain). As the name suggests, it is based on the principal of similarity. The substance when given to a healthy person would make him suffer from a disease let’s name it “A” and when the same substance was given to another individual suffering from disease “A” would make him well. Hahnemann was amazed by the results of this experiment that he conducted in which when he consumed the bark of quinine and it caused symptoms of malaria in him. When he made a person suffering from malaria eat it, that person became well.
Taken in by this phenomenon, he dedicated the rest of life to developing this science. He plowed through scores of common substances to find out what symptoms they would cause. And then he would treat people suffering from the symptoms with that particular substance. He would record his findings. Astounded by the success of his theory people around the world finally started to accept this form of alternative medicine. How it Works Homeopathy is considered beneficial because it helps to cure chronic diseases. Other forms of medicine tend to be suppressive because they only make the symptoms go away for a while. Then either they return or come back in the form of another ailment. This is not so in the case of homeopathy because it generally tends to cure holistically. Another peculiarity of homeopathy is that the treatment varies according to the individual.
The entire remedy picture is made up of the physical, mental, and emotional qualities, and is called the “essence” of a remedy. Then this essence is coordinated with the symptoms of the individual; these could be physical, mental, hormonal, and emotional. Homeopathy also takes into consideration the wants, desires and fears of the patient. The one remedy that fits the individuals needs like a glove is called “similimum”. Homeopathy is also useful at times as a complementary therapy when the effects of conventional treatment can be supported or mitigated as the case may be.Hahnemann also discovered that if these medicines were mixed with a solution of alcohol and water, medicine was still effective and at the same time the side effects were negligible. Some homeopathic medicines are diluted to concentrations as low as 10-30 to 10-20,000. Skeptics of homeopathy contend that such extreme dilutions of the medicines are beyond the point at which any molecules of the medicine can theoretically still be found in the solution.On the other hand, scientists who accept the validity of homeopathic theory suggest several theories to explain how highly diluted homeopathic medicines may act.
They have proposed that electromagnetic energy may exist in the medicines and interact with the body on some level. Researchers in physical chemistry have proposed the “memory of water” theory, whereby the structure of the water-alcohol solution is altered by the medicine during the process of dilution and retains this structure even after none of the actual substance remains. Why Homeopathy Recent research accomplishments show that homeopathically prepared doses propound the degranulation of human blood cells, which provoke allergic reactions. Furthermore, recent clinical trials in Europe have suggested a positive effect of homeopathic medicines on such conditions as allergic rhinitis, fibrositis, and influenza, osteoarthritis. A recent double blind study comparing homeopathic treatment with placebo in the treatment of acute childhood diarrhea found a statistically significant improvement in the group receiving the homeopathic treatment.A second type of study was conducted to see if homeopathy is more effective than other medications. In a study of primary fibromyalgia, a type of inflammation; patients who met recognized diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia were further stratified as patients for whom a particular homeopathic medicine, rhus toxicodendron 6C, was homeopathically indicated. Patients with the active treatment were better on all variables, and a number of their tender points were reduced by 25 percent at the end of 4 weeks of active treatment in comparison with controls.
A third type of study simply looks at comparative utilization figures for homeopathic practitioners in a health care system with or without attention to the comparative clinical outcomes. And it has been brought to notice that homeopathy is cost effective in comparison to other forms of curative medicine. It should also be noted that since homeopathy is natural it is much less harmful, it is not painful, and even the procedure of intake is very easy to follow. Conclusion Evaluating the efficiency of homeopathy using randomized, double blind clinical trials for the treatment of acute problems such as diarrhea, otitis media, and postoperative pain as well as for chronic illnesses is a fertile area for research. Homeopathy might be especially effective in areas where modern medicine does not have an established, satisfactory solution, such as arthritis, AIDS, asthma, headaches, and inflammatory bowel disease, colds.
