I am sad that I am writing this particular blog post very late. But, we have the proverb,"Better late, than never". Here is a News report dated 23rd January 2016, at
, citing a speech by Shri Venkataraman Ramakrishnan, 2015 President of Royal Society, and a Nobel Laurate. He was delivering a lecture titled “On Nobody’s Word: Evidence and Modern Science” at Panjab University in Chandigarh. Business Standard News Report not only quoted Mr. Ramakrishnan's speech, but also made some contacts with the Stakeholders such as Ayush. The Business Standard Report is quite Informative. It is necessary to review it sentence by sentence, so that Indians benefit from an awareness of the Fact that Homoeo Medical System is unscientific, and is better avoidable. My very first post No. 001 at this blog on 5th October 2007 has explained in depth the unscientific nature of homoeopathy.
.
| Quote from Article | comments of ybrao a donkey, not intended to be imposed on others |
|---|
| Two weeks ago, Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan reportedly dismissed homoeopathy --along with astrology --as being `harmful and bogus`. | Though he is right, I wish that he used a softer and less derogatory language. Reason: Sometimes, even science and modern medicine can go wrong. |
| Ramakrishnan, an Indian-born American and British structural biologist, was delivering a lecture titled `On Nobody’s Word: Evidence and Modern Science` at Panjab University in Chandigarh. | Govt. of India can arrange similar lectures by him at other places. |
| Hindustan Times quoted him as saying: `No one in chemistry believes in homoeopathy. It works on placebo effect.` | The 100 million Indians who use homoeopathy do not know the meaning of `placebo effect`. They need to be enlightened. |
| In his dismissal of the 200-year-old system of medicine, Ramakrishnan questioned a belief system that has a huge following not only in India but across the world. | Indian Scientists in Indian Organisations such as CSIR, Indian Science Congress should also start questioning. |
| According to a report in Business Standard, globally, more than 600 million people use homoeopathy; of this, about 100 million are Indians. | India ranks third in Porno viewing on Net. How can it lag behind in using unscientific medical systems? |
| In India alone, there are more than 200,000 practitioners of homoeopathy. | It is their livelihood. We cannot blame them. If they are taught some other skills such as Allopathic medical practice, they can be weaned away from unscientific medical systems. |
| The AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha, homoeopathy) ministry, established in 2014, has a dedicated body for research in homoeopathy. | What they have researched? They ought to start at least now, whether homoeopathic medicines really contain `minimum quantities` of medical substances their labels contain. |
| Given the high cost of allopathic treatment and the side effects that accompany evidence-based modern medicine, Indians often turn to the scientifically unproven, though mild and relatively inexpensive, homoeopathic treatment that claims to `treat` conditions, ranging from respiratory problems to mental health conditions. | Modern Allopathic Medical System is also responsible for this state of affairs. Allopathic Medical Practitioners and Hospitals fleece the Patients, like leaches. |
| The ‘science’ behind it:-- Developed in the late 18th century by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann, homoeopathy is based on two principles, both of which bear little scientific evidence. | True. This lack of scientific evidence is to be publicised. |
| One, homoeopathic practitioners believe that `like cures like`, which simply means that a substance that could cause certain symptoms in a healthy person could, in minute doses, relieve the same symptoms in a sick person. | No proof. |
| For instance, peeling an onion triggers runny nose and watery eyes --symptoms that are often found in a person suffering from common cold. Homoeopaths claim that such symptoms could be treated by Allium cepa, a medicine prepared from red onions. | That homoeo medicine Allium cepa contains only alcohol and sugar pills. |
| The second principle on which homoeopathy works involves diluting a substance --plant, animal material or chemical --rigorously in water or alcohol, so much so that only some or no traces of the actual substance remain. | If some medical substance is to be treated as `medicine`, the minimum quantity required by human body for cure, is to be defined in 'milligrams'. Even if we hold that `like cures like` is correct, that `like` should be taken at least in the minimum stipulated quantity of weight. |
| Homoeopathic practitioners, however, believe that the more a substance is diluted, the greater is its power to treat the symptoms. | Govt./NGOs have to enlighten the Homoeo practitioners. |
| Is it effective? :-- `Homoeopaths take arsenic compounds and dilute it to such an extent that just a molecule is left. It will not have any effect on you. Your tap water has more arsenic,` Ramakrishnan was quoted as saying. And there is scientific evidence to back his views. | Even those molecules may not be left in the homoeo bottle, because a few drops of diluted tinctures are sprinkled on sugar pills which may or, may not absorb the molecule. |
| In 2015, in one of the most extensive studies on homoeopathy to date, the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia reviewed more than 170 research papers on the alternative system of medicine to conclude that there is no reliable evidence that homoeopathy is effective for treating health conditions. | This should be publicised both among patients and practitioners. |
| A 2005 Lancet study found that `the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects`. | This needs to be publicised. |
| Critics often question a basic principle underlying homoeopathy called `water memory`, or the supposed ability of water to remember the shape of the substance it contained, even though none of the molecules may have been left after multiple dilutions. | No proof of any such `water memory`. |
| A 2010 report on homoeopathy by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee said: `We consider the notion that ultra-dilutions can maintain an imprint of substances previously dissolved in them to be scientifically implausible.` | This is to be publicised regularly. |
| However, homoeopaths believe that the focus on `water memory` is overblown. | -- |
| `All homoeopathy is not non-molecular,` says Raj Kumar Manchanda, director-general at the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, an autonomous organisation under the AYUSH ministry. | Even if all the Homoeopathy is not non-molecular, Ayush has to define minimum quantity in milligrams of medical substances to be present in homoeo pills/tinctures. |
| `It is only when, in certain cases, low potencies are not effective that you might have to go for higher potencies. | Low potencies may not work when they do not contain minimum `milligrams`. |
| So, seventy to eighty per cent of combinations are as molecular as any other allopathic or ayurvedic or traditional drug. It is only twenty to twenty five per cent that are non-molecular.` | 1x (1/10 dilution), 2x (1/100 dilution), 3x (1/1000) dilution may probably contain some medical substance. For this reason only, Dr. Schuschler who in his Biochemic Remedies preferred 1-2-3x low potencies seems to have succeeded at least partly. |
| Manchanda --as do others who swear by homoeopathy --cites a study by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay that found that homoeopathic medicines do contain medicinal molecules in nano sizes even after high dilutions. | This Study seems to have taken at the instance of some Homoeo practitioner / Homoeo Pharma Company. More studies will be needed. Besides, number of samples tested is also to be taken into consideration. |
| However, there is little research to suggest whether the medicines really work. | And, this Research should be independent, so as to be, unbiased. |
| B Dinesh Kumar, president of the Indian Pharmacological Society.: `Claiming that homoeopathy is therapeutic without research is not right. There is a need for validation of homoeopathy as a system of medicine.` | Correct. |
| Limitations:-- Manchanda says that homoeopathy works well in most sub-acute and chronic cases. However, he advises against the use of homoeopathic medicines in acute and life-threatening conditions. | In non-life-threatening ailments, body's immunity system itself will fight out the ailment. Homoeo pills will not even be catalysts. However, there may be faith-cure (placebo) when patients take homo |
| Since homoeopathic remedies are believed to stimulate the body’s immune system so that the body heals on its own, in acute cases `the body’s immune mechanism sometimes doesn’t have enough time to react,` says Manchanda. | Same is the case when a person gets a talisman, or when he-she does not take any medicine at all. A person who does not take any medicine, may die, if his-her body is unable to `wait` till the immunity system is activated. |
| He even recommends the use of allopathic medicine when the `infection is severe` and following it up with homoeopathy in the long run, since it has no known side-effects. | Patients may have to follow the minimum-maximum dose, period of allopathic medication, before shifting to homeo which is equal to-- not taking any medicine at all. |
| It is not that homeopathy is without risks, though. | Homoeo can be without risks, when the homoeo medicines contain no medical substances at all in such minimum quantities which may produce side effects. Once a homeo-friend challenged me to consume one dram bottle of homeo medicine `glonoine` and frightened me that I shall get great itching, and that my skin will be full of acne/warts, and that I need to take glonoine again to get rid off the itching and the acne. I consumed 2dram glonoine pills, and nothing happened. |
| In 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration ordered that Zicam, a homeopathic cold remedy, be pulled off the shelves after it found that, in 130 cases, people had reported losing their sense of smell. | Some homoeo pharma companies seem to add medicines in larger quantities (i.e. non-homoeo-quantities). |
| According to Manchanda, however, homoeopathic medicines are incapable of causing any damage. | Because they contain nothing, except alcohol and sugar. |
| `It is possible that after giving homoeopathic medicine you may not improve, but it is not possible that it will cause any harm,` he adds.
| Because homoeo medicines contain nothing but alcohol and sugar. Even talismans do not have side effects. |
