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“From the age of 13 I suffered from hay-fever and nothing the doctor did helped. My mother took me to a homeopath and my hay-fever went, and it also helped greatly with allergies and asthma. It’s the most effective treatment I have ever tried including conventional medicine.”
Cindy Lund
“From the age of 13 I suffered from hay-fever and nothing the doctor did helped. My mother took me to a homeopath and my hay-fever went, and it also helped greatly with allergies and asthma. It’s the most effective treatment I have ever tried including conventional medicine.”
Cindy Lund

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MPs want complementary, traditional and natural medicine to rescue NHS from financial crisis

PRESS RELEASE 13TH DECEMBER 2018


Changing health needs requires different approach, says new report

In 70 years of the NHS patients’ health needs have changed. Growing numbers of people suffering from long-term illnesses pose significant threats to the future sustainability of the NHS, a new report released by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare warns.

MPs urge the NHS to embrace complementary, traditional and natural medicine to ease the mounting burden on service provision.

The report says that the rising costs to the health system require a whole person approach to health delivery which focuses on prevention and tackles the root cause of illness.

More patients suffer from multimorbidity (suffering from 2 or more long-term health conditions) than ever before, with the number of people in England with one or more long-term condition projected to increase to around 18 million by 2025.

A staggering 70% of total health expenditure on health and care in England is associated with treating the 30% of the population with one long-term condition or more.

The result of these complex health conditions is the growing problem of polypharmacy (the use of several drugs at the same time).

This is perhaps the biggest threat to the future economic viability of the NHS, with increasing costs of pharmaceutical drugs needed to treat patients with multiple illnesses, coupled with largely unknown effects of the long-term use of these drugs in combination.

The PGIH report argues that Government needs to devise a strategy to fully assess the degree of drug interactions, determine the long-term health effects on patients, and arrest the trend of over medicating the population.

A significant part of this strategy is to treat patients as whole persons, with individual needs, rather than with a variety of illnesses that are treated separately.

This strategy should make greater use of natural, traditional and complementary therapies, which are widely used for a variety of conditions. There is a huge under-utilised resource of therapists which could work in collaboration with conventional medicine to improve patient outcomes and ease the burden on the NHS.

Modern medicine has been very effective in tackling many of the health conditions we face today. However, there are areas, often called Effectiveness Gaps (EGs), where available treatments in modern clinical practice are not fully effective.

Musculoskeletal problems are commonly regarded as being affected by EGs. Depression, eczema, allergies, chronic pain, and irritable bowel syndrome are also frequently mentioned.

For these types of conditions a different approach is needed, one which does not involve giving more and more costly but ineffective drugs.

David Tredinnick MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group which produced the report, insisted that the current approach being taken by the Government is unsustainable for the long-term future of the country.

“Despite positive signs that ministers are proving open to change, words must translate into reality. For some time our treasured NHS has faced threats to its financial sustainability and to common trust in the system.”

“Multimorbidity is more apparent now in the UK than at any time in our recent history. As a trend it threatens to swamp a struggling NHS, but the good news is that many self-limiting conditions can be treated at home with the most minimal of expert intervention.”

“Other European governments facing similar challenges have considered the benefits of exploring complementary, traditional and natural medicines. If we are to hand on our most invaluable institution to future generations, so should we.”




 

Press release shared from iCAMhub

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Antibiotic Awareness Week 2018: The Problem, A Plan of Action and A Potential Solution

Every year, The World Health Organisation (WHO) designates a week in November (this year 12-18th) to bring awareness to the global problem of antibiotic resistance. A recent article in The Guardian, highlights the ongoing, dangerous issues involved: ‘The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates resistant infections could kill about 2.4 million people in Europe, North America and Australia by 2050 unless more is done to tackle the problem, which it describes as “one of the biggest threats to modern medicine”. This includes about 1.3 million deaths in Europe and 90,000 in Britain.’ (The Guardian, 7thNovember 2018.)

The complex solution to this crisis, is as ever, multi-faceted. A collaborative global approach across all sectors involved in public health is a priority. A major part of any solution would, in my opinion, lie in the education of the public in how to avoid infections in the first place, where ever possible; this will be discussed throughout the article. It is also important to stress that there are actually very few occasions where antibiotics are required. If taken indiscriminately, they will cause far more problems than allowing the body to heal of its own accord, and eventually lead to the resistance discussed above. Taking them only when strongly indicated for severe infections would increase effectiveness and, in most cases, help to avoid resistance. Otherwise, healing through homeopathy is a viable solution; cases of infections being cleared in both people and animals are discussed within the text.

There have been many articles written to highlight the dangers of over prescription but hopefully the following information will summarise concisely and clearly the problem and present sustainable solutions.

The key facts, are as follows:

  • Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today.

  • Antibiotic resistance can affect anyone, of any age, in any country.

  • Antibiotic resistance occurs naturally, but misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.

  • A growing number of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhoea – are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective.

  • Antibiotic resistance leads to longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increased mortality. (World Health Organisation, October 2016)


Different approaches required

Given these facts, we need to seek suitable, practical and effective alternatives, as the situation is escalating out of control, as witnessed by the frightening statistics above. Lifestyle changes are also a very important and integral part of this. It must be made clear that most homeopaths accept that there is a time and a place for antibiotics. In certain difficult, severe bacterial infections, they are potentially lifesaving. However, this being said, there is undeniable over prescription, which has to be addressed, for the sake of world health. It is important that everyone is aware of this and begins to take their own health management seriously and to stop demanding medications for minor ailments that are self-limiting. Frequent antibiotic usage is potentially dangerous to one’s health and is a huge cause of iatrogenic disease. Take with caution and awareness of this proven fact: ‘Iatrogenic disease is the result of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures undertaken on a patient. With the multitude of drugs prescribed to a single patient adverse drug reaction are bound to occur. The physician should take suitable steps to detect and manage them.’ (Krishnan, NR, Kasthuri, AS, 2011)

Ban Ki Moon, the UN General Secretary, at the United Nations conference on drug resistant bacteria in September 2016, stated:‘ It is estimated that more than 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant infections, though it could be much higher because there is no global system to monitor these deaths. And there has been trouble tracking those deaths in places where they are monitored, like in the US, where tens of thousands of deaths have not been attributed to superbugs.’ He went on to say: ‘If we fail to address this problem quickly and comprehensively, antimicrobial resistance will make providing high-quality universal healthcare coverage more difficult if not impossible antimicrobial resistance is a “fundamental threat” to global health and safety. (UN: 2016)

Plan of action

The problem of resistance has been clearly described and the associated dangers spelled out, in no uncertain terms. It cannot be stressed enough that less is more in terms of antibiotic usage, not only for one’s own health in the short term, but to avoid long term resistance. Save antibiotics, wherever possible, for those times of acute, dangerous infection. This could be one of the most valuable things you do for your own health. Check with your health care provider that their use in your case is essential, or if monitored, is the complaint likely to go away in of its own accord with good self-care. Common viral infections that do not benefit from antibiotic treatment include: (Mayo Clinic: 2012)

  • Colds

  • Flu (influenza

  • Bronchitis

  • Most coughs

  • Most sore throats

  • Some ear infections

  • Some sinus infection

  • Stomach flu (viral gastroenteritis)


Adjunctive advice

  1. Try and avoid illness in the first place by eating a well-balanced diet suitable to you, (taking into account food sensitivities and intolerances.) Exercise and get adequate sleep, supplement with vitamins and minerals and probiotics where necessary. Reduce stress and employ strategies to make this easier (meditation, yoga etc.)

  2. Recognise your health is your responsibility. Prevent disease as much as possible optimising the above approach.

  3. Understand that there are side effects with antibiotics, which can seriously affect your health. Yeast infections, both local and systemic are often the result of indiscriminate antibacterial onslaught which eliminates healthy as well as unhealthy gut flora; this can result in even more prescriptions, creating a cycle which is difficult to break. Avoid wherever possible.

  4. Remove ‘Maintaining Causes (see earlier blog:http://news.findahomeopath.org.uk/2016/07/10/getting-to-the-route-of-sickness-by-removing-maintaining-causes-and-obstacles-to-cure/ ) In other words, as much as possible remove those things that you know make you sick. eg: if you are a smoker with a hacking cough, stop smoking.

  5. Research different approaches should treatment be required, starting with homeopathy, which has been wonderfully beneficial to many. Cases and research links given below.


The Homeopathic Approach/A Solution?

Much of healing witnessed using homeopathy is empirical, in other words, the patient gets better after a consultation and this is easily observed, it simply works; there are numerous examples of this happening in a variety of conditions on this website here. What follows are significantly positive results using homeopathy for animals, in this case using Randomised Control Trials, the current ‘Gold standard’ for measuring efficacy of medications.

Prevention of diarrhoea in piglets

Animals, both domestic and farm, often respond beautifully to homeopathic treatment and destroy any preconceived, limited, judgmental idea that homeopathy is placebo.  The following recent triple blind randomised control trial with piglets is evidence of healing, without the need for antibiotics:

A high-quality placebo-controlled trials identified by Mathie & Clausen was carried out by Wageningen University in the Netherlands: ‘In this triple blind RCT, 52 pregnant sows were treated with either Coli 30K (a homeopathic medicine made from E. coli bacteria) or placebo. The sows gave birth to 525 piglets and those in the group treated with Coli 30K had 6 times less diarrhoea than the piglets in the placebo group. This result was statistically significant (p < 0.0001) meaning that it is extremely unlikely to be a false positive result due to chance alone. The homeopathic medicine used in this study was made from E. colibacteria, alternately diluted and succussed to produce an ultra-high dilution of 10-60, meaning that it should no longer contain any molecules of the original bacteria.

The particular technique used, where the medicine used is made from the same substance which causes the disease being treated, is a sub-type of homeopathy called ‘isopathy’. As the only existing way of preventing this disease in livestock is by using antibiotics, this study should be repeated to confirm its findings, as it may provide an effective way to help reduce overuse of antibiotics. (Veterinary Research: 2015.)

Another trial concerning farm animals (cows) having successful outcomes hails from India:

‘The comparative efficacy of homeopathic and allopathic systems of medicine in the management of Indian dairy cows.’ The results of this study are summarised as follows: ‘We conclude that the combination of phytolacca, calc flour, silica, belladonna, arnica and ipecac is effective and cost effective in the management of fibrotic and non-fibrotic mastitis in lactating dairy cows compared to antibiotics.’ (Varshney, J.P, Naresh, R: 2004)

Thus, it is clear that farm animals respond well to homeopathic treatment and a return to health without resorting to antibiotics.  It is also hugely cost effective. Should you require more research data, in every sphere concerning homeopathy, there are several useful resources, here are 2 sites I highly recommend: http://hpathy.com/scientific-research/database-of-positive-homeopathy-research-studies/and https://www.hri-research.org/

We are an over medicated society, one which has become reliant on doctors to cure our every aliment.  It is time to adopt a strong sense of responsibility for our own health and that of our family that does not include taking medication for minor conditions; consider rather other approaches such as optimum nutrition, lifestyle changes and of course the homeopathic approach, the effectiveness of which has been clearly demonstrated above. We owe it to ourselves, to be as well informed and educated as possible, and not to rely on perceived ‘quick fixes,’ in other words, the presumption that antibiotics are a cure all, when in fact they should only be used in certain potentially dangerous situations. Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, was right and prophetic in his prediction: ‘If the disease is treated with violent allopathic drugs, other graver, more life-threatening ailments are created in its place.’ Aphorism 37 (a), The Organon of Medicine.

As ever, should you wish to consult a homeopath: www.findahomeopath.org.

This is an updated version of a blog written by me in 2016, for Antibiotic Awareness Week.

Gill Graham. www.consultanthomeopath.com

 



References

Data Base of positive research studies (2015) Available at: : http://hpathy.com/scientific-research/database-of-positive-homeopathy-research-studies/

Hahnemann, S. (2003) The Organon of Medicine, London:Orion

Krishnan, NR,(Retd)Kasthuri,AS(Retd):Iatrogenic disorders,(2011). Available at:   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923397/

Mayo Clinic (2014) Antibiotics misuse puts you and others at risk: Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/antibiotics/art-20045720

The Guardian (2016) UN meeting tackles the ‘fundamental threat’ of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/20/un-declaration-antibiotic-drug-resistance?CMP=share_btn_tw

The Guardian, (2018) Antibiotic resistant superbugs will kill 90, 000 Britons by 2050.’ Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/07/antibiotic-resistant-superbugs-will-kill-90000-britons-by-2050?CMP=share_btn_fb

Varshney, J.P, Naresh, R (2004)The comparative efficacy of homeopathic and allopathic systems of medicine in the management of Indian dairy cows.’Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475491604001201

Veterinary research (2015) available at: https://www.hri-research.org/resources/homeopathy-the-debate/essentialevidence/veterinary-research/

World Health Organisation, October 2016.Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/)

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Homeopathy helps animals - five people share their animal health stories

On 2ndNovember, 4 Homeopathy (4H) launched its Homeopathy 4 Animals campaign, ‘Healthy animals, naturally’,which will run for 5 weeks. The campaign features dogs, a cat, a pony and even a chicken, who have all been successfully treated with homeopathic medicine.

The campaign launch stars were Claudine and her rough collie, Jackson and the posts have already reached over 26,000 views via social media channels.

Coming from a variety of backgrounds, included among the people interviewed is a gun dog trainer who regularly exhibits at Crufts and a racehorse yard owner. All had many experiences of homeopathy working in their lives and shared many more stories than were used in the campaign.

What comes across is how down to earth and practical all of them are, sharing their experiences of having tried conventional treatment for their animals but, having no success, how they turned to homeopathy as a last resort. All were all incredibly grateful to have found something that helped their animals.

4H is a collaboration between 10 of the UK’s major homeopathy organisations. It promotes and raises awareness of the benefits homeopathy can offeras a useful treatment method to help keep our animals healthy and well.

Following positive responses to the campaign, the 4H group are looking forward to sharing the rest of the videos and images with the world!

For more about the work of 4H: www.findahomeopath.org

Find a homeopathic vet: www.bahvs.com/find-a-vet-2/

Homeopathy, particularly for animals, has been in the firing line over the past year so any support you can give to the CAM4Animals team would be greatly appreciated – do check out their valuable work here: www.cam4animals.co.uk

You can see the first image here on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2RzzZa0or on Instagram: www.instagram.com/p/BprP0IvFNH3/.To view the first YouTube video, go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8saisPel4U.

More coming soon – watch this space!

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Release The First Report

RTFR Twitter

Do you know that NHMRC carried out its review of Homeopathy TWICE?

Do you know that it BURIED any evidence of the first Report?

The public has a right to know the TRUTH. We need your help!

We need as many people as possible, from as many countries as possible, to sign up to the campaign on releasethefirstreport.com.

· Sign up at www.releasethefirstreport.com/join-the-campaign
· Connect with the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

‘Release the First Report’ builds on its sister campaign, ‘Your Health Your Choice’, launched last summer which achieved huge success, generating over 87,000 signatures in Australia.

Now it’s time to go global!

The stakes could not be higher.

The recent High Court ruling to uphold a ban on homeopathic prescriptions in the UK, based primarily on the NHMRC report, sets a dangerous precedent.

As the formal investigation into NHMRC’s conduct has been going on for almost two years, it is time to show the Australian Government that the world is watching and demands that NHMRC explain themselves.

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN NOW!

There is the option to opt-in to the Your Health Your Choice campaign at the same time.
It will be of major political significance if we can simultaneously push the original YHYC campaign to reach 100,000 signatures.

Numbers are crucial, so please sign up and share widely.

It’s time to act!

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Magic Pills Premieres in London at Society of Homeopaths Conference

Magic Pills UK Premiere, School of Pharmacy, April 27th, 2018

If you are part of the homeopathic community, either as a homeopath or as a patient, you may be aware that the cutting-edge film, Magic Pills, produced and directed by Ananda More, had its debut performance in London, last Friday evening. Social Media has been flooded with coverage of the event, which was a high-quality, trailblazing start to The Society of Homeopaths conference and AGM; and did, in my opinion, set the tone for an excellent weekend all round, of high quality presentations and a wonderful eclectic gathering of the world wide homeopathic community.

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The event took place in an auditorium at the School of Pharmacy and was attended by over 160 guests. It was clear that many people had made a real effort to attend; it attracted world-wide attention, also, beautifully merging homeopaths from various registering bodies in the UK.Mark Taylor, the Society of Homeopath’s Chief Executive, introduced the event, thanking Ananda for coming and Marcus Christo for helping to facilitate. Having seen the movie many times, I was not prepared for how I would feel seeing it on ‘the big screen.’ In short, I was moved by the atmosphere and impressed by the quality and professionalism of the production, certainly on a par with major film productions anywhere in the world. The content of film has been discussed and reviewed before so if you would like more details and an analysis of the film read the full review here.

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A question and answer session with Dr Alison Fixsen, the Society’s Research Consultant and Ananda followed, which raised interesting points and stimulating discussion. Ananda went on to discuss how to host a screening, and generously donated 20% of the profits for all screenings booked over the Conference weekend, to be given to the Judicial Review Crowd Justice fund.  Cristal Sumner, Chief Executive of the British Homeopathic Association is running this campaign. The Judicial Review began on Tuesday 1st May and if you’d like to donate to this you can here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-homeopathy-on-the-nhs2/. Please contribute if you can. We are hoping for a favourable outcome. The news so far (May 2nd, 2018) from the UK High Court is that there was 'ample evidence that homeopathy worked but the consultation had been "completely one-sided.’ (Richard Clayton QC)

How to host a screening of Magic Pills

Information on how to host a screening can be found here: http://magicpillsmovie.com/host-screening/. The process is really accessible; you can host a screening in your living room (she just asks for a minimum of 10 people), or hire a village hall, community area or cinema, whatever is easiest for you.

Funding and donations urgently required for the following projects.

Other issues of major importance were discussed,given that many homeopaths were in attendance, and could help to bring awareness, as these worldwide issues affect us all, our credibility and our livelihoods; also, our ability to create a heathier world, so please don’t feel overwhelmed by the pleas for support, just do what you can and share where you can.  It is seriously for the greater good.
The Australian Report is crucial, and they desperately need our support, so please sign the petition and circulate! It is vital to us all, as homeopaths and serious health professionals.    https://www.yourhealthyourchoice.com.au/

Funding and support is also needed for Camilla and Jeremy Sherr’s Homeopathy for Health in Africa Project. They are raising money to buy a CD4- and Viral Load machines to be able to do better data-collection for their AIDS-results: http://homeopathyforhealthinafrica.org/donations/

In short, Magic Pills, with its dynamic, compelling​, honest and engaging content, paved the way ​for an inspirational and uplifting weekend. ​The positive ​themes set out in the film are those of unity, integration and respect​; it inspires balance, fairness and justice, overwhelmingly counteracting, in my opinion the predictable negativity and ignorance of the sceptics. The film opens a dialogue and juxtaposes the criticisms of the sceptic community with large scale, real world use and success of homeopathy and presents some of the genuine scientific data.

Ultimately, it exposes ​a system of medicine which must be taken seriously, given the evidence presented​ and which is​, absolutely, at times, ‘magic’ in its healing potential.

Gill Graham

www.consultanthomeopath.com

For more details on the film, go to: http://magicpillsmovie.com/

 

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