Science, Engineering and Human physiology. Homeopathy: The Enigma.

The recent announcement that the British Medical Journal, in a joint investigation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that three scientists involved in putting together the World Health Organisation 2004 guidance on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs, had previously been paid by Roche or GSK for lecturing and consultancy work as well as being involved in research for the companies.

The failure of the WHO to release the names of the individuals gives rise to questioning the reasons for not doing so.

It also gives rise, one could argue, that the conduct of the scientists in question be considered as to whether or not their involvement with the WHO in the formulation of that advice should be questioned.

This will not be the only occasion where senior scientists in the medical profession have apparently been involved in some questionable errors of judgement when it comes to offering guidance on the subject of vaccines.

This appears to have happened in 1988 in London at a meeting of the Joint Sub-Committee on Adverse Reactions to Vaccinations and Immunisation March 8th. At that meeting the Committee discussed the MMR vaccine and adverse reactions. One particular vaccine discussed was eventually removed from use some time later.

As a scientist, being able to theorise within the bounds of the physical laws that govern our existence, and an engineer using those constraints at our disposal, to practical use, to enrich our environment, occasionally it is necessary to step back from the cosy understanding of the principals of Newtonian Physics, Quantum Mechanics, and Thermodynamics that govern our being.

The enigma in question is the use of Homeopathy in current medical practise, and the logic of its use in modern medicine.

In my December 2009 article on Autism and Gastrointestinal issues, I detailed the use of homeopathy to address one patient’s problems.

The apparent indifference of the establishment to its use, and dismiss the beneficial effects it has, by the language of rejection, using terms such as "junk science, no peer reviewed, controlled, double blinded trials, placebo effect", leads one to believe that the establishment, rather than actually taking the time and the effort to understand, the mechanics, of how homeopathy works, would much rather dismiss out of hand the benefits, than embrace them, with the possibility of alienating the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.

Paediatrician Professor Janet Eyre (Eyre, 2004) in a publication expressed the view, that the fact that such trials do not exist, should not preclude the use of alternative solutions, if they are found to have a positive effect." Professor Eyre goes on to say "Part of the problem is that many of those therapies are based on uncontrolled clinical observations of their effects. That does not mean they should be discarded."

The fact, that, before synthesised pharmacology, there were no alternatives, remains.

In the time before the advent of mechanical and structural engineering, coupled with metallurgical, and materials science, gave humanity the wherewithal to create and build huge chemical manufacturing plant and equipment to synthesise modern pharmaceuticals, humanity relied on the knowledge of wise men, interpreting the writings of Islamic, Indian Sub continent and Chinese philosophers to furnish natures’ biochemical’s required to overcome common everyday ailments that beset human populations.

The same biochemical’s extracted from natural flora are the basis for modern pharmaceuticals now synthesised in huge biochemical engineering plants used by the pharmaceutical industry.

The dichotomy of this situation is such that, as a result of the huge financial commitment employed to create these monoliths of mechanical engineering practise, is so enormous, that the pharmaceutical companies cannot consider abandoning them, and have to strive to create new biochemical compounds to continue the life of their investment.

This self perpetuating commitment is a user of huge amounts of energy and carbon based raw material inputs.

The argument continuously propagated by the establishment, and the pharmaceutical companies, suggests that many diseases eradicated by modern synthetic biochemicals, has enhanced the life, and longevity of human populations. However, consider that an equally important contribution was made to eradicate infectious disease in Europe and the Western Hemisphere, by the availability of fresh potable water and safe disposal of effluent and sewage, by 19th and early 20th century engineers.

In fact modern pharmacology has not completely eradicated many diseases from our world.

The disastrous use of DDT in the middle of the last century, to eradicate the malaria carrying mosquito created more problems than it solved, measles, mumps and other childhood illnesses have not been completely eradicated worldwide.

The use of natural and homeopathic remedies, appear not to play any significant role in the education of doctors in the Western mainstream medical teaching establishments, any specialisation has to be undertaken in the  smaller specialist Universities.

Modern medicine is now supported by the use of highly sophisticated high technology facilities, but has forgotten a simple fact that a virus cannot survive in an alkaline environment, where a common chemical compound sodium bicarbonate is as effective as an antibiotic or antiviral, less expensive to the Health Service to produce, and administer, and is not subject to the need to find new pharmacology, when virus’s become drug resistant. 

Homeopathic practise is based on a single law of therapeutics namely the Law of Similars. This law states that a substance that can cause the symptoms of the disease can also cure it. This should not really be a perplexing conundrum for allopaths when they should be aware that the treatment actively promoted worldwide by doctors as a treatment for individuals on the Autism Spectrum Disorder exhibiting hyperactivity commonly referred to as Attention Deficit Disorder specified in DSM IV, is Ritalin, a substance  that would normally cause hyperactivity. This is the most common usage of the Law of Similars.

Administering Ritalin in the long term is proving to be problematical, as the long term side effects of the drug are unknown, and caution is now being considered as to its long term safety. The solution as identified by Hahnemann is to use the homeopathic route and administer the treatment in the diluted but still potent therapeutic form.

Homeopathy in India is the second most widespread form of medicine in the world, a fully fledged medical system with its own medical schools and hospitals. In Cuba during 2008, 2.5 million Cubans were given homeopathic remedy to cure Leptospirosis, swamp fever. During that year no fatalities occurred and very few cases were diagnosed.

Administration of a substance which succeeds in completely suppressing a symptom may give the illusion of a cure, there is however a down side to many synthesised pharmacology’s, which doctors refer to as side effects. A consequence of the mass immunisation of the current swine flue pandemic has shown that the H1N1 vaccination has reportedly thrown up side effects leading to the death of some patients and in some cases the onset of Guillaume Barr syndrome, leading to some countries withdrawing some vaccines out of use.

It would appear to be a contradiction to the Hippocratic Oath on the basis that "I will follow that method of treatment which according to my ability and judgement, I consider for the benefit for my patient and abstain from whatsoever is harmful or mischievous".

Earlier in the article I eluded to the criticisms of the medical establishment, on the lack of clinical controlled trials and scientific evidence on the mechanics of the effectiveness of   homeopathic medicines.

In the early 1800’s homeopathy in the United States had achieved a strong presence until the AMA, the American Medical Association was formed to eliminate Homeopathy from general acceptance.

The scepticism of the allopathic medicine society lies in the fact that ultra dilutions achieve a medicine, which, undoubtedly contain not even one molecule of the active ingredient, is an anathema to conventional pharmacology.

In 1988 Jacques Benveniste (Davenas, 1988) discovered that the ultra dilutions could retain substance specific properties. This discovery has been replicated (Brown and Ennis 2001), and most recently (Montagnier, Luc et al 2009), confirming the power of ultra dilutions.

Finally, Professor Rustom Roy, at the Materials Research Laboratory in Penn State University, has demonstrated whilst researching the structure of water, demonstrated that laboratory instruments could detect energetic signatures in ultra dilutions, that were not only specific to individual homeopathic remedies, but to specific potencies of these remedies. (Rao, 2007, 2008).

References:

Davenas, et al.(1998) Human Basophil Degranulation Triggered by Very Dilute Antiserum against IgE, Nature, Vol. 333, No.6176,pp. 816-818.

Brown,V. and Ennis, M . (2001) Flow Cytometric Analysis of Basophil Activation: Inhibition by Histamine at Conventional and Homeopathic Concentrations. Inflamation Research,50, supplement(2), S47-S48.

Eyre, J. (2004) Restoring Neurological Function, Annals of Neurology, 42, 283-291, for Academy of Medical Sciences March 2004.

Rao, et al (2007) The Defining Role of Structure(including Epitaxy) in the Plausibility of Homeopathy, Homeopathy,96,pp. 175-182.

Rao, et. Al.(2008) "Characterization of the Structure of Ultra Dilute Sols with Remarkable Biological Properties," Materials Letters, Vol. 62, Issues 10-11, pp.
1487-1490

Montagnier, Luc, et al (2009)  Electromagnetic Signals are Produced by Aqeous Nano Structures Derived from Bacterial DNA sequences. Interdiscip Sci Comput Life Sci, 1:81-90.

Robin Burn
June 2010

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