Although well-known, frequently utilized, and readily available in most European pharmacies, it seems that homeopathy has not gained a solid foothold alongside other alternative practices in the United States.
The Bias Problem
Since homeopathy is such a highly debated modality of healing, people usually belong to one of two camps—those who believe in its therapeutic values and those who don’t. This makes it hard for scientists to find unbiased participants for studies about the efficacy of homeopathy.Over the years, researchers have tried to prove the common denominator by which homeopathy operates.
Often such studies are small and begin with participating patients having a preconceived notion about homeopathy.
Homeopathy Escapes Biological Explanations
With concentrations of one to 1 million, homeopathic remedies are seen by many as simple placebos.Italy, Australia, and the European Academies Science Advisory Council have released consensus statements “concerning lack of evidence (beyond placebo),” and the United States is scrutinizing homeopathic remedies and their “place among over-the-counter health products.”
Personal Accounts Contrast Government Views
Support for homeopathy comes from those who have experienced relief or healing using homeopathic remedies. For some, these events became life-changing to the point where they trained to be practitioners of homeopathy.Christine Donka is the executive director of the National Center for Homeopathy. She discovered homeopathy more than 18 years ago when searching for an alternative to her son’s eye surgery.
“After one dose of some little white pellets, eye surgery was no longer necessary, and [I] was determined to learn more,” Donka told The Epoch Times in an interview. Although that particular story amazes her, she also recalls many successful interventions through homeopathy in her own family and her clients.
On another occasion, while embarking on a three-day hike with her daughter Rachel in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state, Donka tripped over a root and went tumbling because of her heavy backpack. She injured her knees and wrist, but she mostly experienced thick brain fog from a possible concussion.
As any help was distant, she instructed her daughter to employ their homeopathic first-aid kit: Aconite to address shock, sudden injury, or trauma, as well as arnica for physical injury. Two hours into the treatment, her wrist, which had doubled in size from swelling, was back to normal. The brain fog was gone.
“For the next week or so, if I had occasional pain in my joints, I would take Arnica,” Donka said. “I required no special treatment other than avoiding heavy lifting and long walks for a few days until all pains completely resolved.”
‘Introducing Homeopathy’ – A Documentary
Casey Garvin, who is featured as a patient in “Introducing Homeopathy” was told by her doctors that it would be likely impossible for her to conceive. Yet, newly married, she did not want to resign herself to that reality.Garvin saw homeopathy as a last resort against her thyroid disorder, extreme menstrual pains, and polycystic ovary syndrome. At the end of the film, she stated that “homeopathy should be first on the list [for others] to at least try,” as it “ended up being the best resort possible” for her.
Other featured cases included a military veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and Agent Orange exposure, a child who was treated for autism and epilepsy, as well as a young man with addiction problems. Homeopathy’s effectiveness in veterinary care was also featured.
Medical Professionals in Support of Homeopathy
Dr. Ronald Whitmont is one of the medical doctors and certified clinical homeopaths featured in the documentary. After becoming a doctor in 1988, his career took him to New York—the Hudson Valley—where he resides and practices now. Whitmont is also a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he served as a general medical officer, both domestically and overseas.
Whitmont grew up in a household that fostered what he calls a “lifelong interest in health and healing.”
“Medicine, healing, philosophy, religion, politics, and history were constant dinnertime conversations throughout my childhood,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
“At an early age, I believed that the knowledge base of medicine shouldn’t be restricted to the higher echelons of society, but that it should be part of the public domain, taught to everyone, and included in all educational curriculums.”
Whitmont practiced conventional medicine for more than 20 years before becoming a homeopathic physician. “I had found—with the exceptions of surgery, emergency medicine, and trauma care—that most medical treatments available to me and my patients were nothing more than a ‘band aid’ that temporarily ameliorated symptoms but left my patients sicker in the long run,” he said.
History of Homeopathy in the US
As homeopathy seems underrepresented in the United States, it appears that it simply never landed on the continent. This impression is wrong, according to Whitmont.“Homeopathy arrived in the United States in 1825 and traveled westward with the early settlers. In 1844 the American Institute of Homeopathy was founded in New York City, and three years later the American Medical Association (AMA) was founded with a charter to fight the spread of homeopathy (because it had become too popular, particularly because of its success in epidemic diseases like cholera and influenza),” Whitmont wrote.
Dozens of homeopathic medical schools, which included homeopathic hospitals, clinics, and psychiatric treatment centers existed in the United States at the turn of the 20th century.
The U.S. government even sanctioned the construction of a monument to honor the German doctor and founder of homeopathy Samuel Hahnemann. The only memorial dedicated to a physician in Washington D.C. was unveiled in 1900 by President William McKinley. It is now part of the National Park Service and stands on the east side of Scott Circle.
After studying as a physician, Hahnemann discovered that certain herbal remedies would generate symptoms of diseases themselves, but in much milder versions. He concluded that the same plant derivatives might cure the ailments they evoked.
Today, we know this as the principle of “similia similibus curantur,” meaning that if a substance can produce a reaction in healthy individuals, the same properties will treat similar symptoms in sick people.
However, competing forces were not kind to the “mild, large power,” as inscribed in Hahnemann’s memorial.
Whitmont wrote, “In 1910 Abraham Flexner published a report sponsored by the AMA, the Carnegie, and the Rockefeller Foundations meant to discredit all non-allopathic medical schools in the U.S.”
The government cut funding and school closures followed.
“This event marked the beginning of effective government lobbying by the health care industry, which is now one of the largest lobbying groups in the U.S., spending billions of dollars annually to control how healthcare dollars are spent and what research is funded,” Whitmont told The Epoch Times.
He would like to remind readers that “conventional medicine utilized as prescribed by the ‘standard of care’ is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. The routine use of homeopathy prescribed by a trained professional is not only extremely safe and satisfying, but it is also extremely health promoting.”
Scientific Research Around Homeopathy
Rachel Roberts, chief executive of the Homeopathy Research Institute in the UK, ran her own practice for more than a decade before turning to scientific research in the field full time. She is one of the professionals featured in “Introducing Homeopathy.”Roberts finds it important that people understand “that the claim made in certain circles that there is ‘no evidence’ homeopathy works is completely untrue. To date there have been ~300-400 randomised controlled trials testing homeopathic treatment using the same clinical trial methods used to test conventional medicine,” she told The Epoch Times in an email.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Roberts noted that most lawmakers have little to no understanding of homeopathy and often form their opinion on “typical inaccurate media articles saying there is no evidence homeopathy works.”
Roberts and the team at HRI frequently encounter “‘plausibility bias’ i.e., not accepting research which contradicts what you currently think is possible.”
She remembers a meeting with a professor who was also a critic of homeopathy. “[I showed him] a rigorous research study, published in a high calibre scientific journal, which concludes that homeopathy works better than placebo. When I asked his thoughts on the findings his answer was, ‘There must be something wrong with the study, because homeopathy is impossible.’”
A Call for Self-Education
Kim Elia, a clinical homeopathic practitioner for more than 38 years and adjunct faculty of the Academy of Homeopathy Education, spearheaded the idea of producing a documentary. He sees it as his duty to grow a “library of recorded interviews and presentations with today’s world-renowned homeopaths on a variety of timely and relevant topics.”
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Elia stated that he would like to “bring the homeopathic community together and to contribute to the training of effective practitioners who will bring homeopathic medicine forward into the mainstream.”
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