As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. (Copy)

Healing Modality

Through pandemic, Indigenous creators film documentary about the parallels of homeopathy and traditional methods for holistic healing on Navajo Nation Donald Denetdeal is the primary consultant for the documentary on the Navajo holistic perspective of healing. | Jai Antonio

By Katherine Lewin

| September 29

Help keep local journalism fighting for you. Donate today to Friends of the Reporter.

As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. Its focus is even more relevant in today's modern pandemic life: the striking parallels between homeopathy and traditional Navajo healing practices and how homeopathy could be used as another mode of healing on the reservation.

Hózhóogo Iiná—Homeopathy for Indigenous America, directed and produced by Leahn Cox and funded by donations to GoFundMe and a John Pinto Grant from the New Mexico Film Office, is both a personal and professional endeavor.

Cox is a member of the Navajo Nation who grew up in Gallup, though she now lives and works in Santa Fe. Her upbringing as a Diné woman and her experience and education in homeopathy and other healing arts drove her to start the project, which she plans to screen in chapter houses across the Navajo Nation, as well as in Albuquerque and border towns.

"I definitely have had interest in bringing homeopathy and making it more available in places with limited access to these types of alternative resources, particularly now in the Navajo Nation," Cox tells SFR. "I have been trying to offer [homeopathy] where I live, where I'm from, and to family members. But there's so much confusion and so that's one reason the film, I think, could put it in terms of understanding it in the sense of talking about ancient Indigenous knowledge."

Read more

x

The GoFundMe has raised $2,475 of a $20,000 goal. The state grant named after a late Navajo senator gave the project $5,000, which has funded the bulk of the work. Cox aims to raise at least another $5,000 to pay for an animator for a portion of Hózhóogo Iiná. She also hopes to turn it into a larger project where she explores the use of homeopathy in other Indigenous communities across North America.

Germans developed homeopathic medicine over 200 years ago, and based it on two main premises: that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people and that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The medicines used in homeopathy come from plants, animals and minerals.

The fundamentals of homeopathy tie in neatly with Navajo traditional healing practices, Cox says.

"Homeopathy is about this vibrational signature of substances in the environment and you take it and inspire your own vitality to heal," Cox says. "So through ancient knowledge you have…this understanding there's an inner spirit form in our environment and that when you really understand that you use that knowledge for healing."

Cox interviews several people in Hózhóogo Iiná to get the connection across to viewers. Donald Denetdeal, one of the interviewees, is also the primary consultant for the project on the Navajo holistic perspective. Denetdeal is a retired professor of Navajo Studies from Diné College. In the documentary, he discusses the Navajo idea that an inner spirit existing within everything in nature is what's doing the healing, just as homeopathy recognizes an energy form in plants and other elements.

But Hózhóogo Iiná is about more than just the parallels between the two healing modalities, one formed many thousands of miles away and another here in the Southwest. The documentary intends to explore, in a practical way, the potential of the use of homeopathy on the Navajo Nation as well as to increase Indigenous peoples' interest in their own traditional healing.

"In this time of increasing health inequality and especially now, in quarantine, we have had to start thinking of utilizing the wisdom of our heritage when it comes to healing our communities," says project photographer and editor Dax Thomas, whose heritage is of Acoma and Laguna pueblos and who now lives and works in Laguna Pueblo.

"With homeopathy there is an inherent respect for nature and a holistic perspective that is certainly compatible with our traditional methods of healing. It could provide safe and effective solutions, especially in our rural areas where there are less options and a primary reliance on [Indian Health Service]. It supports self sufficiency—as we return to healing with nature around us—using
herbs, prayers."

As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. (Copy)

Healing Modality

Through pandemic, Indigenous creators film documentary about the parallels of homeopathy and traditional methods for holistic healing on Navajo Nation Donald Denetdeal is the primary consultant for the documentary on the Navajo holistic perspective of healing. | Jai Antonio

By Katherine Lewin

| September 29

Help keep local journalism fighting for you. Donate today to Friends of the Reporter.

As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. Its focus is even more relevant in today's modern pandemic life: the striking parallels between homeopathy and traditional Navajo healing practices and how homeopathy could be used as another mode of healing on the reservation.

Hózhóogo Iiná—Homeopathy for Indigenous America, directed and produced by Leahn Cox and funded by donations to GoFundMe and a John Pinto Grant from the New Mexico Film Office, is both a personal and professional endeavor.

Cox is a member of the Navajo Nation who grew up in Gallup, though she now lives and works in Santa Fe. Her upbringing as a Diné woman and her experience and education in homeopathy and other healing arts drove her to start the project, which she plans to screen in chapter houses across the Navajo Nation, as well as in Albuquerque and border towns.

"I definitely have had interest in bringing homeopathy and making it more available in places with limited access to these types of alternative resources, particularly now in the Navajo Nation," Cox tells SFR. "I have been trying to offer [homeopathy] where I live, where I'm from, and to family members. But there's so much confusion and so that's one reason the film, I think, could put it in terms of understanding it in the sense of talking about ancient Indigenous knowledge."

Read more

x

The GoFundMe has raised $2,475 of a $20,000 goal. The state grant named after a late Navajo senator gave the project $5,000, which has funded the bulk of the work. Cox aims to raise at least another $5,000 to pay for an animator for a portion of Hózhóogo Iiná. She also hopes to turn it into a larger project where she explores the use of homeopathy in other Indigenous communities across North America.

Germans developed homeopathic medicine over 200 years ago, and based it on two main premises: that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people and that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The medicines used in homeopathy come from plants, animals and minerals.

The fundamentals of homeopathy tie in neatly with Navajo traditional healing practices, Cox says.

"Homeopathy is about this vibrational signature of substances in the environment and you take it and inspire your own vitality to heal," Cox says. "So through ancient knowledge you have…this understanding there's an inner spirit form in our environment and that when you really understand that you use that knowledge for healing."

Cox interviews several people in Hózhóogo Iiná to get the connection across to viewers. Donald Denetdeal, one of the interviewees, is also the primary consultant for the project on the Navajo holistic perspective. Denetdeal is a retired professor of Navajo Studies from Diné College. In the documentary, he discusses the Navajo idea that an inner spirit existing within everything in nature is what's doing the healing, just as homeopathy recognizes an energy form in plants and other elements.

But Hózhóogo Iiná is about more than just the parallels between the two healing modalities, one formed many thousands of miles away and another here in the Southwest. The documentary intends to explore, in a practical way, the potential of the use of homeopathy on the Navajo Nation as well as to increase Indigenous peoples' interest in their own traditional healing.

"In this time of increasing health inequality and especially now, in quarantine, we have had to start thinking of utilizing the wisdom of our heritage when it comes to healing our communities," says project photographer and editor Dax Thomas, whose heritage is of Acoma and Laguna pueblos and who now lives and works in Laguna Pueblo.

"With homeopathy there is an inherent respect for nature and a holistic perspective that is certainly compatible with our traditional methods of healing. It could provide safe and effective solutions, especially in our rural areas where there are less options and a primary reliance on [Indian Health Service]. It supports self sufficiency—as we return to healing with nature around us—using
herbs, prayers."

Homeopathy combat against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) (Copy)

Z Gesundh Wiss. 2020 Jun 5 : 1–4.

doi: 10.1007/s10389-020-01305-z [Epub ahead of print]

PMCID: PMC7272237

PMID: 32837839

Homeopathy combat against coronavirus disease (Covid-19)

D. Kalliantas,1,2 M. Kallianta,3 and Ch. S. Karagianni1

Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer

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Abstract

Aim

Today, humanity is living through the third serious coronavirus outbreak in less than 20 years, following SARS in 2002–2003 and MERS in 2012. While the final cost on human lives and world economy remains unpredictable, the timely identification of a suitable treatment and the development of an effective vaccine remain a significant challenge and will still require time. The aim of this study is to show that the global collective effort to control the coronavirus pandemic (Covid 19) should also consider alternative therapeutic methods, and national health systems should quickly endorse the validity of proven homeopathic treatments in this war against coronavirus disease.

Subject and methods

With the help of mathematics, we will show that the fundamental therapeutic law on which homeopathy is founded can be proved.

Results

The mathematical proof of the law of similarity justifies perfectly the use of ultra - high diluted succussed solution products as major tools in the daily practices of homeopathy.

Conclusion

It is now time to end prejudice and adopt in this fight against Covid-19 alternative therapeutic techniques and practices that historically have proven effective in corresponding situations.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Covid-19, Infectious disease, Laws, Homeopathy, Pneumonia

Introduction

On the 29th of December 2019 a number of cases with unknown origin pneumonia were admitted to the hospital of Wuhan, in China. This was caused by a novel betacoronavirus, named as coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (Shajeea et al. 2020; Huang et al. 2020). It is an acute infectious disease mainly impacting the respiratory system, which has been found for the first time in human beings (WHO 2020).

Symptoms of Covid-19 are similar to other viral upper respiratory illnesses. Three major severity level phases characterize the coronavirus disease: a mild phase with upper respiratory symptoms, non-severe pneumonia, and severe pneumonia complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The main systemic and respiratory symptoms caused by Covid-19 infection are dependent on the age of the patient and the status of the patient’s immune system (Wang et al. 2020a, b, c). The main systemic disorders are fever, cough, fatigue, sputum production, headache, haemoptysis, acute cardiac injuries, hypoxemia, dyspnoea, lymphopenia, and diarrhea. On the other hand, the main respiratory disorders are rhinorrhoea, sneezing, sore throat, pneumonia, ground-glass opacities, RNAaemia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (Hussin and Siddappa 2020). The novelty of the virus rests in its unpredictable strange behavior, although in the early stages of the infection it develops very slowly and behaves like the common viruses; if it finds a weakened immune system, it proceeds severely fast, destroying the lungs, by creating pulmonary fibrosis. At this state the patient has a level of dyspnea as if he is drowning in water. At present, there are no specific antiviral drugs or vaccine against Covid-19 infection for potential therapy of humans. The only option available is using broad-spectrum antiviral drugs, HIV-protease inhibitors that could attenuate virus infection and chloroquine, which has been shown to control the 2019-n Co V infection in vitro (Lu 2020; Chen et al. 2020; Wang et al. 2020a, b, c; Toots et al. 2019). Anti-inflammatory drugs (such as hormones and other molecules), as well as Chinese traditional medicines, such as ShuFengJieDu capsules and Lianhuaqingwen capsules, have also been used (Ji et al. 2020; Ding et al. 2017). All of the drug options come from experience in treating SARS, MERS, or some other new influenza viruses previously, and are aiming to address active symptoms. These drugs above may prove helpful, but their efficacy needs to be further confirmed. The research methodology with regard to traditional or other medicines which are needed in this pandemic is mentioned by others (Lu 2020; Wang et al. 2020a, b, c; Zhang et al. 2020).

In our present work, we will focus upon the logical structure and benefits of homeopathy as a therapeutic system suitable to cope with this pandemic.

Methods

With the help of mathematics, we will show that the fundamental therapeutic law on which homeopathy is founded can be proved.

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Results and discussion

Homeopathy is a natural therapy method and an experimental science. It exploits a main property of nature, that of self-similarity on a change of scale. The term self-similarity is used to show that similarity between the disease and the substantces which under the same conditions present similar behavior must be full and lead to a mathematical identity.

Homeopathy, as a healing method, is based on the Hippocratic ΄΄Similia Similibus Curentur΄΄ therapeutic law. The physician relies on the wholeness of symptoms revealed during the entire evolution of the infection, and prescribes an ultra - high diluted succussed solution product which has been proven to heal similar conditions. This is a great advantage in this timing while Covid-19 disease is in rapid devemopment, because the diagnosis of the indicated ultra-high diluted succussed solution product is based on individual symptoms (if these are very characteristic) or on the totality of symptoms, and not in the pathology.

Established medicine has to wait until the cause for the pathology is found, whereas in homeopathy we take into consideration the response of the organism to the causative factor (the totality of the symptoms) in order to start the treatment. Therefore, the intervention can be immediate and very helpful for the patient.

The totality of symptoms for each patient become the guiding signs for finding the indicated remedy. In that way we can prescribe an ultra high - diluted succussed solution product with the first manifestation of symptoms, preventing the full development of the pathology. Let us not forget that the basic principle is that there are not diseases but patients, and that every patient is a special case. Homeopathic ultra - high diluted succussed medicinal products which are used as remedies come from nature (of plant, animal, mineral nosode origin etc.), naturally manufactured (trituration, dilution, succussion) and with an infinite storage time. They present reverse self-similarity properties with almost all known diseases. Also, as we have demonstrated in our previous work, the physical features — size and granularity — of solid raw starting materials to prepare these ultra high diluted succussed solution products are strongly affected by trituration in lactose, before turning them into homeopathic solutions, and in the final triturated step the materials are transformed into micro/nano scale (Kalliantas et al. 2018; Kalliantas et al. 2017). The validation of the Hippocratic idea that a substance which may cause symptoms to a healthy person can also cure these symptoms was carried out for the first time by S. Hahnemann with Cortex Peruvian fever tree bark. He called this work “drug proving” and he was the first to lay the foundations of the experimental medicine long before the birth of Claude Bernard (Kalliantas 2008).

Let us see how this reasoning–practice can be depicted on a mathematical level theoretically. The value of this footprint helps the logic of documentation–foundation that runs through homeopathy. Let E and E’ be the patient and the prover (a healthy person on whom a homeopathic remedy is tested for effectiveness) respectively.

Patient E.

A = Dynamic operator of the pathogenic cause.

χi = Symptom or symptoms of physical disease which correspond to the alterations of the biochemical kinetics of the organism after the action of A.

χ0 = the normal biochemical kinetics of the organism.

The term “operator” means a symbol, which, when being applied to a function, is transformed into another.

Prover E’.

C = Dynamic operator of the under-examination pathogenic substance.

x′ι

= Symptom or symptoms of the prover which correspond to alterations of the biochemical kinetics of the organism after the action of C.

χ′0

= the normal biochemical kinetics of the prover.

According to the above statement, the patient, before becoming ill, was healthy, and a pathogenic cause had an effect on him. The action of A upon E gives us symptoms. Therefore, it could be said that the symptom or symptoms are the result of the action A and its development on x0 of E. Then, it could be considered that:

xi=Ax0.

1

Here A can be considered to transform x0 into xi (disturbed metabolism). Similarly, if

x′ι

is the same symptom or symptoms in the prover as those of the patient, then this is a result of the C’s action, which is the dynamics of the under-examination pathogenic substance inχ′0, which is the normal biochemical kinetics of the prover.

Then we have

xi′=Cx0′

2

Here C again can be considered to transform x′0 into x′i. Since the patient and the prover are human beings with similar functions (there are no identical organisms), the relationship which connects their biochemical kinetics can take place with the help of an operator, such as B.

Then we have

xi′=Bxi

3

x0′=Bx0

4

Therefore

xi′=Cx0′

2

So (3)

⇒(1)x′i=BAx0

5

From (4)

⇒x′0=Bx0⇒x0=B−1x′0

6

and (5)

⇒x′i=(BAB−1)x′0

and

x′i=Cx′0x′i=(BAB−1)x′0}=>Cx′0=(BAB−1)x′0C=BAB−1

It can be observed that the “operators” C and A which correspondingly represent the dynamics of the pathogenic substance and the dynamics of the pathogenic factor are interrelated with an affine transformation.

The operator B is used to connect two biochemical kinetics, the patient and the prover, in an equality relationship. It could also be noticed that in the equation of operators C = BAB−1, B is presented as the product of itself with its opposite.

Homeopathy is an individualized system of therapy, therefore there is no possibility that one remedy will cure all cases of a specific pathology. However, from the afore-mentioned symptoms, both respiratory and systemic, professional homeopathic physicians could use homeopathic ultra - high diluted succussed solution products in the early stages of pathology such as Aconitum napellus or Arcenicum Album or Eupatorium perfoliatum or Gelsemium or Ipecacuana, in the later stages Bryonia or Phosphorus as the main drugs, and in the final stages Antimonium Tartaricum or Baptisia or Camphor Officinalis. (Vithoulkas 1997; Ghegas 2000; Allen 1995; Boericke 1990; Schroyens 1993). All the ultra - high diluted succussed solution product doses can be given to patients in 200c or 1 M potencies without using any other medications.

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Conclusion

Today, it is imperative that ever-safe medicinal products such as homeopathic ultra - high diluted succussed solutions are tested in this pandemic. Epidemiological research has to be carried out to include homeopathic treatment and compare it to established treatments. Patients should be assigned randomly in two different groups of at least 200–400 individuals, and receive respectively established and homeopathic treatment. The evaluation of the results from both groups could reveal which group has a superior outcome in survival, general health conditions, etc., and to what extent.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to this research and its publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7272237/

Footnotes

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Indian Authorities Propose Use of Homeopathy to Prevent Coronavirus (Copy)

Critics of the practice say the guidance is irresponsible and could give users a false sense of security.

Alakananda Dasgupta

Feb 7, 2020

730

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, VGAJIC

The Indian government’s Ministry of AYUSH, which promotes alternative medicine systems in the country, released a health advisory on January 29 that advocates the use of homeopathy and traditional remedies, such as Indian systems of medicine, to ward off infections of the newly circulating 2019-nCoV coronavirus. This includes the use of a homeopathic preparation called Arsenicum album 30C and two drops of sesame oil in each nostril each morning for prevention, and Unani medicines (treatments based on the teachings of Hippocrates and Galen) to mitigate symptoms of coronavirus infection. While AYUSH cites centuries of practitioners’ experiences with these products as evidence behind its advice, the media and the scientific community criticized the guidance as being counterproductive in dealing with a serious health emergency. 

“It is profoundly irresponsible of the Ministry of AYUSH to endorse homeopathy as this entirely undermines public understanding of science and medicine, and elevates pseudoscience with potentially dangerous consequences,” says David Robert Grimes, an Irish science writer who has published research showing homeopathy to be ineffective, in an email to The Scientist. Grimes has argued that the proposed mechanisms of homeopathy are implausible when analyzed from a physical and chemical perspective, and says that it is not surprising, therefore, that the biological effects of homeopathy cannot be measured in large-scale clinical trials. 

To date, more than 31,000 people in more than two dozen countries have been infected with 2019-nCoV, including three confirmed cases in India. According to the World Health Organization, there is no intervention yet identified that can treat the virus, although a number of studies are underway to find therapeutics and develop a vaccine. 

Using homeopathy as an alternative therapy risks forfeiting effective causative or symptomatic treatments or—if such treatments are not available—creating a false sense of security.

—Edzard Ernst, University of Exeter

Until then, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the only way to prevent infection is to avoid contact with the virus and people who are sick, to wash your hands, and not touch your face. But the Central Council for Research In Homeopathy (CCRH) of the Ministry of AYUSH claims that there are other preventive options. 

Anil Khurana, who heads the CCRH, tells The Scientist that Arsenicum album 30C, a homeopathic solution prepared by diluting aqueous arsenic trioxide until little or no arsenic remains that is used in respiratory disorders and has been in widespread use for more than 220 years with a good safety record, was found to be an effective prophylactic during the swine flu epidemic in India in 2009. A study conducted by Robert Mathie of the British Homeopathic Association and his group, in collaboration with the CCRH, reported in Homeopathy that of the various homeopathic medicines given to patients with swine flu symptoms, Arsenicum album was most successful in reducing fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, and headache. There was no control arm. In another, placebo-controlled trial conducted by the CCRH, homeopathic medicines were also found to reduce flu-like symptoms. 

These results led the CCRH to look to possible homeopathic interventions against the new coronavirus. Before any 2019-nCoV infections had turned up in India, scientists at CCRH collated the clinical features of a recent cluster of cases in China that was published in The Lancet on January 24, which they fed into a tool called the homeopathic repertory. The repertory is a database of historic texts on homeopathy, and when practitioners enter symptoms, the tool fetches the texts’ recommendations on which medicine needs to be given. “Every time we repertorize a patient, we are pretty much consulting all these generations of homeopaths that have contributed to this database,” says Bernado Merizalde, a homeopathy practitioner at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the prime general secretary of Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, a homeopathic doctors’ association. By matching the clinical features, the repertory found Arsenicum album 30C to be a suitable fit for the current outbreak. 

See “Where Coronaviruses Come From”

The basic premise of homeopathy is that a medicine that produces a set of symptoms when given to a healthy person under controlled settings can be prescribed in a highly diluted form to a diseased person with those same symptoms, explains Kushal Banerjee, a homeopathic physician based in New Delhi. This is what is known as Similia similibus curentur in homeopathic parlance, a Latin phrase that means “like cures like.” Kalyan Banerjee, Kushal’s father and a renowned homeopathic practitioner, says that by boosting the immune system of the body, Arsenicum album can potentially reduce the virulence of the coronavirus, thereby tempering disease intensity.

“We don’t claim 100 percent protection with Arsenicum album. Just taking the medicine will not work,” says Khurana. “All general measures for airborne infections have to be taken.” He further adds that if people get infected, they should promptly seek medical care.

Such caveats do not assuage the concerns of homeopathy’s detractors, who say there is no rigorous scientific evidence to indicate homeopathic remedies can prevent coronavirus infection or mitigate symptoms. “The claim of some homeopaths that homeopathic remedies are effective in treating or preventing coronavirus infections is not based on any evidence at all,” Edzard Ernst, an emeritus professor at the University of Exeter in the UK and a critic of homeopathy, tells The Scientist in an email. Ernst points to a study that found no difference between Arsenicum album and a placebo in preventing fever after vaccination. Other studies in which homeopathy was found to be ineffective include one on acute respiratory tract infections, another on middle ear infections, and yet another on influenza-like illness.

“Using homeopathy as an alternative therapy risks forfeiting effective causative or symptomatic treatments or—if such treatments are not available—creating a false sense of security,” says Ernst. “In any case, it would be a waste of resources.”

See “Scientists Scrutinize New Coronavirus Genome for Answers”

Even among proponents of homeopathy, there is disagreement about the best way to prevent the coronavirus. Mitchell Fleisher, the second vice president of the American Institute of Homeopathy, says that the Lancet article that scientists at CCRH used to come up with their advice does not provide enough information on symptoms to make an accurate homeopathic prescription.

He says that perhaps the best way to validate the therapeutic value of homeopathy would be to perform a comparative clinical outcome study of acute coronaviral infection by giving individualized homeopathic medicines to one experimental group and allopathic medicines to another, with a minimum of 250 patients in each group. “A careful and honest, statistical analysis of the study results will speak the scientific truth,” he says.

Countering Fleisher’s proposal, Grimes says that this is completely unethical. “Homeopathy has no plausible mechanism of action, and it is downright irresponsible to suggest it in a trial for a serious potential pandemic. Large scale studies of homeopathy have clearly shown over decades the same result—that it simply does not work,” he says.

Alakananda Dasgupta is a freelance science journalist and physician based in New Delhi, India. Follow her on Twitter @AlakanandaDasg1 or email her at alakanandadasgupta@gmail.com.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/indian-authorities-propose-use-of-homeopathy-to-prevent-coronavirus-67075

Dr. Bhatia on Covid 19 symptoms (Copy)

Dr. Bhatia recommends Bryonia alba 6CH or 30CH, as a prophylactic. It can be given (only to affected population) once a day, till days become warmer and the epidemic subsides (hopefully).

As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. (Copy)

Healing Modality

Through pandemic, Indigenous creators film documentary about the parallels of homeopathy and traditional methods for holistic healing on Navajo Nation Donald Denetdeal is the primary consultant for the documentary on the Navajo holistic perspective of healing. | Jai Antonio

By Katherine Lewin

| September 29

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As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. Its focus is even more relevant in today's modern pandemic life: the striking parallels between homeopathy and traditional Navajo healing practices and how homeopathy could be used as another mode of healing on the reservation.

Hózhóogo Iiná—Homeopathy for Indigenous America, directed and produced by Leahn Cox and funded by donations to GoFundMe and a John Pinto Grant from the New Mexico Film Office, is both a personal and professional endeavor.

Cox is a member of the Navajo Nation who grew up in Gallup, though she now lives and works in Santa Fe. Her upbringing as a Diné woman and her experience and education in homeopathy and other healing arts drove her to start the project, which she plans to screen in chapter houses across the Navajo Nation, as well as in Albuquerque and border towns.

"I definitely have had interest in bringing homeopathy and making it more available in places with limited access to these types of alternative resources, particularly now in the Navajo Nation," Cox tells SFR. "I have been trying to offer [homeopathy] where I live, where I'm from, and to family members. But there's so much confusion and so that's one reason the film, I think, could put it in terms of understanding it in the sense of talking about ancient Indigenous knowledge."

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The GoFundMe has raised $2,475 of a $20,000 goal. The state grant named after a late Navajo senator gave the project $5,000, which has funded the bulk of the work. Cox aims to raise at least another $5,000 to pay for an animator for a portion of Hózhóogo Iiná. She also hopes to turn it into a larger project where she explores the use of homeopathy in other Indigenous communities across North America.

Germans developed homeopathic medicine over 200 years ago, and based it on two main premises: that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people and that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The medicines used in homeopathy come from plants, animals and minerals.

The fundamentals of homeopathy tie in neatly with Navajo traditional healing practices, Cox says.

"Homeopathy is about this vibrational signature of substances in the environment and you take it and inspire your own vitality to heal," Cox says. "So through ancient knowledge you have…this understanding there's an inner spirit form in our environment and that when you really understand that you use that knowledge for healing."

Cox interviews several people in Hózhóogo Iiná to get the connection across to viewers. Donald Denetdeal, one of the interviewees, is also the primary consultant for the project on the Navajo holistic perspective. Denetdeal is a retired professor of Navajo Studies from Diné College. In the documentary, he discusses the Navajo idea that an inner spirit existing within everything in nature is what's doing the healing, just as homeopathy recognizes an energy form in plants and other elements.

But Hózhóogo Iiná is about more than just the parallels between the two healing modalities, one formed many thousands of miles away and another here in the Southwest. The documentary intends to explore, in a practical way, the potential of the use of homeopathy on the Navajo Nation as well as to increase Indigenous peoples' interest in their own traditional healing.

"In this time of increasing health inequality and especially now, in quarantine, we have had to start thinking of utilizing the wisdom of our heritage when it comes to healing our communities," says project photographer and editor Dax Thomas, whose heritage is of Acoma and Laguna pueblos and who now lives and works in Laguna Pueblo.

"With homeopathy there is an inherent respect for nature and a holistic perspective that is certainly compatible with our traditional methods of healing. It could provide safe and effective solutions, especially in our rural areas where there are less options and a primary reliance on [Indian Health Service]. It supports self sufficiency—as we return to healing with nature around us—using
herbs, prayers."

Dr. Bhatia on Covid 19 symptoms (Copy)

Dr. Bhatia recommends Bryonia alba 6CH or 30CH, as a prophylactic. It can be given (only to affected population) once a day, till days become warmer and the epidemic subsides (hopefully).

The Pandemic Tests Germany's Love Affair With Homeopathy (Copy)

BERLIN — As coronavirus continues to spread and doctors across the world scramble for an effective treatment, here in Germany we have some wonderful (some would say unbelievable news): The cure has been found.

The key, according to Germany's Hahnemann Society, is homeopathic medicine. "It has been shown that even the first seven days of the illness can be effectively treated," the organization's website announces triumphantly.

And the Hahnemann Society is not alone in vaunting the healing powers of homeopathy for COVID-19. Prominent Swiss doctor Jens Wurster claims to have used homeopathy to achieve "impressive treatment outcomes" for 70 patients, "both those with mild symptoms and severe cases."

The Locarno-based doctor has split opinion in German medicine. Before moving into COVID-19 treatment, he persuaded cancer patients to switch to homeopathic globules, earning himself a reputation among many as "an absolute charlatan," as oncology professor Jutta Hübner from Jena University Hospital succinctly puts it.

But Michaela Geiger, a doctor of integrated medicine and chair of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Physicians (GCAHP), sees things differently. "Just as mainstream medicine is still debating the best treatment, so is homeopathy," she says. Geiger sees Wurster's reports of healing through homeopathy "as a contribution to this ongoing exchange of experiences."

Homeopathy is the most popular alternative therapy in Germany. There are around 7,000 registered doctors in private practice who specialize in it, and half of Germans say that they have tried at least one homeopathic treatment, according to a survey by a homeopathic medicine manufacturer. Now the coronavirus pandemic has opened up a new, lucrative and almost boundless market.

Critics abound

In the early days of the virus, homeopaths in Germany held back. And at first, the GCHAP distanced itself from members who jumped on the opportunity to claim their globules had antiviral properties.

Since then, however, there has clearly been a change of heart. The Association is now calling for its members to document their homeopathic treatment of corona patients: "Against the current background of rising COVID-19 infections, with this project we can find out how homeopathy can contribute to treating COVID-19."

It wasn't long before scorn began pouring in from abroad. "German homeopaths launch a placebo offensive against corona," commented the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. "Scientists are tirelessly working to develop vaccines and treatments, and we hear again and again the sobering news that it will be a long wait before we have a vaccine. Meanwhile, German homeopaths are making reckless promises."

In Austria, homeopathy is generally regarded with suspicion, if not outright scorn. The Medical University of Vienna distanced itself from "charlatanism" and removed homeopathy from the syllabus.

In other countries too, the tide has turned against homeopaths. The French Ministry of Health has ruled out any health benefits from homeopathy, while the Spanish government classes it as "pseudoscience" that must be combated. And the European Academy of Sciences makes it clear that homeopathic treatments are no more effective than placebos. In the United States, homeopathic remedies on sale must display a clear label saying that they have no proven health benefits.

A piece of licorice has more medicinal content.

And in Germany? "In my view, it is completely irresponsible for doctors to treat COVID-19 patients using homeopathic methods," says Karl Lauterbach, a health expert with the Social Democratic Party. "The consequences for some patients could be deadly. Health insurance should not cover it and doctors should be forbidden from prescribing it."

Andrew Ullmann, a health expert with the Free Democratic Party, has a similar take. Patients should have to pay the cost of "these so-called therapies" themselves, he says. "For severe cases of COVID-19, my only recommendation is to see a qualified doctor."

In other countries too, the tide has turned against homeopaths. — Photo: Tampa Bay Times/ZUMAPRESS

Even Green Party members are distancing themselves from homeopathy. It should only be used as a complementary treatment, says Maria Klein-Schmeink, the party's health spokesperson.

A natural affinity

And yet, the fact remains that amid the confusion and fear of the pandemic, more and more people are turning to homeopathy. According to a survey by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, two thirds of Germans would support the use of homeopathic remedies in treating COVID-19. That is not representative of the rest of Europe, or the world.

"Most people confuse homeopathy with natural remedies or plant-based medicine. That's a misunderstanding, a result of false labeling, which is enabled in Germany because sugar pills can be labeled as medicine," says Christian Lübbers, an eye, nose and throat specialist and spokesperson for Information Network Homeopathy.

"Studies have shown that only 17% of people know what homeopathy really is. But it's so simple: homeopathy is not plant-based medicine. It is a placebo," he adds.

Christian Weymayr, spokesperson for the group Münsteraner Kreis, which takes a critical stance toward homeopathy, agrees. "A piece of licorice has more medicinal content than homeopathic globules," he says. "People don't realize that homeopathy is ineffective because most people with COVID-19 only have mild symptoms."

Kreis goes on to say that in a climate of fear, when there will be a long wait for a vaccine, there is a growing danger that people will believe in things that give them false comfort.

That may well be the case in Germany. Homeopathic remedies can only be bought in pharmacies and their packaging is labeled with information about risks and side effects. Many health insurance companies will pay for them. And doctors often present their additional qualifications in homeopathy as if they were of equal value to their training in emergency medicine or diabetes treatment.

Dubious claims

The practice of homeopathy is contentious, and its critics often voice their opposition with something akin to hatred. The same goes for backers of the practice. In his blog, German homeopathy lobbyist and PR advisor Christian J. Becker boasts about journalists who have been "hit by complaints to the German Press Council."

Becker relies on audacious claims about history to justify the use of homeopathic remedies in the treatment of coronavirus. He says that during the 19th-century cholera epidemic, 92% of sufferers could have been healed through homeopathy, and that during the Spanish Flu epidemic, only 1% of hospital patients treated with homeopathy died, while the figure for those who underwent conventional treatment was 30%.

Doctor and homeopath Wolfgang Springer follows a similar argument, claiming that the success of homeopathic treatments during the historical epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, scarlet fever and encephalitis has been well documented.

What they fail to mention — or perhaps don't realize — is that the apparent success of homeopathy during the cholera outbreak, when the father of homeopathy Samuel Hahnemann was active, was because it had one advantage: It protected weakened patients from the harmful treatments of the time.

Alternative medicine only seemed to be effective, in other words, because the standard treatment of bloodletting and laxatives finished off most patients. Hahnemann's treatment, in contrast, involved camphor and mineral water.

https://worldcrunch.com/coronavirus/the-pandemic-tests-germany39s-love-affair-with-homeopathy

Literature review of the in vitro and in vivo evidence for homeopathic medicines in the treatment or prevention of malaria

https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1016/j.homp.2015.12.047.pdf

https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1016/j.homp.2015.12.047

Literature review of the in vitro and in vivo evidence for homeopathic medicines in the treatment or prevention of malaria

Elena Cecchetto* Access Natural Healing Centre, Canada *

Correspondence: Elena Cecchetto, Access Natural Healing Centre, Canada. E-mail: el@accessnaturalhealing.com (E. Cecchetto)

Background: Malaria is a vector borne infectious disease that affects over 200 million people worldwide every year. Access to treatments on a large-scale is challenging due to the vast geographical and rural spread. Homeopaths have treated infectious disease throughout its 200+ year history however robust data on the efficacy and effectiveness of homeopathic treatments for malaria are lacking. Objectives: To explore the research that has been conducted regarding the use of homeopathy for malaria. Methods: A literature search was performed on the following databases: EBSCO,CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Humanities International Complete Medline with Full Text, Social Sciences Abstracts (H.W. Wilson) and Google Scholar. The search terms used were: “malaria and homeopathy” and “plasmodium and homeopathy”. Articles were deemed ‘relevant’ if the article discussed homeopathy in relation to malaria or anti-malarial properties, and/or if they indicated treatment decisions. Results: Three studies were deemed relevant in this search. Rajan and Bagai studied an in vitro culture, Bagai, Rajan, and Kaur explored an in vivo test and the State Health Resource Centre in Chhattisgarh explored the distribution of a homeopathic intervention to almost 100,000 people. Conclusions: There is minimal data examining homeopathic treatments in the treatment and prevention of malaria. The few studies have shown some interesting findings and further research is needed to discern details such as an ideal choice of potency and ideal amount of remedy repetition for optimal results in this population. Keywords: Homeopathy, Homeoprophylaxis, Malaria, Plasmodium, anti-malarial, China, China sulph Ratio