Health – Homeopathic history and pandemics

Few may be aware that homeopathy was used extensively by doctors during pandemics in the past. I would imagine that most people would not realise that homeopathic hospitals were a reality either. Auckland even had its own homeopathic hospital in 1858. Of course, this was rather modest in comparison to the hospitals in the United States, which were seeing tens of thousands of patients a year.

With respect to pandemics, however, the Spanish flu was perhaps the best example of homeopathy’s results. Many reports show evidence of a death rate around one per cent of patients with the Spanish flu who were admitted to homeopathic hospitals. This is in stark contrast to the death rate in mainstream hospitals, which was up to 60 per cent. Unfortunately, homeopathy has always come under severe pressure from the pharmaceutical system. But this hasn’t always deterred homeopathic progress.

Constantine Herring was a medical doctor from Germany who was asked to expose homeopathy for its failings.

Herring rose to the challenge and began investigating. But he ended up experiencing the benefits of homeopathy when he contracted gangrene in his right forefinger. He refused amputation and instead tried homeopathy and subsequently made a full recovery. He was the pioneer of homeopathy in the US.

As pharmaceutical companies have grown, homeopathy has continued to succumb to pressure and attempts to stop it from being commercially available. One argument to the validity of homeopathy relates to claims that there is no good scientific research to support it. This is inaccurate as there are many excellent studies that have been completed. These seem to be ignored by the sceptics.

Perhaps the main struggle for the critics stems from the chemical composition of homeopathy. From a chemical perspective, a homeopathic remedy is incredibly diluted. So much so that the actual ‘active’ substance of the remedy in some cases may be undetectable by standard methods. Just being aware of this without further understanding can obviously lead someone to think that it must be ineffective.

However, homeopathy is not a system that has a chemical effect on the body, period! Homeopathic remedies work at an energetic level, much more comparative with acupuncture than anything chemical. Homeopathic remedies are made using a process that energises the liquid as it is subsequently diluted over many repetitions. This creates a type of electric charge, similar to how static electricity is made with friction.

Interestingly, homeopathy has been studied extensively in agriculture and horticulture. Many studies have shown its efficacy. One, in particular, shows it to be very effective for mastitis in dairy cows with a relatively quick effectiveness. I assume that the cows are unaware of the fact that they are being ‘treated’ so I would think that the placebo effect is not a factor.

Back to pandemics: I have already used homeopathy to assist a severe case of Covid-19 with very a very favourable outcome. It’s a shame that there is so much resistance.