Homeopathic Metals May Cure All Manner of Ailments
June 18, 2001 11:06 AM ET
By Karen Norton
LONDON (Reuters) - Before it emerged that Britain's Queen Elizabeth
fortifies herself before speeches with a cup of arsenic and onions in water to
prevent sneezing, many people may have been unaware of the heavy metal's
medicinal benefits.
But arsenic, best known as a handy poison in tales of murder and
sleuthing, is also one of the more commonly used remedies in homeopathy.
Homeopathy, seen either as a complement or alternative to orthodox
medicine, uses metals from across the Periodic Table and a whole range of other
substances from the plant and animal kingdoms. Its basic principle is that
"like cures like" -- if a substance produces certain symptoms in a healthy
individual it can treat those same symptoms.
Homeopathic remedies, normally administered in the form of pills,
are designed to kick-start the body's immune and defense systems and improve a
patient's overall health.
THE ROOTS OF HOMEOPATHY
German scientist Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of modern homeopathy
some 200 years ago, experimented with metals with a view to rendering safe
those used in conventional medicine. At that time mercury was used to treat
syphilis but, in its crude form, unfortunately killed the patient. Hahnemann
discovered that the more diluted the amount of mercury administered the more
effective it became in treating the disease.
As homeopathy developed, it grew to include arsenicum album (white
arsenic) among some 30 polycrests -- key remedies. Patients needing this remedy
can have symptoms resembling those of arsenic poisoning. They might be anxious
that someone is trying to poison them, or take money from them. They may be
restless or suffer from nausea and vomiting.
"There is a correlation between what a substance produces in its
crude state and what it cures in its homeopathic state," said Robert Lawrence,
Technical and Training Manager at UK-based Helios Pharmacy.
Homeopaths treat the whole patient -- on the mental, physical and
emotional level. Orthodox medicine (allopathy) tends to base prescriptions on
one or two specific symptoms and use drugs to block or prevent something from
happening in the body rather than curing it.
"Homoeopathic amounts are too small to interfere with biochemical
pathways," said Dr. Steven Kayne, Consultant Pharmacist at the Glasgow
Homeopathic Hospital and Pharmaceutical Dean of the Faculty of Homeopathy.
METALS NOT TOXIC
Meanwhile, the overuse and inappropriate prescription of
conventional medicine has meant that stronger and more toxic drugs are being
used to combat super-bugs and viruses, which have become resistant to less
powerful drugs.
"There is no toxicity (in homeopathic remedies) because there is
usually very little and sometimes none of the original substance," Lawrence
said.
In homeopathy the metal is ground down into a very fine particle
state before being taken into a liquid carrier and diluted further still. Kayne
noted molecules of the medicine can be found in low potencies below 12c (where
one drop is diluted in 100 drops 12 times in a row), but none can be detected
in those above 12c due to greater dilution.
With higher potencies Kayne said it could be assumed that there was
no toxicity. With lower potencies he said: "Clinical evidence suggests there is
not a problem, but theoretically there might be."
But he pointed out that arsenicum was frequently prescribed in low
potency 6c without any adverse side-effects other than the normal aggravations,
which indicated a remedy was working. Indeed, the problem for many critics is
that homeopathic medicines can be so diluted that there is nothing identifiable
in the final dose except water.
But Lawrence said they still contained a certain essence or dynamic
of the substance. "Logically it doesn't make sense, but even modern nuclear
physics doesn't make sense," he contested. "It depends on the mental modeling
you use."
OTHER METAL REMEDIES
Metals are used quite widely in homeopathy, usually in the form of
salts, but there is no common theme among them. With some metals, as with other
substances, their so-called characteristics can manifest themselves in a
patient, according to some homeopaths.
The "remedy picture" for aurum (gold), for example, can be for
those prone to severe depression. The type may be quite acquisitive and
powerful and need to be best at whatever they do (going for gold), but also
have a low opinion of themselves.
Such patients might be trading in the stock market, Lawrence said,
and the type to jump out of the window were share prices to plummet sharply.
Aside from this, aurum can also be used for a whole range of symptoms,
including mental exhaustion, digestive problems and heart and vascular
disorders.
But Lawrence added that it was by no means always the case that
prescribing was so straightforward. "It would be nice to have a convenient
schemata but it doesn't always work that way." Meanwhile, Kayne warned against
the dangers of self-treatment and stressed that prescribing of remedies was too
specialized and could only be done on an individual basis.
WORKING WITH ORTHODOX MEDICINE
Kayne said homeopathy and orthodox medicine can work in tandem and
that this approach was adopted by most health professionals. The Homeopathic
Hospital of Glasgow is run by the UK's National Health Service and there are
three such others in the country. Homeopathy has been part of the NHS since
1948.
Homeopathy's increased popularity in recent years is in part due to
a widespread and growing interest in all complementary or alternative
therapies. Kayne said this had been partly fueled in the UK by the Patients'
Charter, whereby individuals have the right to say how they want to be treated
and also through the Internet. He said hits on health care Web sites were
second only to those for pornographic sites.
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