response 1 of 37:

Dec 9 02:56 UTC 1995

Since I entered this item, I will start.  I recently had minor surgery to
remove some unwanted growths. A friend gave me some Arnuca and said it works
wonders to help you heal faster and with less complications.  Has anyone had
experience with this substance?

response 3 of 37:

Dec 9 22:26 UTC 1995

Right after I enterd this item, I realized I was being too general with the
term "homeopathy", and I also realized I spelled Arnica incorrectly.  I was
too tired to change the entry. But I also suspected strongly you, Rane would
get the topic to be more specific.  I am taking Arnica right now, and I would
put it into the category of a remedy.  I believe Homeopathic remedies are
natural substances which consist of a small amount of whatever is ailing an
individual.  For some reason, the small amount of the substance is supposed
to counter the negative effects to the body of the ailment.

Boy, can I use a GOOD counter-irritant in my life.  Right now, in the schools,
I have a lot of "irritants".  

Rane, what category would you put something like saw palmetto berries and
Zinc, now being used to counter enlarged prostates in men in lieu of
pharmacological agents like Proscar?

Also, what is Wolf's Bane?  Sounds like it might be interesting.

response 5 of 37:

Dec 10 19:56 UTC 1995

Rane, Rane, Rane, I am smiling but I am not sure you fully understand the
mind/matter connection involved in the healing process.  I Know psychotherapy
can work.  It doesn't always, depends on many factors including the skill of
the therapist and the mindset of the client (and probably the alignment of
the moon and stars. . .)  But this is also true of pharmocology and checmical
treatments.  I don't have the research literature to know if there have been
any controlled studies regarding herbal treatments of various ills, but there
is much anecdotal evidence for relief using the "medcine of plants".

The only place where we may be at odds here, is that you seem to debunk the
usefulness of homeopathy and herbal treatments in total, and I say, try it,
it may work.  And if it does, these kinds of relief are less intrusive then
most medical ones.

response 7 of 37:

Dec 10 20:18 UTC 1995

I oreder books from other libraries in the job I do at a library here whee
I live and alot of patrons are  asking forhomeopathic remedies and natural
cures.  I hear alot but some do not seem safe..of the "natural remedies"
One patron wanted to kknow how to tell a female aloe plant from a male  plant
because one of them you can ingest and one you use  topical.  Alot ofhte
remidies come from  mexico and old southern hill people.  My mother and
grandmother used to do those things and knows alot of old folk remedies as
they are called.
I never went to a doctor much at all till I fgot to be e a teenager and mom
used alot of  handed down remidies

response 9 of 37:

Dec 11 00:45 UTC 1995

Audrey misread me; Bret read me OK. One distinction I sought to make
is between the absence of active ingredients in homeopathic medicines
(because the "principle" is that the greater the dilution, the greater
the effect) and whatever placebo effect they may have (depending upon
the hype, the label, the shape of the bottle - what-have-you). Medicine
should seek to understand these effects as it would save resources to
cure those maladies that can be cured with "colored water" (and time).

response 11 of 37:

Dec 12 05:41 UTC 1995

i thought the same thing audery..very interesting isn't it?
most medicines started out as n natural a long time ago...not we use synthetic
too much.

response 13 of 37:

Dec 13 05:59 UTC 1995

 hi Bret..in what way is it possibly confused with  accupunture

response 15 of 37:

Dec 13 13:46 UTC 1995

Odakim - shooting you up with blanks amounts to accupuncture...

Scott - some do, some don't.  What they do do is induce immunity (most
commonly antibodies).

response 17 of 37:

Dec 19 13:51 UTC 1995

Item #35 in the Synthesis conference is about homeopathy.  Here's some 
text from it so you won't have to link the whole thing over:

#4 of 51: by kami landy (kami) on Thu, May 26, 1994 (15:48):
We use homeopathy quite a bit, especially for things that alopathic 
medicine tends to ignore or handle badly.  We've had mixed results, 
perhaps partly because the remedies tend to be quite fragile; they can be 
antidoted by such things as mint, coffee, eucalyptis, camphor, clove, and 
other strong aromatics.  

I don't think belief enters into the matter at all, since the appropriate 
remedy will have a fairly quick effect on a small baby or animal.  
Perhaps the hardest aspect of this sort of treatment, other than 
remembering to avoid mint, is finding the exactly right remedy; there 
seem to be many, for example, for different kinds of colds.  Of course, 
that's one of the things I like about this kind of treatment- it is more 
specific, more tailored, than "take two aspirins...".  

Our family doctor is a GP who practices both homeopathy and alopathic 
medicine.  I think his range of treatment is slightly limited by his 
medical training, that is, he tends to look at illnesses symptomatically 
rather than systemically but I do like the fact that he looks to a 
homeopathic solution before bringing out the big guns.  So far, neither 
boy has ever been given antibiotics.  

I haven't tried the flower remedies.  Tempted to, although they are a bit 
beyond my level of credulity.  I've used medicinal herbs a bit, and tend 
to look for dietary solutions to some problems, rather than using drugs.  

#18 of 51: by Michael Delizia (md) on Fri, Jun 17, 1994 (16:26):
The AMA's position is that the apparent success of homeopathy and 
other alternative medicines is due to the fact that most symptoms 
eventually go away without any treatment.  There was an article in 
a recent issue of Natural Health magazine by a man who had 
consulted a traditional physician for blood in his urine.  The 
doctor referred him to a urologist, who performed an expensive and 
painful series of invasive procedures, only to conclude that there 
was absolutely nothing wrong.  The man went home and a day later 
the hematuria went away by itself and never recurred.  The point of 
the article was to contrast the overkill of traditional medicine 
with the gentle and natural procedures of alternative medicine 
practitioners.  

This provoked an angry letter from a traditional physician who 
pointed out that hematuria is the presenting symptom of bladder 
cancer, and those expensive and painful tests *had* to be done in 
order to rule that out.  If the physician had adopted a wait-and-
see attitude and the patient had had bladder cancer, the patient 
(or his widow) would now be suing for malpractice, with good 
reason.  As it happens, he didn't have cancer.  If he had gone to 
an alternative medicine practitioner and had taken some homeopathic 
preparation for a few days and the hematuria had gone away, as it 
in fact did, the patient would now be singing the praises of 
homepathy for "curing" his nonexistent bladder problem.  *All* 
homeopathic cures, says the AMA, are in this category.  

#19 of 51: by M. T. Anslin (mta) on Sat, Jun 18, 1994 (19:54):

They say that until their pharmacological researchers "discover" a remedy 
and develop a way to make a fortune from it.  Then it's a "breakthrough 
in medical science brought to you by Eli Lilly and the AMA" 

That isn't to say that homeopathy is incapable of attracting charletans 
or that the placebo effect has nothing to do with why some remedies work 
--but I find the cynical, patronizing attitude of MDieties most 
infuriating!  

#20 of 51: by kami landy (kami) on Sun, Jun 19, 1994 (12:45):
One of the things I like about homeopathy is it's specificity.  If I 
offer my boys a remedy and it's the right one, they'll take it quite 
willingly.  Now, mind you, all the bottles look alike and they certainly 
can't read the labels.  They also seem to work very fast, at least in the 
case of Chamomile for the baby and stuff like that.  On the other hand, 
there have certainly been plenty of inconclusive or ineffective uses of 
remedies, especially for Michael and me, and I don't know if it's because 
a.) I've antidoted the remedy by accident, b.)I picked the wrong remedy 
or c.)homeopathy is the wrong treatment modality for that particular 
problem.  

#21 of 51: by Terrie Burley (keman) on Sun, Jul 17, 1994 (18:08):
I think that just buying those homeopathic remedies found in stores is 
not enough.  Only a trained homeopath can make an accurate recommendation 
for using this type of treatment.  The way I understand it, this is a 
*holistic* treatment and the "symptom names on the bottles may not be 
completely accu-rate for the *whole* problem.  I also understand that 
these initial confer-ences can be a little expensive, but the homeopath 
need only meet with you once to make the diagnosis (unlike Western 
doctors who can find reasons to require several return visits).  Of 
course, I did find out most of this information from my "Quack" 
chiropractor.  All I know is that I would like to at least try homeopathy 
to deal with an ongoing arthritis problem.  

#22 of 51: by kami landy (kami) on Mon, Jul 18, 1994 (14:09):
Hi Terrie!  We finally get to meet you.  Welcome!  Hm, one of the things 
I like about homeopathy is that it's fairly safe and easy (?) to take 
more control of treatment at home.  The single-substance remedies sold in 
stores are the same as you'd get from  homeopath, and they often refer to 
the same books that one can get to keep at home.  Certainly, the blurb on 
a bottle doesn't give the whole picture, but with practice one can get 
the hang of using emotional, environmental, and other symptoms to clarify 
the physical ones in choosing a remedy.  It also helps to take a class or 
workshop or join a study group.  If you have a chance to come into Ann 
Arbor before you go away, do look up Branwen Gates.  A really neat woman, 
British trained homeopath, with a really pragmatic approach.  She might 
have some good suggestions to get you started.  

#25 of 51: by Michael Delizia (md) on Wed, Jul 20, 1994 (14:16):
I wondered just how small a homeopathic dose might be, so I read 
up on it.  If you look at the labels on the bottles of 
homeopathic medicines, you'll see that they use the symbols "3x," 
"4x," etc.  The manufacturer will mix one part of, say, arsenic 
with nine parts water.  That would be a 1x mixture.  Then they'd 
mix one part of that mixture with nine parts water to get a 2x 
mixture.  One part 2x to nine parts water equals 3x.  And so on.  

An actual formula for one commercially produced remedy contains 
the following:  Alfalfa 3x, Arsenicum album 12x, Echinacea 
angustafolia 3x, Phosphoricm acidum 6x, Picricum acidum 12x, 
Ferrum phos 6x, Gelsemium 12x, Scutellaria 12x.  Something that 
says "Arsenicum album 12x" would be .000000000001 arsenic, or 1 
part per trillion.  I wonder what effect such an insignificant 
quantity of something can have.  Homeopaths will tell you that 
there is an actual physical cause-and-effect, as unlikely as that 
seems.  

#26 of 51: by becca price (becca) on Sun, Aug 28, 1994 (22:41):
for what it's worth, I once had a MD-type py hysician (local to AA - and 
shn all be nameless) who was into homeopathy.  He gave me a homeopathic 
remedy for a bad case of gingivitis - which served to make it worse, 
since the "remedy" was stinging nettle, and seemed to exacerbate the 
condition.  A few weeks later (this was sever a   al years ago) my 
parents sent me a plane ticket to come visit them, cause it had gotten so 
bad I couldn't eat or swllow.  One visit to the doctor for an antibiotic 
and topical  anaestheia, and I was cured in about 3 days.  sorry, but 
neveragain.  

response 19 of 37:

Dec 20 07:32 UTC 1995

Well...with traditional medicine your gun is more likely to be loaded...

response 21 of 37:

Dec 20 17:22 UTC 1995

Originally homeopathy referred to the use of treatments that created
analogous effects to the ailment - sort of a sympathetic cure, though
not based in any science. One branch of homeopathy, however, is that
"high dilution" (to the point of absence of ingredients) branch. I'm
not sure who is to say which of the former category is "homeopathic", or
not. That anti-sting stuff could be any number of soothing paliatives -
who says it is "homeopathic"? To be that, it would have to *cause* skin
irritation when applied to healthy skin. 

response 23 of 37:

Dec 20 22:56 UTC 1995

Yes, not no. We are saying (almost) the same thing. The term homeopathic
means of the same illness (pathology). So if some concoction was found
the cause the same symptoms as (say) cholera (like, an emetic), that was
prescribed. However this is a metaphysical concept, so the *dilution*
idea arose to keep the "essence" (metaphysics) without the negative
effects of the concoction itself. Your "homeopathic" ointments and gels
could be quite effective, because the vehicle may be a useful treatment,
even though the "homeopathy" is claimed for some other ingredient at
vanishingly low concentrations.