Page 6 - Summer 17

IAVH Newsletter
Dear Colleagues,
If you have been following the IAVH forum, which I strongly advise you to do, you may have read some of the interesting exchanges. There is much to learn from these exchanges. We all have different experiences in relation to homeopathy and it is important to share these experiences. Sharing is a way of empowering. Many of us practice away from colleagues with little possibilities to share and learn. The forum is a place, where we can make up for the lack of easy contact with likeminded colleagues, as much as are the Magazine and the Materia Medica project.
I did write previously that I would time and time again return to this subject: the need for all to participate in the exchange of information. It is not as much work as you may think: don’t wait for others to do so, dig out a successful case and share it with us. You may think the case has little interest: of course, for you it seems to have little interest but for many of your colleagues there will be something to be gained.
The sharing of experience is one of the ways to make sure homeopathy has a future: it is something we all have to participate in. It is also a way to give something back to the small group of people who keep the IAVH going. Your participation makes it worthwhile for us to keep putting our energy in the various activities of the IAVH.
To make sure we can offer interesting meetings, we have kept close links with the ECH (European homeopathic doctors) to jointly organise conferences. The next meeting will be in Sofia in November 2018: it will be a small congress of two days: 1 veterinary day and 1 mixed vets and doctors day. The theme of the mixed day will be integration of homeopathy into modern medicine.
Integration of homeopathy into modern medicine is a theme that can raise eyebrows with some. My view is that we always have to be able to work with our colleagues, even if they do not understand or are disinterested. Homeopathic medicine is efficient enough to deliver its beneficial effects, even when patients are under
(heavy) medication; it must be. If we were to have to use homeopathy in a little bubble this would be a sign of weakness. Homeopathy can show its effectiveness when it achieves better outcomes than expected, even when it did not cure.
Further, we have to approach our conventional colleagues with openness and willingness of cooperation. Some conventional practice/habits may well despair us but unless we help our colleagues to discover other ways in a spirit of collaboration, we reduce the chances for homeopathy to gain greater recognition. It is by gently convincing them that they will slowly accept that some of the ways of conventional medicine are not really in the interest of the patient.
The IAVH is continuing to grow and become more relevant in the world. Please all play your role and help us in any way you can. Also, tell everybody how enjoyable it is to use homeopathy and tell them about the little wonders we so often can achieve.
Edward
HRI Conference of Homeopathy Research Institute 2017, Malta Report by Dr. Petra Weiermayer
It was an amazing conference showing the reality, research in homeopathy faces today. It was disillusioning to hear, what problems researches face more and more, e.g. professors are told that they will loose their jobs, if they support research in homeopathy, trials declined from ethic committees in countries, where homeopathy is thought to be in a safe position, e.g. in Germany – just to name two examples.
So what to do and where to go with research in homeopathy? A panel discussion took place on this topic – well known researches from different research areas gave their point of view.
There are common statements:
1. The public has the strongest voice – so every single homeopath is asked to talk to his/her patients/patient owners to tell them the situation and ask them for support in order to be able to inform politicians about, what is going on with homeopathy at the moment! So that politicians raise their voice for homeopathy in order that we are able to do research in this promising field!
2. Basic research is needed to show/explain the mode of action, as this is the most commonly used argument – as long as the mode of action is not clarified, homeopathy is to be banned, sceptics state.
3. Clinical research including all kinds of study designs are needed to show homeopathy's efficacy/effectiveness.
Dr. Robert Mathie showed in his meta-analysis of ‘pragmatic’ randomised controlled trials in humans that individualised homeopathic treatment, used as adjunctive therapy, is significantly more effective than conventional therapy alone. Studies with homeopathy as adjunctive therapy give best results. Hence this kind
of research might be one way forward for research in homeopathy. Dr. Stephan Baumgartner showed highlights from 20 years of basic research in homeopathy. His five favourite models explaining the
mode of action of homeopathy are:
1. A bioactivity test – metamorphosis of Rana temporaria, meta-
analysis of 24 experiments, comparison of effects of Thyroxine 30x
to water 30x, reduction of metamorphosis detected in almost all trials 2. Biocrystallisation assay – results will soon be published by
Baumgartner et al
3. Mouse behaviour test published by Bellavite et al 2012 eCAM
4. Healthy duckweed bioassay published by Scherr 2007/2009 in
Homeopathy, by Majewesky 2014/2017 in Homeopathy & impaired
duckweed bioassay published by Jäger et al. 2010/2011
5. Nanosized solvent superstructures – great work by Demangeat
Dr. Alexander Tournier gave a great overview of physics and homeopathy. Dr. Michel Van Wassenhoven showed the results of the DynHOM project, which I already summarised. Many different study designs for clinical studies were shown – pragmatic trials (Prof.Michael Frass, Dr. Christien Klein), RCTs (Dr. Rajesh Shah, Dr. Emma Macías-Cortés), observational studies, prognostic factor research (Dr. Lex Rutten), trials within cohort design (Dr. Philippa Fibert) and much more. As can be seen, no studies on animals have been shown apart from one small study by Prof. Dr Cidéli Coelho, although human doctors where asking for high-quality studies in animals showing the effectiveness of homeopathy in our patients. One highlight was the “Just one drop’ film which was shown to the audience. It is a film showing:
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