Increasing Awareness of Homeopathy

According to the World Health Organisation, homeopathy is the second largest system of medicine (second to indigenous herbal medicine). Next week begins Homeopathy Awareness Week, so cue (at least on twitter) some most hilarious anti-homeopathy tweets.

Interestingly last time there was a big anti homeopathy piece on the BBC, I had a record number of enquiries that day, leading me to wonder whether people are doing what I thought I might, if I knew nothing about it but saw the vitriol, the negativity, and investigating below the surface, looking to find something that might work for them.

So next week, Wednesday 10th April, begins Homeopathy Awareness Week. Cue some hilarious sharing by our friends the denialists of, along with other things, their how does homeopathy work website (I'll save you the laughs and tell you their solo page says 'it doesn't'). Simple. Maybe even effective - if it wasn't so wrong. There'll be lots of fun made, lots of sharing of the word with negative tweets etc. But ultimately why?

If it's something that is nothing then why give it the energy?

If it's nothing then why try to ban it?

If it can really do something and needs banning then surely that's curious and we should look to the hundreds of research papers that exist and examine them. Because to no extent are they all supporting a negative point of view.

All that aside, what intrigues me is how effective homeopathy can be when you match the person and what's happening for them with a homeopathic medicine. How things can almost melt away. Sleep can improve, skin clears, negative thoughts go, optimism returns. IBS symptoms lift. Nausea and stomach pains go. Confidence increases. Headaches disappear. I don't want you for a second to think I get to do that straight away - it takes me time. Sometimes great on the first appointment, sometimes takes me to second - or later to really perceive the person so I can match them with a remedy to help. And, actually, it'd be wrong to say I can help everyone. But also show me one system of medicine that can. 

Take yesterday for example, I saw someone who I gave a remedy the first time, they had some improvements, we repeated it and nothing much changed. We changed the remedy and the improvements were so much the family forgot there were issues and didn't turn up to their next appointment. As Joe Schwartz points out in Ananda More's Magic Pills film, the homeopath then decides everyone is better and despite the fact the remedies never can help, the homeopath thinks they're a great person. 

That couldn't be further from the truth, my version of life is the opposite. Anyway, I got in touch to ask if they'd forgotten, and they apologised lots, we rearranged - and they told me they forgot as things were going so well. Which, ultimately was great to hear. And yes, homeopathy did good, I'm happy about that.

I'll aim to share some short mentions of how homeopathy has helped individuals during the week - that's an area I enjoy doing. If I'm totally honest the heavy scientific research element isn't for me. I love that it's happening, I enjoy hearing about it, but delving deep into studies when I see it working all around me isn't something that I'm keen to spend lots of time doing. I'm more than happy to direct people to various places - to the Homeopathy Research Institute (HRI) site, to the information on basic research in homeopathy by Iris Bell, PhD, to the collection of information recently compiled by Americans for Homeopathy choice.

​I'm fortunate to have attended two of the HRI's conferences and see the seriousness of the research, see the amazing potential if anyone decided to stop sticking their head in the sand and read it (clearly lots of people are but the loudest denialists seem convinced to stick to their story despite plenty of evidence to the contrary). I'd also recommend anyone goes to at least one of these events during their homeopathic career. The next one is in London in June. It's awe-inspiring, confirms that it certainly, damn well does work, and gives you plenty of awareness of the scope of projects happening around the world. If you have the chance, go.

One thing I am looking forward to next week is that the word homeopathy will be out there more in the media. I often ponder that if I were a reasonably intelligent person who knew nothing about homeopathy, I would become curious. Why so much vitriol? What is this all about? And I'd likely investigate beyond the bluff and actually stumble across something that could help me. I'm glad I did many years ago - when there were still people telling me it couldn't work and it wouldn't. It turned it out did and does.