They don't want you to know how good homeopathy is!
I am not allowed to tell you in any detail how good homeopathy is! And I thought you might want to know why this is.
Homeopathy is a medical therapy that has always attracted opposition, mainly from the vested interests of the Conventional Medical (or ConMed) Establishment of the day.
This criticism has never been more strident than it is today. Organisations like 'Sense about Science' (SAS), which is funded largely by the pharmaceutical drugs industry, is leading the assault in the UK. They constantly repeat the mantra, ‘there is no evidence that homeopathy works’, that it is ‘just placebo’. And they continue to do so, regardless of any, and all the evidence presented to them!
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) is now supporting this attack on homeopathy. It is working closely with the Nightingale Collaboration (NC), another organisation dedicated to attacking homeopathy (and other CAM therapy) websites. And at their behest, the ASA has told homeopathic practitioners that:
- homeopaths cannot say that homeopathy ‘heals’ illness
- homeopaths cannot say that homeopathy ‘cures’ disease
- homeopaths cannot say that homeopathy ‘treats’ conditions
Now, if homeopathy, as a medical therapy, had not been doing these things for over 200 years, there is little doubt that homeopathy, as a medical therapy, would no longer exist! And not would it deserve to.
Yet despite placing websites such as this under threat of prosecution, the ASA initially refused to meet with the major Homeopathic organisations to discuss the situation openly and sensibly.
The ASA says that whatever homeopaths do say about homeopathy it has to be supported by ‘good’ evidence. Nothing wrong with that. But the ASA seems already to have made up its mind about ‘the evidence for homeopathy’, and has taken a view entirely consistent with the 'anti-homeopathy' stance of SAS, NC, and the Conventional Medical Establishment. They are on record as saying:
“...to date the ASA has not seen robust scientific evidence to support claims that imply homeopathy is proven for treating any specific health condition”. Faculty of Homeopathy Newsletter April 2011.
The Evidence for Homeopathy
This is arrant nonsense. But it mirrors exactly what 'SAS, NC, their Pharmaceutical Company backers, and the ConMed Establishment as a whole, wants you to believe.
However, regardless of this attempt to gag homeopathy, this website is determined to outline the evidence supporting homeopathy. This evidence comes in three distinct forms.
1. Personal Testimony
The best evidence for the effectiveness and safety of any medical therapy, including homeopathy, is empirical evidence; that is, individual testimony, based on the outcome of those receiving treatment, that is, people who have used homeopathy, and can say: I was ill - I used homeopathy - and I got better (and got better safely).
The ASA is refusing to accept this kind of testimony.
They do so even though this is what most, if not all patients, are looking for in a medical therapy when they are ill, and wish for drug-free treatment!
2. The Homeopathic Materia Medica
The Homeopathic Materia Medica (HMM) is a vast body of information, built up by homeopathic practitioners over 200+ years. It concerns the symptom pictures of each and every homeopathic remedy, and the symptoms of ill-health for which they are used. The HMM is the homeopaths guide to selecting a remedy that will work effectively for an individual patient.
The ASA is not accepting this clinical evidence either!
3. Randomised Controlled Trials
Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are used by Pharmaceutical companies to provide the ‘evidence base’ for its drugs.
This is the type of evidence that the ASA is apparently looking for!
They look for this despite the fact that RCT evidence has demonstrably and consistently failed to prevent the marketing of pharmaceutical drugs that have subsequently proved to be ineffective, or dangerous to health, or both. A large number of ConMed drugs, eventually, have had to be withdrawn or banned over recent decades, despite being fully RCT tested
Homeopathy can boast, without contradiction, that it has never had to withdraw a single remedy because it has been found to be unsafe for patients.
Yet whilst this makes RCT evidence for homeopathy unnecessary, there is a growing body of RCT evidence that supports the effectiveness of homeopathy. There are now nearly 200 RCT's that have supported the use and value of homeopathy. The ASA has chosen to totally ignore, or to discount this evidence.
However, regardless of the ASA's unreasonable hostility to homeopathy, the purpose of this website is to provide you with access to the evidence supporting homeopathy - in the hope that this will allow you to make up your own mind. It is the evidence that has underpinned the success of homeopathy, for millions of people, throughout the world, for over 200 years.
Clearly, there are some people who do not want you to know just how good homeopathy is!