News and Commentary

Welcome to the News page of the IAVH website. Below we list various news items, whether positive or negative. When unfavorable news surfaces about homeopathy, we provide commentary about these reports, as often these arise from biased sources without clear understanding of homeopathic science. Articles are more or less in reverse chronological order (recent at the top). Thank you for taking the time to read these.

Don't forget to breathe today, and be thankful for things in your world which bring you joy.

I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that itself creates new potential.

—Dr. Vandana Shiva, physicist and brilliant, visionary, and ardent voice for women, people in general, organic farming, and all of the traditional ways humans have lived healthily and sustainably on this home planet we all share. Listen to her interviews, read her work.

Renowned Homeopath Dr. Rajan Sankaran of India speaks about homeopathic and conventional medicine

In this short youtube clip, Dr. Sankaran addresses some of the differences between homeopathic medicine and the conventional model, without criticising either method. In fact, as he said so nicely, just because one model is right, this does not mean the other model is wrong. They can and do exist side-by-side. Sometimes we forget this on both sides of this discussion.


IAVH Annual Congress, Bogotá, Colombia

The IAVH held it's first congress in South America on October 18th and 19th, 2019! IAVH board member Dra. Marcela Muñoz of Colombia organized a great conference. Please see our Calendar or the link below for more information. The congress was a resounding success. IAVH board members shared our experience and presented cases and homeopathic knowledge, and our South American colleagues did the same. We were very impressed with the level and amount of homeopathy practiced in Colombia and elsewhere in South America and it was great to connect with like-minded colleagues.

Warm thanks to all who participated.

https://congresoiavhcolombia.com/


Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) finally release the first, positive report they produced on homeopathic medicine.

Following four years of public pressure and an Ombudsman investigation, Australia's NHMRC have released the first report they produced, which concluded that there is good evidence for homeopathic medicine's effectiveness in some conditions, according to research studies. This 2012 report was suppressed, and a second report, published in 2015, was produced using criteria to obtain a negative outcome.

Finally the CEO of NHMRC agreed to release the report. She also admitted that the first report “did not conclude that homeopathy was ineffective," in contrast to media reports and even the first report.

Public pressure and a spotlight upon the NHMRC have succeeded in beginning to force the emergence of some truth despite the current fashionable trend to criticise homeopathic medicine as being ineffective, despite many solid research studies which prove otherwise.

We offer congratulations to the hardworking and persistent people at releasethefirstreport.com for standing up for truth in medicine.

Scroll down for further information on the second report and its problems.

See also the following websites for more information on the release of the first report:

https://www.hri-research.org/2019/08/hri-statement-on-release-of-first-report-by-nhmrc/

https://releasethefirstreport.com/public-pressure-forces-nhmrc-to-publish-buried-first-report-on-homeopathy


Homeopathic Education in Iran

Former IAVH president Peter Gregory will be presenting in Iran in December 2019!

There will also be a webinar on Homeopathy for Plants, which should be very interesting.

See the fliers below for more information.


New Video on our Research Page about the Material Basis of Homeopathic Medicines

Dr. Jayesh Bellare, of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, shows how he and his colleagues studied homeopathic medicines using modern nanotechnology research methods. Dr. Bellare is a scientist and not a medical doctor, nor a homeopath. He was surprised by the results, which shows that nanoparticles of the original substance persist even in high dilutions, when prepared using homeopathic methods. The concentration of these nanoparticles did not diminish once they went beyond about 5C (1010)!

See the video here (click Dr. Bellare's name at the right and then you'll see the video at the top): Dr. Jayesh Bellare

New Veterinary Materia Medica of less common Homeopathic medicines in Spanish by IAVH colleague Dra Gonzaga

Peruvian IAVH member Cinty Gonzaga last year published a book on some homeopathic remedies which are less frequently used in animals. The book is in Spanish. See Dra Gonzaga's blog:

Veterinaria Dra Gonzaga


Mani Norland on the Australian NHMRC report

The report by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) used several techniques to bias the finding against the science of homeopathy. This youtube video covers some of these biases. See also the report entitled Marginalising Homeopathy: an Australian case study, on our research page.


The Scientific Background of Current Homeopathy Debates

See this new article at the Carstens Stiftung website. Dr. Jens Behnke explains the conundrum about the evidence for homeopathy, research methodology and the interpretation of data from clinical trials.Dr. Behnke shows that the evidence is there, but that there is so much plausibility bias against homeopathy that those who analyse such studies often bias their conclusions upon the basis that they cannot understand the mechanism. As Dr. Behnke says, this is in direct opposition to the scientific method. Click the link below to go to the article. 

https://www.carstens-stiftung.de/artikel/the-scientific-background-of-current-homeopathy-debates.html

Here we go again...

It’s amazing in a way. Homeopathy is one of the older medical disciplines, going back over two hundred years and with many thousands of patients cured and/or helped through two centuries of use in human as well as non-human animals. Additionally, many many studies have shown activity from homeopathic medications as well as successful outcomes of homeopathic treatment. Still critics repeat the same statements that there is no proof that this medicine works, despite evidence to the contrary. We can only guess at the reasons, but we can also provide contrasting information.

The following post, in response to a similar repeat of this "no evidence" mantra, is a good overview. See this link for the original: https://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e6184/rr/606486

See also our page on homeopathic research. IAVH Research Page — See especially the article "Marginalising homeopathy: an Australian case study," which describes in detail the techniques used to discredit homeopathic medicine. It's an interesting article and it is available as a pdf download on the research page. (scroll down a bit on the page for the list of articles for download)

Here is the post, by Dr. Christopher Johnson:

It is truly remarkable the level of ignorance involved in this debate, with critics of homeopathy showing their true love of mediocrity, conformism and brain-dead enforcement of orthodoxy (dogma) – with enthusiasm that would make an Inquisitor blush.

Would be defenders of science and so-called ‘evidence-based medicine’ seem to have no problem whatsoever issuing criticisms of homeopathy which are completely and totally at variance with the actual data.

Somehow they don’t see the irony in calling homeopathy ‘unscientific’ even though the criticism is itself not based on any hard evidence. As Dr. Spense has rightfully pointed out, this is a very safe and conventional position – ‘everyone’ knows homeopathy is ‘just water’ and ‘just placebo’. The critics see no problem substituting conventional wisdom for facts – which is why if you peruse Dr. Spense’s article and the subsequent commentary, you will find almost no mention of material facts, just schoolyard slander.

The fact is, the weight of the evidence strongly favors homeopathic remedies being biological active agents.

Nearly all physico-chemical research – conducted by scientists of the very highest skill on earth, such as Rustum Roy and Jayesh Bellare – demonstrates physical properties of homeopathic remedies which are distinct from those of plain water or succussed/diluted water controls. None of the research is completely beyond reproach, but it is nevertheless quite strong and viewed as a whole becomes stronger.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17678814

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20970092

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17678812

The in vitro evidence is similarly strong – with a recent review finding that over 2/3 of all high quality studies demonstrate biological activity of homeopathic remedies. The same is true for nearly 3/4 of all replications.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17544864

The clinical evidence is less consistent, but this is because of the enormous heterogeneity of the literature – with many different types of homeopathy being studied, often by people who know nothing of homeopathy or lack the skills specific to the performance of homeopathic trials. Viewed as a whole, 41% of all RTC’s come to positive conclusions, while 52% are inconclusive; 7% are actually negative. These numbers correlate almost precisely with RCT’s of conventional medical therapies.

http://www.facultyofhomeopathy.org/research/

Systematic reviews have come to positive conclusions for, so far, the following conditions: allergies and upper respiratory infections, childhood diarrhea, influenza treatment, post-operative ileus, rheumatic diseases, seasonal allergic rhinitis, vertigo and most recently, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

 http://www.facultyofhomeopathy.org/research/systematic_reviews/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21733480

Homeopathic critics, if they cite any evidence, seem to universally cite only one study – the Shang, et al meta-analysis (Lancet, 2005). They may as well have referenced no data at all, since Shang is an abomination of science – failing nearly every conventional norm for high quality research (e.g. failing to meet multiple QUOROM criteria for systematic reviews) – and basing its conclusions on 8 out of 110 cherry picked trials. No sensitivity analysis was performed, but in subsequent independent assessment, literally every single other manner of assessing the data comes up positive for homeopathy. The 8 selected trials fail the ‘leave one out’ cross-validation test – take out the study looking at use of Arnica for soreness in marathon runners (a completely irrelevant research question with zero external validity) and the conclusions reverse dramatically (in favor of homeopathy). In other words, Shang is a sham. But clearly for critics it represents the pinnacle of research science since it supposedly ‘debunks’ homeopathy. No mention is ever made of all the other meta-analyses - which come to positive ends and are of far higher quality than Shang.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18834714

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19371564

The homeopathic literature is not without deficiencies, but to say homeopathy is nothing but placebo requires turning a blind eye to a large amount of data which, though not completely conclusive, certainly suggests otherwise. It is clear that those who issue boilerplate criticisms of homeopathy have not bothered to consider the entirety of the data. Intelligent people and true scientists should be embarrassed by this and most ‘discussions’ taking place about homeopathy in the British medical community – they are an affront to scientific principles of rationality and objectivity.

Competing interests: No competing interests

06 October 2012Christopher M Johnson
Naturopathic Doctor
Private Practice
4910 31st St S Suite A
Arlington, VA 22206
USA

See also this youtube video on The State of Research in Homeopathic Medicine and Understanding the Biological Basis for Homeopathic Remedy Response, by Drs. Peter Fisher and Iris Bell.

Click Here to see the video on our Research Page

More criticism of homeopathic medicine

And now, a "report" by EASAC, the European Academies Science Advisory Council, on Homeopathic Medicines and Products. More rehashing of the same slanted viewpoints. The British Homeopathic Association debunks the report. See the BHA response here: BHA response to the EASAC report.

And here is a response by the French organisation, SOCIÉTÉ SAVANTE D’HOMÉOPATHIE: La SSH response to the EASAC report.