April 2, 2015 general

Well, I missed my chance to send a good April Fools’ Day email yesterday. I could have satirically announced that the American Medical Association and our government finally realized that non-toxic non-invasive natural remedies like nutritional therapies and homeopathy are much better first steps in healing most complaints (especially chronic conditions) than drugs and surgery. Then I would have said, “April Fools!”

As it turns out, there actually is a joke here, but a sick one headed in the opposite direction. As reported in this short GreenMedInfo.com article, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ) is suddenly interested in Homeopathy and has announced a public hearing. With limited seating and only 3 weeks’ notice (in government terms that is NO notice) which gives insufficient time to rally opposition, it smells like a kangaroo court. (…and one where the kangaroo pens have not been cleaned in a long time.)

Government seems to have a (perhaps willful) lack of understanding about and antipathy for complimentary therapies in general. Not long ago mainstream medicine ridiculed acupuncture mercilessly, but they did not go after it aggressively. Homeopathy seems to be a much more direct threat to the financial interest of pharmaceutical industry that controls medical practice, education and regulation in the US. The FDA threat to homeopathy seems menacing.

The agency’s “interest” was supposedly aroused because homeopathy has now become big business. That bothers me on the face of it. Homeopathy has been safely practiced for 200 years and regulated by the FDA for 40. FDA wasn’t concerned that a relatively small number of licensed practitioners used the homeopathic remedies. They apparently didn’t care about the many of us consumers, chiropractors, athletes and massage therapists that have long used Arnica Montana for strains and minor injuries or about the cosmetic surgeons who found it of benefit in reducing swelling and bruising. The FDA started to perk up when Zicam spray, Cold-EEZE lozenges and Oscillococcinum for colds and flu gained market share (because they work). Could it be that the growing use of homeopathy is now viewed as a sizable financial threat to the pharmaceutical industry that is the agency’s reason to be?

Never mind that homeopathy is routinely used in Europe, India and other countries and is often reimbursed by insurance and even government health plans—there is also science. On the radio show we recently talked about homeoprophylaxis, a well-studied safer alternative for vaccines. There are also clinical studies showing that this form of energy medicine works in other applications. Of course, those with no knowledge of energy medicine find it very easy to mock homeopathy because it isn’t based on the same principle as pharmaceutical drugs. Many of the critics have a financial interest in opposing homeopathy, but even if they are just mired in outdated dogma, do we want these myopic control freaks to foster regulations that limits our freedom of access?

The FDA has no incentive to listen to the public or to powerless alternative practitioners. However, Congress controls their funding, so we need to let our legislators know our feelings. Click here to find out who represents you in DC. Simply enter your zip code and it will show you pictures, facts and their addresses, including email.

In case you are not familiar with Homeopathy, remedies contain the energetic message of certain substances, but not the original toxic molecules. The signals they send to our cells actually work in a somewhat similar way to the immunizations of which orthodoxy is so fond. Here is a link to some basic information about the field. This link is to a very interesting book on the history of homeopathy and the celebrities (queens, athletes and movie stars) that use it.

Even if the critics were right (and they clearly are not) and homeopathics offered only a placebo effect, that is a powerful force. Consumers using homeopathy for everyday complaints are at least protected from the side effects of typically over-prescribed medication with chemicals that have never been found on the planet before. Obviously, we do want all types of remedies regulated to assure safety and prevent fraudulent practices. If FDA was doing that in a fair unbiased manner that recognized the benefits of homeopathy, I wouldn’t have a complaint.