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The Lancets absurd story
(Part of this article was published in an interview
with The Times of India, Mumbai.)
Dear
friends:
Homoeopathy, two hundred years old,
however, the youngest of all current medical systems, has
faced many charges about its efficacy ever since its
birth. And, it has withstood all of them. Homoeopathy is
the second most widely accepted alternative medicine in
the world, practiced in over 80 countries. Homoeopathy has
been used as a treatment modality by people inclusive of
scientists, intellectuals and allopathic doctors.
The Lancet, an allopathic medical
journal has spun an intriguing story in the recent edition
suggesting that homoeopathy is not effective. The editor
has the audacity to ask the allopathic physicians to
instruct their patients against taking homoeopathic
medicines!
This news cannot be left unanswered,
as it is likely to leave lay people into confusion and
deprive them of the benefits of homoeopathy. As a
practitioner, researcher, teacher and promoter of
homoeopathy, I would like to submit my thoughts:
1.
The Lancet had published a comprehensive review of
homoeopathic research in its September 20, 1997 issue
which stated that the clinical effects of homoeopathic
medicines are 2.4 times more effective than placebo. (This
study was supported by analysis of 89 blinded, randomized,
placebo-controlled clinical trials.) Now, they come with a
contrary study. No justification has been given for this
careless contradiction, which obviously compels us to
question the authenticity of their studies.
2.
Detailed information on the nature of study has not
been given at all in the article.
3.
The team of researchers (eight of them)
which has produced the article does not have a single
homoeopathic doctor, which is most likely to lead to a
biased study.
4. The homoeopathic prescribing calls for a specially
designed protocol to be able to select the correct remedy.
No information has been given on inclusion of such a
criterion.
5. Homoeopathy, like any other system, has strength in
treating certain diseases and limitation while treating
other diseases. The Lancet study has been made on the
diseases which included surgical and
anesthesiological conditions, where homoeopathy has no
role to play, any way! The very selection of the diseases
was faulty.
6. It is well known that vested
interests from pharmaceutical lobbies often govern such
reports.
7. It is also a fact that such a news
can increase sale of the article made available on the
Lancet web site for US$ 30! Thousands of patients world
over are likely to buy the article.
Major reason why homoeopathy has been subjected to
debate, time and again is that there is no enough insight
into how the medicines work. The nature of micro-dose
therapy has not yet been fully understood. Well, there are
many phenomena in this universe which are yet to be
understood, homoeopathic potentization is one of them.
That, however, does not mean that homoeopathy does not
work. I firmly believe that it is the job of the
scientists to explore this area.
I would like to make a humble appeal to the readers
that they should not get misguided by childish,
irresponsible and incomplete study made by The Lancet.
Dr. Rajesh Shah, M.D.(Hom.)
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