Homeopathy a Credible and Effective Health Treatment

MEDIA RELEASE
The New Zealand Society of Naturopaths
27 April 2011

Homeopathy a Credible and Effective Health Treatment Worldwide

The recent press release entitled “Call for doctors not to use homeopathy or refer to homeopaths” (17th April 2011) has provoked a response from the New Zealand Society of Naturopaths (NZSN).

Professor Shaun Holt, outspoken New Zealand medical researcher, states that "practicing homeopathy or endorsing it by referring patients is not consistent with the ethical or regulatory requirements of practicing medicine and these authors call for doctors to do neither."

The NZSN points out that homeopathy has had worldwide credibility and acceptance for over a century.

Homeopathy has been widely accepted in the United Kingdom since the 19th century when the first of the six homeopathic hospitals was established. These hospitals still run today with the funding of the National Health Services and similar services are backed by the Government in India. In Germany as well as France, there is also state funding and medical insurers support for homeopathy.

The New Zealand Homeopathic Society estimate that more than 500 million people worldwide use homoeopathic medicines as their sole, or main, therapeutic agents.

Classical homeopathy calls for an in-depth consultation with the individual resulting in a carefully selected homeopathic remedy to suit the person. Therefore it is difficult to test homoeopathic remedies using the blanket 'one-remedy-suits-all' approach of allopathic medicine. This is the reasoning behind the lack of conclusive scientific research to prove the effectiveness of a remedy. Homeopathy is simply not suited to testing in this manner.

However, Sally Penrose, CEO of the faculty of Homeopathy at the United Kingdom National Health Service homeopathic hospitals reports that patient outcome studies at the NHS homeopathic hospitals show that on average 70% of patients report positive health changes after homeopathic treatments.

In contrast, The New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ) reported that 1-19 deaths per 1000 people admitted to hospital occur due to hospital mistreatment. In addition, the NZMJ goes on to tell us that preventable medication-related mishaps in the paediatric wards are common and over half of the events causing harm to children in a particular study were preventable.

The New Zealand Society of Naturopaths stand by their promotion of homeopathy as a valuable tool for New Zealanders to promote their health and wellbeing.

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