A New View on Homeopathy

If it weren't for the Queen of England, I never would have become a medical doctor/homeopath encouraging patients to dissolve tiny medicated sugar pills under their tongues. I never would have learned to stand on my head that is, view medicine in a completely upside-down (unconventional) way.

In 1989, I was still practising orthodox medicine, but something was definitely missing. When my wife, Elizabeth, convinced me to attend a "What in the World is Homeopathy?" seminar in Seattle, I went because I was looking forward to a trip to the Big City. After all, what could homeopathy possibly do that powerful drugs and surgery could not? I was in for a big surprise.

In Seattle, I met the Queen's homeopath, Dr. Ronald Davey, distinguished historian Harris Coulter PhD and a number of physicians practising homeopathy. The patient cases they presented reminded me of all those seemingly incurable patients that had passed through my own hands over the previous 11 years. Neurological diseases, asthma, MS, behavioural disorders, recurrent infections, allergies, eczema, arthritis you name it, they had a cured case of it. And not just 10 to 20 percent better, but 80 to 100 percent better! I could hardly believe it!

The Queen of England and the Royal Family have always used homeopathy. In fact, the Prince of Wales coined the term "complementary medicine." So when Dr. Davey, the Queen's physician, told me of the potential for homeopathy, I thought I'd better investigate it myself. With a few remedies in my doctor's bag, I started to use homeopathy on my patients.

My first case was a young woman who had been off work for six months with tendonitis of the wrist resistant to conventional treatment. I gave her homeopathic Arnica at first and this didn't help. Wrong remedy. Then I gave her Rhus toxicodendron. Within a week, she was 75 percent recovered; in two weeks, she was back at work. Even the Workers' Compensation Board doctor was surprised at the effectiveness of this "unknown anti-inflammatory drug."

My next case was a young hospital patient with severe kidney disease worsening steadily. He was taking large doses of prednisone and had just been started on intravenous heparin for vein inflammation (phlebitis) in his leg. I interviewed and examined him, and prescribed homeopathic Apis. Nothing happened. I restudied the case and prescribed Bryonia. "It was a bit scary. As soon as I took those little pills, something started to happen. Something shifted," he said. "I could feel it." Within 10 days he was out of the hospital and, in six months, off all conventional drugs and doing well. Homeopathy had definitely worked.

Now, this was all before I'd started to train seriously as a homeopathic MD. Next I travelled to Australia where my wife had completed her training in naturopathy. I found a flourishing homeopathic community and was introduced to Dr. Dilip Dixit, the physician from India who had helped revitalize homeopathy in Australia. After returning to North America, I enrolled in the International Foundation for Homeopathy course, a post-graduate training program for medical practitioners in Seattle. To see homeopathy in action,my wife and I went to study with Dr. Dixit in Bombay, after which we spent two years in Nepal training further and practising homeopathy in the monasteries, charitable clinics and expatriate community.

In 1994, while still in Nepal, we collaborated with Dr. Jennifer Jacobs in a double-blind placebo-controlled study that treated acute childhood diarrhea with homeopathy. Her first landmark study on childhood diarrhea was published in the mainstream medical journal Pediatrics and caused quite a stir in the scientific community. Childhood diarrhea is the number one killer of children in the world today, and our trial reiterated that homeopathy does indeed speed recovery. This research was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, adding to the rapidly accumulating scientific evidence of homeopathy's effectiveness.

Returning to Victoria, BC, in 1994, I set up a consulting practice in homeopathy and began educating both my medical colleagues and the general public about the benefits of homeopathy. A study course designed for parents has been particularly gratifying because it empowers families to take charge of their own health care. In my last eight years of practising complementary medicine, I have come to this conclusion: No other therapy can do what homeopathy can do. Homeopathy treats the whole person and has the greatest potential to cure deep-seated ailments. Although initial consultation costs may be higher, it's less expensive in the long run and a lot cheaper than refilling prescriptions month after month, year after year.

It takes effort to learn to stand on your head and view the practice of medicine from an entirely new angle. But homeopathy is worth it from both the doctor's and the patient's standpoint. The doctor has the satisfaction of curing more patients, and the patient has the advantage of receiving superior medical care.

Homeopathy treats the whole person and has the greatest potential to cure deep-seated ailments.

Homeopathy Travel Tips

Your homeopathic remedies will keep for a long time without any special storage. To prevent damage to them, however, be careful to keep them away from direct sunlight, perfumes, lotions, spices, aromatic oils or anything else with a strong odour.

Pack homeopathic remedies in a small kit and request they not go through the X-ray scanner at airports because this can deactivate homeopathic materials. Security staff may want to open the containers but, to prevent contamination, do not allow them to touch the granules or the inside of the cap.

An alive reader recently contacted us about her experience at a Canadian airport. "I recently had no choice for hand-checking and had to X-ray my homeopathic medications," she wrote. After this, she contacted the regional airport manager to complain. In his return letter, the manager informed her that under the Security Screening Order, homeopathic medicine can be physically checked but only if the medicine is properly labelled, and if it is accompanied by a practitioner's letter or certificate. If these two criteria aren't met, security staff will perform an X-ray. So, if you're planning to travel by air, it would be wise to have this documentation conveniently on hand.