The news we shared two days ago about the death of a 7-year-old boy treated with homeopathy due to an otitis that resulted in an infection with cerebral involvement has generated an intense debate in the networks, as well as in Italy, where it happened.
As editor of said post here at Babies and moreI have read comments from people who say that the problem was not homeopathy, but the negligent action of the homeopath who treated the child, for not prescribing antibiotics. However, in reality, the performance was impeccable from the homeopathic point of view, and is that antibiotics are not part of the homeopathic pharmacopoeia.
That is precisely why the statements of Christian Boiron, manager of the Boiron laboratories (which bills more than 600 million euros each year selling their treatments), stating that both he and his children take antibiotics when prescribed.
Boiron's words
Interviewed after the case of the 7-year-old boy, Boiron has stated in the newspaper I will run that the last time he took an antibiotic was "last year, after the removal of a wisdom tooth," that his children take it when needed, and that even consume aspirin every morning to prevent heart attacks.
With this, what he wants to make clear is that homeopathy is not useful for complex things, but only as a preventive method for certain diseases, as a curative method for mild diseases and as a complementary treatment to allopathic medicine treatments (the traditional one).
That is, homeopathy is no longer, according to Boiron, an alternative medicine, but is a complementary medicine.
If Hahnemann raised his head ...
For those people who do not know what homeopathy is and believe that it is something natural of the "concoction made with plants" style, Boiron's speech makes a lot of sense. Grandma's remedies are very useful for many things, but no one is cured of a cancer with them, or of a serious infection, but they can be useful for certain symptoms.
The problem is that Homeopathy is not grandma's remedies. They are not plants or formulas extracted from nature, but substances that, regardless of their origin (sometimes unnatural substances are used), are diluted until they are no longer present in the formulation, making us believe that what heals us is the solvent in which they were diluted, which has remained with the characteristics of the substance with which it has been in contact.
But not only this, and here is the crux of the matter. Homeopathy cures with similar substances, and not the opposite. That is to say:
- If you go to the homeopath because your head hurts, it should indicate a homeopathic remedy based on a substance that, if you consumed it, would cause you a headache. So, since that substance is very diluted until it is not already present, when consumed in small quantities, your body would react by eliminating the headache.
- If you go to the homeopath because you have an allergic reaction, you should indicate a remedy based on a substance that increases the allergic reaction, but diluted so that when your reaction is consumed decreases. That is why it is indicated Histaminum (histamine)
- If you go to the homeopath because you have trouble sleeping, you should indicate a remedy based on a substance that causes you more trouble sleeping, but diluted. That's why they indicate Coffea (coffee).
So, if you go because you have an otitis, and fever, they have to give you remedies that, consumed, cause earache and fever, but diluted, like Hephar Sulfur (sulfur) and Belladonna (plant that when consumed, due to its toxicity, causes fever).
When the parents went with their son to the homeopath, he offered them the logical remedies according to homeopathy: similar ones that in great quantity would have ended the child's life, but that diluted should have cured him. As homeopath his performance was impeccable.
The problem is that the principles of homeopathy make no sense, because nobody drinks a drop of coffee to sleep, and nobody with an allergic reaction, in which histamine begins to affect the eyes, skin, and perhaps even the tongue and lips (and then the glottis), swelling dangerously, would consume more histamine.
In any case, he who cannot sleep will take something that relaxes him in some way, and he who has an allergic reaction will take an antihistamine.
That's why it makes no sense for a homeopath to prescribe antibiotics, that's why if Hahnemann lifted his head he would pull his hair and that's why it makes no sense for a traditional medicine doctor to be a homeopath. Because you can not give for a dilute histamine allergy and on the other hand an antihistamine, because the second cancels the effect of the first (or would cancel it if I did something).
But ... homeopathy does cure important diseases
For all the above, Boiron's words are actually contrary to the principles of homeopathy. By ensuring that he cannot cure serious diseases and that it is only to prevent and cure banal processes, the only thing he demonstrates is that he cures what actually heals by himself.
That is, preventing colds, preventing bronchitis, preventing ... and treating minor diseases would be according to him the goal of homeopathy. Evidence has already shown that homeopathy is not useful for preventing disease, nor has it really been proven to cure anything. People who improve with homeopathy it is cured because without it it would have cured equally. Come on, it's like giving kisses to a wound, saying about a healthy cure, a healthy cure, or "take this sweet caramel that will take away all the pains", and that the person believes that by having taken it, they will find it better (placebo effect).
This speech by Boiron, must have taken (imagine) by surprise any homeopath, because now it turns out that, if these are the rules, thousands of homeopaths have been practicing their medicine very badly for years. Just look at the page ABC homeopathy, which is like a virtual bible of homeopathic remedies, and observe that:
- Homeopathy can cure cancer: "You won't hear about it in the newspapers, but the truth is that in India, homeopathy cures thousands of cancer cases."
- Homeopathy cures brain tumors: "Brain tumors treated with homeopathy get excellent results."
- He Cuprum Metallicum It is a useful homeopathic treatment for meningitis, stroke and pertussis: "(...) brain conditions, meningitis, stroke and congestion, if spasm is present to some degree, whether it is a spasmodic contraction in the fingers, as if these are general seizures. Indicated in whooping cough when the child becomes stiff, breathing stops and shows jerky contractions. Finally, the child comes back to himself, vomits and slowly recovers. "
- The Ipeca It is a useful homeopathic remedy in important childhood diseases: "Acute bronchitis with a lot of mucus and respiratory difficulties. Spasmodic cough, with nausea and suffocations, sometimes accompanied by vomiting, whooping cough."
- Otitis does heal with homeopathy: "It is important to go to a Homeopath to cure an otitis since several complications can result. Otitis suppurating with yellow and greenish pus, usually the left ear in children attached to mom: Pulsatilla. Otitis with suppuration of smelly pus, in a choleric person: Hepar Sulfur. Otitis with great infection, stabbing pain and inflammation behind the ear. Mastoiditis Especially with the first symptoms: Capsicum.
- He Phosphorus It is useful when suffering from pneumonia at the base of the right lung.
And I don't follow because I think it's all said. They are all diseases important enough to require an antibiotic in many cases, or even more important treatments, depending on the severity of the picture.
Now we just have to know what will happen to the Italian homeopath, who will most likely fall for a negligence trial, when he was only doing his job well.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Homeopathy for babies: if it doesn't work, why are homeopathic medicines sold ?, Homeopathy for babies: why it doesn't work even when “my child works” (I) and (II), “It works !: Healthy children all the year ”is as dangerous as I thought
