Reducing Antibiotic Harm with Homeopathy

The meadow anemone flower (pulsatilla) can be helpful for coughs, colds, and recurring ear infections. (Courtesy of Karin Mont)

During my first two years of practising as a homeopath, I used to undertake a simple clinical audit. By keeping track of the conditions I was asked to treat, and monitoring the progress of my patients, I quickly built up a profile of my practice, which at the time, helped me to anticipate and better understand the diverse needs of my patients. 

Twenty-five years later, I no longer seem to find the time to record things so meticulously, though I keep promising myself that “one day” I will organise my patient data into a useful reference resource. I can predict one thing though, without needing to access any previous patient data; by late October I will start to see the first of this year’s “sickly” children. 

As a new practitioner, I recall commenting with some incredulity at the number of first time patients I gained each year as we headed towards winter. A typical example would be the child or teenager, presenting with yet another cough, cold or ear infection. I would be told that the last winter had been a nightmare, with the child seeming to pick up every bug around, despite having been on several courses of antibiotics. 

This winter seemed to be heading in the same direction, with the child now on their second course of antibiotics. Could homeopathy help? 

Fortunately, homeopathy is definitely effective in the treatment of common ailments, and because the medicines we use are safe and easy to administer, the anxious parent can learn very quickly how to recognise which medicine will work best to treat the specific needs of their child. 

I have always encouraged my patients to discover how to appropriately use the basic homeopathic medicines in order to treat their children, or to self medicate, and over the years I have observed that even a small amount of knowledge can help to enhance the level of well-being of an entire family. It is often the successful resolution of the child’s recurring coughs and colds that results in the rest of the family choosing to use homeopathy for themselves.

Antibiotic overuse

As we approach another winter, I am preparing to treat this year’s group of susceptible children, but there is now an added urgency in helping these children to reduce their dependence on antibiotics. It is official. We have been overusing antibiotics for decades, and if we fail to address this issue now, it will have serious consequences.

The resolution of the child’s recurring coughs results in the family using homeopathy 

Antibiotic dependence is fast becoming an area of major global concern, because overuse or misuse of antibiotics has led to the development of new strains of microorganisms, such as MRSA and Clostriduim difficile, which are proving to be deadly. 

In April 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a stark warning about the imminent dangers presented by antibiotic resistance. In a fact sheet entitled “Antibiotic resistance. No action today, no cure tomorrow” the WHO paints a bleak picture. 

In the European Union, Norway and Iceland, an estimated 25,000 people die each year from common resistant bacterial infections. This figure is taken from about half of the 53 member states within the WHO European Region, and the death toll from all of Europe in unknown, but without question, antibiotic resistance is increasing at an alarming rate. 

All this carries financial costs as well as human costs, with the EU alone paying out an estimated €1.5 billion (£1 billion) on dealing with the consequences of antibiotic resistant organisms.

The WHO is also critical of the overuse of antibiotics in production animals, warning that resistant bacteria can easily spread via the food chain. It appears that outside of the EU, low doses of antibiotics are routinely used to aid growth promotion, a practice which carries health implications for all of us. According to the WHO, failure to take positive action now, and coordinate our efforts to reduce antibiotic use, could lead to us back to the pre antibiotic era, only now we face a new generation of “super” pathogens with which to contend.

Threat to well-being?

It is interesting to observe that a product that has been promoted and pushed at every opportunity for decades, and has afforded considerable financial gain to the pharmaceutical industry, has now become a serious threat to our long-term well-being. On the plus side, organic farming has now been included on the EU 2012 Workplan, which is a positive development. 

Homeopathy plays an integral part in maintaining animal health in organic livestock management. When used appropriately, homeopathy can enhance the overall well-being of each individual animal, and therefore reduce dependency on antibiotics, or other drug interventions. 

Continue … Homeopaths have been helping their patients to achieve improved health in order to reduce their need to resort to antibiotics

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• Bob Rayner

  Such a shame that people still take homeopathy seriously. There’s nothing in it. It can actually be dangerous, when homeopaths deter people from evidence-based medical treatment.

• http://twitter.com/stevescrutton Steve Scrutton

  Such a shame that the dangers of Big Pharma drugs, including Antibiotics, is not more widely known. For so long we were told that Antibiotics were safe. They are not – the ‘evidence base’ was wrong, as it usually is with pharmaceutical drugs! Now, even the effectiveness of Antibiotics is declining with increasing resistance (the evidence base of WHO has told us about this). So it is important that Karin reminds us, here, that despite the damage that can be cause by the overuse of antibiotics, Homeopathy can help undo that damage.

• http://twitter.com/Sequanahom Helen Kimball-Brooke

  Perhaps, M. le Canard Noir, you and Bob Rayner would like to re-read this article and take note of the French research study mentioned. It seems to have escaped your attention. This is just one of many studies demonstrating the true benefits of homeopathy. As we approach an era in which antibiotics are no longer effective, it is time to work increasingly with homeopathy and other age-old but highly-effective natural medicines.

• http://twitter.com/lecanardnoir Andy Lewis

  Perhaps Helen Kimball-Brooke would actually like to read the study she wishes me to read. It is an unblinded, unrandomised observational study and so no conclusions about effectiveness can be drawn. Indeed the authors actually state, “However, this study is potentially biased by the lack of homogeneity of the two patient-samples.”

  So, this study does not “demonstrating the true benefits of homeopathy”. It merely shows homeopaths prescribe homeopathy. Not big shakes there.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Rix-Pyke/608819179 Rix Pyke

  It is wonderful to see the ease with which people kick their anti-biotic habit – once they start with energy medicine. It would be so helpful and save so much money and help build a healthy population if our health-centres were using these forms of medicines and healing systems as their front-line in primary care. Every GP practice should include the healing traditions of the people it represents : Herbalism, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Acupuncture etc. Inclusion to ensure patient choice and the health of the nation.

• http://www.facebook.com/kevin.morris.12979 Kevin Morris

  The World Health Organisation and most national governments throughout the world recognise the efficacy of homoeopathy. Indeed, in the UK, homoeopathy’s role within the National Health Service is recognised by Act of Parliament.

  It is a fact that never ceases to amaze me that whereas the proponents of the many different healing paradigms throughout the world tend to value the contributions of the others, modern pharmaceutical medicine, as generally promoted within the west, tends to dismiss the rest as ‘quackery’ and suchlike. Surely [one] can see the terrible narrow mindedness and intolerance of such a worldview.

  I am happy to state that at least two Nobel prizewinning scientists are supporters of homoeopathy. One of them has left the west and taken up a post in China, stating the increasing intolerance of scientists in the west as reason.

• lauriej1

  As the research piles up indicating that antibiotics are responsible for causing obesity in humans more people will be leary of using them — the real purpose for antibiotic use in animal feeding is to promote rapid weight gain rather than to “prevent” disease. Testing of feed animals consistently shows that they are now carriers of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
  Sub-optimal doses of antibiotics CAUSE infection.
  Research into biofilms indicate that antibiotics merely suppress a superficial layer of bacteria which continue to multiply — the reason why middle ear infections and yeast infections are impossible to completely knock out with antibiotic treatment.
  Many research studies support Homeopathic treatment, eg. for mastitis in dairy cows, eliminating ear infections in infants/children, just for starters. Another recent study shows that the common Homeopathic product Traumeel is just as effective in treating ankle sprains as far more expensive conventional drug products — with no adverse effects.
  Medical experts advocate that antibiotic use should now be reserved for serious, life-threatening infections as an emergency intervention.