The Problem with Conventional Healthcare, by Karl Robinson, MD January 30, 2010

Problems with our healthcare system. What homeopathy can offer.

Filed under Medical Issues, Principles & Practice of Homeopathy

Thanks Karl for this brilliant discussion of the problems with conventional medical care. Readers, if you think this only applies to human medicine, you are sadly mistaken. The very same thing is happening in veterinary medicine.  If you haven’t seen the introduction to homeopathy videos by Dr. Karl Robinson, available on this site under the homeopathy tag, take a moment to watch and learn.

It is universally agreed: our healthcare system costs too much and does not work well. As a conventionally trained M.D., who opted years ago to practice homeopathy, I would like to offer my observations on both the conventional and the homeopathic way of approaching illness.

The current gargantuan and enormously complex healthcare system needs to be reduced by a full one half. It is bloated beyond good sense and beyond affordability. And the fault lies only partially with the insurance companies and Big Pharma. I believe the very way conventional medicine is practiced is at fault.

Consider this typical scenario: you go to your Family Doctor complaining of fatigue, weight gain, arthritic pains, disordered digestion with gut pain and constipation. Your doctor runs tests and finds you have low thyroid and sends you to an endocrinologist who runs more tests and prescribes a medicine which you will be expected to take for the rest of your life. Score one for Big Pharma. Your family doc also discovers high blood pressure and, when one drug does not bring it down, prescribes two—for life. Later, you get sent to a gastroenterologist and later still, a rheumatologist. Along the way more tests, and more prescriptions. You already go to a psychiatrist and take an antidepressant. You now have five doctors in play, none of whom talk to each other. A really good Family Doc could manage all your problems with few or no referrals. Fifty or sixty years ago he was known as a “GP” or “General Practitioner” and did just that. But nowadays he or she is practicing “defensive medicine” and doesn’t want to be sued so it’s a kind of insurance to refer out and over test. Little wonder our healthcare is so ruinously expensive. And it is ruining us with healthcare costs going up at roughly twice the rate of the overall Consumer Price Index.

No new healthcare law is going to fix this bloated system. It is inherent in the very structure of modern, technologically oriented medicine. Realize that we have this system because 1) doctors believe in it (we created it) and 2) the public believes in it. People when ill or when they worry they are ill, want all the tests, want to be seen by all the specialists. But realize that all these tests and referrals and prescriptions cost someone whether it be you or your insurance company or Medicare or Medicaid.

Now, if the patient stops any or all of his medicines, the illnesses return. These illnesses are being managed not cured. Not to mention the all too frequent problem of adverse drug effects.

Contrast the above model with the homeopathic. A woman in her late forties comes to me because of debilitating migraines occurring twice a week. They are so severe she cannot function despite two powerful analgesics. I do a one and a half hour interview in which I explore all aspects of her complaints and how she relates to her environment (food, weather, job, relationships, hobbies, fears, anxieties).

I learn she also has hypertension, arthritic pains, poor digestion and constipation. She has five medical problems and is taking six pharmaceuticals.

Then I learn that five years ago her son was killed in Iraq. As she speaks, tears roll down her face and she says, “I’m sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this.” I pause and then, as gently as possible, ask when the migraines began. Four to five years ago—following the tragic loss of her son. I now know more. She is still grieving, and the headaches appeared shortly after her son’s death. So, in truth, I have uncovered a sixth problem—grief.

For a homeopath, how a patient reacts to her problem is as or more important than the problem itself. This woman has unresolved grief which had triggered her pathology. Also, she is hot-natured, can not bear the sun, loves salt, and her face is oily. She is introverted and rejects consolation. These symptoms lead me to select the medicine, Natrum muriaticum, and I give her a single dose.

Within a month her headaches are fewer, her mood brighter, and her bowels are functioning normally. Within three months all problems have resolved. She begins to discontinue her drugs. She now admits she was probably depressed and hadn’t realized it until she came out of it. All this with infrequent doses of Natrum muriaticum!

As a homeopath, I gave one homeopathic medicine unlike the conventional doctor who prescribed six pharmaceuticals. And, that one medicine covered all the pathologies.

This patient is on the road to a radical improvement in which all aspects of her physical and mental well-being have been addressed with a single medicine. This methodology is quite different from the conventional system which strives only to control or manage the problems. And it was accomplished with one medicine given infrequently and one that produced no adverse effects! The positive results this patient achieved are not exceptional with homeopathic medicine. In fact, diseases far more complex and difficult than migraines can be greatly helped with homeopathy.

Does this mean that everyone who is treated with homeopathy always has an excellent outcome? Of course not. Nothing is one hundred percent. But, by taking into account all aspects of the patient, not only the main complaints but her disposition and how she lives in, and reacts to, her total environment we stand a better chance of a good outcome.

Homeopathic medicine is a serious discipline and is effective when administered by a trained homeopathic physician. And it is extraordinarily cost effective.

As a homeopath, I rarely prescribe pharmaceuticals. I write only five to ten prescriptions a year and these simply to tide patients over until they no longer need the drugs. Yes, I aim to get people well enough so they can stop taking their medicines. I try to order as few tests as possible because, as a homeopath, I do not prescribe on laboratory data. I refer to specialists infrequently. If someone has a rectal bleed, sure, I want the gastroenterologist to scope them. If they are having a heart attack they need to be hospitalized swiftly.  When surgery is indicated, it is life saving. But, by and large, I don’t refer much.

The whole idea of being a doctor “is to restore the sick to health, to cure as it is termed.” That quote comes from Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. That’s aim one, aim two and aim three.

I would encourage you all to look into this extraordinary, gentle, healing art.

Obscessive Compulsive Disorder in Dogs January 21, 2010

This is a link to an interesting article linking obscessive compulsive disorder in dogs to a gene variation. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/science/19dogs.html?ref=health# 

The reason I posted this link, is because behavioral problems are one of the main reason that pets are euthanized. Samuell Hahnemann the founder of homeopathy was a pioneer in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders in humans, freeing many patients from the horrors of 1800′s mental institutions.

Homeopathy can used very successfully to treat animals suffering from mental and emotional disorders.

Feline Renal Disease: Are Vaccines to Blame? December 30, 2009

This is an interesting study showing a clear link between certain commonly used Feline vaccines and Interstitial Nephritis. Studys have shown that there is no need to vaccinate indoor cats after the age of one year… so why do we continue to do so? You have the right to refuse annual vaccination for all of your pets.

S

HORT COMMUNICATION

Interstitial nephritis in cats inoculated with Crandell

Rees feline kidney cell lysates

Michael R Lappin

DVM, PhD

1

*, Randall J Basaraba DVM, PhD

2

Wayne A Jensen

,DVM, PhD

3

1

College of Veterinary Medicine &

Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State

University, Fort Collins, CO

80523-1678, USA

Department of Clinical Sciences,

2

Immunology and Pathology,

Colorado State University, Fort

Collins, CO, USA

Department of Microbiology,

3

Mountain Avenue, Loveland, CO

80538, USA

Heska Corporation, 3760 Rocky

Parenteral administration of Crandell Rees feline kidney (CRFK) cell lysates or

feline herpesvirus 1, calicivirus, and panleukopenia virus-containing vaccines

(FVRCP) grown on CRFK cells induces antibodies against CRFK cells. These

antibodies also react with feline renal cell extracts. The purpose of this study was

to determine whether interstitial nephritis would be detected in cats that were

immunologically sensitized with CRFK lysates, boosted with CRFK lysates, and

then biopsied 2 weeks after the booster. Cats (2 per group) were

immunologically sensitized against CRFK lysates by administering 10

or 50

were inoculated three times, 4 weeks apart with an FVRCP vaccine for intranasal

administration as kittens, boosted 50 and 102 weeks later, and then renal biopsies

taken 2 weeks after the last booster. Neither of the cats vaccinated with the

FVRCP for intranasal administration had detectable renal inflammation.

One cat in each of the three CRFK lysate sensitization groups had

lymphocytic

mg, 50 mg,mg plus alum 13 times (12 times in the first 50 weeks) over 2 years. Two catseplasmacytic interstitial nephritis.

Date accepted: 5 March 2006

2006 ESFM and AAFP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

L

is a common histological lesion

in cats with renal failure (

1992, Minkus et al 1994

and plasma cells in renal tissues is not specific

for any one disease; there are a number of

known causes including diet and some infectious

diseases (

Kordick et al 1999

inoculated parenterally with feline herpesvirus

1, calicivirus, and panleukopenia virus-containing

vaccines (FVRCP) multiple times in their

lives. Because the vaccine viruses in most of the

commercially available FVRCP vaccines are

grown on the Crandell Rees feline kidney

(CRFK) cell line (

1970, Lee et al 1969

a study to determine whether vaccinated cats

or cats immunologically sensitized with CRFK

cell lysates developed antibody responses to

the lysates and whether the antibodies reacted

with feline renal tissue lysates.We also evaluated

whether the cats would develop clinical, biochemical,

or urinalysis evidence of renal disease,

and whether the cats would develop histological

evidence of renal disease (

Cats (

(12 times over 50 weeks) with varying concentrations

of CRFK lysate or administered a FVRCP

vaccine three times, 4 weeks apart as kittens

and then boosted at 50 weeks. Prior to CRFK

sensitization or vaccination and at week 56 of

the study, renal biopsies were obtained for histopathological

evaluation (

against CRFK lysates were detected in all

cats that were sensitized with CRFK lysates, in

five of six cats administered a commercially

available FVRCP vaccine parenterally, but in

neither of the cats administered a commercially

available FVRCP vaccine intranasally (Feline

UltraNasal; FVRCP Vaccine, Heska Corporation,

Fort Collins, CO). Antibodies against renal cell

lysates were detected in all cats that were

ymphocyticeplasmacytic interstitial nephritisLulich et al). Detection of lymphocytesDiBartola et al 1993, Minkus et al 1994,). Many client-owned cats areCrandell et al 1973, Scott et al), we previously performedLappin et al 2005).n ¼ 14) were inoculated SQ multiple timesLappin et al 2005). Antibodies

*Corresponding author. Tel:

1275. E-mail:

þ1-970-297-1274; Fax: þ1-970-297-mlappin@colostate.edu

Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery

doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2006.03.003

(2006) 8, 353e356

1098-612X/06/050353+04 $32.00/0

2006 ESFM and AAFP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keep Your Ovaries Ladies April 28, 2009

ttp://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Fulltext/2009/05000/Ovarian_Conservation_at_the_Time_of_Hysterectomy.11.aspx

The above is an article showing the the allopathic medical community’s quick rush to full hysterectomy for benign conditions may be causing the early deaths of millions of women. I personally don’t understand the lack of value placed on the female reproductive system. Once your past 40, it becomes more difficult to convince an obgyn that you should keep your female organs. I recently went to a new Obgyn group for a benign ovarian cyst and some heavy bleeding. Okay I am 46 years old , probably nearing “that time” and all, so I expect a few changes to happen.

I wanted the O.B. to tell me why I was having these two issues and their answer was we don’t know (fair enough) but, you need a full hysterctomy and let’s schedule that for next week. Whoa Nelly! Let’s slow down and think this over. The doctor was actually quite surprised when I said NO! Just because I don’t want another baby, doesn’t mean I am not using my body parts. When a man becomes impotent.. do they recommend castration to reduce the risk of testicular cancer and prostate disease..ah NO!

Ladies, don’t fall for this ruse, get all the facts before you allow what amounts to genital mutilation to be performed on YOUR body.

I called my trusted homeopath, Dr. Karl Robinson (see about homeopathy). He took my case and prescribed a new remedy, problem solved!

More on the Clinical Success of Homeopathy April 12, 2009

Homeopathy In the Time of Epidemic

David Riley was asked to study the evidence for homeopathy. He thought it was baloney, but researched it, and the results surprised him. He published his research in Lancet and said, either homeopathy works or the double blind placebo trial is flawed. So David Riley presented the research. This is good, but not enough to show the effectiveness of homeopathy. So I presented a sixteen page paper on the historical evidence for homeopathy from its treatment of epidemics. The conference I presented it at was held in the University of Connecticut Health Center in September 2003 and called “Statistics for Homeopathic Practice.” I gave my talk to eighty medical students during lunch. When I started talking about iatrogenic illness, everyone stopped talking and eating. At the end of my talk fifteen students asked me how they could learn homeopathy. I was asked for this paper, but I replied I should flesh it out more and do a fuller study.

My current version has more than 200 pages. Bradford wrote the Pioneers of Homeopathy and the Logic of Figures. But I took little from his book, because not all his results were from genuine homeopathy. In London the death rate during an epidemic from allopathy was 70% and from homeopathy was 33%. But this wasn’t genuine homeopathy. When you get the statistics for genuine homeopathy it would be 6% or less. They got the health statistics and compared the death rates in 1898 for allopathy and homeopathy. If you compute what the death rate would be for average homeopathy if homeopathy was universally used, of the 70 million people then living in the United States 500 thousand people who died that year would have still been alive. Once I collated all the evidence I saw that the greater the success of homeopathy as compared to the failure of allopathy, the greater the political repression that followed. But no one knows this story. The plan of the book goes disease by disease, starting with typhus. Typhus was spread by Napoleon’s army. 200,000 soldiers of Napoleon’s army died from during the retreat from Russia. One hundred eighty three of them were treated by Hahnemann and his death rate was zero.

There is not a single report showing the superiority of allopathy over genuine homeopathy. That holds true up to the present day. The death rate from homeopathy in the 19th century is better than the results obtained by modern medicine. For example, pneumonia. One out of twenty five will die of it. It is the eighth leading cause of death. Today the average death rate is 18%. When acquired from community it is 12% and when acquired in a hospital it is 50-70% percent. With allopathy, before 1912 the death rate was 32%. With homeopathy the death rate was 4%. Allopaths claim homeopaths only treat easy cases. But Sir William Wilde examined the hospitals and said the cases in homeopathic hospitals was fully as virulent as in allopathic hospitals. P.P. Wells said, “A 2-3% death rate is still too high for pure homeopathy, I have treated patients for 43 years who had pneumonia and have not lost a single case.” My own experience is that I have treated 120 cases, some on their death beds and not lost a single case. One patient was in a coma with cancer of the lung. His niece, a nurse, gave me a report of his symptoms and he recovered quickly. He lived another six months. Another patient of mine with AIDS and pneumocystic pneumonia did not respond to antibiotics. He developed cryptococcal meningitis. The treatment for this led to kidney and liver failure. They put him on high doses of prednisone. He was comatose and was on morphine because of pain of meningitis. The patient recovered after homeopathic treatment. So its unthinkable that anyone treated properly for simple pneumonia would die.

An editor of a medical journal challenged Lippe to publish his mandatory report to the state for the two previous years. He had not lost a single case ill from acute disease. He had the largest medical practice in Philadelphia. In 1849 here was an epidemic of scarlet fever. Lippe treated over 150 cases and lost none. Allopaths lost 90% of their cases and the rest were crippled for life. These results are not unique to Lippe. The homeopathic literature is full of these stories. When there was an epidemic of cholera in New York in 1849 the public demanded that the authorities convert one of the hospitals to homeopathy. They refused. In Genoa a rich person tried to build a hospital to treat victims of cholera with homeopathy. The authorities refused. This sort of response was universal. It was not just the AMA. If homeopathy were universally used, there would be a dramatic drop in the death rate. But people are trying to destroy homeopathy. Not only the morbidity from disease, the morbidity from allopathic treatment would be eliminated. Between 450,000 and 500,000 people a year die each year from iatrogenic disease. There is not just death, there are long term bad results from allopathic treatment. The doctor who organized a conference on autism said his child was normal at two years old. She got a vaccination, screamed all night long, then stopped talking.

In Carlisle Lippe had treated scarlet fever. An allopathic doctor, John Armstrong, had lost all the cases he had treated. Then three of his four children came down with scarlet fever and he went to Lippe. They were cured and he became a homeopath and moved to New Jersey. I think it was because he had treated his own children differently than his other patients and felt guilty.

Greed, prejudice, arrogance, contempt for truth, and ignorance dominate our so-called modern society. We have to fight for homeopathy. The American Revolution has not happened yet. Breaking from England is not as beneficial as homeopathy would be. The AMA was formed with the goal of destroying homeopathy. Homeopathic practitioners earned twice as much as allopathic physicians. Allopaths started converting their practice, but didn’t learn the principles of homeopathy. In 1880 not one school of homeopathy was teaching the Organon. Nash said he had never heard of it until he graduated.

In Quebec all tradespeople have access to homeopathy as part of their insurance coverage. In the US life insurance policies once gave a discount to their clients who used homeopathy on the proven actuarial evidence that their death rates were lower.

I plan to publish my book on April 10, 2005, the 250th anniversary of Hahnemann. In my book I also show the value of the prophylactic value of homeopathy.

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What the Conventional Medical Establishment doesn’t want you to Know April 12, 2009

Homeopathy has a very successful history in both the US and Europe.  Despite what the “evidence based” medical community would say about homeopathy not being proven to be effective. It has proven itself over and over again in the face of the worlds more deadly epidemics to be superior to conventional medical therapy. The following link will take you to a very interesting slide presentation showing the effectiveness of classical homeopathy in the treatment of: influenza, chlorea, diptheria.

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.7&thid=12086b13cc671dfa&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1

Pancreatitis and Vaccines April 9, 2009

We have recently been discussing whether or not there is a corrolation between vaccines and pancreatitis. I admit the studies I sited where all human studies. But, it should still make us think..are vaccines behind the rise in pancreatitis that we are seeing in both dogs and cats.

Today, I was presented with a 1 year old dachshund with severe abdominal pain and vomiting of 12 hours duration. The clinical signs are consistent with mild pancreatitis. I will admit his lab work was within the normal range and did not CONFIRM pancreatitis as the diagnosis. But pancreatitis by conventional medical standards can be very difficult to diagnose.  For  me, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.. I will call it a duck. So, he has symptoms consistent with pancreatitis. The kicker.. this dog was vaccinated just last week. Not with a dhlppc combo vaccine but a DAP vaccine.  By conventional standards, this would not be considered a vaccine reaction, as those must occur with in 24 hours of a vaccine. From a classical homeopathic standpoint, this is quite clearly a vaccine reaction. There are no coincidences in medicine.

So, can I prove this dog has pancreatitis, No, I can not. Am I suspicious that he has pancreatitis induced by last weeks vaccines? Yes, I am. I know there is no “scientific evidence” in this case. But it does make me think and it should make you think also.

LIFE LESSONS FROM THE FAMILY DOG April 5, 2009

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/life-lessons-from-the-family-dog/

This is a very moving story of the relationship of a man suffering from prostate cancer and his relationship with his beloved 10 year old miniature poodle. It is a hard story for anyone with training in alternative medicine to read. He talks of all the health problems his little dog suffers from and the long list of drugs the dog must take: The problems include:

• seizures
• recurring bladder infections
• painful arthritis
• and urinary incontinence

You can look at this from the conventional drug paradigm and give a drug for each symptom: the way she is currently being treated.

We can look at it from a classical homeopathic standpoint. This is a clear picture of vaccine damage. Vaccines have been scientifically proven to cause or exacerbate seizures.  They have also be shown to cause cystitis in cats (we can translate this to dogs and other animals). Arthritis is chronic inflammation exacerbated by repeated vaccines. This dog would greatly benefit from a properly prescribed homeopathic remedy. He quality of life would improve dramatically and some of the medications could  probably be discontinued.

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine standpoint this is a clear picture of deficiency in the kidney meridian. The kidney meridian is associated with the bones and the marrow (which includes the brain) as well as the actually actual organs of kidneys and bladder. By strengthening this meridian through acupuncture and Chinese herbal therapy this little dog could have a much better quality of life.

We need to learn to look outside the box, especially when the treatment being given is not providing adequate quality of life. He describes this dog as though it is aged and close to death. Remember she is only 10 years old. This is barely middle aged for a mini-poodle and yet she suffers from several issues associated with old age. She is way too young to be this old.

Not so Sad April 2, 2009

We discussed the case of Chanel a few posts back. The poor dog that suffered over vaccination and seizures. After giving her a single dose of a homeopathic remedy, her life has changed for the better. She is now what the foster parent calls a “normal happy dog”.  We are currently working on weaning her off her seizure medication.

Happy Healthy Schnauzer

Are Drugs Safe? March 26, 2009

“Properly prescribed and administered” drugs caused death in 106,000 hospital patients making adverse drug reactions the 4th leading cause of death. Journal American Medical Assoc, 4-15-1998.

This is an older study, but I doubt things have improved much. The American public has been totally deceived by the drug companies and their multi-million dollar ad campaigns.  DRUGS DON’T MAKE PEOPLE OR ANIMALS HEALTHY, THEY MAY ALLAY SYMPTOMS BUT THEY RARELY LEAD  TO A LONG TERM INCREASE IN HEALTH AND WELL BEING.

When I went to vet school (a long time ago) the word CURE was still being mentioned.  Rarely do you hear that term used anymore. The new term is manage. We MANAGE disease, especially the chronic ones, we rarely if ever are able to cure using conventional drug based therapies. This is what sends most of us in the alternative world looking for answers outside the pharmaceutical industry. We want to cure our patients. Cure: the alleviation of symptoms and a return to health without the need for ongoing treatment.

Homeopathy is the only method of treatment that I have found that can CURE chronic disease. Once again visit www.beyondflatearth.com  and spend some time reading this fascinating book, change the way you think about health and healing. You won’t be disappointed.