My partner has parkinsonism associated with Lewy Body dementia - in other words he has parkinsonian symptoms - tremor in one hand, rigidity, lack of expression, salivary problems etc. We have been using homeopathy for over a year and gradually the symptoms are disappearing. The worst Lewy Body symptoms have completely gone, and currently the tremor is fading.
What is particularly interesting just now is that the homeopathic remedy that is doing a good job is Arsenic - I had read (in the excellent 'Stop Parkin' and Start Living: reversing the symptoms of Parkinson's disease' by John Coleman) that heavy metals in the body could contribute to causing PD. On the off-chance, I asked my partner's family whether he had ever suffered from arsenic poisoning, and indeed he had! So we are continuing with the homeopathic Arsenic, using supplements that aid in detoxing, and following advice in John Coleman's book.
I am so hoping that I will receive a smile some day soon, but who knows!
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I do hope it will prove useful to you. If you decide to follow it up, find a good homeopath rather than relying on the web - though there is a lot of illuminating information to be found there. Good luck!
The problem with homeopathy trials has been that remedies are prescribed on a individual basis - i.e. what works for one person will not work for another, so until relatively recently it has proved very difficult to set up trials. There are now quite a few trials in support of homeopathy - e.g. The Evidence: Scientific Studies on Homeopathic Cancer Treatment by Manfred Mueller, MA, RSHom(NA), CCH (there are many more).
Many individuals and institutions (zoos etc.) use homeopathy for their animals (i.e. it's not a placebo effect). If you want a simple test, try taking homeopathic arnica the next time you go to the dentist - you will get much less bleeding and bruising.
Sadly in the UK at least homeopathy is mostly available only privately but is relatively cheap.
Now this is very interesting. There is an assumption that if animals are successfully treated by Homepathic remedies then there can be no placebo effect for them.
The placebo effect is resultant from emotion. Emotions are instinctive responses to circumstances and basic emotions such as fear etc are highly developed in many animals or mammals anyway, I suspect that you would not see much evidence for emotions in prawns for example. Animals not having highly developed verbal skillls depend for survival on emotions and in fact are probably better able in the business of being emotional, i.e. they communicate very largely through emotion. Now that indicates to me that they are very likely to pick up emotional cues from the people in their orbit.
So what I am suggesting is that animals are even more likely to be effected by the placebo phenomina than people are. People are for example much more likely to be sceptical or cynical than the animals. I believe there is scope here for that assumption about Homeopathy with animals to completely arse about face.
I wonder if any double or even triple blind trials have been conducted with the treatment of animals.
Who knows? Goats are not an animal that I know well, except I'm told that there is no iron clad rule for distinguishing sheep from goats. I would certainly expect a goat to be more receptive than say a tortoise.
Its all supposition regarding animals in this matter of Homeopathy. It would be interesting to see results from proper studies. Going back to human animals I believe that it as been established that, of what passes between two people, words only constitute about 30%. The remaining 70% is from body language, tone and volume of voice and any other non-verbal cues.
This is how a person may say one thing but mean the exact opposite and still the listener knows the real meaning irrespective of the words being said.
And this technique is employed by those who wish to later deny that they have said any such thing as the meaning silently conveyed.
Anyway the placibo effect is reportedly effective even if the recipient is aware that they are only receiving a dummy tablet. So perhaps the placebo is much more easily and effectively used than intuitive ideas would predict.
But reduced blood loss from dental treatment is available via hypnosis. Quite probably taking an homeopathic remedy could result in trance. And bear in mind that a rapid hypnotic induction may be very fast indeed.
Plastic surgeons often recommend Arnica tablets and ointment to reduce bruising and speed healing. It is using in Asian medicine in their formulas for muscle strains. When the big scare came out about female Hormone Replacement Therapy Kaiser Drs began to recommend Black Cohosh instead of Estrogen replacement.Just because a treatment is natural, doesn't mean it can't be effective. The heart medication Digitalis is derived from the foxglove plant.
While some Homeopathic medicines may be alot of nonsense, playing on peoples will to believe...they are not ALL ineffective.
Rather, the drug industry would like us all to believe that you must take a pill for everything...because there is money in it
Absolutely and kind of the opposite is also true, i.e. just because something is natural does not mean it's safe. Many dodgy things come from nature. Ebola, Smallpox, Typhoid and of course death itself is only natural. Even water is dangerous, apart from being able to drown in the stuff, drinking too much water may result in potentially lethal problems with the kidneys.
What is needed for any treatment, synthetic or otherwise are properly conducted studies and not just to rely on hearsay.
Even when evaluating/accepting a studies data and claims you must use your head. WHO is conducting the study? Is it the drug/herb company selling the drug/herb? WHO are the test subjects?
Rats, athletes,the elderly? This has a profound effect on the outcome of the tests.
It is easy to slant tests statistics to reflect what you want them to( just like in politics) and minimize any negative side effects (gastric distress can mean upset stomach to vicious vomiting)
So I guess what I am trying to say in too many words, is that you must use your common sense both with traditional medicine and homeopathic medicine.
Pete, in answer to your statement that natural things are dangerous and we need properly conducted studies, yes BUT I do not need a study to know that I can drown in water, burn in fire and poison ivy will make me itch. Hearsay works just fine in these cases! LOL
Indeed interpretation does require common sense too. I remember hearing a story, supposed to be true but its a nice story either way, that when it was first demonstrated that smoking tobacco could result in lung cancer, one enterprising tobacco company set out to find that of those people who were killed in aeroplane crashes, something like 95% had, during the last year of their lives, eaten pickled onions. So don't eat pickled onions prior to a flight for fear of greatly increasing the risk of fatal consequences.
And population sampling for trials is very likely to introduce bias too. So in assessing TV program for whatever, you have to ask the blind man what TV programs he watched without assuming that because he is blind he watched nothing
I have looked at Studies on Homeopathic Cancer Treatment by Manfred Mueller and that paper seems to consist only of assertions by those with a vested interest in Homeopathy.
Where are the trials, descriptions of how the trials were conducted the numbers, the graphs, the descriptions of any assumptions, the conclusions the abstract .the highlights / discussion of expected versus actual results Where are the references to other studies both in opposition as well as support. Comment on study shortcomings and ideas for further study etc.etc.
If the placebo effect works great but it only seems to work in conjunction with faith in treatment of some kind and some say it is really the caring attitude of the health provider which causes the placebo effect. Cheers
I,m behind you all the way. I am trying the john coleman way along with mucuna pruriens, natural supplements etc,, i recommend the hshnemann centre in Paris.. Homeopathy there is cheap and excellent.
I know homeopathy works as it has reduced size of my ovarian cysts and stopped hyperplasia pre cancerous cells in the past for me,
I quite understand why you wouldn't believe it - I am a scientist and naturally sceptical, but having used homeopathy myself and seen how it has helped my partner, all I can say is that there are things science hasn't got to grips with yet. Hilarypeta seems to agree!
Costwise in the UK, it's similar to routine dental appointments - our homeopath charged £50 for the first consultation and ££8 for subsequent ones, and supplies the remedies free.
Some NHS GP practices have 'attached' homeopaths, and as well the the one in Paris, there are homeopathic hospitals in London and Glasgow. (I don't know how these are fiunded.)
I agree, Partner, I have witnessed the healing effects on myself and my children for 18 yrs. I haven't tried it for pd, but for the smaller issues, like GI distress, hay fever, etc. It works.( I do, however, understand why one would doubt. It is not a 'cure all'. ) I am amazed at its healing effects, and have seriously considered seeing a homeopath for pd...
I also took the John Coleman e-class and, I'm doing Bowen Therapy and the aqua drops that he formulated. I was skeptical at first, but I've seen about a 30-35% improvement in my symptoms. It's not much, but I haven;t started the diet and some of the other things he talks about yet. I believe that medical science and natural treatments should be used together.
You are welcome. It takes awhile to notice a change.I've been taking then for about 3 months. It's a gradual change. I just started to feel stronger and more like myself. But I still have a lot of issues with PD.
There is a lot of good information on Parkinson Recovery on-line radio. If you google it you will see it. Blessings.
Thank you for this info - I will read it carefully. At first sight it seems to be related to healing by the Bowen method that is recommended by John Coleman in his book 'Stop Parkin and Start LIving' that quite a lot of people seem to find helpful.
By the way, I do think that PD symptoms can be partly caused by past events - my partner suffered arsenic herbicide poisoning 40 years ago - and rather amazingly the homeopathic remedy that is currently helping him is arsenicum-- not a commonly recommended PD remedy.
Hello again. I've read it, and I think I understand it (or some of it) - but I am sceptical about the claims. But then people are sceptical about homeopathy .... and indeed homeopathy takes past traumas, and people's reactions to them, very seriously. So I suppose that it is possible that this works for certain groups of people.
Reading the beginning of the website again, I think there is a link with the Bowen technique in as far it aims to get different parts of the body to communicate with one another,in order to encourage the body to heal itself.
I'm afraid I'm not qualified to comment any more than that.
It's odd that there don't seem to be any recent versions of the website??
Do you think the placebo effect applies to PD treatment ( including complementary) as well as clinical trials.
The Science Behind the Placebo Effect
It is important to note that the placebo effect is not a figment of the participant’s imagination. There are biochemical changes occurring in the brain. We think the placebo effect may be so prominent in Parkinson’s clinical trials because of the neurotransmitter called dopamine — the same neurotransmitter that is reduced or lost in Parkinson’s. It turns out that dopamine also underlies the placebo effect. When a person is motivated to participate in a trial and anticipates a possible reward — for example, the easing of symptoms — these all boost dopamine activation in the brain.
My Partner takes 5g Aricept/Donepezil a day on the basis of a somewhat tentative diagnosis of Lewy Body dementia -- we are not sure that it helps at all. (He was prescribed 10 mg but it made him nauseous).
When he was first obviously ill (1-2 years ago) he had night-time 'dreaming while awake' with such terrifying dreams that they drove him out of the house. I would wake up and he would be gone - miles away, though in night clothes. He would have awful distressed and agitated phases - using a succession of different remedies (which stop them in their tracks) these have gradually changed into occasional migraines or simply headaches.
Basically, we have used two different series of remedies - one for the chronic condition and one for the acute bad phases mentioned above. When the remedy for the chronic condition is working well. my partner can think more clearly and walk better, and the acute phases are less frequent or absent.
He is by no means well, but life is a lot easier. Currently, his hand tremor is fading, rigidity is becoming rarer and the extreme tightness of his grip (when in the past I couldn't get him to release my hand, say) is becoming more normal. He is also not sleeping so much in the daytime. It gives me hope!
Try Ayurveda (e.g. from Patanjali), they have a package for Parkinsons, and it is very effective.
For dementia, Tibetan medicine has shown great results. Particularly, a Tibetan doctor in Dharamshala, India (at Mens-Tse-Khang) has had some great success with dementia.
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When do you give up....
PD is relentless 
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Really struggling to know what to do
