President Mamnoon Hussain addresses the inauguration ceremony of the 1st Alternative Medicines Exhibition at the Expo Centre Karachi on Saturday, January 17, 2015. PHOTO: ONLINE
Three centuries later, many people still opt for homeopathic medicine over regular antibiotics and were ready to make their way to the Karachi Expo Centre on Saturday to attend the country’s first alternative medicine exhibition.
Pop a pill
Homeopathic health practitioners or homeopaths, believe that symptoms of illness are the body’s response as it attempts to regain health. Their theory is to give pills or solutions containing a plant or mineral for treatment to enhance the body’s normal healing.
“Softgel Capsules are an antianginal medication,” said Kashif Siddiqui, a project manager from Sancura Pharma. “It is a traditional Chinese medicine made from Chinese herbs. In the Chinese army, if a soldier is over the age of 40, a heavy smoker or someone with a genetic heart disease, they have to start taking these pills.”
Dr Shoaib Raza who is also associated with Sancura Pharma claims that eight out of every 10 patients do get better after taking this medicine. “It is used as a preventative medicine not curable,” he said. “If you 40+ or a chain smoker, the medicine is a must for you. It will stop your arteries from clogging.” He added that the capsule costs Rs1,000 and has to be taken regularly for 30 days minimum.
According to Dr Akram Zia, a homeopath, homeopathic medicine helps the white blood cells (WBC) get stronger. “It does not kill the virus directly but make the WBC fight the virus,” he said. “Allopathic medicine, on the other hand, directly attacks the virus.” He added that killing the virus renders some side effects, whereas, increasing the WBC count or making them more powerful only enhances the immune system.
While talking to The Express Tribune about treatment for cancer patients, Dr Zia said that poison could kill poison. “We have derived a medicine from the ‘poison’ of cancer,” he said. “We use Carcinosinum. Carcino means cancer. Initially, we give high doses of carcinosinum mixed with alcohol depending on the condition of the patient. We adjust the quantity depending on how they are doing.”
Sehrish Waheed from the Homeopathic Welfare Organisation, said that since there was no concept of surgery in homeopathy, they could not kill the tumour. She claimed that they could, however, stop it from growing.
“Cancer patients usually come to us when they are done with all allopathic treatment,” she said. “We try to make their life easier by giving them medicine. This stops the growth of the tumour and gives them a couple of days to live comfortably without pain.”
The organiser and director of Cant Pharma, Adeel Manzoor, said that homeopathic medicines were basically supplementary medicines. “It is the natural way to treat the disease,” he said. “The side effects of homeopathic medicines are less than that of allopathic medicines.”
The presidential address
Also at the exhibition was President Mamnoon Hussain. While speaking to the media he said that this was the exhibition was the first of its kind in Pakistan. Talking about the situation in the country, he said that a national consensus had been formed to eliminate terrorism from the country and no compromises would be made.
With additional information from APP
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2015.
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As a European, I am embarrassed that we have exported this delusional nonsense to countries that have need of real medicine. Alternative medicine, by definition, either hasn't been proven to work, or has been proven not to work. Homeopathy especially is in the latter category.
There is no reason to suppose homeopathy should work, no way it can work, and no proof it does work, other than as a placebo.
Think about it. How many other medical practices have survived form the late 18th Century? Doctors discarded bloodletting, purging and the rest because science showed them to be dangerous, and science showed that the body is not dominated by humours, Homeopathy is based on the refuted doctrine of "like cures like", which is simply not true, so there is no actual connection between remedies and the conditions they purport to treat. The remedies are then diluted to the point where none remains. A typical homeopathic dilution equates to one drop in all the water on earth, if it's even that strong. There's no evidence that this results in any bioavailable active principle. The whole of homeopathy is just pre-scientific superstition, magical thinking.
Homeopathy is embattled in the West as consumers discover it is fraudulent. Switzerland has twice withdrawn funding, and will probably do so again after the next review, the UK has almost stopped homeopathy in the NHS, the Australian health ministry is about to do the same. Homeopathy will be like cigarettes: companies seeking markets in an atmosphere of increasing awareness, will shamelessly exploit any country where they can portray their product in a favourable light.
It is very sad.
Do you know what they call 'alternative medicine' that works?
MEDICINE!!!
Please don't encourage these hacks