I would like to ask that, just for curiosity. For example, is it possible to cancer go worse or can person even die for wrong medicine.

There was interesting discussion at finish skeptic-organisation discussionboard, they were arguing if someone could kill a person with "right" homeopathic medicines? They also said that it would be near perfect murder - no poison would be found, would it?

These were just hypothetical questions, I am not killing anyone

Yes, it is possible to kill a person with homoeopathy, but only if their health is very delicate to start with. Then a suppressive remedy [a near similimum] can kill, or even the similimum itself could stimulate the person toward death if they were in a very bad way and not strong enough to react.

Inaccurately prescribed remedies over many years could also lead to early death - since they can act suppressively - which is possibly why there seems to me to be such a sadly high mortality rate amongst young-ish homoeopaths in the UK.

I have heard of remedies being used to speed the last journey from life to death. Arsenicum in high potency has this reputation, particularly where someone is ready to die but has a great fear of death; the remedy then acts to calm the fear and allow a peaceful end; Tarent Cubensis can act similarly I believe.

Anna, its an interesting point you make about young Homoeopaths dying young, I have to say Ihave noticed a few obituaries over the years although I didn't know any of them personally. Is this a case of inaccurate SELF prescribing do you think, or of experimentation; I know that both are common amongst practitioners?

Small point. It's not remedies that can kill, but inexperienced Homeopaths. The remedies in themselves are too gentle to kill but incorrectly taking a case, self-prescribing or overprescribing can reduce a person's Vital Force, weaken them and make them open to all and sundry.
regards
simon

this also depends on types of cancer

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Dr.P.K.Sinha

The reason for the deaths of the youngish homeopaths have been given as because they don't follow up on the prescription they have been given at regular intervals . They are so busy that they deny themselves the time to see someone about themselves. (Says me who has been to see a new homeopath today!!! She will work on my case and send the remedy! I got fed up with my last one as she has become too ecletic for my liking.)

Hmmm. Seems I haven't seen such a "death rate" in the "youngish" homeopaths prescribing here in North America...certainly everyone I went to school with (most were under 50yrs of age) are still hale and hearty, and their practices are up and running....Does this really exist? Does it only effect the younger homeopaths? At what "age" are practitioners spared this fate? What a worrisome thing...in school we were taught the great need to maintain our own health via homeopathy--that is, to seek out treatment and support from other homeopaths, in order to maintain optimum health and mental/emotional stability and strength...and for what its worth, we (all my colleagues and I) seem to be holding up well....certainly we haven't lost any of the practitioners who post on this board to this fate!

Are there any stats on this? I would think all our schools would be quite aware of this phenomenon and at least warn us of it's threat. How could I have missed that warning in my years of classroom education?

As for the danger of homeopathic remedies--a few years ago, Harvard did a study on the efficacy and safety of allopathic medicine and found--by their own standards--that approximately 300,000 people are killed annually as a result of allopathic treatment (this includes "errors" as well as just plain old failure of the medicine and methods used to cure). This is in North America alone...with that kind of "standard" to judge ourselves against, we look positively miraculous in comparison. How could we possibly cause more harm than this?

Sure, homeopathic meds are dangerous--when combination remedies are used to replace classical homeopathy; when routine prescribing takes place (that is, everyone gets sulfur first, to "open" a case and "remove a layer"...then they get tuberculinum next, to "remove the next layer", and then the remedy to follow that one is determined even before the remedy given has had any opportunity to act...!) When practitioners over-prescribe and use too-high doses in too many repetitions and fail to maintain clear, precise records of their prescriptions, thus subjecting the patient to a great deal of painful, violent physical reactions to such prescribing...

Yes, in these cases, homeopathic remedies, which are irresponsibly employed, can do harm. They can even kill. More often, they create a situation where quite a complicated iatrogenic disease is caused by homeopathic drug abuse--and patient abuse!--so it can be quite difficult to cure patients who have been so ill-treated. But that doesn't make it impossible.

As for using rems to cause death...well, I suppose this could be done by way of secretly repeated, high potency dosing to cause provings of various disastrous ends...but don't quote me on that. I have heard of a case of quite painful cardiac symptoms--angina and symptoms like a heart attack--being induced by repeated doses of lycopodium and camphora...but again, that was irresponsible prescribing--iatrogenic disease. Also another of severe asthmatic conditions which were created where none existed before. Both have improved greatly with sound homeopathic care.

Divina

Thank God for your post Divina!

I was beginning to seriously reconsider my chosen career path!!

Quite part from a fear of covert euthanasia, I was thinking if pharmacutical industry and governments ever got wind of this, homoeopathy would be under such strict regulation that it would be imposssible for non-medical homoeopaths to practice.

Deb

Precisely why it has been politically expedient, especially in Canada where I practice, to remind people of the safety of homeopathic remedies...and why most homeopaths demand an international standard of practice and self-regulation.

For the record, I'm sure homeopathy has pulled more people out of the jaws of death than its placed there....!

Divina

Hi Divina and Debdel,
I don't disagree with anything you have said. I probably wasn't clear in my post as I certainly wasn't trying to promote covert euthanasia with potentised remedies through repeated dosing and proving. Rather that where someone is at the end of life, a situation we all eventually come to, that a huge of fear of death can exist and that this fear can make a peaceful death impossible. In these circumstances Arsenicum may be the similimum and may give the individual sufficient inner calm to pass away peacefully. I don't follow any religion myself but I imagine the performance of the last rites to be similar. In the scenario I envisage the remedy is certainly not removing or ending life itself, as would be the case with an overdose of say morphine or other allopathic drugs.

[This message has been edited by davegreen (edited 07 March 2001).]