Asthma

Asthma is a state of respiratory distress caused by acute or chronic inflammation, over-reactivity and constriction of the airways. There are various factors that contribute to the appearance, characteristics, and severity of the symptoms of this disorder. Those factors are genetic (asthma, and allergies, runs in families); associated to allergies to airborne substances, foods; and, emotional factors.

The symptoms can at times be severe and require emergency treatment with conventional approaches. It is a serious and increasingly common disease. There are approximately 15 million people with asthma in the U.S., and the cost is treatment and manage can be over $6 billion, including about $1.6 billion in hospital care, $1 billion in lost wages for caretakers staying home with sick children, $1 billion in medication, and $850 million in lost wages of adult asthmatics.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK, have found that 80% patients who received very small, homeopathic , doses of whatever substance they were most allergic to had significant relief of symptoms within the first week of treatment, compared to 38% of patients who received placebo. The researchers used conventional allergy testing to find the substances patients were most allergic to. The homeopathic treatment is very much like a conventional treatment of allergy with shots of the same substances that cause allergies, but without injections. (Reilly, Taylor MA, Beattie NGM, et al, 1994: Is Evidence of Homeopathy Reproducible? , Lancet 344: 1601-1606)

The experiment was relatively small. In order for the results to be truly significant the experiment needs to be replicated with a larger numbers of patients. The remedies used in this project were homeopathic in that the remedies were prepared in the same way that traditional homeopathic remedies are prepared; however, these remedies are more appropriately called isopathic , because they were made out of substances that are the same as the ones causing the symptoms of the disease. Even though this study is not truly homeopathic it proves that substances diluted to the same degree of traditional homeopathic remedies can work effectively in clinical practice.

The homeopathic treatment of asthma should be carried out by an experienced clinician in the treatment of this condition, that including the ability to provide care in an emergency. As with any other medical condition, homeopathic medicine is not used to treat diseases but to treat patients; any successful, long term, treatment will likely require a complete medical history, evaluation and determination of the particular constitutional medicine, suited for the patient, and provided by a clinician specialized in homeopathic treatment.