Homeopaths Ask For “respect, Freedom And Rigor”
Homeopathy is far from being a “pseudo therapy”, since in Spain it is practiced by 4,000 licensed doctors. The National Assembly of Homeopathy asks that this therapy be rigorously discussed and that the rights of professionals be respected.
Homeopathy interests the Spanish. Every month they carry out 50,000 searches on Google with this word, but they do not always go to sources with reliable information. For example, they can be found with articles where it is claimed that it has no scientific basis. The reality is that articles on homeopathy are continuously published in scientific journals and that the World Health Organization (WHO) advises integrating it into public health.
To combat misinformation, the National Assembly of Homeopathy has presented the website www.homeopatiasuma.com, which offers a large base of research and scientific work so that no one talks about homeopathy without knowing it.
The campaign against homeopathy attacks the freedom of doctors and patients
The president of the ANH, Dr. Alberto Sacristán, points out that at least eight million Spanish adults (mostly middle-aged women and studies above the average) occasionally or regularly use complementary therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture, according to the latest survey of Social Perception of Science. “They are not fools who choose it”, but “empowered patients with the ability to decide what therapy they want,” he explains.
This citizen demand is satisfied by the more than 10,000 doctors who use homeopathic medicines, either as their main, complementary or secondary treatment. Sacristán complains that his professionalism is being questioned by those who associate homeopathy, acupuncture or naturopathic medicine with “pseudo-therapies” without evidence.
The Government must regulate medicines and at the same time persecute them
The president of the ANH accuses the Ministry of Health of participating in this unjust persecution and thereby creating a chaotic situation, since the government is obliged to regulate homeopathic medicines that are considered as such by Spanish and European laws.
If there are legal homeopathic medicines, doctors should logically be free to prescribe them, argues Dr. Gonzalo Fernández Quiroga, spokesman for the ANH. “We prescribe legal drugs financed even in some health systems in other countries,” he defends.
Economic interests
A question that citizens and homeopathy professionals ask themselves is who is behind the campaigns against homeopathy and other complementary therapies. The representatives of the ANH point out to the pharmaceutical companies and to them that they also deny the effects of the electromagnetic fields of the telephone antennas or defend without ambiguity the transgenics.
Dr. Gualberto Díaz, scientific advisor to the ANH, clarified that the internet exists about homeopathy by excess and by default. It is not true, for example, that real medicines are not used, that these are only sugar water or that they only serve for trivial problems such as coughs. And neither does homeopathic medicines replace vaccines or can cure everything. In fact, homeopathy can help make a vaccine or conventional medicine feel better.
Díaz listed several areas in which homeopathy is especially useful: pediatric, gynecological and dermatological diseases, or emerging diseases of central sensitization such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and electrosensitivity. These patients do not tolerate environmental toxins well and often resort to mild therapies to improve their quality of life.
