Homeopath Blamed for Patient’s Heart Attack
An anonymous British woman, Miss A, died of a heart attack in France after she refused treatment at a hospital on the advice of her London homeopath, Dr. Marisa Viega. The General Medical Council’s fitness to practise panel heard the misconduct case yesterday and learned that Miss A was suffering from liver and kidney failure when she presented at the hospital. She believed she was cleansing her body of “evil humours” by refusing all prescription medications.
Quackwatch’s Dr. Stephen Barrett calls homeopathy “the ultimate fake.”
…a report on the National Center for Homeopathy’s 1997 Conference described how a homeopathic physician had suggested using homeopathic products to help prevent and treat coronary artery disease. According to the article, the speaker recommended various 30C and 200C products as alternatives to aspirin or cholesterol-lowering drugs, both of which are proven to reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes.
If you’re interested in trying herbal medicines, it is important to remember that even though they are “natural,” they can still be potent and can interact with any medications you may be taking. Always tell your doctors what supplements you’re taking and any other procedures you’re considering so they can best assess your treatment.
Update: More condemnation of homeopathy as being unscientific.
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Tags: homeopathy, heart attack, heart, heart disease, illness, health, diseases, medicine, drugs, marisa viegas
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7 opinions for Homeopath Blamed for Patient’s Heart Attack
Kendra James
Mar 22, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Also, another potential danger with herbal meds is that they are not all regulated with a strength like prescription medications. They are not consistent. This can lead to liver and kidney issues when the body metabolizes the supplements.
I found some good info on The British Heart Foundation site. :)
Sara
Mar 22, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I’ve never understood the thinking behind homeopathy. In a nutshell (I think): treat bad thing with more of bad thing, only a really, really tiny amount of it. Huh??? This is not ninth grade algebra, it’s health! Bad + bad does not equal good! :) You should do a debunk! (or not, since it’s not really about heart stuff). It’s the ultimate quackery. I don’t understand how it’s even allowed to be sold.
Kettering
Mar 22, 2007 at 11:59 pm
You’re so right. Using one bad thing to treat another bad thing makes no sense! Vaccinations do that, so does conventional allergy treatments and even the use of radiation (that causes cancer) is used to treat people with cancer. That homeopathic principle of “treating like to cure like” makes no sense (especially to people who don’t have a brain).
The previous person is mixing up HERBAL remedies with HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINES, but heck, when you don’t know about homeopathy, sloppy-minded people are just against it. For the record, homeopathic medicines are legally consider “DRUGS” and in the US, they are strictly regulated as drugs (usually over-the-counter drugs…and do not require a Rx).
Vic
Mar 23, 2007 at 8:42 am
I agree with the complications that may arrise with the use of medicine together with some herbal supplements. There’s no point at consulting a doctor for medication if you wouldn’t tell them about your current medication
Purushottama Wagle
Mar 23, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Dear sir,
It is wrong to say that Homoeopathy does not work. Thousands and thousands who suffer due to the side effects of the so called Scientific, evidence based , well proven (but short lived in the market!!). The switch over is not only due to the negative aspect of modern medicine but also due to the positive advantages of homoeopathy. Otherwise it could not have survived for two and half centuries.
One of the low effectiveness of the system in western countries is that these countrie’s health programmes and medical eduction are guided and dominated by profit oriented pharma companies. Unless you allow a system to work, you wont experience the benefits. No patient can be fooled into being cured by giving placebos. The alternative systems like Homoeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani or Siddha medicine do not require any sceptic’s certificate. Regarding the Sceintific proof , if one belives that gravitational force did not exist before Newton they are free to stick to their beliefs. Let the people have choose what is good for them. The concerns of the opponents to the Alternative systems seems to be not towards the common man but towards MNC pharamaceutical companies!!
All this much from me who once was as sceptic as anybody else but experiencing the benefits of Homoeopathy has become an admirer.
P.Wagle
India
Bob
Dec 10, 2007 at 2:15 pm
It is not wrong to say homeopathy doesn’t work. It is theoretically impossible, has failed every properly conducted clinical test, and defies everything we know in science.
The good news is the homeopathic preparations (I won’t dignify them by calling them medicines) can’t really directly hurt anyone. There’s nothing in them. They’re diluted to a point where it’s essentially just water. If you see a homeopathic preparation with an active ingredient labeled “30X,” what that actually means is that it’s so dilute, there’s a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of there being even a single molecule of the original substance present in the preparation.
The danger is in cases like this one, in which a patient abandons real treatment.
But hey, if you still believe it works, put up or shut up. James Randi still offers one million U.S. dollars for proof of homeopathy. Go visit http://www.randi.org for more info on that. If you can’t prove it (and will a million dollars), you have no business trying to treat disease with it.
Theresa
Dec 16, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I looked at the Randi site and know why no one has attempted the challenge, there is nothing “occult or paranormal” to homeopathy. We are all made up of both “matter” particles and “energy” that holds those particles together. It is quantum physics. In fact, the further physicists go into the study the more smaller particles held together with energy they find. So really we are just balls of energy held together.
Homeopathy works on that principle. I don’t need to prove it to anyone. It keeps me pain free from gallstones, keeps my daughter free from cat allergy and has helped with pain from burns and in healing.
An the placebo effect might work on humans who know they are getting something, but I’ve used it on my aquarium fish to deal with fin hemorrhages to very great success and they don’t even know I put anything in the tank.
I’m sure that the invisible magic of electricity was ridiculed before it was harnessed and able to be measured.
I will agree though that using homeopathy alone without the benefit of regular medicine in the case of lifethreatening emergency is just foolhardy. Too bad someone couldn’t prove it to the allopaths as I think it would really help people to a much higher level with a lot less damage done.
Oh and there will never be a proper “test” for homeopathy as clinical tests presume all patients are the same with the same symptoms while homeopathy treats the individual case. While one person requires one remedy, for the same illness another might require a totally different remedy. It is rather like testing a person’s driving ability by forcing them to fly an airplane. Oh, you can’t do it? Well we’d best not let you drive a car then!
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