Stewart France - Vital Force Newsletter

Introduction
Irene Hess-Oates: 100 toxic food chemicals a day is easy to do.
Shashi Reddy: Homeopathy - more than a placebo
Homeopathy quick facts
History of Homeopathy
Remedy Spotlight

Welcome to the September edition of the Stewart France newsletter. In this newsletter we have articles on food additives and their potential impact on our health and some insights into the nature of homeopathy from our experts; our homeopathic history snapshot is continued with a feature on Dr Samuel Hahnemann the founder of modern homeopathy and our usual spotlight a remedy- which is Lycopodium Clavatum (Club Moss). We always welcome your feedback!

100 toxic food chemicals a day is easy to do

The so-called "healthy average Australian diet" can easily provide you with over 100 toxic food chemicals each day. Many of these are suspect carcinogens and proven to cause nervous system damage, hyperactivity, damage to babies, children, pregnant and breast feeding women.

If you really knew what food additives were in the food that you pay hard earned dollars for, would you make some simple changes in the way that you shop and eat? It seems that for the average Australian child and teenager good nutrition is a thing of the past, with food chemicals lodging in their growing bodies in place of vitamins and minerals. As a parent you may coax and try your hardest to get the kids (and you) into better eating habits, but when chemical flavouring agents are corrupting the taste buds, fresh vegetables and fruit are very much less appealing. All of the children that I have seen in clinical practice are dehydrated and lacking vital nutrients to promote good digestion and liver detoxification. The focus needs to be on good preventative medicine today (and tomorrow), rather than to wait for the disease to overcome the body's ability of a favourable healing response.

Whilst food labelling will disclose how much salt, sugar, carbohydrate, protein and fat solids are in the food, the really dangerous food additives can fail to appear on the label. Some of the worst additives are found in packet chips, rice crackers, cheese crackers, two-minute noodles, luncheon meats, cordial drinks, chocolate flavoured milk, frankfurts and sausages. The chocolate coating in Tim Tams is not made from cocoa, but a mixture of artificial colours of Tartrazine (102), Sunset Yellow (110), Allura Red (129), Brilliant Blue (133) and Caramel (150). These additives are all suspect carcinogens. Fruit juices and juice drinks are common offenders of artificial colours. No artificial preservatives does not mean that the product is preservative free and natural colour doesn't mean that the product is safe for asthmatics.

There is also a 5% loophole in the law, which allows manufacturers to get away with not listing 5% of the additives in their product. This is regardless of how toxic the chemical is to human health - including pregnant and breast feeding women, babies and school children. Even though the labelling can state that there are no added artificial flavouring or colouring agents used, this information can be very misleading. For example a packet of a popular cheese-flavoured snack that contains three of the most dangerous flavour enhancers of MSG (621), disodium guanylate (627) and disodium inosinate (631) that are linked to asthma, sleep disturbances, behavioural and learning problems in children, has an attention grabbing label of:

No artificial Colours
No Preservatives
No Artificial Flavours

Many additives such as vibrant colours, flavour enhancers and thickeners are used purely as cosmetic agents to improve sales of poor quality and cheaper foods. Food colourings (especially brilliant blue 133) are suspect carcinogens and known to induce hyperactivity. Sulphate food preservatives are dangerous to asthmatics and MSG food flavour enhancers are associated with adverse side effects such as asthma, behavioural and learning disorders in children, obesity, anger rages, brain tumours, sleep disturbances, unbearably itchy skin rashes and migraines. To add to this disturbing list, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other brain aging diseases, hormonal and endocrine health problems can be directly related to MSG and similar glutamate food additives.

No MSG claims can really mean that food contains MSG under another name!

Despite its proven toxic effects on human health, MSG can still be used under the disguises of other glutamate flavour enhancers – 620 through to 635. Hydrolysed vegetable protein is a concentrated form of MSG, and there are several thousand other permitted flavours that are left off labels because the chemical composition is too complex to describe. It is best to avoid all products that have flavour enhancers, even if it is labelled nature identical flavour. MSG has been recognised as causing obesity as early as 1968 – even small amounts of MSG can increase the appetite by 40%.

What you can do to reduce unnecessary and harmful food additives.

Getting back to basics with more simple and healthy home cooked meals using medicinal herbs and spices for natural flavour is the answer to the self help preventative medicine plan. As suggested in my recipe book, cooking larger quantities, freezing casseroles, soups, legumes and hamburgers and preparing extra salad for the next day, means that there is less time spent in the kitchen and less to wash up.

Give the pallet the privilege of tasting real live foods with more fresh vegetables and fruits.

Shop loudly with your shopping dollars, read labels and avoid all flavoured, coloured and sweetened foods. Subscribe to Additive Alert www.additivealert.com.au for more information about safer shopping.

Eat more fish and use olive and cold pressed oils, avocado, coconut oil and tahini. Avoid trans fats found in process vegetable oils, chips, cheese snacks, rice snacks, take-away and fried foods.

Voice your concern en masse requesting that only the safer food preservatives be used in your food and insist that more warning signs are shown on chemicalized foods that are proven detrimental to health and should be avoided by pregnant women, babies, school children, adults and your animal friends.

For healthier children, start with good nutrition six months before conception, and maintain this for the duration. Prepare your own baby food from natural ingredients, organic where possible and maintain the good health suggestions as given in my book A WAKEUP CALL by Irene Hess-Oates.

For more information on Irene Hess-Oates please read her bio here...

Also available from Irene's site is her exciting and inspiring book "A Wakeup Call". An easy to read and comprehensive guide to improving your general health - and keeping it that way. This book caters to the needs of people who are gluten and/or dairy intolerant or suffer from irritable bowel problems. For more information and to place an order go to this page on her site.

Homeopathy - more than a placebo

Homeopathy is a scientific system of medicine which has been practiced for over 200 years, to a greater / lesser extent, in many parts of the world.

This scientific system of medicine is based on the natural law - similia simillibus curentur - in other words 'let likes be cured by likes'. When a practitioner prescribes a remedy based on this law, holistic curative changes are seen.

One of the reasons that homeopathy is sidelined and is not a mainstream medical practice, as yet, is due to the denial of the fact that homeopathy is a science.

BUT, from its inception, homeopathic remedies have been tested using double blind trials - and the results are reproducible and remain valid. For example, Cinchona, the first remedy proved by Samuel Hahnemann, is still being used today, two hundred years later, with no errors, mistakes or changes in the characteristics of the remedy. If homeopaths can get it right, with no unforeseen variables to change the result, then why is it that drugs trials, which have the stamp of scientific approval, go so wrong? And we hear of drugs being withdrawn from the market 5, 10 years later?

Another aspect of the 'scientific' debate that is questioned by the skeptics is not really the underlying philosophy of 'curing likes with like' but the fact that homeopathic remedies are, in their opinion, no different from ordinary tap water because no biochemical molecules of the original substance can be detected in the remedy. Homeopathic remedies are indeed potentised resulting in an ultradilution. The problem is, even with the most sensitive scientific instruments available today, the source from which the remedy is made cannot be detected in the remedy. On the bright side for homeopaths, advances in physics and the study of the properties of the water molecule when ultradiluted and succussed (shaken vigourously) seems to provide the explanation for how homeopathy works. Until this branch of physics becomes accepted universally, the antagonists will attempt to marginalize homeopathy.

Gravity is a natural law accepted by everyone - scientist, theologist, adult or child. A child learns about the 'falling apple', the teenager about the effect of gravity and its relation to mass. So, what exactly is gravity? It is a natural law. We don't see it, but we feel its effect, and so we know it exists. Similarly, in my opinion, homeopathy is a natural law and as practitioners and users, we witness and/or feel its effect again and again.

The other day, a colleague and I were at the homeopathic stand at the Natural Therapies Expo, and a university student, majoring in psychology, came up and asked us how we could claim that homeopathy is effective. Her professor had started the year stating that psychology is a science unlike homeopathy and he had gone on to prove this by ingesting a bottle of the homeopathic remedy "Coffea". He claimed that 'coffea' being a remedy for insomnia in homeopathy should put him to sleep immediately - since he was still awake, and not sleepy, indicated that homeopathy is not scientific and it worked because of the power of the mind!! The professor has not followed the cardinal law of homeopathy - similia simillibus curentur - coffea is indeed a remedy prescribed for ailments due to over-excitement where the person gets all excited and they can't get to sleep. If the professor had had a restful 8-10 hours of sleep, and the next day had a bottle of the remedy, coffea, he is obviously not going fall asleep during the course of the lecture! All that his experiment proved was that homeopathy is gentle and non-toxic enough in the hands of skeptics who carry out such 'experiments' without having a basic knowledge of homeopathy.

The pertinent question here is: why should giving a placebo work, over and over again, for over 200 years, only for homeopaths? Why not for others? Why is it that there are times when remedies given by a homeopathy doesn't work?

The word "placebo" is said to be derived from the Latin word and is defined by Taber's cyclopedia medical dictionary as: inactive substance given to satisfy patient’s demand for medicine.

Homeopathy is used successfully in treating new-born infants and babies too. The power of suggestion has no role here - imagine how stress-free a mother would be if she could "suggest" to her new born not to cry!!

The use of homeopathy in treating animals has been present from 1880's. There are well documented cases of animals having been treated successfully - it is being used in the dairy industry, horse-racing circles as well as domestic pets like dogs, cats, hedgehogs etc. In fact, animal homeopathy is a diploma course being taught in various colleges. The fact that homeopathic vets have great success indicates that homeopathy is more than a placebo.

Even greater proof for the homeopathy is the fact that there are positive results from experiments being trialed in plants. It is used extensively in Europe in organic agriculture and horticulture, from treating mastitis in cows through to disease prevention in plants and crops.

References:

Linde,K et al "Are the Clinical Effects of Homeopathy Placebo effects? A Meta-Analysis of Placebo-Controlled Trials" Lancet, 1997 Pages 834- 843
Reilly D, Taylor M, Beattie N et al. "Is Evidence for Homeopathy Reproducible?" Lancet, 1994 Pages 1601-1606
Fisher, P. An Experimental Double Blind Clinical Trial method in Homeopathy, Use of a Limited range of remedies to treat Fibrositis. British Homeopathic Journal, 1986 July Pages 142-147.
Hitzenberger G, Kom A, Dorsci M, Bauer P, Wohlzogen FX. "Controlled randomized Double blind study for the Comparison of the Treatment of Patients with Essential Hypertension with Homeopathic and Pharmacologically Effective Drugs."
Weiner Klinische Wochenschrift , 1982 Pages 665-670.
Francis Hunter, MRCVS VetMFHom "Healing hapless hedgehogs with homely homoeopathy" Homoeopathy (Journal of the British Homoeopathic Assn.) 1998.
Varshney JP, Naresh R. "Comparative efficacy of homeopathic and allopathic systems of medicine in the management of clinical mastitis of Indian dairy cows"
Homeopathy 2005 Pages 81-85
Resch G, Gutmann V. "Scientific Foundations of Homeopathy" Barthel and Barthel Publishing, Bergam Starnberger, Germany, 1987
Amy L.Lansky . "Imposible Cure" R.L. Ranch Press, California, 2003.
B. Hamman, G. Koning, and K. HimLok "Potentised plant growth hormone used on seeds" Homoeopathy, 1992.
Homoeopathy Newz Sept 2005 titled Clinical Cases – Veterinary Medicine which has extracts from "The Organon" Vol III, 1880 page 499 )

For more information on Shashi Reddy please read her bio here...

Key advantages to homeopathy.

gentle acting with no known side effects of drug interactions
generally less expensive to consumers than patented and trade name products
variety of dosage forms suitable for use by the entire family, including young children
ideal for those who do not wish to medicate with traditional allopathic nonprescription medicines for self-care
 ideal for treating self-limiting symptoms in patients with conditions for which nonprescription ingredients are contraindicated

For example:

Nonpresciption decongestants (sympathomimetics) may be harmful in patients with the following conditions, but homeopathic drugs are not: diabetes, enlarged prostate, heart disease, hypertension, thyroid disease
Nonpresciption allergy remedies, antiemetics and sleep aids (containing antihistamines) may be contraindicated in patients with the following diseases, but homeopathic drugs are not: angle closure glaucoma, enlarged prostate
Aspirin may be harmful in patients with the following diseases, but homeopathic drugs are not: diabetes (high-dose ASA), gout, peptic ulcer
Homeopathic drugs can be used for treating self-limiting symptoms in patients taking prescription drugs with which nonprescription medications may interact

For example:

Antihistamines reportedly interact with CNS depressants MAO inhibitors, protease inhibitors, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants
Aspirin reportedly interacts with antidiabetic agents, methotrexate, probenecid, Warfarin
Cimetidine reportedly interacts with dozens of drugs including: anticoagulants, antidiabetics, benzodiazepines, beta blockers, Ca. channel blockers, carbamazepine, cisapride, phenytoin, theophylline, tricyclic antidepressants
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, reportedly interact with anticoagulants and lithium salts
Pseudoephedrine reportedly interacts with antipsychotics, guanethidine and guanadrel, theophylline, tricyclic antidepressants

In summary, published reports of adverse drug interactions of homeopathic drugs with allopathic medications are extremely rare.

Dr Samuel Hahnemann

The founder of this system of medicine was an eccentric genius named Samuel Christian Hahnemann (1755-1843), the son of a china-painter in the famous Meissen pottery works. After qualifying in Medicine from the University of Erlangen in 1779, he practised for several years before becoming disenchanted with the medical treatments of the day. These treatments often included large doses of mercury and other poisonous substances.

In 1790, while translating a textbook written by the eminent Scottish physician Cullen, he came across a section dealing with the treatment of malaria with quinine. Hahneman was unconvinced by Cullen’s explanation that quinine worked by virtue of having a tonic effect upon the stomach. He reasoned that since other more powerful tonics had no such beneficial effect, it had to be working by some other mechanism. Accordingly, he dosed himself with quinine for several days, the result being that he began to experience the symptoms of malaria.

Over the following years Hahnemann continued his medical practice, developing the concept of similia similibus curentur, by dosing himself, his family and friends with different substances in order to study the symptoms produced when they were given to healthy subjects. These experiments came to be known as provings. This culminated in the publication in 1810 of his book The Organon of Rational Healing. In it he set down his developing ideas for his system of homoeopathic medicine.

Initially Hahnemann prescribed his remedies in the standard dosages of the day. However, he found that many patients still suffered initial aggravations of their symptoms before receiving benefit. Hahnemann began to dilute his doses and soon found that these aggravations began to disappear. By vigourously shaking each progressive dilution, the resultant remedy became not only less likely to produce aggravations, but it became more potent. This process he termed potentisation.

Fundamental to his theory of homoeopathy was the concept of the Vital Force. In his view the remedy acted not upon the disease, but upon the Vital Force to restore balance within the body.

Between 1812 and 1821, while he was professor of Medicine at Leipzig, Hahenmann published a six-volume work entitled The Materia Medica Pura. It contained the results of all his provings.

Hahnemann also wrote The Chronic Diseases, a book that set out to explain why homoeopathy sometimes works well with acute illnesses, yet failed with chronic disease. He postulated that chronic diseases were due to one of three miasms or disturbances in the Vital Force which permeates the body.

By the time of Hahnemann's death in 1843, homoeopathy had spread far and wide. In England Dr Harvey Quin founded the British Homoeopathic Society in 1844 and was instrumental in opening the London Homoeopathic Hospital in 1850. Other converts to the method carried it further afield. By the end of the nineteenth century there were homoeopathic hospitals all over Europe, Russia, the two Americas, the Indian subcontinent and Australia with a homoeopathic hospital in Melbourne.

LYCOPDIUM CLAVATUM - CLUB MOSS

Lycopodium is a genus of clubmosses, also known as ground pines, in the family Lycopodiaceae, a family of fern-allies. They are flowerless, vascular, terrestrial or epiphytic plants, with widely-branched, erect, prostrate or creeping stems, with small, simple, needle-like or scale-like leaves that cover the stem and branches thickly. The fertile leaves are arranged in cone-like strobilli. Specialized leaves (sporophylls) bear reniform spore-cases (sporangia) in the axils, which contain spores of one kind only. These club-shaped capsules give the genus its name.

There are approximately 200 species, with 37 species widely distributed in temperate and tropical climates, though they are confined to mountains in the tropics.

Uses

The term Lycopodium is also used to describe the yellowish, powdery spores of certain club mosses, especially Lycopodium clavatum, used in the past in fireworks, fingerprint powders, as a covering for pills and explosives. The term "Lycopodium mask" is sometimes used to describe a type of flamethrower-mask worn by some music bands or artists on stage. In Physics experiments, the powder is also used to make sound-waves in air visible for observation and measurement.

Homepathic uses

This drug is inert until the spores are crushed. It is particularly useful for ailments gradually developing, functional power weakening, with failure of the digestive tract and also where the function of the liver is seriously disturbed. Symptoms are characteristically on the right side of the body and are worse from cold and improve with warmth. It has a marked regulating influence on glandular (sebaceous) secretions. Liver can be very sensitive and abdomen often feels bloated and full. Regarding dosage, both the lower and the highest potencies are credited with excellent results.