Can Homeopathy Bring Additional Benefits to Thalassemic Patients on Hydroxyurea

This is an interesting study that examined the effect of homeopathic remedies in combination with hydroxyurea to increase hemoglobin levels. The study showed there was a cumulative effect of using them together to raise Hb and that there was an overall positive effect on health. Using different fetal hemoglobin inducers together does seem to lead to a higher Hb than using any of them separately, so it may be wise to devise a strategy of several drugs and/or supplements and remedies for a maximum effect. Just as using both IP6 and green tea extract together add more to chelation than either one by itself, adding wheatgrass, resveratrol, folic acid, homeopathic remedies,  etc. to each other or along with drugs like hydroxyurea, an added benefit may be found. I find this line of research to be very interesting and feel that there is probably a wealth of information about natural substances that can aid with thalassemia treatment, but we are only now beginning to discover some of them. One point of interest in this study is that it decreased spleen size in many patients by using these remedies with hydroxyurea.

http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nem161v1

Several homeopathic remedies, namely, Pulsatilla Nigricans (30th potency), Ceanothus Americanus (both mother tincture and 6th potency) and Ferrum Metallicum (30th potency) selected as per similia principles were administered to 38 thalassemic patients receiving Hydroxyurea (HU) therapy for a varying period of time. Levels of serum ferritin (SF), fetal hemoglobin (HbF), hemoglobin (Hb), platelet count (PC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), white blood cell (WBC) count, bilirubin content, alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and serum total protein content of patients were determined before and 3 months after administration of the homeopathic remedies in combination with HU to evaluate additional benefits, if any, derived by the homeopathic remedies, by comparing the data with those of 38 subjects receiving only HU therapy. Preliminary results indicated that there was a significant decrease in the SF and increase in HbF levels in the combined, treated subjects. Although the changes in other parameters were not so significant, there was a significant decrease in size of spleen in most patients with spleenomegaly and improvement in general health conditions along with an increased gap between transfusions in most patients receiving the combined homeopathic treatment. The homeopathic remedies being inexpensive and without any known side-effects seem to have great potentials in bringing additional benefits to thalassemic patients; particularly in the developing world where blood transfusions suffer from inadequate screening and fall short of the stringent safety standards followed in the developed countries. Further independent studies are encouraged...In most cases dependent on blood transfusion, there was an increase in the period of their transfusion demand (ranging between 25 and 75%) in the combined treatment group. In two cases, patients used to have fever, before and after transfusion, but after administration of homeopathic remedies on similia principle for 3 months, the incidence of fever disappeared.
In the 30 patients having enlarged spleen of varying lengths (total 125 cm) before administration of homeopathic remedy, there was a distinct reduction in length (total 45 cm); as many as 11 of them showed no palpable enlarged spleen after homeopathic treatment. The general health and spirits of the patients appeared to have improved after this combined treatment in the majority of the cases studied...In the present investigation, out of a total of 38 patients, 6 belonging to thalassemia major type (ß-thalassemia) and 32 to HbE/ß type, the greater majority showed positive response to combined homeopathic therapy. There was a significant increase in induction of HbF in them, which is very encouraging...In the present study, a noticeable increase in HbF was also noted in patients receiving HU alone, but there was further increase of HbF level in patients receiving the combined homeopathic treatment, thereby showing additional beneficial effect of homeopathy...How the homeopathic remedies could bring forth such positive changes remains unclear. But the present results would also lend support to the contention (38–40) that the potentized homeopathic remedies possibly acted through regulation of specific and relevant gene expression responsible for the apparently enhanced synthesis of the HbF and decrease of ferritin level. While in the advanced countries the treatment and management strategies have made significant progress in the reduction of thalassemia to a great extent, such treatment strategies are beyond reach of the poor patients inhabiting developing countries.

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Hi Andy
I had read this on the net sometime back when DR Mathur prescribed ferrum metallicum. I did not want to give anything that had ferrum in it. How is it possible that a medicine has iron in it and still the serum ferritin comes down?
maha

Homeopathy claims to work with the rule of "Fight Fire with Fire" They actually add small amount of disease causing reasons for the body to stimulate and react to counter it. Another reason for them to support their methods is the medical practice of Vaccination

However, I doubt their method for a couple of reason. First; if the body doesn't have a natural way of fighting a particular disease like Iron overload; then adding more iron thinking that body will get rid of it more efficiently is practically stupid (sorry for being rude) knowing the body has way too much already!

The second is simply a logical reason that you can't cure a genetic disorder with a medicine that will probably never reach the millions of genes and rectify the specific mutated one via oral route.

Apart from this I think that there is a possibility that homeopathy has found HbF inducing agents that can help increasing the gap in Thal. Intermedias and some Thal. Majors.

Hi Sajid
Just like some docs make the mistake of prescribing iron supplements to thal patients when they are not familiar with thalassemia, homeo practitioners prescribe ferrum AR`s and ferrum phosphate which is nothing other than homeo iron supplements. Even after 8 months of Rodex when Hassan had showed no improvement he mixed something saying it would help in stabilising his hb. I don`t give any mixtures unless I am told what it contains. He said it was ferrum met and natrum mur.I still have it with me untouched. You would be surprised to know that many thals take fer met and they feel an increase in their transfusion intervals. But all these research is done by homeo practitioners so you cannot guarantee their authenticity. As for Dr Mathur he knows about Iron overload and has given Hassan something that could supplement chelation which he says is purely herbal. Like Rodex even that doesn`t work.
regards
maha

It is Duty and Responsibility of Indian Doctors to dismiss the work mentioned in the link and provide more valuable, stronger arguments and evidence against it and fix the cracks in the process and system. If they don't do it then it is obligation to the world doctors community.
It is utter shameful that the quackery had able to plant a troll in NCBI. I protest: take down that nonsense NCBI !
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2816384/

Jay,

The results are measured results. It was not quackery. There are many substances that improve the effects of hydroxyurea and this homeopathic formula is one of them. It is a complementary effect, just as we see when wheatgrass, L-carnitine and magnesium are added with hydroxyurea.

The people of every era believe that they are at the epitome of science. We are actually still a long way from that point and speaking in absolutes about things we don't understand as though we understand science completely is quite premature. I can guarantee that much of what is believed today will eventually be ridiculed by another generation that believes their understanding of science is also absolute.

Andy,
The title itself suggests that it is not the evidence and neither measured in best controlled environment. This is how they operate offend offend offend till the point they meet peoples who can face it and then pretend it done unknowingly. Although i may have concerns about wheatgrass, L-carnitine and magnesium but i have no problem accepting that it may add up the effectiveness of HU.

I don't believe that i know science and those who claim it has very little effect on me in fact i have alien views on the way science has been projected and how some peoples has become the guardians of knowledge.

I protest even louder "NCBI take down that nonsense or produce the same results by conducting trials in other environments and using other protocols !!"

Long years back in 1994-1995 when my beta thalassemia was just diagnosed, a homeopath doctor in Mumbai had prescribed me following medicine:

1) Acid Picric

2) Thuja

3) Nat Sulph

First, we buy all the above three medicines of 30c potency in sugar pills size 30.

Then,
2 pills of each to be put into a 250 ml bottle of water. Shake the bottle hard enough to dissolve all 6 pills.
Drink one tablespoon of that water thrice a day.

Result:
After 2 weeks of starting medicine, a severe sneezing cold rhinitis symptoms developed and the doctor said that "it means the medicine is working" and advised me not to take any medicine like cetrizine.

I do not recollect whether Hb had risen and whether I felt better. Probably, I stopped the medicine mid-way as it was causing severe sneezing and cold and rhinitis.

Even an herb as mild as milk thistle can cause a reaction in the body when first taking it as toxins are being removed from the liver. You may have eventually stopped reacting if you had continued it. Of course, that may not have been practical, depending on how severe the cold was.

With my first homeopathy medicine(1994-95) severity of cold, sneezing and watery eyes was unsustainable and those were my engineering years. It started affecting my daily routine and engineering studies. I had to stop it without ensuring if it is working or not.

My second attempt to Homeopathy began in 2001 with a lady doctor in Mumbai downtown. She would take raw base powder and put several droplets in it and mix it and give me small portions to consume daily. Hemoglobin boosted temporarily from 8.6 to 9.2. I stopped taking medicine due to inconvenience of procuring it.

My third attempt to Homeopathy began in March 2017 with a practicing MD Homeopath who has cured my sister's husband in 2001-2002 of high uric acid. He asked my sister's husband to stop visiting him conforming him that "your uric acid issue has been solved and cured permanantly and no need to visit again"

So out of compulsion I decided to try him for curing my uric acid problem. During those visits the Allopaths caused complications in me due to Febuxostat and Allapurinol grounding me on bed. I visited the MD Homeopath doctor 8 or 9 times in 7 months. With falling health in Sep-2017 and no relief from my daily finger and wrist joint pains, I decided to stop visiting him.

CONCLUSION: I am a no-nonsense patient, I need drugs and medicines that cause no bad reaction to my body and I need medicines from all pathies that will quickly show me results that I am looking for.

Results I am looking for:
1) Reduce my spleen size no matter what it takes in any pathy, it is now paining too much on left side when I sleep
2) Repair my bone marrow and ask my bone marrow to produce larger rounder better quality red cells
3) Stabilise my Hb at 11.0, my elder sister is beta thal minor and her Hb yday came out 11.3 and LFT is normal, MCV is at 64
4) Reduce my uric acid to below 6 levels with no joint pains any single morning
5) Reduce bilirubin in liver it is causing quite discomfort
6) Increase energy levels post 5pm
7) Reduce the pigment calculi size in gall bladder

Only two concerns are biggest and priority for me today, reduce or vanish all joint pains in morning due to high uric acid and stabilise my Hb at 11.0 g/dl so that I can breathe normally during the day.

The sitting with MD Hematologist on 28-Sep-2017 was good for assuring me but it has postponed my next visit to them for another 1 year. Both the brothers (Hemat and Cardio) felt nothing was wrong with me and symptoms are common to Intermedia.

My experiment with Homeopathy continues.