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14
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Food Intolerance and Homeopathy
Can homeopathy help food intolerances?
I have always been interested in so called alternative therapies and have had success with acupuncture as well as regularly taking various supplements including probiotics. I have been interested in looking into food intolerance and homeopathy, since seeing some amazing results from people close to me for a varying number of ailments. So I am on a mission to see if homeopathy really can help and even cure food intolerance, as some practitioners claim.
So far I know of two cases of other medical conditions that have had amazing results from treatment via Homeopathy, so I am intrigued to see if it can help me. I am going into this with a cynical, but open mind. I have had promises before of help and also now am 90% used to the food intolerance’s and related symptoms I have since following a restricted diet for a number of years and also enjoying my time spent writing and researching for Fussy Foodie, however I would truly love to reduce the sensitivity of my food intolerance’s to enable life to be that little bit easier, especially when eating out.
I have had two cases in the last two weeks which have caused me discomfort even when sticking to my very restrictive diet (Sugar Free, Yeast Free, no gluten, no dairy or eggs). For example whilst at a family BBQ I partook in some simple chicken and salad (no dressing) – tasted great at the time but lasted about 10 mins inside my system, you don’t need the details but lets just say the food was in one end out the other. I have put this down to a season rub I since found was put on the chicken which had a small amount of sugar in, crazy that my body should have such a strong reaction – it would be great if my reaction could even just be reduced as it causes such discomfort.
One of the often unnoticed side effects of food intolerances is itching – and this last few days I have had some really annoying itches, mainly on my back, and its starting to annoy me – this is what finally pushed me into giving homeopathy a go.
On looking into Food Intolerance and Homeopathy I found a great article by Stephen Malthouse on Homeopathy and Food Allergies…
“The homeopathic approach to food allergies may surprise some people: food allergies will completely disappear with proper treatment. This seems to be in contrast to the usual medical approach of eliminating the offending food or using digestive aids and then viewing the patient as cured.
Homeopathic treatment can help strengthen the immune system. After homeopathic treatment, if there is an accidental exposure, the chances of a severe reaction are reduced. In addition, acute homeopathic remedies, such as Apis mellifica for hives, can be added to the conventional treatment.
Homeopathy views food sensitivities (and allergies, too) as an expression of a disturbance in the patients energetic system. This system keeps all the tissues and organs as well as the emotions and intellectual apparatus functioning at optimum level. Under stress, the energetic system will cause certain symptoms, such as food intolerance’s or allergies, to appear. These symptoms are not a disease to be cured in themselves, but a reflection of an underlying, deeper malfunction…
Although homeopaths encourage proper diet and lifestyle, freedom to be able to eat just about anything is the goal of homeopathic treatment.
Constitutional treatment is similar to piecing together a giant jigsaw puzzle: each puzzle piece represents a symptom or characteristic of the patient. Symptoms can be mental, emotional or physical. The patients personality, desires and aversions, past medical history and family history must also be considered. Some puzzle pieces have been smudged by previous treatments, surgery or drugs. Some pieces are missing. A skilled homeopath can recognize the final picture and match it to the correct constitutional remedy.”
On the reverse there is a high profile anti homeopathy campaign; “10:23 – Homeopathy: there’s nothing in it”.
10:23 refers to the time at which campaigners across the globe took part in our ‘overdose’ stunt. On January 30th 2010, at 10:23am, over 400 of our supporters swallowed an entire bottle of homeopathic pills in an attempt to raise public awareness about the fact that these so-called remedies have no active ingredients.
There website has a barage of anti homeopathy information including…
“Why does homeopathy sometimes appear to work?
There are dozens of reasons why homeopathy may appear to work for some individuals.
For example, people will often confuse correlation with causation. The human body has a very robust and amazingly intricate immune system, which is capable of fending off all sorts of nasty things all on its own. When someone starts to feel better shortly after taking a homeopathic remedy, they might assume that the remedy has hastened their recovery. Actually, there is no good reason to believe these two events are related. They may have recovered just as quickly without the homeopathic intervention.
Another example is what are known as placebo effects. This is where an inert substance, such as a sugar pill, can be shown to improve the condition of a patient simply because the patient expects it to. Someone using homeopathy may start to feel better because they expect to feel better, not because the homeopathy has actually done anything to cure them.”
I am booked into see my recommended Homeopathist in a few weeks time and will let you know how things go, I will be taking up my food diary again so that I can really test to see any difference that can be made. At the end of my initial research into Food Intolerance and Homeopathy I remain skeptical but really intrigued to see what happens on my Food Intolerance and Homeopathy journey.
- Published by Miranda in: Being a Fussy Foodie
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2 Responses to “Food Intolerance and Homeopathy”
I would have thought the last thing you would want to do when you were suffering from an immunological response to food (either IgE or non-IgE) would be to strengthen the immune system!
Not that there’s any way which a specific homeopathic product would generally “strengthen the immune system” in any measurable physiological sense, so I’m sure they won’t actually cause a problem.
And they also seem to have switched to the “energy balance” explanation of homeopathy for the quote, which is even more vague and unmeasurable metaphysics.
I can confirm that homeopathy can and does work as my husband, who suffered for most of our 20yrs together with IBS, went for intolerence testing and was given a fairly extensive list. He was also given two prescriptions to take as she advised that it appeared it would be necessary to slow down the bowel as food was sometimes causing diarrhoea reactions within 20mins of intake. He was given Podophyllum 3cc and aloe 3cc. Now, being somewhat sceptical we adjusted his diet with some slight variations and my husband took the prescriptions until they were finished. We then continued as we had been but without the prescriptions. Without the prescription my husband suffered attacks with a couple of food items he’d been fine with while taking the prescription, and the bloating and discomfort returned although slightly decreased in length of time experienced. So we have now refilled the prescriptions and it would seem my husband is returning to the comfortable state he was in before. By the way, the adjustment in his diet means he’s eating healthier, making more of an effort to eat little and often and has lost a stone as a result of the adjustment. All good. So I can say yes it does work.
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