Conference Report: Improving the success of homeopathy 5: A global perspective; London, January 26–27, 2006, Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital

Since 1997, the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital has sponsored a conference on homeopathic research approximately every 2 years. This year's conference, the fifth in the series, entitled “Improving the Success of Homeopathy: A Global Perspective,” took place on January 26–27, 2006. The conference's chairperson was again Dr Peter Fisher, the hospital's Clinical Director, as well as the editor of “Homeopathy.”

This year's conference included a large variety of presentations on clinical research, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness studies, as well as various controlled scientific studies on plants, animals, and biological systems. The first presentation was to be made by Dr Xiaorui Zhang, head of the Traditional Medicine department at the World Health Organization (WHO). Sadly, she was unable to attend due to a special meeting that she was required to attend at WHO. However, she did send a presentation that was read by Dr Fisher. A special report on homeopathy is presently being prepared at the WHO. Some sceptics of homeopathy received an unpublished draft of this document and issued a public attack on WHO because the report was supposedly “too positive” for homeopathy. Despite these attacks, Dr Zhang asserted that the WHO will publish its report at some point in the near future.

Dr Zhang's presentation highlighted the fact that 60–80% of the world's poor population depend on “traditional medicine” (the WHO uses these words in place of what others refer to as “alternative medicine” or “natural medicine”) for primary health care, and even 70% of the general population of Canada and 80% of Germans used traditional medicines as complementary or alternative treatment.

• References

• 1 Khuda-Bukhsh AR, Pathak S, Guha B. Can homeopathic arsenic remedy combat arsenic poisoning in humans exposed to groundwater arsenic contamination?: a preliminary report on first human trial, eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/neh124 (Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, October 27, 2005).
• 2 Frass M., Dielacher C., Linkesch M., Endler C., Muchitsch I., Schuster E., Kaye A. Influence of potassium dichromate on tracheal secretions in critically ill patients. Chest 2005; 127: 936-941.
• 3 Seeley B.M., Denton A.B., Ahn M.S., Maas C.S. Effect of homeopathic Arnica montana on bruising in face-lifts: results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Arch Facial Plast Surg 2006; 8: 54-59.
• 4 de Oliveira CC, de Oliveira SM, Godoy LM, Gabardo J, Buchi DD. Canova, a Brazilian medical formulation, alters oxidative metabolism of mice macrophages. J Infection 2005.