Homeopath develops treatment based on personality
Homeopathy considers health to be associated with holistic physical, mental and emotional well-being, instead of being a compartmentalized science. Mumbai-based Dr Parinaz Humranwala has gone a step ahead by helping homeopaths in giving tailor-made medication to patients depending on their personality traits. This, she says, helps to fasten the process of recovery by addressing mental and emotional issues along with physical ones.
Comprehensive research of over a decade has helped her deduce remedies for all kinds of mental make-ups. A software ‘Tempraz’ based on her methodology has been well accepted by homeopaths in the country. Dr Humranwala was in the city for a seminar on paediatric prescribing organized by the state and city units of The Homeopathic Medical Association of India. Mayor Anil Sole was the chief guest while well known homeopath from the city Dr Vilas Dangre was the guest of honour.
“Homeopathic treatment is based on symptoms. Therefore, everything from a person’s eating habits, sleep pattern and the way they express their emotions become important while treating someone for any ailment. Tempraz explains people’s behavioural pattern based on their reactions to a particular situation,” explained Dr Humranwala. She considers this software and a book that describes her study on temperament as a way of leaving behind her intelligence and experience collected from over 27 years of teaching and practicing homeopathy.
Her way of teaching the method to practicing and budding homeopaths was as novel as the topic of her study. Having first discussed the theory of temperaments with the delegates, she made them guess the personality types and the remedies by showing funny videos of crying kids. She also discussed personality types depending on habits and addictions like eating ash or egg shells acquired during childhood. Other factors that helped her deduce personality types included temperature of bathing water, nightmares, temper tantrums, foreign bodies that enter a person’s body among others. “Unlike most other treatment methodologies, we do not believe in a generalized cure for a specific disease. Remedies that a homeopath uses are tailor-made for every patient. While the physical aspect of the disease has to be dealt with separately, it also becomes important to deal with the underlying emotional or mental state which can be affected by a number of factors,” she explained. Though there are five types of temperaments that she has described, the traits of two or more types can coexist in one person. “When this happens the remedies need to be mixed and matched according to the personality of the patient,” she said.
Following are the five types of temperaments according to Dr Humranwala
CHOLERIC – leaders, dictatorial, competitive, deceitful, impatient, stubborn, short-tempered
MELANCHOLIC – sensitive, sacrificing, courageous, perfectionist, responsible, trustworthy
NERVOUS – anxious, scared (of exams, results, etc), overcautious, concerned about health, bashful, confused, low on confidence
PHLEGMATIC – mild, yielding, laid-back, slow, shy, messy, one among crowd
SANGUINE – cheerful, extrovert, holds no grudges, chirpy, humorous, show-off
Ego-pathy?
The divisions became apparent in the round of introductions itself. There were those who called for maintaining the purity of each branch of medicine and opposed what they said were half-baked attempts to combine two branches. The other group said that for many people, especially from rural areas, the ‘pathy’ didn’t matter, as long as they were cured and that homeopaths should be given the freedom to practise allopathy for the sake of providing health care to those who did not have easy access to it.
Nimish Sutaria, a chartered accountant who was representing the general public, said that even educated people do not understand the effects medicines have on the human body. “However, this does not mean that doctors should apply quick fixes just because patients understand very little about the treatment,” he said. Dr Sanjay Deshpande, a sexologist and IMA Nagpur’s president-elect, concurred, saying that dilution was a branch of medicine was not the solution for health care deficit in rural areas. However, Radhika Vellore, final year MBBS student from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences at Sewagram, took a different stand. She said that allowing homeopaths to prescribe allopathic medicines, especially in villages, was a case of utilizing untapped potential. Deshpande countered that the government had appointed village health guides to administer basic health care and that specialized treatment shouldn’t be expected in remote areas.
Senior homeopath Dr Kasim Chimthanawala also spoke against ‘dilution’ of homeopathy. “German physician Dr Samuel Hahnemann, known as the father of homeopathy, was also an allopathic doctor, but because he found some shortcomings in it, he developed an alternative branch. Today, homeopathy has become diluted in all western countries and India is known as the capital of homeopathy in the world. Should we really tinker with it,” he asked. He said that the reluctance of medicine graduates to go to serve to rural areas could be dealt with by compelling them to go to villages.
Dr Manish Patil, who had fought for homeopaths being allowed to practise allopathy, said the government’s decision would help homeopathy practitioners get a level playing field. “While the AYUSH scheme of the government was meant to develop other branches of medicine, it didn’t work on the ground. This move will benefit both patients and doctors,” he said.
However, Dr Chimthanawala, disagreed. “There may be homeopaths who are practising allopathy. But just because it is a common phenomenon does not mean it is right. It is like legalizing bribery because it is widespread,” he remarked. To emphasize his argument, he asked Dr Patil: “If a close family member is ill, would you take them to a specialist or a homeopath who has done a one-year bridging course?”
Sutaria, too, said that in our society, there was tendency to allow something dubious to keep happening and then legitimize it by taking help of the argument that it is ‘in the interest of public’. He observed even a general practitioner with decades of experience could sometimes make mistakes. “What is the guarantee that someone who has done just a one-year course would not make an error,” he asked.
Vellore said that while it was easy to find multiple doctors in cities and big towns, there were vast areas of the country where there was only one doctor for an area of several kilometres. “If the only doctor in a remote area is a homeopath and he gets a case of poisoning, shouldn’t he be allowed to prescribe an allopathic medicine,” she wondered.
Patil also said that the government decision had been taken after recommendation from an expert committee that included people from all sectors concerned. He said there was no harm in homeopaths prescribing allopathic medicines as the medical knowledge for all branches was the same. “Even the World Health Organization has allowed some medicines to be prescribed across branches. In Australia, UK and US, even nurses are allowed to prescribe medicines,” he said.
However, Sutaria countered this by saying that he was a chartered accountant and his curriculum was similar to that of a company secretary or a cost accountant. “If I choose one profession, I have to surrender the others,” he said. At this point, he put a question to the rest of the panellists, asking them whether the government’s decision was a way to ensure that seats in homeopathy colleges, run by political bigwigs, would be filled. “Many people aren’t studying homeopathy as it has no future. But the one-year course in a backdoor entry to the mainstream health care system. Is the government move an effort to make homeopathy more lucrative?” he said.
Patil agreed that homeopaths did not have a lot of employment opportunities. “The government only sanctioned dime-a-dozen homeopathy colleges. But the problem is that there is no separate directorate for homeopathy and no government-run colleges. We come under AYUSH (which stands for Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homeopathy). Last year, we got Rs83 lakh as funds while Ayurveda got over Rs200 crore,” he lamented.
Dr Pramod Rakshamwar, general secretary of Maharashtra Association of Gazetted Medical Officers, said that there was an urgent need to raise teaching in homeopathy colleges up to the required standard. “These institutions need to be upgraded. If they are found lacking, the government should not allow them to admit students,” he said.
The discussion then turned to whether all ‘pathies’ could be done away with and a modern medicine approach that incorporated all different streams could be adopted.
Chimthanawala said that this was not feasible as different branches had different, even opposing, approaches. “In allopathy, there are only a handful lines of treatment for a simple thing like fever. In homeopathy, there are 22 types of medicines, depending on the nature of the fever,” he cited, while quoting an example.
Ayurveda consultant Dr Jai Chhangani, organizing committee chairman of the state chapter of National Integrated Medical Association, said that rather than the so-called crosspathy, there should be an integration of medicine. “India is a multicultural country. We have people of various faiths coexisting. The same can be done for medicine as well. In rural areas, if homeopaths are giving allopathic drugs, they should be allowed to do so,” he reasoned.
Deshpande said that a one-year course was just not comprehensive enough to equip homeopaths with adequate knowledge. “They should undergo at least a three-year course,” he said. Patil called for a common course after Std XII to build a foundation for all medicine students. “After this, they can choose which branch to select,” he suggested.
Chimthanawala said that if the government had started a course, homeopaths were free to pursue them. “However, they should not have the BHMS degree. They should not compromise the purity of the branch,” he said.
Homoeopathy healing 80 % leprosy patients
If the claims of the Directorate of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), are to be believed, a pilot project of testing homeopathy drugs on leprosy patients has proven successful in restoring sensation to the affected parts of body.
According to officials, the project started for patients from the districts of Raigarh and Janjgir-Champa, had shown encouraging results with over 80% of them recovering senses to their affected body parts.
The project, Prevention of Disability in Leprosy Cured Persons through Homeopathy, was started in January 2013 following a MoU signed by the Department of Aayush with the Society for Welfare of Handicapped Persons and State Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh. Under the project, 2,700 such patients- who had undergone multi drug allopathic treatment for leprosy but were suffering from ulcer and lack of sensation in affected body parts- were selected and administered homeopathic drugs for a year to restore sensation. According to project head, Dr Dhruv Chakravarty, Society for Welfare of Handicapped Persons, though the multi-drug allopathic treatment cures leprosy, it often fails to cure the lack of sensation and disability in the affected body parts. “After the year-long homeopathy course, it was found that more than 80% of the patients had recovered the senses in their affected body parts and their wounds had healed,” said Dr Dhruv. Positive effects of the medicine were found on the nerves, the bones and the immunity of the patients, they said.
Officials said chief minister Raman Singh had been informed about the success of the experiment during a simple ceremony organized at his residence on the eve of World Leprosy Prevention Day on Wednesday. He congratulated the team for successful results of the test.
CM instructed principal secretary of Health Department, MK Raut to discuss about the benefits of this treatment with doctors of Society for Welfare of Handicapped Persons and to explore the possibilities of expanding this project to other parts of the state.
How to prevent and treat common cold
A new study has revealed that while zinc may be best for prevention, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and perhaps antihistamine-decongestant combinations are the recommended treatments.
The study by Drs. Michael Allan, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, and Bruce Arroll, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, New Zealand, aimed at physicians and patients, looked at available evidence for both traditional and nontraditional approaches for preventing and alleviating colds.
A review of 67 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicated that handwashing, a traditional public health approach, as well as alcohol disinfectants and gloves, is likely effective. Zinc may work for children (and possibly adults) — at least 2 RCTs indicated that children who took 10 or 15 mg of zinc sulfate daily had lower rates of colds and fewer absences from school due to colds. The authors suggest that zinc may also work for adults. There is some evidence that probiotics may help prevent colds, although the types and combinations of organisms varied in the studies as did the formulations (pills, liquids, etc.), making comparison difficult. Antihistamines combined with decongestants and/or pain medications appear to be somewhat or moderately effective in treating colds in older children — but not in children under age 5 — and adults. It was found that ipratropium, a drug used to treat allergies and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, may alleviate runny nose when used in a nasal spray but has no effect on congestion.
According to the evidence, the benefits of frequently used remedies such as ginseng, (found in ColdFX), gargling, vapour rubs and homeopathy are unclear. Cough medicines show no benefit in children but may offer slight benefit in adults. Honey has a slight effect in relieving cough symptoms in children over age 1. Vitamin C and antibiotics show no benefit, and misused antibiotics can have associated harms. The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.