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Steve, a 38-year-old Web designer
from Brooklyn, had trouble sleeping for some time, and his wife complained
that he snored terribly, which meant she didn't sleep much either. He
went for a full overnight evaluation at a Manhattan hospital's sleep center
and was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. Surgery or a facial mask that
he would have to wear nightly were recommended.
But both options seemed extreme, Steve said, and he looked around for
an alternative. He heard a lecture by Pierre Fontaine, a French-born homeopath
who practices in Manhattan and Babylon. About 10 months ago, he went to
Fontaine, who was struck by Steve's lack of energy, puffy eyes, shyness
and inability to make eye contact.
Based on his assessment of both Steve's "essence" and symptoms, Fontaine
recommended infinitesimal daily doses in pill form of a mineral remedy,
strontium carbonicum, which he felt would have the best "resonance" with
Steve.
Almost a year later, a clear-eyed Steve maintains that his apnea is vastly
improved. He says he feels rested, happier, relaxed and "more assertive"
-- so much so that he was able to leave a job he detested and go into
the field he wanted.
According to the World Health Organization, homeopathy is the second-most-used
health care system in the world, after allelopathic or conventional, Western-based
medicine. Yet it is hard to think of a medical therapy more radically
different.
The goal of homeopathy is not so much to relieve a symptom as to treat
the whole person so the body can heal itself. As Fontaine puts it: "The
treatment is for the patient, not the problem."
Many homeopaths maintain that certain people have an affinity to a particular
remedy based on their "constitutional type," reminiscent of astrologic
typing. For instance, according to the "Complete Guide to Homeopathy"
(by Dr. Andrew Locke and Dr. Nocola Gedes, DK Natural Health, 2000), "Nux
vomica" people are lean, tense-looking, dapper, with an irascible air."
Their weak areas include the stomach, bowels, liver, lungs and nerves.
"Pulsatilla" people are usually women, "sweet-natured, shy, kind and gentle."
They tend to be "plump with fair hair and blue eyes." They fear enclosed
spaces, crowds and like rich, sweet foods.
Many mainstream doctors find this approach eccentric, to say the least.
Describing these "types" in an article entitled "Homeopathy: The Ultimate
Fake," Dr. Stephen Barrett, editor of the nonprofit Web site Quackwatch,
asked: "Does this sound to you like a rational basis for diagnosis and
treatment?" Homeopathic medicine is equally as foreign to allelopathic
thinking.
Homeopathy is based on the "principle of similars." This states that patients
with particular symptoms can be cured if given a drug that produces the
same symptoms in an otherwise healthy individual.
The founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor and pharmacist
(1755-1843), came to this conclusion after he ingested quinine, used to
cure malaria. He discovered that the quinine produced malaria-like symptoms,
although he didn't have the disease. He tried similar experiments with
other medicines used to treat various illnesses no himself and other people.
He found in these so-called "provings" that some healthy people reacted
strongly to the medicines, others less strongly.
Hahnemann also came to believe that the smaller and more diluted the dose
that was shaken or "succussed," the faster and more effective it was.
Homeopathy maintains that remedies retain their biological activity even
when there are no original molecules of the starting medicine. In fact,
in homeopathy, the more diluted the medicine, the more potent it is considered
to be. Hahnemann believed that the vigorous shaking or pulverizing with
each step of dilution leaves behind a "spirit-like" essence which cures
by reviving the body's "vital force."
Although other tenets of homeopathy no doubt elevate eyebrows, it is this
last that probably most raises the hackles of many mainstream doctors.
How can medicine work if there isn't any trace of it?
Most critics simply ascribe any change in the patient to the placebo effect.
"Placebo effects can be powerful, of course, but the potential benefit
of relieving symptoms with placebos should be weighed against the harm
that can result from relying upon -- and wasting money on -- ineffective
products," writes Barrett. "...I believe that most people who credit a
homeopathic product for their recovery would have fared equally well without
it."
But others disagree. Alicia, 39, came to Fontaine in October after suffering
for three years with a mysterious lupus-like illness that left her covered
in a rash, achy in her joints, foggy-brained and so tired she was unable
to do the simplest household chores. Steroids, creams -- nothing helped,
she said. Fontaine prescribed a homeopathic remedy of phosphoricum acidum.
Four months later, the only reminder of her illness is a small patch on
her nose.
"He gave me new life," she says, her eyes filling with tears. "Sometimes
people can't believe it. I can't believe it, too."
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