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Dear Web Readers:
Last week I have returned from a lecture tour to the United States. My
impressions about the status of homeopathy in the US have prompted me to share
with you some thoughts.
Once upon a time, in the early part of this century, about 30% of the doctors in
the US were said to be homeopaths. Yes, it was once upon a time! Today, sadly,
not even 0.3% of the practitioners can be claimed to be knowing about
homeopathy. Why this shift? What are its consequences? Is it not unhealthy
evolution? What is the future?
The negative shift has many factors responsible for it. Advances of the
traditional medical science, pharmaceutical forces and their powerful lobbies,
scarcity of adequate scientific homeopathic research, impact of the second world
war, deterioration of homeopathic education to an extent of having not a single
full time homeopathic medical college in the US today!!
The consequences? Well, plenty. The simplest of all is deprivation of the
benefits of homeopathy to the people of one of the most important nations in the
world. The United States, known to be a modern nation, has no facility to offer
homeopathic treatment under its health insurance coverage. As a result, some of
the most important medical facts such as listed below, are not known to the
people of the US:
1. Homeopathy offers an alternative to antibiotics
2. Homeopathy can treat successfully allergies and viral disorders
3. Chronic diseases of wide range can find wonderful treatment with homeopathy
4. Homeopathy is a scientific system of medicine with proven efficacy
This is certainly a sick evolution, where a whole of the nation has been kept in
the dark of the homeopathy benefits. Homeopathy, in my opinion, must be
recognized as the most important alternative health option in the US.
Well, a visible sign of hope in the US culture is that there is amazing
openhandedness amongst the people of the United States. With a right kind of
strategic efforts by the homeopaths, homeopathic institutes, support
organizations, various media, etc. homeopathy could certainly be revived. There
is a hope!
With best wishes,
Dr.Rajesh Shah
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