Phoenix Homeopathy

Roaccutane, a drug used for severe acne, has long been suspected of being linked to depression.

Historically, Roche, the drug’s manufacturers have always denied any links to depression and suicide amongst users of Roaccutane, blaming the acne itself instead.

Though as well-known veterinary homeopath and author, Chris Day, writes in his blog on Roaccutane, wasn’t the drug meant to cure the acne?

We all know that orthodox drugs have side-effects, but who knew that the contraceptive Pill could make you blind? Sounds like a bad joke, doesn’t it, but that’s what one woman claims in The Daily Mail. Read her story here.

It happened to me, too, but with steroids

In a desperate attempt to reverse my worsening neurological symptoms, back in 1995-6, doctors gave me increasing doses of intravenous and oral steroids. Soon after, I too, experienced raised intra-cranial pressure from too much fluid building up, which was removed over time, via repeated lumbar punctures and Acetazolomide, a diuretic.

Meningitis-like headache

The headache I developed from the pressure building up in my skull was so intense that the sound of someone buttering toast on the other side of the room was agony, and I was given Pethidine to help me to endure it. Through the haze of drugs, I was vaguely aware at the time that these symptoms were unusual for the disease I’d been diagnosed with, but I was never told that the problem could be an effect of the steroids.

It was only years later, as a practising homeopath researching possible steroid side-effects for a patient’s case, that I realised the likely cause of that terrible episode.

Informed choice about adverse drug effects

I don’t blame the doctors: they were doing their best to suppress my worsening neurological symptoms, not realising that these symptoms were a sign of a deeper disorder - the stress of being on the wrong life path, from suppressing rather than acknowledging and releasing my emotions, not to mention an unhealthy and fast-paced lifestyle.

Would it to have helped, at the time, to know that I was one of the quarter of a million people in the UK admitted to hospital due to adverse drug effects? Maybe not, but being warned about possible side-effects, no matter how rare, would at least have empowered me to make an informed decision.

Deaths from medicines soar

As the modern pharmaceutical industry has grown, so deaths from conventional medicines have soared. According to a special report in The Independent newspaper, experts estimate that, at any one time, 5,600 UK hospital beds area occupied by patients suffering from drug reactions, at a cost to the NHS of over £450million a year.

We all know that orthodox medicines can be a life-saver, although they often help suppress the symptoms rather than tackling the real root cause of illness. But too often, for hard-pressed GPs with too many patients and too little time, they’re the first port of call, even before a proper diagnosis has been made.

A case of drugs before diagnosis

A member of my family recently developed severe menstrual problems and some double vision. Blood tests revealed that levels of one hormone were excessively high. From the clinical presentation, doctors were understandably convinced that she had a pituitary tumour, and strongly advised that she start taking Bromocriptine (Parlodel) straightaway, a heavy-duty drug used to treat Parkinson’s, with an enormous list of side effects (69% of patients taking the drug experienced some side-effects), including nausea, abnormal involuntary movement, hallucinations, confusion, dizziness, drowsiness, faintness/fainting, vomiting, asthenia, abdominal discomfort, visual disturbance, ataxia, insomnia, depression, hypotension, shortness of breath, constipation and vertigo. Nice.

Not wanting to risk upsetting her body chemistry unless and until she found out that this treatment was the only, and an essential, treatment option, and unwilling to take a drug like this on an unconfirmed diagnosis, she quite rightly insisted on an MRI scan to find the suspected tumour and confirm the diagnosis, first.

She had the scan, no tumour was found, and doctors now consider that the high hormone level is probably due to polycyctic ovary syndrome, meaning that Bromicriptinene would have been entirely the wrong drug for her to have taken, and she would have unneccesarily risked serious side-effects.

Find out if you’re at risk

Deaths from adverse reactions from suspected adverse reactions to prescription drugs has more than doubled in the past 10 years, so if you’re taking conventional medicines, especially if you’re taking more than one, or are elderly, make sure that you know what side-effects to look for and let your doctor know if you suspect your drugs are making you ill.

And if you’d like to discuss finding a natural way to get your body back into balance, contact Phoenix Homeopathy.

The latest copy of health store Holland & Barrett’s magazine Here’s Health asks “should homeopathy be available on the NHS?”. Faculty of Homeopathy member and reknowned homeopath Peter Fisher gives the ‘yes’ case, and homeopathy-sceptic Professor Michael Baum opposes it.

Readers are asked to vote on the issue.

Why not register your views?

Homeopathy has always been a controversial area of holistic or complementary medicine.

Those with an opinion about homeopathy tend to fall into one of two diametrically-opposed camps: some think it’s scientifically implausible or impossible for homeopathic remedies to work, while others know from their own experience that homeopathy does work, even though we don’t yet have a verifiable way of explaining how. The recent US medical school debate about homeopathy illustrates this perfectly.

There’s nothing wrong with being sceptical about things: in fact, scepticism can be extremely healthy. I just don’t think that it’s healthy to ignore evidence from hundreds of thousands of satisfied patients who are convinced that homeopathy was the treatment that helped them to restore their health.

After all, the healthiest of minds tends to be an open one.