Homeopathic Remedy on Culture Agenda
By Joe Riley
AS A timely reminder that Capital of Culture is decreed to be as much about healt has paintings, plays and music festivals, the annual seminar of the UK Homeopathic Medical Association is being held in Liverpool for the first time.
It also means that this branch of alternative Competition Look medicine is coming home.
Local co-ordinator Phil Hughes, who practices in Crosby, says: “Liverpool has always had a huge following for homeopathy.”
One of the first ever centres specialising in treatment, the former Hahnenann hospital, near the Phil harmonic Hall, opened in Liverpool in the 1840s and was funded by Henry Tate (the sugar king, also of Tate Gallery fame).
As such, Phil feels confident to proclaim: “Homeopathy has now come of age.
“The old problem was that it could not be explained by conventional science. Now with the help of quantum physics, it can.
“It is pure ignorance now a days for people to say it can’t work.”
To prove the point, the day seminar at the Liverpool Medical Institution, Mount Pleasant, on April 29, offers an open invitation to members of the public.
One of the high profile guest speakers is international science writer Lynne Mc Taggart, author of the Harper Collins best-seller What Doctors Don’t Tell You.
There’s a determination to avoid the sort of slanging matches between traditional and alternative medicine which have obscured the real progress made in homeopathic PR.
Says Phil: “The big thing about health today is giving people the choice, not only of conventional treatment, but of homeopathy.”
Yet he acknowledges there will always beatug of war between the ideals: “You can’t patent a plant, but the drug companies make their money through patents. It’s a multi-billion pound world trade with all-powerful lobbyists.”
He says that homeopathy avoids the inevitable bombardment of manufactured drugs.
“We are not on the treadle of tests, followed by giving a condition a name, followed by prescribing yet another drug.”
Phil quotes one case of a patient who sought homeopathic treatment after being given 33 drug prescriptions.
“Homeopathy is also about maintaining good health. We do not wait until there is a tissue change. We take note of sensitivities and feelings largely ignored by doctors,” says Phil.
He says many more young people, including pregnant women, and mothers, are seeking homeopathic remedies.
Those with skin diseases and respiratory and digestive complaints are also seeking an alternative. Says Phil: “People are becoming much more aware that they have a responsibility for their own health.
“If homeopathic remedies didn’t work, patients wouldn’t remain faithful to a practice and we’d all be out of business.
“Homeopathy was once the reserve of royalty and the rich, but it is now widely available to ordinary folk.”
Details: 0151-931 5001.
(c) 2007 Liverpool Echo. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.