Homeopathy Reduces Arsenic Poisoning in Mice

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone...

 

This was a very timely article... Remember when we were talking

about fasting and someone mentioned the thing about chelating

mercury, and I mentioned the value of homeopathic remedies? Well,

for the skeptics, it should not be that much of a leap that if

homeopathy will help detox arsenic, that it can help with mercury

too. However, it is a little more involved, not only would we look

at the remedies arsenicum alb and mercurius, we would have to look

at the entire symptom picture and then choose the correct remedy- as

should be done according to proper homeopathic principles...

 

Be Well,

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

 

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994305

 

 

Homeopathy reduces arsenic poisoning in mice

18:05 22 October 03 NewScientist.com news service

A homeopathic remedy based on arsenic oxide has shown " highly

promising results " in mice poisoned with arsenic, say Indian

scientists.

 

The homeopathic antidote reduced the liver toxicity induced by

arsenic in mice, where distilled water did nothing, and alcohol

actually exacerbated the poison's effects.

 

Anisur Khuda-Bukhsh and his colleagues at the University of Kalyani,

West Bengal, believe the remedy, called Arsenicum Album, might

provide a safe, cheap and easily available remedy for the hundreds

of millions of people around the world who are at risk from arsenic-

poisoned water. It is a particular problem in some parts of West

Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh. Even if efforts to make drinking

water arsenic-free succeed, contamination could still come from

other sources, the researchers say, meaning other approaches are

needed.

 

Khuda-Bukhsh told New Scientist the homeopathic remedy " can very

well ameliorate the toxicity produced by arsenic oxide in mice " . If

the success could be repeated in humans, it would be " a boon to

society " , he says. However, other scientists remain sceptical.

 

 

Serial dilution

 

 

The researchers took groups of five mice either with or without

arsenic poisoning and drop fed them Arsenicum Album, distilled

water, or alcohol that had been through the same preparation

procedure as the homeopathic antidote.

 

Two different dilutions of the homeopathic remedy cut the levels of

two liver enzymes - ALT and AST - which are indicators of liver

toxicity and are boosted by arsenic poisoning. This positive effect

occurred within 72 hours and liver lasted for up to 30 days, they

report in their journal paper.

 

Distilled water had no effect on either enzyme. And alcohol actually

enhanced the activity of AST.

 

Homeopathic remedies are based on the serial dilution of a

medication - to the extent that extremely little, if any, of the

original substance remains. Khuda-Bukhsh says the preparation used

was so dilute that it should not have contained even one molecule of

the active ingredient.

 

He says his team is striving to understand the mechanism of action

of homeopathic drugs, which despite being used for over 200 years

has remained elusive to science.

 

 

Water mark

 

 

A notion central to many advocates of homeopathy is that water could

retain an imprint or " memory " of substances once dissolved in it.

 

This view cost one of France's top allergy researchers, Jacques

Benveniste, his lab and funding after his results were discredited

in 1988. Benveniste claimed in a Nature paper that a solution that

had once contained antibodies still activated human white blood

cells. But, other researchers failed to reproduce his experiments.

 

 

 

" It comes down to the same old dilemma, " says Andreas Gescher, a

biochemical toxicologist at Leicester University, UK. " This kind of

study uses a dilution so high there is hardly anything there -

philosophically it's the same as the Benveniste case. Is it really

possible? "

 

Although Gescher told New Scientist he is " extremely sceptical " , he

adds that the study is interesting. Gescher is on the UK

government's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

advisory board for the registration of homeopathic products, which

checks the safety - but not the efficacy - of voluntarily registered

products.

 

Khuda-Bukhsh's group aims to test the drug in human trials, subject

to funding. " We think this would open up another avenue for others

to either confirm or refute, " he says.

 

Journal reference: BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (vol

3, p 7)

 

Shaoni Bhattacharya