Constitutional, organopathic and combined homeopathic treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy: a clinical trial

Individualized Homeopathic and Organopathic Supportive Management of Sickle Cell Disorder: A Case Series of Six Patients from a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group in India

BACKGROUND

 Sickle cell disorder (SCD) is a hereditary blood disease characterized by an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin present in red blood cells. Genetic abnormality causes these cells to become sickle-shaped, with shorter lifespan. Vaso-occlusive crisis is a major symptom of SCD: it is a sudden and severe episode of pain, and occurs when sickle-shaped cells block blood flow. This blockage can lead to tissue damage, inflammation and pain.

OBJECTIVES

 This case series aims to observe the clinical outcomes from prescribing individualized homeopathic medicines along with organopathic supportive medicine in the management of SCD through the analysis of case studies of six patients from a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) in India that manifests genetic predisposition for the disease.

METHOD

 The patients were administered individualized homeopathic and organopathic supportive medicines, after a comprehensive door-to-door survey and subsequent screening, conducted between October 2020 and May 2023 in the Dindori and Mandla districts of the central Indian state, Madhya Pradesh. Clinical symptoms, laboratory parameters including hemoglobin, along with scores from a visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and from the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL) Questionnaire, were determined.

RESULTS

 Individualized homeopathic and organopathic supportive management led to improvements in clinical symptoms for all six patients. Laboratory test results showed a statistically significant increase in hemoglobin level associated with treatment. The VAS for pain indicated decreased pain frequency and severity. WHOQoL scores also improved, indicating enhanced well-being for each patient. No adverse effects were reported during treatment.

CONCLUSION

 This study suggests that individualized homeopathic medicine and organopathic supportive management have a beneficial role in managing SCD and may be valuable in the context of PVTGs in India. To establish a more comprehensive understanding of its efficacy, further studies should involve larger cohorts to allow for a thorough evaluation, including comparative analyses with standard therapies.

Nurture to nature via COVID-19, a self-regenerating environmental strategy of environment in global context

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has become the largest pandemic that has affected 210 countries. Rolling data indicate that 257,3605 people are infected by the disease, from which 701,838 have recovered and 178,562 have died. No specific medicine or vaccine is available yet to control the disease, hence, social distancing via lockdown is widely adopted as the only preventive measure. Social distancing is observed at different level of strictness in different counties but it almost made the world to stands still. Although scientific articles on this largest social move are scanty, it resulted in benefiting the deteriorated environment to revive back. Many environmental indices such as lowering NO₂ and CO₂ emissions and reduction in particulate matters in air as a result of less human activities have led to clean air and pollution free water in many countries. Undoubtedly, the world was experiencing pollution in several countries due to mainly human activities including urbanization, industrialization, fossil fuel exhaustion etc. Under such situation a special (natural) a protective measure was awaited to fix environmental issues. Probably, the lockdown is one of the natural effects expected by nature via introduction of COVID-19. It is because, introduction of COVID-19 to nature was an outcome of mutation from two of its pre-existing forms, although, debate on it is still continuing. Viability of CoV-19 virus found to have a lot of correlation with aquatic and terrestrial environmental parameters such as pH, surface type, temperature etc. Air pollution is found to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection, therefore, use of mask and alcohols based standard sterilisers is strongly recommended. However, the self-revival rate of nature shall continue during post-lockdown period and a master plan must be adapted by national and international (mostly political) bodies to revive the Mother Nature completely.

Inter nation social lockdown versus medical care against COVID-19, a mild environmental insight with special reference to India

Infection by coronavirus (CoV-19) has led to emergence of a pandemic called as Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) that has so far affected about 210 countries. The dynamic data indicate that the pandemic by CoV-19 so far has infected 2,403,963 individuals, and among these 624,698 have recovered while, it has been fatal for 165,229. Without much experience, currently, the medicines that are clinically being evaluated for COVID-19 include chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, tocilizumab, lopinavir, ritonavir, tocilizumab and corticosteroids. Therefore, countries such as Italy, USA, Spain and France with the most advanced health care system are partially successful to control CoV-19 infection. India being the 2nd largest populous country, where, the healthcare system is underdeveloped, major portion of population follow unhygienic lifestyle, is able to restrict the rate of both infection and death of its citizens from COVID-19. India has followed an early and a very strict social distancing by lockdown and has issued advisory to clean hands regularly by soap and/or by alcohol based sterilizers. Rolling data on the global index of the CoV infection is 13,306, and the index of some countries such as USA (66,148), Italy (175,055), Spain (210,126), France (83,363) and Switzerland (262,122) is high. The index of India has remained very low (161) so far, mainly due to early implementation of social lockdown, social distancing, and sanitizing hands. However, articles on social lockdown as a preventive measure against COVID-19 in PubMed are scanty. It has been observed that social lockdown has also drastic impacts on the environment especially on reduction of NO2 and CO2 emission. Slow infection rate under strict social distancing will offer time to researchers to come up with exact medicines/vaccines against CoV-19. Therefore, it is concluded that stringent social distancing via lockdown is highly important to control COVID-19 and also to contribute for self-regeneration of nature.

Clinical trials of homeopathy in urological disorders: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

Homeopathy remains one of the most sought after therapies for urological disorders. The aim of this paper was to systematically review the available clinical researches of homeopathy in the said conditions.

CONTENT

Relevant trials published between Jan 1, 1981 and Dec 31, 2016 (with further extension up to Dec 31, 2017) was identified through a comprehensive search. Internal validity of the randomized trials and observational studies was assessed by The Cochrane Collaboration's tool and methodological index for non-randomized studies (MINORS) criteria respectively, homeopathic model validity by Mathie's six judgmental domains, and quality of homeopathic individualization by Saha's criteria.

SUMMARY

Four controlled (three randomized and one sequentially allocated controlled trial) trials were reviewed and 14 observational studies alongside - all demonstrated positive effect of homeopathy. Major focus areas were benign prostatic hypertrophy and renal stones. One of the four controlled trials had 'adequate' model validity, but suffered from 'high' risk of bias. None of the non-randomized studies was tagged as 'ideal' as all of those underperformed in the MINORS rating. Nine observational studies had 'adequate' model validity and quality criteria of individualization. Proof supporting individualized homeopathy from the controlled trials remained promising, still inconclusive.

OUTLOOK

Although observational studies appeared to produce encouraging effects, lack of adequate quality data from randomized trials hindered to arrive at any conclusion regarding the efficacy or effectiveness of homeopathy in urological disorders. The findings from the RCTs remained scarce, underpowered and heterogeneous, had low reliability overall due to high or uncertain risk of bias and sub-standard model validity. Well-designed trials are warranted with improved methodological robustness.

FUNDING

None; Registration web-link: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42018081624&ID=CRD42018081624.