| THE LIGA LETTER - October 1998 |
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GENERAL SECRETARY REPORTS SECRETARY FOR ARCHIVES Work has been undertaken in London to classify the LMHI Archives. SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION After 3 years of working on the Minimum Basic Program for Homeopathy, the International Committee agreed to start working with the program in the countries that have already accepted it, and to make an evaluation of the results of its application. During the evaluation time, all other countries will continue to receive information about the results, and a standing invitation to join it at any time, for a global effort towards a high level of homeopathy. SECRETARY FOR PHARMACY The portion in brackets was derived from the Minutes of the International Council Meeting. [This Secretary would like to thank Dr. S. M.Chase for arranging for the sending of the current edition of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPUS) to the LMHI Secretary for Pharmacy. An increased sympathy in discussing Homeopathic Remedies It is interesting to realize that the majority of the professionals that prescribe Homeopathy believes there is no problem related to the preparation of Homeopathic remedies. In France the standardization is really bigger. Even there, when we try to describe the remedies found in the market some doubts come; there are the CH potencies up to 30CH (dilutions in several vials that receive at least 100 sucussions - How many indeed?) and the K potencies, prepared in machines (dilutions in one single vial, with hundred (?) movements). In several European countries it is possible to find the Q potencies, better standardized by Hahnemann. In some other places, including North and South America, we can find higher potencies made by several machines, like Loch, Skinner, Quinn, each one producing different remedies under the same name. How could we compare all these different remedies? How could we establish a research protocol? During the last LMHI Congress in Amsterdam, we had a very good understanding among different professionals concerned with pharmacy subjects. A whole day meeting with more than 30 persons, pharmacists from industries, from pharmacies, some that teach, and also some physicians was held. We decided to establish 5 working groups as follows: These groups are already working, and any person that desires to join us is welcome. Contact the Secretary for Pharmacy, Amarilys de Toledo Cesar - Fax: +, email: - or Tereza Leitao (for Education) - R. Visconde de Cairu 235, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil, 20.270-050, Fax: / +. Back to Amsterdam, we had some papers being presented, such as the one by Sabine Klein from Argentina, that compared remedies obtained according to different Pharmacopoeiae. Jack Hendrickx, from Belgium spoke very properly about the problems and interests of pharmacists from industries, from pharmacies, GMP and the best for homeopathy itself. In the Satellite Section for pharmacists, that was attended by a much greater number of professionals, the theme was the registration of homeopathic remedies. Professionals that work for or together with the national agencies for medicines presented the specific troubles and difficulties that are becoming very clear in Europe. Remedies from animal sources are legally obliged to be sterilized by heat before being dynamized. Dellmour, from Austria, showed us his very detailed work, about the source and nomenclature of homeopathic remedies. Some of these colleagues are already being expected to attend the next LMHI Congress in Brazil, where a bigger number of pharmacists should be present facilitating the exchange of information among all of the homeopaths. Once again, everyone is invited to be present at the Congress and to work with us! SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS An Internet place for the LMHI has been created, at the WWW site: https://lmhi.net. A new LMHI Directory 1997 -1998 was distributed to all International Council members. Corrections made at this meeting will be incorporated in the near future. A new, up-dated Directory then will be distributed. Translation of the Statutes into Spanish has been completed, and the Portuguese translation has been received from Dr. Corrado Bruno. SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH Time is helping our search for understanding how homeopathic medicine works. Research in homeopathy is divided into areas such as basic, theoretical, physiological, cell and clinical research. The ECH Research Subcommittee Meeting was held last January in London at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. A list of some of the papers and books published during 1996 and 1997 is included with the full report. Dr. David Riley (USA), Newly Elected General Secretary for Research Research in homeopathy continues to move forward in two key areas: basic research on potential mechanisms of action and clinical research such as homeopathic drug provings, outcomes studies and randomized controlled trials. Roeland van Wijk, Ph.D., and Fred Wiegant, M.D., have completed an impressive research program clearly demonstrating the validity of the similia principle using intracellular heat shock proteins. Their results have been published in a book, The Similia Principle in Surviving Stress: Mammalian Cells in Homeopathy Research available from the authors at the University of Utrecht or HomInt in Karlsruhe, Germany. A multi-disciplinary international effort to develop and test a plausible mechanism of action theory has been underway for two years sponsored by several research foundations under the leadership of David Riley, M.D., and Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D. This project is focusing on currently accepted basic science research models which appear to have applicability to homeopathy from bioelectromagnetism to complexity. A meeting on homoepathic drug provings at the LIGA conference produced general agreement on the key components of homeopathic drug provings and recognition that this important research tool in homoepathy needs to continue to be developed and linked with others of clinical research whenever possible. Present at this meeting were Jurgen Becker, Reinhard Flick, Jean-Pierre Jansen, George Lewith, Gio Meijer, Jeremy Sherr, David Riley, and Harry van der Zee. George Vithoulkas sent a letter after the LIGA conference suggesting beginning provings using subtoxic doses and lower potencies, reserving the higher potencies for those found to be sensitive during the initial phase of the proving. Homeopathic drug proving and clinical verification guidelines for evaluating the results of provings have been developed. These will hopefully contribute to the utilization of a consistent research methodology in order that the results of homeopathy can be compared with each other and that clinical pathways based on those results be integrated into the practice of homeopathy. REPORT BY THE PRIME GENERAL SECRETARY Since the elections on 1995, the General Secretary has been working on his statutory duties: 1) Administration: The list of the mailing and fax work from March 1995 to April 1998 has been given to all International Council officers, with a total of 1,411 letters; 2) preparation of the Meetings, Minutes, and special documents, such as "Membership Survey and Recommendations 1995" (in conjunction with Dr Ton Nicolai), "LMHI Congress Organization: Tips and Pitfalls" and "Procedures of Election of the National Vice President". Permanent communication among the Executive Committee officers has been achieved via fax, mail and telephone. It is anticipated that during this year 1998 the Document "Legal Situation of Homeopathy in the World 1998" will be completed. REPORT BY THE TREASURER The LMHI membership has increased from 5,450 in 1996 to 6,060 in 1997. Over the last 5 years the LMHI membership has increased more than 60%. The 1997 expenditures included the following:
The 1997 income included the following:
This means a net deficit of CHF 10,522 for the year 1997. The LMHI assets have decreased from CHF 399,792 on 31 December 1996 to CHF 389,269 on 31 December 1997. Estimate for 1998 The 1997 expenditures will amount to CHF 112,600, the receipts to approx. CHF 72,000. That means that the LMHI will have a net deficit for the year 1998 of approx. CHF 40,600 and that the LMHI assets will continue to decrease. At the 1996 Council meeting it was decided that the membership dues may be raised again in the future, as soon as the LMHI assets reach a critical limit. REPORT BY THE PRIME VICE PRESIDENT Information about WHO, OMHI, Cuba, Venezuela, Georgia, was presented by the Prime Vice President, who has visited and/or corresponded with those various entities in an attempt at international outreach and liaison.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT Some words from our President My dear Colleagues, I first want to thank the colleagues who have worked as an efficient team during the previous mandate and especially Dr. Sandra Chase, our Immediate Past-President. The tasks that had been proposed in 1995 have all been put in action and most of them have been completed (Statutes, Directories, Newsletters, Membership certificates, Curriculum and pledges of National Vice Presidents and Officers, booklet about the Liga). The newsletter, our link with the members, has been managed very well by Dr. Sandra Chase who kindly agreed to continue to edit this newsletter. I also want to mention the recent International Homeopathic Congress in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) last April 1998, organized by our Dutch friends with our Treasurer, Dr. Ton Nicolai as a very efficient leader and organizer. The quality of the organization and the multiple contacts that it has permitted, certainly have amplified the relationship among the different parts of our Homeopathic World. During the different sessions of that Congress, we had the opportunity to realize the size and the variety of the tasks that we are facing for the progress of homeopathic medical therapy and for the best quality of homeopathic treatment that we want to provide to our patients. So many items of the highest interest and so many interesting sessions in different rooms demonstrated, if it was not yet understood by some, that we need many different persons in our national teams in order to undertake the various tasks that should be accomplished. Let us go through a list that is certainly not exhaustive: 1. Pharmacology, Materia Medica, Pharmacopoeia 2. Research a) Basic Research: the study of the reaction of homeopathy in simple and isolated systems such as cellular, vegetal or animal cultures and all other questions such as physio-pathologics, biochemics or biophysics (see Dusseldorf meeting November 1997). b) Homeopathic Pathogenetic Trials (often called "Provings"): definition of the standards, parameters and main lines for "Good Homeopathic Drug Pathogenetic Trials," i.e., the executive protocols of good pathogenesy, including a protocol for the supervisors. c) Clinical Research: 1) to establish research programs, collecting well-documented clinical cases which can demonstrate the homeopathic effects through an updated methodology acceptable for the scientific community and the political authorities and 2) to improve the knowledge of the homeopathic physicians about their own practice and also about the standards chosen for the symptomatic analyses and the therapeutic strategies. d) Homeopathy and Society: The relationship of homeopathy and the world, investigations about its needs, demands and wishes and its social and economical context: to have a better view of the homeopathic therapy in the various communities of patients and, eventually, to be able to present a quality/price report to the political authorities and social security services. e) Ethics: From all countries, the information about research already completed or in progress or planned, should be sent to our Secretary for Research, Dr. David Riley. 3. Documentation 4. Education 5. Politics and Public Relations
Secretary for Public Relations: Dr. José Matuk Kanan, Cuenca 87 Colonia Alamos, 03400 Mexico D.F. (Mexico). 6. Users/Patients 7. Veterinary Medicine 8. Other specialities like Dentistry, Gynecology, Obstetrics and Midwifery, etc. should also be taken into consideration. Other Events: Praha (Czech Republic), October 1997, First Czech Homeopathic Congress Dusseldorf (Germany), November 1997 Mainz (Germany) May 1998 Pavia-Italy, 4-6 June 1998 The action COST-B4 was launched in 1993 with the aim of "investigating the therapeutic significance of unconventional medicine, its cost-benefit ratio and its sociological and cultural importance as a basis for the evaluation of its possible usefulness or risks in public health." In the conclusion of the final report of the homeopathic section, we can read that homeopathy certainly is a researchable fact with a large amount of clinical documents with different methodologies of variable values. But the survey of the existing literature is not completed and an audit should be made about the conclusions and statistics. The report is available at: the COST-B4 responsible, the European Union, Directorate General XII (DG XII), Science, Research and Development, Square de Meeus nr 8, B-1049-Brussels-Belgium. Lisboa-Portugal, 18-21 June 1998
Cfr Sociedade Portuguesa de Homeopatia, Rua Andrade Corvo, 16 R/C Dt°, P-1050 Lisboa (Portugal) Vilanova i la Geltrú, Catalonia (Spain), 27-28 June 1998 A recently published and highly recommended book Homeopathy, A Critical Appraisal, edited by Edzard Ernst & Eckhart Hahn, with contributions by Flavio Dantas, Peter Fisher, Wayne Jonas, Klaus Linde, David Reilly, Roeland van Wijk, Harald Walach, Fred Wiegant, Frank Wieland, among many others (Published by Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998, ISBN 0-7506-3564-9) As to future events, let us mention, among others, the following: The October 1998 meeting on Databanks and Clinical Files Collection in Brussels, October 16, 1998. The European Committee for Homeopathy's General Assembly with the concomitant meetings of all subcommittees on Pharmacology, Materia Medica, Pharmacopoeia, Research, Basic, Clinical, Pathogenetic, Ethics, Socio-economics, Documentation, Education, Politics, Public Relations, Patients' Associations, Veterinary Medicine, etc., will meet in Brussels on October 17-18, 1998. And we can be sure that the results of that meeting, being available for all of us, will enhance our investigation and action possibilities.
Best friendly regards, Jacques Imberechts, M.D., President |