Recently I had the privilege of visiting and going on rounds at a hospital in Lucca Tuscany Italy. Yes that is what I wrote, Tuscany Italy. I wish I had a full page of the newspaper to share all the amazing and forward thinking aspects of the public health system in Italy but I don’t so I will do my best to summarize.
This summer I came across an abstract or study that was sponsored by the Italian National Government. A pilot project was established in 1998 with 4000 patients to research the effectiveness of homeopathy and to see if homeopathic medicine could be integrated into their public health care system. The studies were performed on symptom reduction or resolution, cost/effectiveness, risk management and compliance of patients. “The results demonstrate that homeopathy can effectively integrate or, in some cases, substitute allopathic medicine and that the Tuscan example can be useful to the development of national or European rules on Complementary medicine utilization.”
The study was conducted on men, women and children involving 180 different diseases. I love this statement in the abstract, “No negative effects resulted from the use of homeopathic treatment in pediatric patients.” As well the study stated, “Homeopathic remedies also ensure reduced cost treatment (about 50% for respiratory diseases), with no or very few side-effects.”
Dr. E. Rossi the doctor who was in charge of the study and manages the 27 homeopathic clinics, as well as 10 hospital beds that are strictly for patients using homeopathic medicine, explained one of the biggest aspects of the study was setting standards to regulate homeopaths. I am happy to state that in Ontario homeopaths are already regulated under the Health Act.
So why am I so excited about this study and the privilege of seeing firsthand how homeopathic medicine can be integrated into a health care system? Because I know if Ontario embraced homeopathic medicine in our public health care system, meaning covered by OHIP our health care system would reduce costs over all and people could have a choice of treatment. If you think that the Tuscany, Italy example is a long shot it will never work anywhere else, think again. There was an “Innovation and Development in the Health System: inclusion of complementary and traditional medicine in the Public Health System”, international seminar held in Florence in 2008, which included delegates from Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, India, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Dominican Republic, Serbia, Syria, Sri lanka, Switzerland, South Africa, Venezuela as well as the agencies of the United Nations. This group has held several Congresses (ECIM) since 2008 to further develop complementary health into health care systems.
I realize many people have never heard of homeopathic medicine but the fact is it has been around longer then allopathic or pharmaceutical medicine. There was a time when I had never heard of homeopathic medicine but we can no longer be narrow minded to think there is only one way for a health care system.
Diane Elms Homeopath, D.H.M.H.S., CCI, CCII, Specializing in Drugless Cancer Care, 2006 Iridologist of the Year, if you have any health related questions contact diane@choicesforhealthandharmony.com or 905 768 0848.