Homeopathy and Chronic Fatigue syndrome

Homeopathy tends to divide conventional science and medicine into distinct camps of believers and un-believers. Amongst those who believe and practice it are many trained Doctors who have misgivings about simply prescribing more antibiotics or patent drugs that seem to only tackle the symptoms. My own GP is one of at least two trained homeopaths at my local surgery and this is not unusual.

By its very nature homeopathy is difficult to assess by western scientific method. As with Acupuncture there is no equipment which can directly measure the effect of Homeopathic remedies in the body. Again, as with Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine, for different patients apparently similar syptoms may require different treatments, which makes double or triple blind tests virtually impossible to administer. Another issue is that because homeopaths take time, maybe an hour, to ask a series of questions of the patient before deciding on a remedy, the accusation will always be that this attention and focus on the patient's problem is what is really beginning the healing process.

These are all fair objections and every medical treatment needs to be properly assessed for its effectiveness. But I have no doubt that Homeopathy does work and the effect is not simply a placebo. However as a remedy for CFS/M.E, as I will explain, I did not personally see it as my first stop.

Homeopathy with M.E / CFS / Fibromyalgia

How homeopathy works

The aim of homeopathy is to provide the body with a stimulus of something it needs to attack or deal with, which in a healthy person produces the symptoms of disease.

The more dilute a remedy is, the more specific the remedy - so a remedy diluted 6c is fairly general, whereas the same compound diluted 1000c is very, very specific. In fact even at low dilutions the original compound, often derived from plants or minerals, would be impossible to detect in forensic tests. But that doesn't mean the carrier, usually purified water, is unchanged. The theory is something changes subtly in the carrier - the compound leaves an impression, a footprint, or a template which the body is able to pick up on and work with.

The main drawback of Homeopathic remedies is you must get the right one for it to have any useful effect. Paracetemol, Asprin, Codine - any of those will help with a headache but treating it homeopathically you need some thoughtful diagnosis to get the right remedy. Likewise with M.E/CFS. For each of the millions of people who have had or will get M.E/CFS, there will be millions of different life experiences, different constitutions, and different levels of expsure to all sorts of different pollutants, viruses, bacteria and medications.

I believe this level of difference and complication in people can work against Homeopathy - very different life experiences affect and are stored in our bodies and so can inhibit our body reacting to remedies in a more natural way. For this reason and because I rarely react to Homeopathic remedies at all, (with one exception, one of the New Era tissue salts mentioned below), I didn't put homeopathy top of my therapy list when trying to treat CFS.

Homeopathy - a cure for cats!

The cat that got the cream ...and a homeopathic remedy!

By contrast it is interesting how easily animals respond to Homeopathy. For example, my parents' 10 year old cat was getting quite arthritic one winter, and for weeks had been plodding one leg at a time to get downstairs. Knowing that the only conventional solution would be Steroids, I asked my cat-loving GP for a Homeopathic answer. I gave the cat two doses of a crushed 30c tablet of Rhus Tox in some creamy yoghurt (his favourite) and the next day we watched him race down the stairs at full stretch, as soon as he heard the fridge door being opened.

Placebo effect in a cat? Not likely. If he knew I was giving him pills he'd have been straight out the cat door - arthritis or no arthritis! And if you think maybe we were just looking for improvment, I made a point of not telling my father about the remedies, and he was amazed at how mobile the cat had suddenly become.

So Homeopathy is only worth trying if I've got four legs and a tail then?

Not quite. My point is the relative simplicity of an animal's life means there's less of a need to tailor the remedy to the patient, so a greater chance of success - the one size fits all approach is more likely to work.

For us bipeds, bear in mind that if you're taking high potency remedies, (ie highly diluted) you will need several weeks to see if it's having any effect. In the meantime your homeopath is likely to ask you not to get other treatments which might provide symptomatic relief but make it difficult to evaluate the remedies' effectiveness, possibly limiting your treatment options. However you can use different remedies in a low dose, 6c and 30c, which may provide some symptomatic relief, and you'll usually know within a week whether they are having an effect.

I have no doubt for some people with M.E/CFS the right Homeopathic remedies could produce improvement, even dramatic improvement - but it may take time and for many people will produce no result. If you have experienced improvement from M.E/CFS with homepathy, please tell me. Who knows - perhaps there are specific remedies that will work for M.E/CFS patients.

Suggested remedies for M.E / CFS symptoms

You should have little trouble finding a homeopath in your area, and as mentioned you may get some reccomendations from a GP during a normal 5 minute appointment. In the UK remember GP's cannot charge for their time if doing a full homeopathic diagnosis, so they are voluntarily using their spare time.

For low dose symptomatic remedies you can quite easily diagnose yourself. There are several books and leaflets available often from health food stores to guide you in the right direction.

Of the ranges of remedies, Nelson's and Weleda seem to be widely available for 6c and 30c of the most commonly used rememdies. Some remedies, like arnica are available in a cream. Some pharmacies are also able to make up high dose remedies. Your homeopath will know which pharmacies do this.

The New Era tissue salts are homeopathic doses of essential salts discovered by Doctor Schuessler in the 19th C. These remedies work by re-establishing the balance of salts in the body, and I have long used their combination remedy 'S' which contains three salts for digestive problems (not that this is a reccomendation for people with CFS, rather it shows how a rememdy can match your constitution). Fortunately you don't need to worry about taking the wrong remedy and feeling worse - the wrong remedy will not upset the balance of salts in your body.

There is also the Bach range, which take the patient's mental and emotional state as their main diagnosis. As I believe M.E/CFS is primarily a problem of the nervous system I don't see this as just a 'touchy feely' option - if your nervous system is exhausted your mental and emotional state will be profoundly affected, so there's no reason not to tackle the problem from this end rather than starting with the physical symptoms.



Symptomatic remedies for M.E / CFS listed

Arnica - often used for bruising it may help reduce muscle pains. Available as cream.

Rhus Tox - commonly used for shingles, a disease of an overstrained nervous system, and for other muscle strains, this could be of use for M.E/CFS. Available as cream.

Arsen. Alb - for cramp in calf muscles, with restlessness and anxiety.

Cuprum Met - for cramp in fingers and toes, with sweating.

New Era tissue salts: (I've not been able to find a website for New Era yet)

Ferr Phos - for chills fevers and inflamation.

Kali Phos - for anxiety and nervous tension.

Mag Phos - for cramps - an anti spasmodic.

Bach remedies: www.bachremedies.com

Olive - for physical and mental exhaustion.

Aspen - for unexplained fears.

Rescue remedy - a combination of remedies for shock and stressful times.

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