Editorial: My Medicine, My Choice

Homeopathy has now been around for more than 200 years and, like most things that have lasted that long, it has received its fair share of praise and criticism over the years…

It all began with physician Samuel Hahnemann, also known as the Father of Experimental Pharmacology, when he sought to help his patients in a more humane way. Simply put, he wanted to do better because he thought his patients deserved better. He is credited today with having established the fundamental principles of homeopathy.

But homeopathy has come a long way since the days of Hahnemann and it has gained in popularity among patients and health care practitioners alike.

For millions of patients and parents worldwide, homeopathy has become a medicine of choice for the most common ailments.

In fact, homeopathy is used by more than 50% of the French population making it the leading “alternative” therapy.

These individuals choose to heal themselves and their children differently by turning to naturally-derived complementary medicines.

For their part, as many as 70% of French physicians are receptive to homeopathy and an astounding 94.5% of French pharmacists advise pregnant women to use homeopathic medicines for their ailments.

Boiron is proud to work with numerous health care practitioners around the globe such as medical doctors, pharmacists, homeopaths, nurses, naturopathic doctors, and many more who depend on our homeopathic medicines to help in their patient’s recovery. The feedback from the field suggests that an increasing number of oncologists encourage their patients to help alleviate their treatments’ side effects with homeopathic medicines. Moreover, in reconstructive, corrective, and cosmetic surgery, many American and Canadian surgeons recommend Boiron’s Arnicare line to help with bruising, swelling, and pain after a procedure. What one can gather from this is that these health care practitioners have assessed the beneficial role that homeopathy can play not as an alternative form of treatment but rather as an integrative system of medicine when used in support of other treatments.

And that’s exactly how we see it as well! We should not be pitting medicines against one another; we should be working to find the best combination possible to help with each individual’s health needs.

With 85 years of expertise in homeopathic medicines, Boiron firmly believes that such an approach greatly benefits the patient in their goal of achieving improved health. Further, it lowers their exposure to unwanted chemical preparations and lessens the strain put on our health care system. And most importantly, this approach respects every Canadian’s right to choose which medicine best suits their needs.

So, at the end of the day, the criticism becomes secondary. What matters to us is making sure we cater to the needs of nearly 3 million Canadians who use homeopathy regularly as well as the other 300 million users worldwide and 400,000 health care practitioners who prescribed it.

Wishing you all a healthy autumn.

Daniel Dereser
President-CEO of Boiron Canada

Étude Ipsos 2015 menée du 5 au 11 janvier 2012 auprès de 1212 individus

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/homeopathic-medicine-euro_b_402490.html

Damase-Michel, C., Vie, C., Lacroix, I., Lapeyre-Mestre, M., Montastruc, J.L. Drug Counselling in Pregnancy: An Opinion Survey of French Community Pharmacists, Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2004 March, 18;13(10):711.

http://www.homeocentre.ca/homeopathy-worldwide/