NASH MEMBER UPDATE - September/October 2005

The North American Society of Homeopaths is dedicated to promote, represent and serve as the voice of all professional homeopaths in North America. NASH aims to develop and uphold the highest level of excellence in homeopathic practice while enhancing the role of the homeopathic profession as an integral part of health care delivery.

Board of Directors

President: Manfred Mueller, CA,
Email: homeopathicassociates@earthlink.net

Vice president: Kate Birch, MN,
Email:  Katebhom@yahoo.com

Treasurer: Julie Mann, CA,
Email:  ma13nn@aol.com

Registrar: Laura Sholtz, ME,
Email:  laurasremedies@hotmail.com

Secretary: Carleen Johnson, ME,
Email:  cjohnson@uninets.net

Canadian Representative: Basil Ziv, Ont.,
Email:  basilziv@rogers.com

Executive Director: Liz Bonfig, FL,
Email:  nashinfo@aol.com

We thank our members for their immediate responses to our last update. We want to know you are alive and well and are interested in the updates we present to you. If you have any corrections to the information we have printed here, please let us know and we will make mention in our following updates. In addition, if you have any information to share with the homeopathic community, please send to Liz our administrator at nashinfo@aol.com. NASH updates are posted every two months. The deadline for the next submission is Nov 25th.

There are many opportunities to become involved in the growth of the homeopathic community. Below are several options. If you have any talents you would like to offer toward the promotion of NASH and its mission please step forward.

New Projects

Various new projects are underway. First is the development of new levels of membership. It is NASH’s goal to reach every level of support, from students and practitioners to organizations, schools, businesses and associated groups. This will allow us to serve as the voice and connecting web of interdependent individuals and groups to further spread the word of homeopathy and support its practice. This project will be completed by annual renewal time.

Our second project is an opportunity for students and schools to participate in an ongoing dialog through the use of student reps and school memberships so that students across the country can liaison with students in other schools. This is a large project and we are asking for a volunteer to help in compiling lists of schools and developing contacts, organizing student reps and setting up phone conferences and newsletters. Packets introducing this project are being developed.

In addition to organizing a student rep organization we would like to make available to schools a list of teachers who are NASH members. We are developing as part of our website a directory of teacher listings. If you are a teacher and are interested in helping with this project please send us your résumé to post including what level you teach and special work or areas of interest, etc.

We are still researching the availability of professional liability (malpractice) insurance. We have contacted The International Massage Association (IMA) as they provide coverage for a variety of holistic therapies. They are currently investigating coverage for naturopaths and homeopaths, and they understand the legal parameters. We look forward to their outcome.

Conference Update

Mark your calendars! We are looking forward to the BEST conference ever. NCH reports that plans are going well for the first joint conference which is to be held in San Jose, CA, April 7-11, 2006. Representatives from professional organizations - NASH, AIH, HANP, AVH and HNA - have been reviewing and selecting the list of speakers. An opportunity for each organization to gather for board or other meetings has been arranged. There will be an opening reception held on Friday night sponsored by NCH, and NASH has offered to provide Saturday night's entertainment. A research day will be on Friday, led by Dr. Peter Fisher, physician to the royal family of England; Saturday and Sunday will feature a great variety of lectures in both the general and advanced tracks. Speaker selection is almost finalized and the list will prove to be a tremendous selection of well-known homeopaths from each of our organizations. The Advanced Conference on Monday and Tuesday will be led by Nancy Herrick and Roger Morrison. Richard Pitcairn will lead the animal workshop on Monday.

We are pleased to congratulate the following NASH members who have been invited to present at the April conference.

Allison Maslan, RSHom (NA)
Richard Pitt, RSHom (NA)
Steven Subotnick, RSHom (NA), DPM, DC
Deborah Vidal, RSHom (NA)
Iris Bell, MD, PhD, Associate Member
Francis Treuherz, RSHom, FSHom, MA, Associate Member

This is a wonderful opportunity for the homeopathic community to meet together and share ideas for homeopathy's future. Homeopathy will take its rightful place in healing only if we work together - the opposition is strong and well funded.

NASH members will be invited to attend a special luncheon together on Saturday, April 8th. During the luncheon we will conduct an annual meeting. Details will be sent soon. We really hope to see as many NASH members as possible. Please plan to attend.

NASH member, and also NCH Board Member, Stephen Subotnick urges all of us to attend the April conference to support both NASH and the NCH -- organizations that play a vital role in homeopathy. If you are not already an NCH member, join! Check out the web site: www.homeopathic.org. The website is a wonderful resource for homeopathy.

National Health Freedom Annual Conference

NASH VP, Kate Birch, will be attending this conference October 28-30, 2005 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and will be available for NASH members and all homeopaths for discussions. If you are involved in state organizations and are working on health freedom legislation in your state, this conference is a must to attend. For detailed information about the conference, please visit National Health Freedom’s website at http://www.nationalhealthfreedom.org/ or contact Jerri Johnson at (651) 688-6515 or email: jerrijohn@aol.com.

Response to The Lancet

As you may know a recent edition of The Lancet had an article claiming the end of homeopathy. Professional organizations worldwide submitted responses in defense of homeopathy. NASH’s response follows:

The Lancet Challenge

We homeopaths should feel lucky that a prestigious medical journal like the Lancet fueled a renewed debate among medical and scientific circles over our two-hundred year old healing art. The debate has also stimulated a vigorous response from the homeopathic community. Had the Lancet published just another trial showing that homeopathy had merit; most of us would probably have shrugged our shoulders and gone back to our busy practices. This recent challenge to our profession by a medical journal illustrates some of the short-comings in homeopathic research. It also signified an alarming ignorance among the scientific community of the conceptual foundations of homeopathy, which inevitably will skew any new studies conducted.

This most recent challenge to homeopathy comes from a Lancet editorial based on a new trial published in the same issue (Vol. 366, Aug. 27, 2005) comparing homeopathic and conventional studies. After narrowing down the homeopathic studies to its chosen set of criteria, the meta-analysis looked at a small sample of eight homeopathic studies, and concluded there was no evidence of efficacy for homeopathic treatment.

The trial was criticized widely by experts for its flawed methodology combined with an apparent lack of grasp of the homeopathic doctrine. Included in the meta-analysis were only studies that deviated from one of the most important tenets of the homeopathic method - individualization of prescribing, matching the remedy to the specific symptoms of a condition rather than matching a remedy to a disease category. As a result, these experts object, the study did not examine homeopathy at all.

The Lancet editorial predicted the "death of homeopathy" and claimed there had been mostly negative results in studies for the past one hundred and fifty years - an unsubstantiated assertion. The Lancet called the "dilutions" employed by homeopaths "absurd." However, several multi-center studies have shown efficacy for the ultra-molecular dilutions sometimes used in homeopathy. The Lancet editors did not mention previously published, more carefully designed meta-analyses that showed efficacy for homeopathy.

The homeopathic profession might learn a valuable lesson from this rare outburst of unscientific wrath on the part of a prestigious medical journal. As homeopathic clinicians we tend to forget that the doctrines and facts as we believe and observe them daily in our practice must still seem "absurd" to most scientists. Terms like "vital force," "similarity of symptoms," "potencies," and vague scientific jargon claiming a "memory" in water and "energy medicines" must seem like mumbo jumbo to most who have been steeped in molecular biology and conventional pharmacology.

The present debate illustrates the chronic scarcity of viable homeopathic research. This scarcity plagues understanding the true nature of homeopathic science. While it is true that some relatively few quality studies showing results have put homeopathy on the scientific map, no serious researcher would claim that homeopathy has proven its claims completely and beyond doubt. As long as there are very few good studies, the successful treatment outcome which homeopaths and their patients have become accustomed to will not likely be reflected in the statistical data. We still have a long road ahead in substantiating our therapeutic approach, and the current debate will undoubtedly prove a healthy development for our profession.

2005 Registered Members

Welcome back Laura Lohman-Gannon, Michigan; Pamela McAlister, Minnesota; and Virginia Downey, New Jersey. Also, we are delighted to introduce these new RSHoms. Congratulations and welcome!

Kenneth R. Dunk – Toronto
Saveria A. Zambri – Toronto
Nancy Zorensky – Colorado

Website

We are continuing to develop our website and now have two additional sections. One is for individual Bios linked to your name. A Member Bio Page Sample is demonstrated on the website. A link to it can be found on the directory’s main page @ http://www.homeopathy.org/directory.html. If you would like NASH to create a bio page with a direct link, please contact Liz at nashinfo@aol.com for detail.

We are also collecting bios of registered members who are teachers. Your information will be available for individuals or organizations looking for teachers of a particular subject or setting.

American Homeopath, Volume 11

Watch your mailbox for AH11 later this fall. We thank the following advertisers for their support.

Ainsworths British Institute CCH HANP Historical Busts Homeopathy School of Colorado Kent Associates 7 Cream

Luminos Homeopathic Courses Mediral International Minimum Price NCH Remedy Makers School of Homeopathy, Devon Vancouver Homeopathic Academy Washington Homeopathic Products

Legislative Policy

NASH continues to gather information about Health Freedom concepts. Some health freedom laws have been criticized as to not allowing us to practice homeopathy as freely as we would like, such as the restriction of the use of nosodes to medically licensed professionals. The whole concept of health freedom had been slow in coming and will take many years to come to fruition given the powers that be. However, it is NASH’s contention that as the concept penetrates mainstream thought, we will be there fighting for the rights of homeopaths to practice legally.

Health freedom laws have been passed in six states so far: Minnesota, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Idaho, California and Louisiana. In these states homeopaths can legally practice without fear of prosecution for "practicing medicine without a license."

Legislative strategies that affirm health freedom are most likely to produce results creating the best legal climate for us to practice our profession. NASH supports any legislative effort enhancing our members' right to practice homeopathy and opposes any restrictions on this right.

Volunteer Opportunities

Registered member Kim Kalina has graciously offered her time to coordinate the revisions of the NASH By-Laws. The revisions are needed to ensure long-term practicality and stability. If you are available to assist Kim and the board with this project, please let us know.

An on-line newsletter still remains high on our wish list; unfortunately, no member has come forward to serve as its editor. If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact us.

The student liaison project referenced earlier is a large project and we are asking for a volunteer to help in compiling lists of schools and developing contacts, organizing student reps and setting up phone conferences.

There are other opportunities as well, please contact Liz for more information.

Publishing Opportunity

SIMILLIMUM, the journal of the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians (HANP) is looking for articles and case reports from all practicing homeopaths and advanced students. Please contact Editor Neil Tessler @ ntessler@shaw.ca.

Seeking Provers/Supervisors for Approving of a Remedy

Public Health Information Services (PHIS), Inc. is seeking six healthy volunteers to participate in a double-blind, proving trial for a remedy. Also being sought are trained homeopathic supervisors to work with each of the six participants. Those interested in participating in this proving will be required to sign a Consent/Release of Liability Form. Proving guidelines can be obtained by contacting M. Sue Benford, Ph.D., R.N., at MSBENFORD@aol.com.

Please note that this proving is independent of NASH.

Sundance Opportunity

Dear fellow homeopath,
I am writing to tell you of an opportunity to serve Native American people living in poverty upon the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Our non-profit, Indigenous Peoples Project, offers cost-free holistic health services and education at the Little Big Medicine Sundance, an eight-day long ceremony, each summer. An average 1500 people are served in our health clinic, including traditional elders, and their families. We serve hundreds of people daily in our all organic kitchen (and on-going natural foods cooking class). We invite health practitioners to join us, and each year we have an average of 30 (naturopaths, chiropractors, massage therapists, homeopaths, etc.).
We are trying to complete construction on a free clinic at the same site, which will be run by volunteer health practitioners and educators. We would love to hear from other homeopaths who might like to join us. We have been doing this service for 10 years, and homeopathy has become quite beloved out there on the Navajo Reservation. Presently we are also working on raising funds to help the family who sponsors this Sundance, as their daughter died two weeks ago after hemorrhage following a cesarean section, and left three little ones and a newborn.
We welcome any inquiries. Blessings,
Karen and Antonio Ferreira
Karen Rae Ferreira, CCH, RSHom. 534 Washington Street, Ashland, Oregon 97520.
541-488-9560 gaiasophia@rvi.net

World Homeopathy Awareness Week (WHAW)

A message from Gabrielle Traub, Coordinator
Dear Colleagues
It’s time to take action for the Stage I planning of World Homeopathic Awareness Week: April 24-30th 2006. This great international event is coming into its third year, next year. My vision for WHAW in the US is to ultimately have a regional coordinator for each city in the US. This will allow us to focus on WHA on a national level and deal with more widespread projects, media, etc. If you are interested in becoming a regional coordinator please contact Gabrielle directly.

Homeopathy Heals: Safely, Gently, Naturally, Effectively
Gabrielle Traub
Chair: World Homeopathic Awareness Committee
Voicemail: (858) 457-0191/0374 ext 19
Gabrielle Traub

The NASH board is unable to be directly involved in this event. However we encourage our members to be involved as representatives of NASH. Member involvement is vital as the board is spending all of its time with our responsibilities to the organization. NASH members who participated last year who have something to report could include something in our update about possible plans for next year.