many people in online forums will advise you to give your pet a homeopathic
remedy and consult a holistic veterinarian rather than rely on
conventional medicine now this raises the key questions what is homeopathy
does homeopathy work in pets and what are the side effects of homeopathy hi
I'm doctor Alex Avery from ourpetshealth.com helping you and your pet to
live a healthier happier life so if it's your first time here consider
subscribing to make sure that you don't miss out on videos just like this one
all about improving and optimizing your pets health so many organizations and
countries they're starting to really strongly advise against the use of
homeopathy in both humans and animals in those countries with healthcare systems
many are also starting to stop the funding of homeopathic treatments but
why is this is this simply a case of corruption and Big Pharma beating the
small guy or is this a justified evaluation of the scientific evidence
available what do you think does homeopathy work in dogs and cats now to
consider if homeopathy works or not we need to know what homeopathy is well
this treatment has been around for about 200 years and it's based on two main
principles the first is that like cures like and the second is that dilution
makes some medication more potent a substance that is incorporated into our
homeopathic remedy it's based either on a substance that causes the disease or a
substance that causes the same symptoms of the disease being treated
now one part of this substance is taken and its then dissolved in 99 parts water
it's shaken to create a memory in the water molecules dilute it again one part
to 99 parts water shaken diluted shaken diluted until the required concentration
is reached and a standard concentration is called 30 C which means that the
remedy has gone through a series of 30 dilutions remember the more dilutions
the more potent the remedies felt to be now interestingly after 13 C so that's 13
dilutions there's statistically no part of the original substance left in that
homeopathic remedy so regardless of whether this sounds
plausible to you or not let's go through some of the statements and positions
that various organizations have released and we'll start with the Royal College
of Veterinary Surgeons in the UK so the RCVS statement on complementary
medicines includes we expect that treatments offered by veterinary
surgeons are underpinned by a recognised evidence base or sound scientific
principles veterinary surgeons should not make unproven claims about any
treatments it then goes on to say homeopathy exists without a recognised
body of evidence for its use furthermore it is not based on sound scientific
principles in order to protect animal welfare we regarded such treatments
as being complementary rather than alternatives to treatments for which
there is a recognised evidence base or which are based on sound scientific
principles there's also been a survey of UK vets and that came out with the
results that 83% of veterinary surgeons oppose homeopathy with 78% of them
believing that it should actually not be offered by registered vets at all
of course this survey it doesn't prove that homeopathy doesn't work it simply
gives the general feeling of the veterinary profession as a whole now to
counter this the British Association of homeopathic veterinary surgeons responce
claims that there is quality evidence supporting the efficacy of homeopathy
and this is in direct contradiction to the RCVS findings as well as many
and various bodies and studies that have concluded the complete opposite now some
of these bodies include the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee
which in 2010 determined that homeopathic remedies perform no better
than placebos and that the principles on which homeopathy is based was
scientifically implausible the National Health Service in the UK has since
stopped funding all homeopathic treatment now next up is the Australian
National Health and Medical Research Council which is the country's highest
medical research body and they conducted an extensive assessment of scientific
evidence on the use of homeopathy in 2015 and again they determined that
homeopathy is not an effective treatment for any health condition it went even
further and it went on to warn that people who choose homeopathy may put
their health at risk if they reject or delay
treatment for which there is good evidence and then more recently this
September the European Academy Science Advisory Council which is an
organization that represents the 29 national academies in Europe they issued
a statement that homeopathy is implausible and they then elaborated
that there is no rigorous evidence to substantiate the use of homeopathy in
veterinary medicine so that's all well and good but a big question to then
answer is that all of these organizations vets doctors and
scientists just slave to the big pharmaceutical companies are they all
either naive or corrupt and that's something that gets accused an awful lot
online but clearly the answer to this is no if you believe that they are then I imagine no
amount of discussion will convince you otherwise
of course to there's been a lot of reaction to these statements among the
homeopathic community most will simply disagree with the conclusions and state
the opposite that the evidence actually does support the use of homeopathy as an
effective treatment and that in other words yes homeopathy does work in pets
now as the plausibility of the treatment the homeopathic Association in Britain
writes that aspect of homeopathy that is is implausible for many people is that
the medicines are often though by no means always diluted to the point where
there may be no molecules of the original substance left one of the
leading current proposals for how such ultra Molecular dilutions work is that
water is capable of storing information related to substances which it has
previously been in contact with now if your mind is not made up one moment one
way or the other and that might be the case you might then ask well what are
the side effects of homeopathy in my pet what harm is there in trying homeopathy
and my dog or cat why don't I just give it a go well in one way there are no
side effects as you're effectively giving water or a sugar pill another
thought though is that homeopathy can be very dangerous and this is really
because the use of homeopathy it can delay the investigation of an illness or
delay the starting of a treatment that has either a recognised evidence base or
is underpinned with sound scientific
principles and in some cases the delay due to homeopathy can be fatal now it
will come as no surprise to you then when I say that I feel that the use of
homeopathy it should not play a role in the treatment of our pets
I believe that homeopathy doesn't work in dogs and cats and not just that but
that it can have detrimental consequences now this is quite aside
from the fact that there's also a cost involved in consulting with a homeopathy
and then buying whatever remedy they prescribed I believe that this money
could be used in a much better and more effective way what are your thoughts on
homeopathy in animals are vets just slave to big pharma I'd love to read
your comments if you leave them down below also remember to subscribe to help
you and your pet stay happy and healthy and until next time i'm dr. alex from
our pets health because they're family