GATINEAU, November 14, 2023 –The Quebec Coalition for Homeopathy (QCFH/CPHQ) proudly held today a forum discussion on homeopathy in a hotel in Outaouais, a first of its kind in the nation’s capital region.
Co-hosted by Paul Labrèche, homeopath, president of the QCFH and vice-president of the Syndicat professionnel des homéopathes du Québec (SPHQ – CSN), and Dr. Christiane Laberge, a family physician, a speaker on global health and Quebec’s well-known health communicator, the forum welcomed experts such as Shahram Ayoubsadeh, Clinical Director of the Integral Health Clinic based in Ottawa and CEO of the Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine in Toronto, and Rachel Roberts, Chief Executive of the Homeopathic Research Institute (HRI) who joined in live from the United Kingdom.
An ambitious agenda
The event was punctuated by an ambitious agenda. Among the topics: the impact of homeopathy around the world, both on humans and animals, the potential of homeopathy in the management of everyday ailments and eloquent testimonies from patients on the benefits of homeopathy in their lives and those of their loved ones. Particular emphasis was offered on the science of homeopathy, presenting the latest developments in research.
Homeopathy at the heart of science: simply a placebo effect?
“From clinical research in clinics and hospitals, to laboratory studies and even experiments testing homeopathic medicines with agricultural crops, the message is simple: to argue that homeopathy is simply a placebo effect is no longer plausible.”, confirms Rachel Roberts, from HRI. “Independent teams all over the world are seeing beneficial biological effects of homeopathy on humans, on cell cultures, livestock, fish and plants.¹ This will surprise many people, as they are used to only hearing negative claims about homeopathy, supposedly based on scientific papers, but that is pure misinformation.”, she adds.
Numbers that speak for themselves
Homeopathy is based on 200 years of studies and clinical observations and is used by over 200 million patients worldwide and in 100 of the 133 countries that are member-states of the World Health Organization (WHO)².
It is practiced by 400,000 practitioners globally and 10.3 million Canadians have used it in 2022 alone³. It is also being increasingly integrated in veterinary medicine and agriculture throughout the world. (4)
“Homeopathy is an approach to health that is used around the world, which positively contributes to improving the health of Quebecers and all the inhabitants of this planet. The growing use and popularity of homeopathy is in itself an indication of its effectiveness and legitimacy. What doesn’t work doesn’t survive for very long”, says
Paul Labrèche, president of QCFH.
Aiming for a more collaborative approach to medicine
“It’s time to see the diverse health professionals as collaborators, and patients as equal partners. We must encourage a vision of collaborative medicine in which all approaches like homeopathy, acupuncture and osteopathy should be invited to offer the best of their respective expertise,” says Dr. Christiane Laberge, “What’s more, in 2014 and more recently, the WHO called upon its member countries to better integrate non-conventional and traditional medicines (5). It’s time we all got our act together for the greater good and to offer a better quality of life to patients.”, says Dr. Christiane Laberge.
Health Canada’s recent proposal for NHPs cost recovery program: the high costs will be homeopathy’s next hurdle
The challenges facing the natural health products (NHPs) industry seem never-ending. Recently, homeopaths, other health practitioners and natural health product manufacturers in Canada learned about the details of the new cost recovery program for NHPs (6) announced a few years ago. Industry members were stunned when they learned that all natural health products sold in Canada, including homeopathic medicines, would be required to pay Health Canada significantly higher costs than originally anticipated. While the NHPs industry was always on board with such
program, it never expected such high costs which almost guarantee reduced access to NHPs products. Furthermore, the imposed higher costs will lead to the closure of many small and medium sized businesses while encouraging on-line imports of products whose quality may be compromised.
Industry, health practitioners and also Canadian consumers are actively mobilized in urging Health Canada to stop its current unilateral approach and return to a cooperative discussion to securing mutually beneficial outcomes.
Freedom of choice: a fundamental right for all
Freedom of choice based on one’s personal preferences and values is a fundamental and inalienable right for all citizens. The same applies to patients and healthcare practitioners who wish to use homeopathy to treat themselves, or others. “As a patient and mother, I want the right to freely choose the health therapeutics I use for myself and my family. Accessibility to the homeopathic remedies I have been using for years, and to homeopathic practitioners are essential to me”, says Alexandra Pilarski, patient and cofounder of Homeo Populi, a citizens’ movement to protect and
defend homeopathy in Quebec.
About the Quebec Coalition for Homeopathy (QCFH)
Bringing together in Quebec, practitioners of the Syndicat professionnel des homéopathes du Québec (SPHQ – CSN), manufacturers and users of homeopathy, the QCFH was created in 2020 and is dedicated to preserve, promote and defend homeopathy throughout Quebec, by, among other things, rectifying its misinformation and preserving the freedom of choice.
References:
1 Homeopathy Research Institute | HRI (hri-research.org)
2 WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019
3 Sondage – “Homeopathy: awareness and usage in Canada”, final report – December 2022 – Harris interactive – on a representative national sample (1,050 people) of the Canadian population.
4 Camerlink et al., Homeopathy as replacement to antibiotics in the case of Eschericia coli diarrhea in neonatal piglets. Homeopathy as replacement to antibiotics in the case of
Escherichia coli diarrhoea in neonatal piglets – PubMed (nih.gov)
5 World Health Report, WHO Global Atlas of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Map Volume, 2005
6 Frais proposés pour les produits de santé naturels : Aperçu – Canada.ca
For information and/or interviews requests:
Sylvie Piché
Cell: 514-758-5519
media@cphq.ca