In recent days, the over-two-centuries-old practice of homeopathy has come under fire in Germany.
Dr. Karl Lauterbach,
the chair of the parliamentary health committee, recently called for
public health insurers to stop funding the practice, which typically
involves solutions of small amounts of herbs or other medicines heavily
diluted with water and then shaken or stirred to "add energy" to the
solution.
According to its
proponents, homeopathy can heal patients as well - if not better - than
conventional medicine, while its detractors, including nearly all
medical doctors and scientists, say that it is no more powerful than a
placebo.
Homeopathy was first
proposed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18th
century, and today is covered by over two-thirds of public health
insurance in Germany.
In an interview with
the magazine Der Spiegel, Lauterbach, who himself is a medical doctor
and an adjunct professor of health policy at Harvard University in the
United States, said many patients believe insurance only pays for things
that are proven to help, and therefore it is in the public interest to
stop the practice.
"So health insurers are dignifying homeopaths through their actions," he told the magazine.
Homeopathy has also
faced similar challenges in the United Kingdom, where the British
Medical Association and a parliamentary committee have raised serious
questions as to whether the National Health Service should fund its use.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy, was born in Meissen, SaxonyScarce scientific evidence for practice
Nearly all medical
officials agree with Lauterbach's assessment, and say that while
homeopathy should be allowed to exist, the public should not be forced
to fund a dubious medical treatment.
"If everybody pays for
his beer, then he can pay for his homeopathy," said Dr. Kay Brune, a
professor in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
and Toxicology at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuernberg, in
southern Germany.
Brune added that there
is no scientific evidence to suggest that homeopathy actually causes
any meaningful and healing bio-chemical reactions in patients, but that
doesn't stop people from believing in a practice that has been so deeply
ingrained into the German psyche.
"Homeopathy has a very
long tradition in Germany," he added in an interview with Deutsche
Welle. "The founder, Hahnemann was a brilliant physician. But at that
time doing nothing was helpful to the patient. In 200 years, the
pseudo-science has not taken any steps forward."
He also added that
under the Third Reich, Nazi medical officials explored it as a
"non-Jewish medicine," and even they gave up on it.
Other German
politicians have since jumped on the bandwagon, including Rainer Hess of
the Federal Joint Committee for doctors and insurers who described the
current situation concerning homeopathy as "extremely unsatisfactory."
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Despite the evidence, many Germans still engage in homeopathic practicesHomeopathy costs are a drop in the bucket
Brune also said that
even if politicians do manage to get rid of it from public insurance,
they may be wasting their time because relatively little money is
actually spent on homeopathy on an annual basis.
"My estimate is 100
million euros [are spent on homeopathy annually], which is a trifle
compared to the overall health costs in Germany," he said.
According to Germany's
Pharmaceutical Industry Federation (BPI), public medical insurance
companies spent only eight million euros on homeopathic medicine, which
is quite small compared to the 30 billion euros German public
medical insurance companies spend on conventional medicine annually.
In the end though,
Brune added that because so many Germans take advantage of homeopathy it
will be hard to gather enough political will to stop it.
According to a recent
study by the Allensbach Institute, a public opinion research firm in
southern Germany, the use of homeopathy is on the rise. In 1970, only
one in four West Germans had ever used homeopathic remedies - a figure
that has since risen to 57 percent.
"I think the
politicians are unable to tell the public that this is garbage," Brune
said. "They will make a compromise and under certain circumstances they
will pay for it as they do for acupuncture. It satisfies the health need
at the lowest possible cost."
Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Nathan Witkop
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5789488,00.html
