Hi Fran,
I have gotten my information concerning the short shelf life of radionically prepared remedies from other list discussions and information provided by Julian Winston, Robin Murphy and Steve Waldstein. I'm not aware of any published studies.
article
from
"Homeopathy Today"
Tools and integrity
July/August 2000
by Julian Winston
I have just returned from two weeks in Germany. I had planned to write an editorial about some of the ideas I came across while I was there, but another matter arose, so Germany will have to wait.
The primary tools we use in homeopathy are the reference books and the homeopathic medicines themselves.
Many years ago, Jay Borneman (now with Standard Homeopathic) commented to me that the accuracy of the homeopathic manufacturing/potentizing process is completely critical to our work. "There are no ways for me to test it," he said. "When I ship out an Ignatia 1M, I have to trust it is what I say it is, and I know that only through the accuracy of the manufacture. There is no way we can do an analysis to determine its accuracy. If no one complains that it didn't work, then I assume it is OK."
Hahnemann, who had difficulties with pharmacies all his life, gave full instructions for making the remedies in the /Organon/, and suggested that the only way for practitioners to know the accuracy of the tools they use is to make the remedies themselves. But homeopathic pharmacies did blossom, and we are dependent upon them for providing us with accurate remedies.
There are two ways of assuring the "correctness" of a homeopathic remedy or, for that matter, the quality of any manufactured product. The first way is to have quality control of the end product. The second is to have quality control of the process itself. Since it is almost impossible (as Jay pointed out) to evaluate the quality of the end homeopathic product, the control we have is of the manufacturing process. If you have a fully documented process, and follow it in each step, then the end result should be an acceptable product.
But how can we be assured the pharmacies have the integrity to have this come about? An article by Wilmar Schwabe titled "Homeopathic Pharmacy in Germany," appeared in the /Homeopathic Recorder/, Volume l4, 1899. He writes that in 1887, members of the Berlin Homeopathic Society assembled a list of Latin names that sounded like remedies: Tuber cinereum (a part of the brain), Urticaria rubra (nettle rash), Pemphigus folaceus (malignant blisters), and, best of all, Madaroma fraudulentum (fraudulent bald-head). They wrote out prescriptions for these items, and went to 89 drug stores in Berlin. Only 12 refused these prescriptions. Seven pharmacies filled the prescription for Madaroma fraudulentum, trit. 3X!The problem stated by Schwabe is not very far from the surface today.
A number of practitioners have been interested in obtaining the remedies discussed by Dutch homeopath Jan Scholten who postulates a theoretical use of some combinations of elements, based (to some extent) on their position in the Periodic Table of the Elements. Many of the elemental combinations he speculates about do not exist. Certainly we can get Kali bichromicum (potassium dichromate), but what about Cesium phosphate? A substance such as Aurum fluor, which may be a workable combination according to Scholten's theory, does not exist in nature and if made is extremely unstable. It cannot hold together long enough to withstand the homeopathic preparation process.
Celletech, Ltd., a homeopathic pharmacy in Madison, Wisconsin (which sells under the "National Homeopathic Products" brand), has reportedly provided some of these rare remedies to practitioners who requested them. When asked about the sources for these remedies, a company representative reportedly said they came from a pharmacy in Europe and and were prepared in a "Hahnemannian manner."
However, the FDA recently sent a warning letter to Celletech charging them with non-compliance in the preparation of some of their remedies (among other charges). [The letter is public information and can be found on the FDA web pages at
http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning.htm .]
The letter states:
"Homeopathic drugs must be manufactured in accordance with the principles of homeopathy. Products manufactured through the use of your firm's 'magneto-geometric process' ... are not manufactured according to homeopathic principles and, therefore, are not homeopathic."
Apparently, Celletech has been charged with using a type of “radionics device" to "make" some "homeopathic potencies." In such devices, a magnet typically "reads" a geometric pattern from a card and "transfers" that pattern to alcohol. According to the makers of such devices, the resulting alcohol is said to be a "homeopathic remedy." The geometric patterns (which vary for each "remedy" and "potency") are based on information derived by "dowsing." Obviously, this is quite different from the Hahnemannian preparation method of serial dilution and succussion. The manufacture and sale of products made with radionics devices do not meet the guidelines specified in the /Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the U.S. (HPUS)/ and, therefore, are not legal homeopathic products.
The FDA's warning letter gave Celletech 15 days to "correct the stated violations." In mid-April, Celletech President John Cain wrote to me and said, "Celletech has decided not to go to the effort of having the /HPUS/ recognize Magneto Geometric Applications as an approved method at this time. Celletech does not believe that Celletech products are drugs and Celletech does not believe that these products should be regulated by FDA. Accordingly, Celletech has informed FDA that Celletech no longer labels products produced by Magneto Geometric Applications as homeopathic remedies. Celletech is now devoting its efforts to the field of micro-nutrition."
The issue is one of integrity. Integrity of the homeopathic pharmacy process (which the FDA refers to as a "validated process") and integrity of the manufacturer. While you can audit and enforce validated process, no government agency can "enforce" integrity. You either have it, or you don't.
The homeopathic pharmacies in the U.S. use standard processes that are validated over and over—not because they fear the FDA, but because they respect homeopathy and respect their customers. As Jay Borneman commented to me recently, "We have an obligation and we discharge it with pride (all this for five bucks a bottle!)."
If Celletech used a "magneto-geometric process" device to "make remedies" and then labeled them as "homeopathic remedies," as the FDA has charged, this is a serious breach of integrity—not only because FDA believes it violates the law but because unknowing consumers who see the label think they are buying real homeopathic remedies prepared in accordance with the /HPUS/.
This community should have no time for those who lack integrity in the process or mislead their customers. It is that simple. However, the underlying issue is "how do we know how the remedies are made at other pharmaceutical companies?" Might an independent commission of homeopaths be established to visit and issue a report on the manufacturing methods in use at all homeopathic pharmacies who will invite the commission to visit their laboratories? Strong stuff, but we, the homeopathic community, need to know sooner rather than later. And the pharmacies themselves need to know because they get prescriptions for patients for remedies that they may not have on hand, and they have to buy them from other pharmacies just as the public does. I have heard stories from homeopaths who tell of giving a remedy from pharmacy A which doesn't work and much later trying the same remedy from pharmacy B which does work. Do we tell them? It is a two-way street—the pharmacies should be straight with us, and we should be straight with them.
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http://badger.state.wi.us/agencies/drl/ ... 00066.html
This is NOT a question of whether or not the Rae machine works. It is simply an effort to follow the FDA regulations which describe the manufacturing process for something that is labeled “homeopathic.” The Rae Machine falls outside of those guidelines. Therefore, remedies made on the machine , if labeled homeopathic and offered for sale, are being deliberately mis-branded-- and THAT is illegal.
A Pharmacy was caught making and selling stuff that is misbranded according to FDA Law.
JW
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Hi Lynn,
Apart from that, do you know of any firm studies or comparisons that have been done or is your information anecdotal?
By beliefs have come from those practitioners who prepare and use radionics - they say the same as you - that the remedies do not last as long.