Sticking by homeopathy
By Hayden Donnell
Antibiotics are almost a thing of the past in Bruce Barwell’s family.
When one of them gets sick, he makes their medicine using homeopathy
“Usually they’re well again in a couple of days,” says the Birkenhead resident. “Some people don’t accept it. but I know it works”.
“I wouldn’t call myself a quack. I’m a homeopath”
Homeopathy is a branch of medicine invented in the late 18th century by German physician Samual Hahnemann.
It goes by the theory an illness can be treated using a substance that gives the same signs and symptoms.
For an example. an arthritis patient complaining of pain like a bee sting may be given medicine made from extremely diluted bee venom.
Mr Barwell learned homeopathy first as an apprentice in an Indian homeopathic hospital on a trip from 1970 to 1971.
There he saw a huge range of people with deadly ailments such as malaria, dengue fever and cholera treated with homeopathic medicine.
He claims a cure to have good success rates for those coming to see him at his homeopathy clinic.
The illnesses he treats range from mouth ulcers to serious conditions such as multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
His patients include top athletes, an All Black, a cabinet minister, Olympic competitors and a race horse.
But perhaps the patients he is most excited about though are the tropical fish he keeps at home.
“I’ve given them a remedy to stop them going into shock when they come here from Malaysia”.
“It’s been an incredible success.”
Despite the success he claims, Mr Barwell’s practice is regarded with scepticism by many in the medical community.
They point to the fact there is no scientific evidence proving exactly how homeopathy works and that its remedies are very diluted.
Some tests have shown the remedies are so weak the chances of them working are slim to none.
Homeopathy’s standing among the sceptics hasn’t been helped by a raft of new age clinics adding it to their list of specialties.
Classic homeopaths like Mr Barwell are now getting lost among a sea of people infusing the practice with spirituality.
Mr Barwell is upset at some of the difficulties facing his profession, but is tired of fighting for it.
He says personal experience over the last 30 years has shown him homeopathy works.
He is done arguing about it with the sceptics.
“I’ve lived a long time and I’ve met frequent disappointment in terms of people not accepting it”.
“I can see their point of view and I can’t say they’re stupid, but they don’t see the results. They’re like a yokel who sees a giraffe and says `there’s no such animal’.”
He still rails against homeopathy being associated with new age philosophy or spirituality.
It’s not an alternative medicine in his book - it’s a complementary one, and a reliable one.
“There’s no spiritual element”.
“It’s just something called medicine, which is the art of making sick folk well.”
- from the North Shore Times, February 2008.