Homeopathy’s effectiveness, low risk of side effects, and reasonable prescription costs make it a viable alternative medicine to include under national health care schemes. Safe, effective, and non-toxic makes the prevalence of homeopathy in Europe widespread. National health care programs in many countries include it and now a multitude of studies and research are coming out which attest not only to its effectiveness and high level satisfaction among patients but also lower prescription costs.

The Whole Health Organization has recommended the inclusion of complementary and alternative medicine into national health care schemes worldwide in an attempt to make a healthier general population and one less reliant on conventional prescription drugs (they specifically mention antibiotics resistance a top health concern). Just recently the EU limited the use of antibiotics in organic livestock and farmers have to use homeopathic or herbal alternative first.

Physical_Map_of_Europe

In response to WHO’s health recommendations, Europe developed a continent wide proposal and strategy which is the first I’ve seen from a region.

Read below for information from Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland, and Switzerland on homeopathy and the important role it can play as we look more for natural alternatives and focus on preventative health.

Belgium: Homeopathy: State of affairs in Belgium – Supplement (2011)

England: Homeopathic treatment for chronic disease: a 6-year, university-hospital outpatient observational study (Bristol Homeopathic Hospital)- Over 6000 patients with followups were included in the study and 71% reported improvement on their symptoms. Access the study here

France: Homeopathy in France in 2011-2012 according to reimbursements in the French national health insurance database (SNIIRAM) , Family Practice (April 2015) link to journal abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25921648

The French national health insurance databases (SNIIRAM) were used to analyse prescriptions of reimbursed homeopathic drugs or preparations in the overall French population, during the period July 2011-June 2012.

“Results: A total of 6,705,420 patients received at least one reimbursement for a homeopathic preparation during the 12-month period, i.e. 10.2% of the overall population, with a predominance in females (68%) and a peak frequency observed in children aged 0-4 years (18%). About one third of patients had only one reimbursement, and one half of patients had three or more reimbursements. A total of 120,110 healthcare professionals (HCPs) prescribed at least one homeopathic drug or preparation. They represented 43.5% of the overall population of HCPs, nearly 95% of general practitioners, dermatologists and pediatricians, and 75% of midwives. “

Germany: Encouraging new market data from, Bundesverband der Arzneimittel-Hersteller e.V. (BAH), an independent polling institution, shows that over half the German population has used homeopathic medicines and that the number of users has gone up from 53% of the population in 2009 to 60% in 2014. Read more

Read the official report from BAH here

Italy: Watch an interesting video by Dr. Elio Rossi on integration of homeopathy into regional healthcare of Tuscany.

More peer-reviewed writing and research by Dr. Elio de Rossi:

Homoeopathy in the public health system: Outcome data from the Homoeopathic Clinic of the Campo di Marte Hospital, Lucca, Italy (1998–2010) (2014)

International cooperation in support of homeopathy and complementary medicine in developing countries: the Tuscan experience (2010)
Homeopathy and complementary medicine in Tuscany, Italy: integration in the public health system.  (2008)

Cost–benefit evaluation of homeopathic versus conventional therapy in respiratory diseases (2009)

Northern Ireland: Evaluation of a Complementary and Alternative Medicine Pilot Project in Northern Ireland (Department for Health, Social Services, and Public Safety, May 2008) download PDF: Northern Ireland Final Report on CAM Piolot Project May 2008

The pilot project had acupuncture, osteopathy/chiropractor, and homeopathy integrated into health care clinics. All of the patients in project reported improvement and homeopathic treatment received the great results over acupuncture and osteopathy/chiropractor (see p. 29 of 144 page report). Almost 9 out 10 participants in the study expressed a desire to cut down on medication and people with little education and poor social standing were more likely to be on medication.

Switzerland: A Health Technology Assessment (HTA) report on homeopathy was commissioned by the Swiss Government in 2011. It is a larger and more comprehensive report on homeopathy’s research base and found ‘in the synthesis of results, 20 of 22 reviews found a trend in favour of homeopathy.’

Read more here