The potential of homeopathy in managing commonly seen medical symptoms and conditions is highlighted by articles in the current issue of the journal. In her review article on menopausal syndrome, Dr Emma Macías-Cortés emphasises that knowing the biology of the neuroendocrine changes associated with the menopause can help to inform the rationale for specific homeopathic prescribing, suggesting also how and where in the body those medicines might act.[1] The fact that 5% of the world's population is projected to have pre-diabetes by the year 2030 prompted Dr Nilanjana Guha and colleagues to undertake a randomised controlled trial (RCT) on the topic: compared with placebo, individually prescribed homeopathic medicines showed some improvement in fasting blood sugar levels, though not in glucose tolerance, indicating that homeopathy might offer modest benefit.[2] For the animal kingdom, mastitis–metritis–agalactia (MMA) is a commonly seen syndrome in post-partum sows: in an RCT of homeopathic prophylaxis, however, Dr Kathrin Büttner et al did not detect any improvement in occurrence of MMA in sows that received a combination of two specialised complex homeopathic remedies.[3]

The issue's middle pages comprise two thoroughly conducted laboratory studies: one on toxicity assessment of Ferrum phosphoricum [4]; the other on anti-glycation properties of Syzygium jambolanum on human serum albumin.[5] The issue is completed by two contributions that highlight homeopathy in the context of COVID-19, a disease that has affected nearly 10% of the world's population in the past 4 years. Campos et al present a brief overview of the literature up to May 2023 on medicines that have been most frequently used in reports of homeopathic management of COVID patients.[6] At the other end of the spectrum, Dr Parker Pracjek and co-authors focus on the rare and unusual COVID symptoms identified in patients managed by a group of homeopathic practitioners in the United States: the recommended remedy was commonly one associated with genus epidemicus prescribing.[7] Both these latter papers have been added to our virtual special issue, Homeopathy and COVID-19, which now features 36 articles published in Homeopathy since the start of the pandemic.[8]

Article published online:
16 April 2024

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