April 10 is World Homeopathy Day - and for the occasion renowned homeopath Dr Mukesh Batra visited London to spread awareness about one of the youngest medical sciences - Homeopathy.
Dr Batra, often known as the modern day pioneer of Homeopathy, has created 225 clinics worldwide out of which two are in London. Talking at his Wembley Road clinic, Dr Batra, who is a winner of India's highest civilian award, the Padma Shri for his contribution to the medical field through Homeopathy, chose this occasion to dispel some myths about the science whose efficacy has been debated about in the UK.
Dr Batra said: "Founded by Dr Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy originates from Germany and is one of the youngest medical systems in the world. Homeopathy is now the second largest system of medicine and more than 600 million people across the world use it."
By opening clinics in the UK at Wembley and Harley Street Dr Batra aims to give people here the option of choosing an alternative form of medicine, proven in its efficacy through various double blind trials conducted worldwide at cost effective rates.
He said: "Unlike in the UK where it takes only six months to qualify as a homeopath, at Dr Batra's Clinics we put our patients first and ensure each of our homeopaths is trained to the highest level for five years. Training includes anatomy, physiology and X- rays.
Since homeopathy is psychosomatic and treats patients from the root, our doctors ensure that they not only treat the disease but find the underlying cause in order to remove it from the root. We also believe that at a time of disease it is not only the patient who suffers but the caregiver as well - hence it is important to provide support to the caregiver with holistic treatment."
While homeopathy helps in managing long term diseases such as diabetes and psoriasis, it also helps with immediate relief to flu and hayfever. Dr Batra says it is not just sweet pills, but a holistic form of medicine that has been proven to work.
For example, there was a trial in Edinburgh for rheumatoid arthritis. One group was given homeopathy medicine and the other NSAID, a non-steroid anti inflammatory drug. The one that was given homeopathy recovered faster and had less pain and stiffness, with no side effects. The other group suffered hyperacidity and less relief of the pain and stiffness.
During his recent trip to London, the winner of the Best Healthcare Clinic Award in Europe aimed to raise awareness about homeopathy. He and his team successfully treat 175,000 patients every month internationally, with his patients so far emerging happy.
In the UK, Dr Batra has seen a shift in the attitude. He said: "There has been a shift in perception on homeopathy since we have begun operations in London. We are mainly dealing with the Indian community at the moment and some Pakistanis. I would say the biggest change is more and more young people are looking into homeopathy in the UK. Earlier it used to be old patients and now we can see a lot of young people are trusting homeopathy and coming into our clinics as well. This is the single most perceptible change I have seen.
We opened in September; it has been five months now. There has been a visible change in the way people accept homeopathy. I have spoken to a lot of GPs and I do not think they are now anti homeopathy the way they were earlier. In a way the resistance to it has actually come down."
For those who are looking at homeopathy as an alternative choice of medicine, the good news from his recent trip is that he aims to open two more clinics in Hounslow and Southall. Talking about his future plans, he said: "We plan to open at least 5-6 clinics in the next two years in London. In the next quarter we are opening in Southall. We are also looking at Hounslow. There would be another five outside London in high density South Asian pockets such as Leicester and Manchester, so in total 10 in UK."
