Simonetta Bernardini is a specialist in Pediatrics and Endocrinology , member of the Commission for complementary and non-conventional medicines of the Tuscany Region, president of Siomi – Italian Society of Homeopathy and Integrated Medicine.

He is also responsible for the Integrated Medicine Hospital Center of the Pitigliano Hospital , the first in Italy where homeopathy and acupuncture are practiced for hospitalized citizens. In addition to the ward experimentation, launched in 2011 and then extended to neurological rehabilitation and palliative care in the Hospice, there are also complementary medicine clinics that have exceeded 30,000 visits.

There are already many scientific publications subject to experimentation, in particular with regard to the effectiveness of integrated medicine in specific pathologies. 

We ask Dr. Bernardini what are the most relevant news on the subject of homeopathy.

A change of direction

Based on the concept that ” like cures like “, homeopathy – which according to WHO is the most widespread medicine after western biomedicine and herbal medicine – provides that the medicine , through its dilutions , helps to heal if the subject has symptoms similar to those that the substance is capable of producing .

With reference to the mechanisms of action , there are theories on the memory of water, on biophotons and how many, but they have not received great attention among international researchers who, on the contrary, accuse these arguments of being scientifically implausible.

What are the new certainties?

Homeopathy is experiencing a very important moment, a new direction in the direction of conventional science , which does not contradict the laws of chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology.  

We are reaching these new goals through “orthodox” academics , experts in chemistry, chemical engineering and, in particular, hormesis , i.e. the dose / response relationship characterized by a biphasic effect, an adaptive function for which organisms and biological systems exposed to a ‘wide range of stimuli show opposite responses depending on the dose.

The studies of Professor Jayesh Bellare , of the University of Mumbai, have indisputably demonstrated, through the transmission electron microscope, the presence of a significant number of molecules of the active principle in all homeopathic dilutions. The small doses, the nanomoles, are sufficient to give a therapeutic response . Moreover, a part of the more traditional pharmacology has developed more and more theories of the ” pharmacology of microdoses ” in recent years. 

According to Professor Edward Calabrese , toxicologist at the University of Ahmerst, Massachusetts, the world’s leading expert on hormesis, the observed results can be explained precisely with the mechanism of ” low-dose stimulation “. A reversal of action between a large toxic dose and a small dose which instead has a protective or therapeutic effect .

The farsightedness of the operating models announced as early as 2006 has finally received clear scientific confirmation. Now we talk less about the memory of water, it is about “normal” chemical interactions equal to those of the common drugs prescribed for healing .

His competence, however, starts from afar. Are all the experiences carried out so far in Italy and in the world safe?

Homeopathy is, with phytotherapy , the most widespread medicine in the world after biomedicine: 

>  in India there are 700 production laboratories, an estimated 400 million patients, many homeopathic hospitals;

> according to data from the ECH – European Committee for Homeopathy – in the European Union about 40,000 doctors have attended training courses in homeopathy, 40% of family doctors in France and 75% of German ones prescribe homeopathic medicines regularly or occasionally ;

> in Switzerland it is part of the National Health System;

> in Italy , according to Eurispes data from 2017, 21.2% of the population uses complementary medicines and homeopathy is the most widespread. In Tuscany , one in four children use it.

Homeopathic medicine has shown a positive effect through randomized controlled trials and / or observational studies in more than 40 clinical conditions. The most recent and significant data range from chronic fatigue syndrome to depression , from rheumatic diseases to the effects of mastectomy , from acute recurrent infections of the upper respiratory tract to supportive therapies for cancer .

Are there also encouraging data on costs / benefits?

Yes definitely. The French research program EPI3, referring to 8559 patients and object of 11 publications, found, specifically in some disorders, efficacy similar to conventional treatment, but with fewer adverse effects and substantial reductions in drug consumption .

Homeopathic medicines, prepared from natural substances, are not toxic . Due to the minimal dose they are also suitable for pregnant women , babies and children. Those patients who cannot take synthetic drugs due to side effects can refer to them .

Quality and safety are guaranteed by national health institutions with reference to Community legislation and the criteria of the European Pharmacopoeia.

Is integrated medicine also confirmed as a social contribution?

It has been shown that the opening of an integrated medicine service in a suburban area greatly increases the entry into these medicines of the fragile population, especially people with a low level of education and disadvantaged economic conditions. Unlike what is revealed by ISTAT, there is a discrimination of access to treatments in complementary medicine : ISTAT, in fact, has registered not so much who needs it but who can afford them. 

An investigation by the Integrated Medicine Center of the Pitigliano Hospital (of which I am scientific director) has shown that, if made available to the population through the Public Health Service , it is mainly elderly people with chronic diseases who use it .

Over twenty years of experience in integrating homeopathy into the SST has allowed thousands of citizens to access guaranteed services and to develop a path of greater appropriateness and scientificity in clinical practice.

What do you wish for the near future?

In 2011 I was the “godmother” of the national event ” Manifesto for integrated medicine ” which was attended by the most important national institutions of orthodox medicine.

Together with me, important authors have written this document underlining the teamwork and the spirit of the initiative: “Nine points, deliberately not even a decalogue, to be developed in the post-Manifesto with the help and collaboration of all those who have a heart this possible renewal of medicine in the interest of citizens’ health.

The time is ripe to build a great common home , finally transforming the war between medicines into an alliance between multiple ways of promoting or recovering health, with an eye on the complexity of the individual and another on the need for a rigorous interdisciplinary approach. in the methods and in the necessary scientific verifications “ .

I hope, then and still today, that the protagonists of the renewal of medicine that opens up to the alliance between care resources will be all those who from today want to take this project to heart , to grow and develop with the contribution of all .