By Alan Cassels
I spoke to Dr. Ronald Whitmont in mid-January from his country house nestled in the beautiful Hudson Valley, near Rhinebeck, New York. I started off by remarking that we had something in common: We both had served in our country’s navies.
“Canada has a navy?” he asked. I reminded him that yes, we, in fact, do—one that is small and certainly insignificant compared to the US Navy, but it’s one of those things that ties Canada to the US: naval co-operation between countries with international seagoing trade in the Atlantic and the Pacific. Since I like to deal in analogies, comparing Canada’s tiny and insignificant Navy to the US Navy is almost like comparing homeopathy to conventional medicine. Which is to say, most people don’t even know of its existence. Those that do might be able to surprise others.
Ron Whitmont would say that the low public profile of homeopathy is unfortunate as the contribution of homeopathy to our understanding of health and healing is outsized compared to its stature. He’ll be delivering a webinar on March 26th on behalf of the Canadian Coalition for Homeopathy, focusing on the microbiome and how it’s critical to pain management. (Summarized in this 2020 paper and see box below)
Dr Ronald Whitmont is a board-certified physician, schooled in both conventional and internal medicine (courtesy of the US Navy), and a practicing homeopath. He was drawn to study homeopathy quite naturally, being raised in a household where his father was a practicing homeopathic physician. He is currently the president of the National Homeopathic Product Certification Board and medical advisor to Americans for
Homeopathy Choice.
I asked him what the audience could expect in his forthcoming webinar and he admitted that he has given many talks about homeopathy and loves to have a live audience.
“I hope my audience will learn a lot about the microbiome and why it’s critical in terms of pain management,” he said, adding that his talk will also contain a survey of conventional treatments and their downsides and a summary of data on the use of homeopathy in treating painful conditions.
As he laid out the argument in his 2020 paper, he noted the reductionist way in which conventional medicine treats organ systems, “theoretically categorized as separate and distinct entities.” This, he wrote, may make it easier for practitioners, but ignores how all those systems interact, “every single organ system of the body interacts and is connected structurally, biochemically, hormonally, electrically, and through the microbiome, with every other organ. Treating conditions and organs without regard for their holistic interconnection ultimately imperils the health of the entire organism, promotes polypharmacy, drug overuse, and contributes to the epidemics of addiction, antibiotic resistance, and a wide array of other adverse outcomes that increase the risk and cost of conventional medical care.”
He summed this up nicely contrasting the approach of conventional medicine to homeopathy by saying: “dealing with the microbiome, one can treat the cause of the pain and not just the pain itself.”
While “microbiome science” is very cutting edge, the key principles in the development of homeopathy over 200 years ago parallel the same natural phenomena that are being revealed by microbiome science. Today, Dr.
Whitmont is happy to see developments, such as the expansion of nutrition education which is gaining more serious attention (a subject, which, for a while was completely besmirched).
I asked him to circle around and tell me how physicians typically arrive at the door of homeopathy, even though it might even be considered too unorthodox for practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine.
He said: “Often physicians turn to homeopathy through necessity — usually when something crosses their desk that doesn’t improve or get better with conventional medical practices.” That is often the reason patients will see homeopaths or naturopaths — after conventional medicine has failed them. Dr. Whitmont said: “It’s a completely backwards thing—they should see the homeopath first and, if treatment isn’t successful, then go on to conventional medicine and drugs which carry far more risk and are far more dangerous to health.”
That is reflected somewhat in the patients whom he sees seeking out homeopathy and he told me: “People come here when they’re not happy with the side effects or the results of conventional medicines”. He continued, “As we know, all allopathic drugs come with significant side effects.”
I asked him if people sought out homeopathy because of the toxicity of the conventional pharmaceutical supply, and he replied: “It’s probably a subset of people in this category. There are other people who just say: I want a ‘natural’ treatment. Furthermore, he said, “Others have ‘been around the block’ and either had intolerable side effects, or the treatments were not effective or the description of the treatment were not tolerable to them.”
I wondered what the main areas are where he sees good success with homeopathy and he turned that question around: “It’s easier to discuss places where one wouldn’t use homeopathy—such as with severe trauma—cases that need surgical approaches, tumours, etc. But homeopathy is brilliant in acute conditions, acute injuries, infections, illness, colds, flus, even Covid-19, which was completely a harmless condition under
homeopathic care.”
I was specifically interested in arthritis and he said that this subject will be reflected in his talk, discussing homeopathic management of pain and painful syndromes. Since I am a drug researcher, I know that typical standard treatment of anyone with painful arthritis usually begins with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS), but they often cause other effects and can be especially harsh on the gastrointestinal system. He said: “Most people don’t know that the conventional treatments — NSAIDs, opioids and steroids all delay healing and recovery — [They are] a system of medicine that is doing the opposite of what we want in the long run because, in the short run, it delivers the rapid reduction in pain.”
He continued: “People are prescribed these drugs chronically—so you’re taking an acute problem and treating it chronically — the result of this is you have people dying of opioid abuse and from the side effects of the NSAIDs” (due to cardiac toxicity and so on). Linking back to his webinar, he added, “So I am going to show some of that science.”
We had a strong agreement about consumer and prescriber ignorance around drug safety and he said that “the problem with conventional doctors is that they are way too far behind in the evidence of harm literature and keep prescribing drugs that end up harming people.” Amen to that.
I wondered about persistent medical problems that both conventional and homeopathic approaches have difficulty solving which may have to do with the polluted environment that surround us. Dr. Whitmont said: “Much of the illness in the world could be due to environmental pollutions — and there are many things that destroy the microbiome, like endocrine disruptors and so on. And so, these illnesses are very tough to determine what is happening. There are very difficult cases sometimes with people who have multiple chemical sensitivities, people who are electromagnetically sensitive, who have allergies and so on.” He adds, “We have lots of theories: is it vaccines? Pollution? Chemicals in our environment? Unfortunately, we don’t have a good way to find out.”
We concluded by me asking about the side effects of homeopathy. He said: “Any form of treatment is not without side effects. Even psychotherapy has side effects. Water can have side effects. Everything, even homeopathic medicines.”
Having said that he told me about reviews that have been done at places such as the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, where patients have been tracked and monitored for side effects. “These are usually described as mild and transient,” later adding, [unlike prescription drugs] “you can’t find anyone who’s been killed by a homeopathic treatment. All in all, we’re talking about the matter of degree. Homeopathy is among the safest categories of drugs monitored by the US FDA.”
Dr. Ron Whitmont is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable practitioner, and his audience will have much to learn as he discusses the importance of the microbiome.
A Short Primer on the Microbiome
- Human Microbiome and Health: Human health is intimately linked to the ecology and diversity of the human microbiome, which functions as a complex super-organism essential for various bodily functions and overall health.
- Homeopathy and Microbiome Science: The principles of homeopathic medicine, such as holism, psychosomatics, direction of cure, the Law of Similars, individuality and susceptibility, and minimum dose, are substantiated by microbiome science.
- Impact of Conventional Medicine: Many conventional medical treatments can irreversibly damage the microbiome, leading to chronic immune dysfunction and inflammation, highlighting the need for more sustainable medical practices.
- Historical Insights: Homeopathy, founded by Samuel Hahnemann over two centuries ago, qualitatively described the role of the microbiome in health long before its scientific discovery, suggesting that homeopathy may be one of the earliest forms of sustainably managing the human microbiome.
- Future of Medicine: The future of medicine depends on incorporating microbiome science and adopting ecologically sustainable healthcare practices, with homeopathy being a promising method due to its alignment with microbiome health and sustainability.
Dr. Whitmont will be speaking Wednesday March 26, 2025
4:30pm PT/ 7:30 pm ET. Click here to register