Homeopath claims to have found treatment
By Samantha Walker-Sowden
A Homeopath claims to have come up with an alternative treatment for the debilitating condition ME after she experimented with bits of rock taken from a historic stone circle.
Mary English, of Oldfield Park, took shards of rock from the stone circle at Stanton Drew because she believes they contains minerals beneficial to people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.
Homeopathy involves treating like with like, and tablets made from the stones are said to help combat the feeling of sluggishness and exhaustion felt by ME sufferers.
Miss English, 44, held a homeopathic trial, or proving, with ten healthy human guinea pigs taking part. They kept diaries for a month and all the testers reported feeling exhausted and irritable, while others said they craved sugar.
Miss English said that because the rock tablets made healthy people feel many of the symptoms experienced by people living with ME, the treatment would have the opposite effect for sufferers.
Miss English said one person had even felt compelled to visit Stanton Drew, although no one knew what was in the tablets.
"One of the things I find most interesting is the way that homeopathic remedies are trialed," she said.
"Rather than give them to animals they are given to healthy human volunteers because people's dreams and psyche are important.You could not ask a rat what it dreamt about.When you go to the doctors, they just look at the symptoms, but we look at the whole person because homeopathy treats people as individuals.To conduct a homeopathic proving, you need a minimum of ten healthy volunteers. They need to keep a journal for at least a week before starting the treament because we need to know what happens to that person when they take it."
The volunteers were aged between 20 and 60, and all reported feeling more leaden and sluggish during the month-long trial.
"What comes up in their dreams in a proving is very important, and people's dreams during this proving were actually quite fantastic," said Miss English.
" I had no idea how they were going to react to it." " I knew the history of the stone circles, and what they were used for. What went into the remedy was the condition of the stones themselves. If you want to imitate a stone it would feel heavy and this is what followed in the proving."
Miss English is now treating clients suffering from ME with her Stanton Drew remedy and she says that so far people have reported feeling more positive.
"The worst thing about ME is the total exhaustion and not having enough energy to get up and brush your teeth. Stanton Drew helps with that," she added.
Picture of Article in Bath Chron
Chris Clark, chief executive of Action For ME, a UK charity with 10,000 members dedicated to improving the lives of sufferers, said more research was needed regarding homeopathic treatment before it could be said to be a successful approach.Mr Clark said: " Almost everything in this field seems to help one person and not another. There isn't a single effective treatment. We find that homeopathy seems to get mixed reactions among members."
One of the people taking part in the proving was journalist Catharine Stott. "We were told at the start of the trial that it was something mineral which meant it could be practically anything," said Ms Stott.
"When I was told what the mineral was, I was surprised but it really fitted in with how we felt. I dreamt about rocks a lot, which I have never done before."
"What surprised me more was the way we displayed the same symptoms and were all craving for sugary foods or carbohydrates. We were all shattered and sluggish."
You can read the full proving here The Homeopathic Proving of Stanton Drew Stone Circle
Miss English can be contacted via her website at
www.maryenglish.co.uk
news@bathchron.co.uk copyright lies with The Bath Chronicle Wed Sept 15th 2004 www.thisisbath.co.uk