An alternative to antihistamine

As the local allergy season kicks into full gear, Homeopathy Awareness Week in Israel kicks off next week. The field's local professional association has organized about a dozen lectures promoting the benefits of homeopathy throughout the country - one of them in English, with the focus being on allergies

"We're right now in the height of the season," said Yanai Lev-Or, chairman of the Israeli Association for Classical Homeopathy, explaining that hay fever, itchy eyes and other allergy-related symptoms started appearing during the early spring days when flowers started blooming and infusing the air with pollen.

The organizers' goal is to give people the opportunity to better understand what they see as the advantages of homeopathy over Western, or allopathic, medicine. For example, homeopathic remedies against allergies do not have side effects, as compared to antihistamines that cause drowsiness.

"While conventional medicine treats the reaction to the allergen, we are treating the patient's sensitivity to the allergen," said Johannesburg native Vivienne Nov, a classical homeopath who will speak in English about the topic on May 10 in Herzliya.

"Conventional doctors prescribe you an antihistamine that stops the allergic reaction - the problem is that you still need treatment every time you encounter the allergen. Homeopathy, on the other hand, looks at the reasons why an individual has an allergic reaction. Once their sensitivity is healed, they can face the allergen again and again without getting sick."

The first homeopathic pharmacy opened in Tel Aviv in 1941 and was based on the idea of treating diseases by minute doses of substances that would otherwise harm a healthy person. Insomnia, for instance, is usually treated by administering a drug that brings on artificial sleep. Homeopaths, however, might give the patient a tiny dose of a substance that in large quantities would cause sleeplessness, such as coffee.

"Homeopathy is becoming more and more widespread in Israel, it is now available by most health care providers in Israel and in many hospital clinics, as well as in about 500 private clinics all over the country," said Lev-Or, who grew up in Toronto. His association has about 250 members, about 20 of whom are Anglos, he added. The association's Web site, http://homeopathy-israel.co.il, includes a list of English-speaking homeopaths. Currently, homeopathic treatments are available through all the HMOs.

Lev-Or admitted, however, that his discipline still faces opposition by conventional physicians who consider it unscientific. While there are several studies on homeopathy, he agrees with the demand for more research. Still, he has absolute confidence that homeopathy works.

"Many people can attest that they have been helped by homeopathy, and there is a growing body of research that shows that it does work," he said. "We have a methodology that we know makes a difference in people's health, we just don't fully understand it yet."