alive recently had the honour of speaking with Dr. Peter Fisher, FRCP, Integrative Medicine, a world-renowned physician and homeopath whose resume runs long and includes some very noteworthy positions:
- Director of Research and Consultant Physician at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine in England
- Member of the World Health Organization’s Expert Advisory Panel on Traditional and Complementary Medicine
- Member of the Expert Reference panel of the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence
- Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Homeopathy published by Elsevier, the leading journal in the field
And, as if that isn’t enough, Dr. Fisher is also the Physician and Homeopath to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
alive: How long have you been practising homeopathy?
Dr. Fisher: A long time. I first practised homeopathy in 1978 and continuously since 1986.
alive: You have some very famous patients.
Dr. Fisher: I was appointed Physician and Homeopath to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. There is a long tradition of having a homeopathic doctor to the Queen. It goes back to Queen Victoria. There has been an official physician to the Queen since the 1930s, and traditionally it is a homeopathic physician.
alive: How can Canadian patients and the country’s health care system benefit by integrating homeopathic medicines into traditional health care?
Dr. Fisher: The best way for people to use it is in an integrative manner. We have good data showing that integrating it into your health care can reduce the use of undesirable drugs. We need effective alternatives.
Sleeping tablets are a huge problem. Something like 30 percent of people suffer from insomnia at any given time. It has been shown that homeopathics get good results and are able to reduce the use of sleeping tablets by about one-third.
alive: What’s one thing you’d really like to explain to people about homeopathy?
Dr. Fisher: The one thing to explain is that homeopathy is something you can use safely and effectively for a lot of common daily things such as colds and flus, anxiety, allergies, and sleeplessness. It offers safety (the first principle of medicine—do no harm—is, to this day, the most ignored principle); effectiveness; and availability—you can pick it up yourself quite easily in most natural health stores.
Homeopathic sleep aids
The type of homeopathic sleep aid prescribed for you will depend on the underlying emotional cause of your insomnia. Commonly used homeopathic remedies include
- Nux vomica
- Coffea
- Chamomilla
- Valeriana
