Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a major health problem for people from India, Bangladesh and at least fifteen other countries. Drinking arsenic contaminated well water has caused the rapid spread of skin diseases and liver damage. Although chemical treatment can remove arsenic contamination, such efforts to provide safe drinking water have not been widely implemented.
In their search to find inexpensive treatments for arsenic poisoning that are easy to administer, effective in low doses and non-toxic, researchers from University of Kalyani, West Bengal, discovered the homeopathic remedy Arsenicum Album yielded positive effects in mice. They now believe the homeopathic treatment can reduce the liver damage in humans caused by arsenic poisoning.
The researchers write: "As supplying arsenic-free drinking water cannot totally rule out the chances of arsenic contamination from other sources, the problem of eradicating arsenic related diseases cannot be addressed through such effort alone. The potentized homeopathic drug Arsenicum Album not only has the ability to help remove arsenic from the body, but these drugs in microdoses appear to have the ability to detoxify the ill-effects produced by arsenic in mice".
Professor Khuda-Bukhsh, the research team leader said: "An early human clinical trial may be worth pursuing to verify the efficacy of the homeopathic drug on human volunteers living in arsenic infested areas."
Mice with and without arsenic poisoning were fed by the drop either distilled water, Arsenicum Album, or alcohol that had been through the same preparation procedure as the homeopathic remedy, three tim
'"/>
Contact: Gemma Bradley
press@biomedcentral.com
44-207-323-0323
BioMed Central
21-Oct-2003