One popular form of alternative medicine is homeopathy.
A system of medicine that Attempts to stimulate the
body to heal itself. Homeopathy is based on two main principles.
1. The first is that “like cures like”: one should administer therapies that will produce symptoms
similar to those the patient is already experiencing. According to this principle, symptoms are seen as
the body’s attempt to restore itself to health.
Enhancing these symptoms would then aid the body’s
normal healing process. For example, one homeopathic
remedy for a patient with a runny nose is the red
onion extract, called allium, that enhances the
runny nose by stimulating the tear glands and mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract.[1] In
contrast, allopathic medications such as
antihistamines would suppress the runniness.
2. The second principle of homeopathy is that of
“minimum dilution”: one should use the lowest
concentration of a substance that still provokes a response.This principle is essential to homeopathy’s viability, since some compounds used in homeopathy
can be toxic at high concentrations. Homeopathic medications have beneficial effects only at lower
dilutions, although how this occurs is unclear.
Published guidelines state the prescribed
concentration for homeopaths to follow when creating remedies.
How does the concept of homeopathy differ from that
of conventional medicine?
Very simply, homeopathy attempts to stimulate the
body to recover itself. Let’s look at an example:
the common cough.
First, we must accept that all symptoms, no matter
how uncomfortable they are, represent the body’s
attempt to restore itself to health. Instead of
looking upon the symptoms as something wrong which
must be set right, we see them as signs of the way
the body is attempting to help itself. Instead of
trying to stop the cough with suppressants, as
conventional medicine does, a homeopath will give a remedy that will cause a cough in a healthy person, and thus stimulate the ill body to restore itself.
Second, we must look at the totality of the symptoms presented. We each experience a cough in our unique way. Yet conventional medicine acts as if all coughs were alike. It therefore offers a series of suppressive drugs something to suppress the cough, something to dry the mucus, something to lower the histamine level, something to ease falling asleep.
Homeopathy, on the other hand, looks for the one substance that will cause similar symptoms in a healthy person. The person with a cough characterized by being worse when breathing cold air, and sounding like a deep bark, will need a quite different remedy than the person whose cough is loose in the morning, dry in the evening, and better when sitting up in bed. We characterize both as “coughs” but they are different illnesses in the individuals, and therefore require different homeopathic treatment.
In conventional medical thought, health is seen simply as the absence of disease. You assume that you are healthy if there is nothing wrong with you. To a person versed in homeopathy, health is much more than that. A healthy person is a person who is free on all levels: physical, emotional, and mental. Obviously, a person with a broken leg is not free, on the physical level, to move around. But on a more subtle level, a person who cannot eat certain foods or is allergic to certain materials is also experiencing a lack of freedom. It is a good emotional release to cry at a “tear jerker” movie, but someone who continues to cry for several weeks afterwards is experiencing a lack of freedom on the emotional level. Likewise, a person who cannot absorb what he has read or cannot remember day to day appointments is experiencing a restriction on the mental level. The homeopath recognizes such limitations and attempts, through the use of the properly selected remedies, to restore the person to health and freedom.
An important basic difference exists between conventional medical therapy and homeopathy. In conventional therapy, the aim often is to control the illness through regular use of medical substances, even if the medication is nothing more than vitamins. If the medication is withdrawn, however, the person returns to illness. There has been no cure. A person who takes a pill for high blood pressure every day is not undergoing a cure but is only controlling the symptoms. Homeopathy’s aim is the cure: “The complete restoration of perfect health,” as Dr. Samuel Hahnemann said.
Principles of Homeopathy
1. Similia Similibus Curanter
2. Simplex Similimum Minimum
3. Principle of Individualisation
4. Principle of Potentisation
5. Law of Direction
6. 'Three legged stool'
7. Use of the Materia Medica
8. RepertorisationSimilia Similibus Curanter
This is the law of similars. It states that ‘that which can cause can cure’. The onion, which produces tears in the eye and irritation (similar to a cold), can be used as a homeopathic medicine to cure colds which have irritating tears. The early Indians recognised this principle and states that Vishasya Vishamevam Aushadam and Samaha Samena Shantihi, but it was Dr.Samuel Hahnemann, who through his studies and experiments on the various medicines available in nature, practically proved the law.
As homeopathy relies on prescribing remedies to your precise combination of symptoms, all your symptoms should be included in the process.
Most of us have a few niggles that have been with us so long we don’t even notice them anymore. (ie, cold feet) These all need your full attention. You should also include things which you might not even class as symptoms, such as a persistent itch behind your ear.
The type of things you need to be aware of include:
Getting Familiar with the Repertory
It is worth spending a while exploring the database behind our software in depth, so as to familiarise yourself with the broad range of complaints that count as symptoms. You should, therefore, use the browse feature rather than the search facility on the remedy finder where possible. You may also wish to explore the complete repetory listing.
And a word of warning
The most important thing when attempting to diagnose and treat illnesses at home is to know when to stop. If symptoms persist, go and see your doctor; even if you feel your symptoms seem unworthy of professional help, minor symptoms can often be a sign of something more serious.
Simplex Similimum Minimum
This principle consists of three words.
The first is Simplex i.e : simple medicines not compound should be prescribed. This is the doctrine of single remedy. Mixture of medicines or polypharmacy is not allowed. Only one medicine must be given at a time.
Similimum – As discussed previously the totality of symptoms of the patient must be taken. This will yield a picture which corresponds to one medicine, the similimum, which must be given. That medicine which has been tested on various provers and has produced similar symptoms as that of the patient is the similar remedy.
Minimum – A low dosage of medicine is recommended. In homeopathy less is more, so medicines of low potency and given at long intervals have a better impact. Hahnemann, in fact used to give just one dose of the medicine and wait to see the reaction over a period of time.
Principle of Individualisation
Treat the patient, not the disease. This is the most important doctrine of homeopathy. Not two human beings are alike and so the medicines used for their treatment need not be alike. Homeopathic medicines are prescribed based on the totality of symptoms of that individual. So, the name of the disease is not important to the doctor who tries to get a complete picture of the patient – his symptoms,the modalities of symptoms, his likes and disliked, his environment, etc to arrive at the individualised remedy – which is the similimum.
Principle of Potentisation
Homeopathic medicines are diluted in alcohol or milk-sugar(lactose) to make them more palatable and also to reduce the harmful effects. It has been found that the more the medicine is diluted, the more effective and powerful it becomes. So, the process of the dilution is called as potentisation and the medicines are referred to as potencies.The crude homeopathic medicine(eg : Cinchona/Lachesis) is triturated in alcohol to yield the mother tincture. The mother tincture is denoted by the symbol ΓΈ.
Potency :
Law of Direction
The law of direction of cure proposed by Dr.Constantine Hering states that – “As a patient recovers from a disease, the symptoms move from within outwards, from above downwards,from centre to circumference and disappear in the reverse order of their appearance”
A patient suffering from a skin disease may use various medicines which suppress this disorder and send it into the body and it may manifest as athma. So, when this patient takes homeopathic medicine, the asthma is replaced with the skin infection and then finally the skin infection leaves to yield a cure.
Three-legged stool
This principle attributed to the elder Lippe(Dr.Adolph Lippe) states that while prescribing a medicine, three leading symptoms of that medicine should match the symptoms of the patient. Just as a stool with three legs is more stable than a stool with one leg, medicine given on the basis of atleast three key symptoms is more reliable than that treated with one symptom. Thus, a careful study is required to apply this law.
Use of Materia Medica
The Materia Medica is a dictionary of homeopathic medicines and their symptoms. It is a book which is the final authority on homeopathy. The materia medica contains the list of symptoms experienced by provers of the medicine. The symptoms are arranged in a systematic order – Mind (symptoms related to mind/mental), Head, Eyes, etc.
It is not required for a doctor to memorise or remember all the contents of the Materia Medica. What is required is to understand the nature / keynotes of each remedy. A number of materia medicas have been authored. Prominent among them are Kent’s Lectures, Hering’s Guiding Symptoms, Allen’s Keynotes, etc. See list of books.
Repertorisation
The repertory is an index to the Materia Medica. It is a book containing all possible symptoms arranged in alphabetical order for each of the organs of the body. The physican has to regularly refer this book to find out the medicines which have produced in a prover, the symptoms of the patient. Only, through correct usage of the repertory, can the job of prescription be made easier.
Principles of Homeopathy
In conventional medicine, the symptoms are considered to be a manifestation of the disease. The drugs are given to kill the bacteria causing it or to dampen the symptom of the condition. Homeopaths, on the other hand, see the symptoms as the body’s attempt to heal itself. They see the symptom as a positive sign that the body’s defense mechanism is trying to fight the underlying cause and by this reasoning, they insist that the symptoms should not be suppressed as we are working against the body’s attempt to cure it.
The laws of homeopathy are the law of similars, the principle of minimum dose and prescription for the individual.
The Law of Similars
The principle that like shall be cured by like, or Similia similibus curantur. This principle, recognized by physicians and philosophers since ancient times, became the basis of Hahnemann’s formulation of the homeopathic doctrine: the proper remedy for a patient’s disease is that substance that is capable of producing, in a healthy person, symptoms similar to those from which the patient suffers.
In other words, a substance produces symptoms of illness in a well person when administered in large doses; if we administer the same substance in minute quantities, it will cure the disease in a sick person. Hahnemann suggested that this is because nature will not allow two similar diseases to exist in the body at the same time. Thus homeopaths will introduce a similar artificial disease into the body which will push the original one out. The dose is small so that there is no danger of any long term side effects.
The Principle of Minimum Dose
This principle states that extreme dilution enhances the curative properties of a substance, while eliminating any possible side effects. This is just the reverse of conventional drug philosophy where a minimum dose is required for effect. Starting from the conventional dose, as we decrease the concentration (or increase the dilution), the medicine become less and less efficient. But below a threshold, the medicine start getting potent again. Homeopaths uses this region of potency.
Whole Person Prescribing
A homeopath studies the whole person. Characteristics such as their temperament, personality, emotional and physical responses when prescribing a remedy, etc. are studied. So, a homeopath may treat different persons exhibiting the same symptom differently. (For example, two persons exhibiting flu like symptoms may get two different medication from the homeopath based on the appraisal of the mind body constitution.)
Laws of Cure
There are three laws of cure, They are:
1. A remedy starts at the top of the body and works downward
2. A remedy works from within the body outward, and from major to minor organs
3. Symptoms clear in reverse order of appearance.
Application of the three principles of cure means that you will feel better emotionally before you will feel better physically.
How Do Homeopathic Remedies Work?
Many of the homeopathic remedies are so diluted that according to the known laws of physics and chemistry, they couldn’t possibly have any effect. Once you get beyond a certain point-24x or 12c -there is probably not even one single molecule of the original active substance remaining. This fact is often pointed to by critics of homeopathy as they dismiss the effect of homeopathy as merely due to placebo effect.
And yet, according to homeopathic doctrine and experience, the more diluted the solution, the more potent it is. Homeopaths contend that the remedies work and they see no reason to stop using them simply because we do not understand how they work. They often argue that pharmacologists cannot explain exactly how most conventional drugs work. For example, even aspirin is not fully understood in terms of how it works, but physicians have no difficulty in recommending its use.
Over the years several theories have been proposed to explain the action on homeopathic potentization.
Hormesis
The effects of microdoses have been known for a long time, and there are a number of examples that support the idea that very diluted concentrations of a substance will have a measurable and sometimes profound effect. Scientists call this phenomenon: hormesis.
Scientists from Michigan State University have shown how hormesis work in nature. They used microdoses of a fertilizer to stimulate crop production. In a dose equivalent to a 9x dilution, the fertilizer increased tomato yield by 30 percent, carrots were 21 percent bigger, and corn yield increased by 25 percent.
Our own bodies secrete minute amounts of hormones that have powerful effects. Thyroid hormone is present in our blood at only 1 part per 10 billion-yet this is enough to regulate the rate of our entire metabolism. Many animal studies show that low doses of some substances elicit a beneficial response while high doses are harmful. This phenomenon has been documented to occur with radiation, antibiotics, and heavy metals.
Pheromones
Pheromones are powerful aromatic hormone-like substances that creatures secrete to attract one another. One molecule of moth pheromone is so potent, it will attract another moth from miles away and trigger a cascade of physical reactions. Though well documented, the exact mechanism for pheromones remains unknown.
Homeopathic Remedies Work in Spiritual/Energy Plane and Not in Physical Plane
Homeopathic remedies are believed to work in the spiritual plane as opposed to the physical plane as we are used to think and measure. Hahnemann believed that dilution and succussion released a spirit- like power that worked on the spiritual level of the vital force in humans. We are familiar with the formerly invisible, immeasurable, unknowable energy forms, such as electromagnetic radiation and subatomic particles. Magnets exerted their force long before science could explain the mechanism. Physicists are still trying to explain gravity and the nature of matter, still discovering phenomena such as the “strong force” and the “weak force.”
Homeopathy is an energy medicine, as are acupuncture and therapeutic touch. Homeopaths believe that although the physical molecules of the original substance may be gone, dilution and succussion leaves something behind-an imprint of its essence, or its energy pattern-that gives it a kind of healing charge. Potentization does not occur if you simply dilute the substance, even if you dilute it repeatedly. Nor does it occur if you only shake the substance vigorously. There is something about each process that builds sequentially upon the other, causing the power to be retained and progressively intensified.
But how does the information in such a minute amount of substance get transferred to the body?
Some theorists suggest the repeated succussion creates an electrochemical pattern that is stored in the water carrier and then spreads like liquid crystallization through the body’s own water; others say the dilution process triggers an electromagnetic imprinting that directly affects the electro- magnetic field of the body. This concept is used in other therapies also. For example, Ayurveda suggests taking water that has been potentizated by precious metals such as gold. The water is believed to possess curative power as a result of coming in contact with gold and other gemstones although no molecular transfer takes place. The healing power of crystals and magnets are believed to come from their effect on the energy pattern or vibration frequency. So, the suggestion of the homeopathic remedies as working on the energy plane may not be as far fetched as we may think at the first glance.
Homeopathic Remedies Activate the Vital Force
Homeopaths believe that it is the energy or “vibrational pattern” of the remedy, rather than the chemical content, that stimulates the healing by activating what Hahnemann called the Vital force. Vital force is the healing power or energy that exists within us all. It is called by the name Chi by Chinese and Prana by Indian Ayurveda. The vital force fuels the mind, body, emotions and mind. It keeps us healthy and balanced. When the balance of the vital force is disturbed by factors such as stress, pollution, improper diet and lack of exercise, it becomes weakened resulting in the person getting sick.
Scientists who accept the potential benefits of homeopathic theory suggest several theories to explain how highly diluted homeopathic medicines may act. Using recent developments in quantum physics, they have proposed that electromagnetic energy in the medicines may interact with the body on some level. Researchers in physical chemistry have proposed the “memory of water” theory, whereby the structure of the water-alcohol solution is altered by the medicine during the process of dilution and retains this structure even after none of the actual substance remains.
Which Problems can be treated by Homeopathic Treatment?
Ailments such as colds, constipation, vomiting, and diarrhea respond well to homeopathic treatment. It can help in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, fibrositis and psoriasis. Homeopathy also helps in the emotional, mental or physical complaints. For example, there is a remedy available to help people to stop smoking.
The following are a list of conditions for which Homeopathy has a known remedy:
1. Abdominal Pain and Indigestion
2. Acne
3. Allergies: Contact Dermatitis {Skin Rash), Eczema, Hives, Upper Respiratory Tract Allergy {Hay Fever)
4. Anxiety and Fear
5. Asthma: Allergic, Reactive, Psychogenic
6. Back and Neck Problems: Stiff Neck, Lower Back Pain, Sacroiliac Sprain, Coccyx Injury, Sciatica
7. Bedwetting {Enuresis)
8. Bladder Infections {Cystitis) Boils
9. Canker Sores and Cold Sores
10. Chicken Pox
11. Colds
12. Conjunctivitis {Eye Inflammation or Pinkeye)
13. Constipation
14. Coughs
15. Diaper Rash
16. Diarrhea
17. Earaches: Otitis Media, Otitis Externa
18. Fever
19. Flu
20. Food Poisoning
21. German Measles
22. Grief and Sadness
23. Headaches: Muscle Contraction (Tension) Headache, Vascular i.e. {Migraine) Headache, Other Headaches
24. Hemorrhoids
25. Hepatitis
26. Herpes Simplex
27. Herpes Zoster {Shingles)
28. Impetigo
29. Insomnia
30. Irritability and Anger
31. Laryngitis
32. Measles
33. Menstrual Cramps and Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
34. Mononucleosis
35. Motion Sickness
36. Mumps
37. Nausea
38. Neck Pain
39. Poison Oak or Ivy
40. Prostatitis
41. Ringworm and Other Related Fungal Infections
42. Sciatica
43. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
44. Sinus Problems (Sinusitis)
45. Sore Throats: Noninfectious, Viral, and Strep
46. Styes
47. Teething
48. Thrush
49. Urethritis
50. Vaginitis: Yeast Infections, Bacterial Infections, Trichomonas Infections, and Noninfectious Vaginitis.
51. Vomiting
52. Warts