“HOMEOPATHY: THE GENTLE HEALER”

Go into any health food store and there among the vitamins, herbs and supplements you will find various homeopathic remedies. Reading the label doesn’t tell you much other than stating what condition it is used for. The ingredient label is a list of strange looking botanical names like rhus tox and calendula officinalis. Unlike over-the-counter or prescription medication labels there are no warnings, no overdose information, no list of side effects.

Homeopathy is a flexible system of medicine used by lay people and medical professionals alike. In fact, its flexibility is one of the basic concepts that make homeopathic medicine so desirable. Homeopathic remedies are many times compared to vaccinations and the concepts are similar, yet homeopathic remedies are much more dilute and have absolutely no side effects unlike vaccinations.

The basic principle behind homeopathy of like will be cured by like may seem foreign yet the system has been used for thousands of years. First developed by Greek physicians homeopathy fit the credo of “first do no harm.”

Modern day homeopathy is based on the work of an eighteenth century German born physician, Samuel Hahnemann. Samuel disheartened by the medicine of his day such as bloodletting and purges began experimenting with this simple idea after his daughter fell ill. As his daughter began to regain her health from a seemingly fatal condition with these simple remedies, his reputation spread, despite being shunned by his colleges- his methods rejected as quackery.

Hahnemanns’ reputation was exonerated by successfully treating the 1831 central European outbreak of cholera using the remedy camphor and quarantine. The first doctor ever to successfully use quarantine.

The other property unique to the system of homeopathy is that no two people will be treated the same. For example, in orthodox medicine, several people suffering from stomach flu would receive the same diagnosis and the same type of treatment even though they do not necessarily have exactly the same symptoms, nor react in the same way. In homeopathy, the remedy is chosen to match the symptoms as closely as possible, including each individual’s unique set of emotional and physical traits.

The plant based homeopathic medicine or remedy, (the preferred term) is a matching of the individuals unique vibrational pattern to a remedy. If symptoms and remedy are closely matched a normal vibrational pattern of health will return.

Homeopathic remedies are weak dilutions of naturally occurring substances that help restore the body’s vital or vibrational force by strengthening its natural immunity. As yet no theory has been put forward to convincingly explain how or why the remedies work. Till next time, Rebecca.