Understanding Homeopathy
What is homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a school of medicine based on the fact that humans, like plants and animals, possess the ability to heal themselves. Homeopathic medicines stimulate this ability and strengthen the body's curative powers. Over 200 years old, homeopathy is today practiced throughout the world. The Queen of England is attended by a homeopathic physician. Clinical tests in Scotland, Germany and France have demonstrated homeopathy's ability to help the body heal itself.
What is the difference between homeopathic and ordinary medicines?
Ordinary medicines attempt to either (1) destroy the microbes associated with a disease, or (2) suppress the symptoms that accompany it. This requires strong drugs, mostly synthetic, which may sometimes attack the body with unpleasant and even dangerous side effects.
Homeopathy teaches us that the symptoms of a disease represent the body's attempt to heal itself. By administering minute amounts of a medicine which produces the same symptoms as the disease, we can reinforce the healing process. Homeopathy works with the body, not against it.
How safe are homeopathic medicines?
Homeopathic medicines are remarkably free from side effects and are among the safest preparations known to medical science. Prepared from natural sources, 80 percent of them are botanical in origin. Others are prepared from minerals or mineral ores. Since only tiny amounts are needed to stimulate the body's own natural defense system, they are administered in the smallest possible doses.
Why are Latin names used?
Since homeopathy is practiced in many different countries, homeopathic medicines are identified by Latin names to eliminate the confusion that different languages might cause.
Why are there single and combination remedies?
There are two different kinds of homeopathic medicines: combination and single remedies.
A single remedy contains one single homeopathic medicine. When given to a healthy person, it produces its own unique set of symptoms. For example, when Allium cepa (onion) is given to healthy people, it causes their eyes to water and their noses to run. Similarly, each person, when ill, displays a unique set of symptoms. The ideal remedy is the one whose symptoms most closely resemble the sick person's symptoms; therefore, a person suffering from a runny nose and watery eyes would be benefitted by Allium cepa. The closer the match between the person's symptoms and the medicine's symptoms, the more precisely targeted and effective the remedy will be.
A combination remedy combines two or more homeopathic medicines. They are general in their approach, aimed at a disease or condition such as colds or flu, rather than at an individual's unique set of symptoms. While the precise single remedy is the ideal choice, combination remedies are recommended for the person who has only a limited knowledge of homeopathy or when there is doubt as to which single remedy should be used.
How and when should homeopathic medicines be taken?
Homeopathic medicines are taken sublingually, placed under the tongue and held there for a minute or two so that the medication may pass through the mucus membranes and into the tiny blood vessels lining the area. In this manner, they enter the bloodstream directly, without being subjected to first-pass metabolism in the stomach. Because homeopathic doses are so minute, the tablets or pellets should be handled as little as possible. Similarly, the mouth should be in its natural condition; medicines should be taken at least 15 minutes before, or 30 minutes after, eating, brushing your teeth, or drinking anything other than water.
Information for this article was supplied by Boericke & Tafel.