What is Homeopathy?
“Fight like with like.”
— Samuel Hahnemann
Homeopathy is a system of natural medicine that encourages the body to return to a natural state of balance and health. Homeopathic medicines help "fill-in" the gaps in the body to stimulate a person’s own healing potential and energies. When this occurs, you’ll have access to your body’s natural strength and wisdom, and can avoid using conventional medicines and chemical-based substances.
Homeopathy was founded by the German physician, Samuel Hahnemann, who practiced its principles for 50 years before his death in 1843. He discovered when he took cinchona bark (used at the time to treat malaria) for days, he developed symptoms of malaria. Through this experience, he created what is known today as the Law of Similars, which states that effective drugs must produce symptoms in healthy people that are similar to the diseases they will be expected to treat.
Homeopathy is based on three principles:
- Like cures like
The same substance that makes up the disease is seen as able to cure it. - Minimal dose
The medicine is taken in an extremely diluted form. - Single remedy’
No matter how many symptoms are experienced, only one remedy is taken since all symptoms are treated as one.
Homeopathy has grown popular for several reasons: it is extremely effective, it is completely safe and without side effects, it can be taken alongside other medication without problems, it is natural, it works in harmony with your immune system, its remedies are not addictive, it is holistic where it addresses the cause and not just symptoms; symptoms are treated as one.
Homeopathic remedies are very small doses. All homeopathic medicines or ‘remedies’ as they are commonly called, are made by a special process of dilution of ingredients and vigorous shaking , the later which imparts considerable energy to the substance. Only one remedy is given at a time.
How a homeopathic remedy works on a person is found by giving it to healthy volunteers and reporting the symptoms they experience. These trials are repeated until a complete picture of how the remedy acts is seen. Using the theory of letting ‘similars be cured by similars’, the medicine selected should match the characteristic symptoms of a patient as closely as possible, obtained in a thorough interview with the homeopath. Then the medicine must be customized to match the individual with the disease in a process called individualization, since the very same illness in another person can most often be cured with an entirely different remedy.
There are three levels of homeopathic treatment: First aid where it is used to treat common ailments such as sprains and bruises, minor burns, skin irritations such as poison oak, diaper rash, insect bites, teething pain, etc. Acute Homeopathy where symptoms eventually go away on their own, such as colds , flues, coughs and sprains, etc., and Constitutional Homeopathy where more chronic and long-term health problems are treated, such as recurrent ear infections. Here the person is treated as a whole, including past and present conditions, and the immune system is strengthened.
When taking a homeopathic remedy, certain substances or practices can act as an antidote to the remedy, and should be avoided.
| Antidote Substances and practices to Avoid: |
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Click here for a table of Homeotoxicosis.
Dr. Michael Lipelt, founder and practitioner at Stillpoint Health Services studied homeopathy as part of the training he received at Bastyr University of Naturopathic Medicine in Seattle, WA in 1989. He has practiced homeopathy now for over 20 years, while integrating it with other holistic healing methods.