Homeopathy - A True Friend!

Developed more than two hundred years ago by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann (1755 – 1843), homoeopathy is now widely used throughout the world. Many people choose homoeopathic medicine as their primary form of treatment while others use it to complement conventional medicine.

"Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better."  -  Albert Einstein

Nature provides the cure for most ailments. Indigenous people have known this for centuries simply by observing and attuning to their surroundings. Homoeopathic medicines are made from natural substances such as plants, herbs, minerals and animal products.  Although some substances used to make homoeopathic remedies may be toxic in their natural form but once attenuated into potentized medicine their healing properties are raised/awakened and they become completely safe.

‘Homoeopathy’ comes from the Greek word homeos meaning ‘similar’ and pathos meaning ‘suffering’ and is based on the principle of ‘like cures like’ which was first identified by Hippocrates (460-350 BC). It is a system of curing diseases by medicines which are capable of producing symptoms similar to those of disease when given to healthy human beings.

What it causes, it can cure too!

This can be illustrated by a simple example of onion and homoeopathic medicine named Allium Cepa prepared from red onion. When we peel an onion, there is watering and burning of eyes and nose. According to homoeopathic principles, a person suffering from similar watering and burning of eyes and nose in case of a common cold or influenza can be treated by the medicine Allium Cepa. Likewise coffee (Coffea), a stimulant which is known to cause sleeplessness, can be one of the remedies used to treat insomnia (disturbed sleep) in a person.

Homoeopathy considers each person as an individual. We are after all, unique. To prescribe the same medicine to every person who suffers from a migraine headache, for example, would not be appropriate. Homoeopathy considers your personal susceptibility to illness, your parents’ tendencies, your personality (physical appearance, lifestyle, relationships, passions, family life, challenges, coping mechanisms) and so on.

All the above, including the specifics of your physical and emotional symptoms make you unique and are considered in choosing a right homoeopathic prescription for you.

Homoeopathy is not ‘ready-made’ but ‘tailor-made’ to suit an individual. Therefore, two people suffering even from an apparently similar looking problem are unlikely to be prescribed the same remedy. We can say that in homoeopathy we use ‘designer remedies’ designed especially for an individual.

Homoeopathic medicine treats the person as a whole (“the holistic approach”) rather than treating specific symptoms in isolation. Most people are aware that emotional imbalances such as grief, shock and anger can lead to physical illness if left untreated or suppressed. The opposite is also true. Physical pain can cause depression, anxiety and stress. Homoeopathic treatment helps release emotions and physical blockages to restore balance between the body, mind and spirit.

According to homoeopathy, mind and body are very much linked and physical problems cannot be effectively cured without understanding and putting right the person’s constitution and character. Constitution is a person’s state of health, including his or her temperament and any inherited and acquired characteristics. To determine the constitution of a person a homoeopath usually asks a lot many questions.

Homoeopathy believes that if your constitution is healthy, you will not succumb to any infection, i.e. disease organisms will not affect you if your susceptibility is low. This is the basic difference between homoeopathy and any other system of medicine. Conventional system of medicines believes that one becomes sick due to infection, i.e. bacterias and viruses, hence their treatment is aimed at killing the infection using strong drugs.

This, however, further reduces the immunity of the person making it weaker and the person becomes more susceptible and falls sick again and again. Homoeopathy, however, believes that first your constitution becomes weak and then you become susceptible to infection.  Bacteriae and viral attacks are the end products of disease process and not the cause of disease. They are present everywhere but they will not affect you until your immunity is strong.

The treatment is aimed at raising the vitality, i.e. immunity of the person so that he can fight out the disease himself. Homoeopathy does not introduce artificial antibodies in the body; it wakes up the body to do the job on its own. This is why homoeopathy is able to cure permanently without frequent remissions. However, medicines are given in highly diluted (potentized) form and are therefore extremely safe and have no side-effects.

We all get immunised by vaccinations which are essentially homoeopathic in principle.

To learn the healing properties of medicines, they are administered to healthy individuals and the symptoms are recorded to analyse the drug. This method of drug proving ensures that homoeopathic medicines are safe and have no side effects. Each one of them is tested on thousands of volunteers coming from various age groups, gender and walks of life.

Effect of homoeopathy evident in newborn babies and comatose patients prove that it just isn’t a placebo effect.

It is safe and effective for pregnant woman too.