|
| |
 |
|
The word homoeopathy is often understood to be synonymous with natural medicine. In fact it is a very specific form of medical therapeutics which was discovered by a
German physician called
Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in 1811.
In order to distinguished this new discipline from the old, he named the
old discipline-Allopathy.
During Hahnemann's time medicine was at a very primitive stage with frequent use of bleeding and leeches for most conditions. One of the few medicines that were very effective was quinine in treatment of malaria. Hahnemann decided to experiment by taking some quinine himself. To his astonishment he found himself developing the typical relapsing fever of malaria. Thus he had discovered the central principle of
homoeopathy - of likes being able to treat likes, or that medicines capable of curing symptoms are also able to produce those same symptoms in a healthy person.
Homoeopathy means "like disease".
Homoeopathy is a low-cost, nontoxic, safe and effective system of alternative medicine used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
In its present form, this system of treatment is only about two centuries old but due to its
advantages, it is rapidly gaining popularity all over the world. "homoios"
in Greek means similar and "pathos" means disease or
suffering.
It is particularly effective in treating chronic illnesses that do not respond to conventional treatment, and is also a superb method of self-care for everyday conditions such as the common cold and flu. The totality of the individual is addressed on all levels of existence.
Homoeopathic philosophy emphasizes the dynamic interplay between mental, emotional and physical fitness in sustaining wellness.
It is a scientific method of treatment which aims at stimulating the body's own healing systems. The human body always works as a totality while performing any function. Thus, the defense mechanism of the body also functions as an integrated whole and systematically defends itself against any abnormality in the best possible manner, be it disease or mental and physical stress.
Any abnormality occurring in one part of the body, affects other parts too. Therefore, while treating an individual (for an ailment or disease in his words), he must be considered as a whole. That is to say that his stomach (e.g.) cannot be treated separately and his heart or head or any other organ separately.
Homoeopathic medicines are always chosen very carefully according to the totality of symptoms of the individual. In
homoeopathy, therefore, there is no concept of specialization in the classical sense.
Each individual is a separate entity having his own peculiar body chemistry. Physical, emotional and mental levels, normal habits etc. are not the same for any two individuals. These are unique for each one of us. In
Homoeopathy, each individual is therefore, evaluated separately. If two persons are apparently suffering from a similar problem, selection of medicine for each one of them may be different.
Sometimes the exact cause of the ailment is not know even after lot many tests. Only thing available is patient's history and symptoms given by him. In situations like these,
homoeopathy is perhaps the most effective system that can help. A
homoeopath can treat a person even for those symptoms which may look unbelievable or funny to others.
Homoeopathic medicine is a natural pharmaceutical science that uses
various plants, minerals or animals in very small dose to
stimulate the sick person's natural defenses. The medicines are
individually chosen for their ability to cause in overdose the
similar symptoms the person is experiencing. Since one's symptoms are actually efforts of the
organism to reestablish homoeostasis or balance, it is logical to
seek a substance that would, in overdose, cause the similar
symptoms the person is experiencing. The medicines, thus, go with
, rather than against, the person's natural defenses.
In essence, Homoeopathy is composed of two highly systematic
methods: toxicology and case taking. First, homoeopaths find out the
specific physical, emotional, and mental symptoms that various
substances cause in overdose. homoeopathic texts have more detail
on toxicology than any other source. Second, the homoeopaths
interview their patients in great detail to discover the totality
of physical, emotional and mental symptoms the person is
experiencing. The homoeopath seeks to find a substance that would
cause the similar symptoms the person has and then gives it in
small, specially prepared dose.
Throughout its 200 year history, Homoeopathy has proven effective in treating diseases for which conventional medicine has little to offer. However, due to its low cost, which threatens pharmaceutical profits as well as its divergence from conventional medical theory,
Homoeopathy has been continually attacked by the medical establishment.
Nonetheless, Homoeopathy is practiced around the world, with an estimated 500 million people receiving
homoeopathic treatment. The World Health Organization has cited
Homoeopathy as one of the systems of traditional medicine that should be integrated worldwide with conventional medicine in order to provide adequate health care by the year
2002. |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Homoeopathy has 4 principles that are its foundation. They remain unchanged over the last 200 years as their truth is demonstrated through successful treatment of the sick.
The cornerstone principle is Similia Similbus Curentur, "Let likes cure likes".
Homoeopathy actually derives its name from the Greek, homoeo='similar', and pathos='suffering'. Through research and practice Hahnemann verified cure through the use of
similars. A substance that can produce disease in a healthy person is used to elicit a healing response in someone presenting with a similar disease. Each person shows symptoms of the body/mind/spirit when they are sick. Some of these symptoms are common to that sickness, others are characteristic of that person in their sickness. The
homoeopathic practitioner matches the symptom picture of the
homoeopathic remedy to the symptom picture of the person, with particular attention paid to those symptoms which are unique to the individual.
The second principle of homoeopathy is The Single Remedy. Only one
homoeopathic remedy is given at any one time. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the action of multiple
homoeopathic remedies given all at once. The response of the vital force would be unpredictable and ambiguous. Though Hahnemann experimented with this approach he abandoned it as unsatisfactory.
The third principle of homoeopathy is The Minimum Dose. This refers to the infinitesimal doses of medicine given as well as to the repetition of dose only when necessary. Drugs given to individuals in material doses frequently cause side effects or adverse reactions. To curtail this problem, the
homoeopath administers the smallest possible dose so as to maximize beneficial effects and minimize side effects. Repetition of dose is determined by the individual's response to the remedy. Unnecessary repetition may lessen the response, even to the correct remedy. In
homoeopathy, less is better.
The fourth principle of homoeopathy is The Potentized Remedy.
Homoeopathic remedies, though made from natural substances such as plants, minerals, animals, etc., are manufactured unlike any other medicine. Through a process of serial dilution a very dilute extract is made. With every step of dilution the remedy is vigorously
shaken-succussed. This process of succussion is designed to arouse the dynamic nature of the medicine. To affect the vital force, a similarly energetic,
homoeopathic remedy must be employed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
According to Dr. Hahnemann, "Each individual case of disease is most surely, radically, rapidly, and permanently annihilated and removed only by a medicine capable of producing (in the human system) the most similar and complete manner of the totality of the symptoms." In other words, the same substance that in large doses produces the symptoms of an illness, in very minute doses cures it.
Dr. Hahnemann referred to this phenomenon as the Law of Similars, a principle first recognized in the fourth century B.C., by
Hippocrates, who was studying the effects of herbs upon disease. This Law of Similars was also the theoretical basis for the vaccines of physicians Edward
Jenner, Jonas Salk, and Louis Pasteur. They would "immunize" the body with trace amounts of a disease component, often a virus, to strengthen its immune response to the actual disease. Allergies are treated in a similar fashion by introducing minute quantities of the suspected allergen into the body to bolster natural tolerance levels. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most people believe that the higher the dose of a medicine, the greater the effect. But the opposite holds true in
Homoeopathy where the more a substance is diluted, the higher its potency. Dr. Hahnemann discovered this Law of the Infinitesimal Dose by experimenting with higher and higher dilutions of substances to avoid toxic side effects.
Today, homoeopathic remedies are usually prepared through a process of diluting with pure water or alcohol and successing (vigorous shaking).
homoeopathic solutions can be diluted to such an extent that literally no molecules of the original substance remain in the remedy. Yet, the more dilute it gets the more potent it becomes. This phenomenon has been the source of great fascination among practitioners and researchers in the field of
homoeopathic medicine, as from the point of view of conventional chemistry, diluted
homoeopathic remedies may contain no trace of the original substance. In fact, any
homoeopathic remedies over 24X potency (twenty - four successive dilutions and successions) will have no chemical trace of the original substance remaining.
A "special" report on Homoeopathy that aired in the United States on NBC' s
"DateLine" in December, 1992, which offered a one-sided argument against
Homoeopathy, contended that a homoeopathic remedy received from a prominent
homoeopathic physician was chemically tested in a laboratory and the results showed that it was "only" water and alcohol. According to
homoeopathic experts, however, this is exactly the case. After successive dilutions, no molecules of the original substance remain in the remedy.
According to Trevor Cook, Ph.D., DI Hom., President of the United Kingdom
homoeopathic Medical Association, the explanation o the therapeutic action of the highly dilute
homoeopathic remedies appears to lie in the domain of quantum physics and the emerging field of energy medicine. A study using nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) imaging demonstrated distinctive readings of subatomic activity in twenty-three different
homoeopathic remedies. This potency was not demonstrated in placebos (substances having no pharmacological effect).
Some researchers believe that the specific electromagnetic frequency of the original substance is imprinted in the
homoeopathic remedy through the process of successive dilution and succession, says Dr. Cook.
The distinguished Italian physicist Emilio del Giudici has set forth a theory that helps explain
Homoeopathy's mode of therapeutic action. Del Giudici proposes that water molecules form structures capable of storing minute electromagnetic signals. This proposition is given added weight by the findings of Dr. Wolfgang Ludwig, a German biophysicist, who has demonstrated in preliminary research that
homoeopathic substances give off measurable electromagnetic signals. These signals show that specific frequencies are dominant in each
homoeopathic substance.
If del Giudici's model is accurate, a homoeopathic remedy may convey an electromagnetic "message" to the body that matches the specific electromagnetic frequency or pattern of an illness in order to stimulate the body's natural healing response. What Dr. Hahnemann may have been doing in his empirical research was unwittingly "matching the frequencies of the plant extract with the frequency of the [patient's] illness." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A session with a
homoeopathic practitioner is a unique experience for someone accustomed to conventional medicine. For instance, you may suffer from chronic headaches, perhaps migraines. While the conventional medical treatment for this condition is the same for most-everyone (some form of analgesics or
anti-inflammatories), Homoeopathy recognizes over two hundred symptom patterns associated with headaches, and has corresponding remedies for each.
Your headache may be in the front of your head. It may get worse with a cold sensation and improve with heat. It may be better while you are laying down, or while you are sitting up. You may be a person who is thin, and easily excited, or the docile, sedentary sort. The first task of the
homoeopathic practitioner is a process called "profiling," or recording all of the qualities - physical, mental, and emotional-that will determine the patient's remedy or combination of remedies.
Practitioners of classical Homoeopathy consult vast compendiums called repertories and material
medica to determine the remedy that most closely matches the total picture of the patient's
symptomology. These compendiums are compilations of the findings of thousands of tests, for over two hundred years, that record how healthy individuals react to different substances. The very detailed reactions of the subjects are catalogued in these compendiums and the
homoeopathic practitioner's task is to match them exactly to the patient's profile. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Homoeopathy is a holistic medicine; in other words it aims to treat the whole
person rather than the disease. It may seem unusual to those used to allopathic (conventional) medicine, where one medicine is taken for a skin complaint, another for a headache, and yet another for sleeplessness.
If you use the remedy finder frequently, you may find that one particular remedy comes up time and time again for your complaints - however diverse they appear to be. For example, in testing the online remedy finder, on my own symptoms ranging from insomnia, headaches, to stomach complaints, Phosphor was frequently the suggested remedy. There is something in my nature, underneath any passing symptoms, which is akin to Phosphor.
A common cold, for example, is one virus which produces a myriad of effects, subtly different in different people. Different people with a cold caused by the same virus may exhibit different symptoms. You can see, for example, what a range of possible specific symptoms there are for flatulence, headaches or period pain and how a few hypothetical cases of insomnia, migraine, hay fever or flu, can be very different from your own experience of these ailments, and can therefore require different remedies with
homoeopathy. It is for this reason that each case should be assessed by close and careful analysis of all the relevant symptoms.
Sometimes the exact cause of the ailment is not know even after lot many tests. Only thing available is patient's history and symptoms given by him. In situations like these,
homoeopathy is perhaps the most effective system that can help. A
homoeopath can treat a person even for those symptoms which may look unbelievable or funny to others.
Ailments like can all be treated effectively by homoeopathy:
Acne, Allergies
Arthritis, Asthma, Cataract, Depression, Discharging ears, Epilepsy
Falling of Hair, Goiter
Hemorrhoids (Piles)
Hepatitis, Hot flushes
Hypertension,
Hypotension,
Insomnia
Migraine, Paralysis
Pyorrhea, Rheumatism,
Sciatica,
Skin diseases
Tumors, Warts
Chronic hypertrophy of tonsils in children,
Diseases of kidneys and gall bladder,
Diseases of liver including cirrhosis,
Heart diseases (including Coronary Thrombosis),
Male and female diseases
Stomach problems including Ulcers, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some people think that
Homoeopathy treatment deals with chronic cases only and that it takes too much time to cure. This is only a misunderstanding and actually it is not so.
Acute Cases: Homoeopathy can very effectively treat almost all types of acute cases. The word almost has been used because some cases like road accidents and severe burns etc. where surgery or immediate blood transfusion is required, may need to be treated by some one other than a
homoeopath. Other ailments like tonsillitis, fevers of different natures, influenza, food poisoning, cholera, typhoid, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. come within the range of
homoeopathy and can be treated quickly and effectively. One just has to contact a
HOMOEOPATHIC DOCTOR. At our clinic, we have treated cases of kidney and gall bladder pains, hemorrhage, abdominal pain, vomiting, subnormal temperature, hypertension,
hypotension, headache and even acute urticaria, etc. and have got positive results in less than 30 minutes. Complete treatment of course takes longer. Pain of even Angina Pectoris has been reduced within 25 minutes. High fevers can be lowered quickly and acute diarrhea can be cured within a few hours. Those in doubt should go to a
homoeopath with their acute ailments and see the results for themselves. We are sure they will not be disappointed.
Chronic Cases: Treatment is long only in such cases where alternative system of treatment either involves surgery or there is no solution at all except palliation i.e. short time relief. If a few months' treatment can give permanent relief instead of bearing the torture and expenses of life long medication, in all fairness, it should not be termed as long. Arthritis, Asthma, Migraine, Sciatica, Cirrhosis of liver are only a few examples. Perhaps for such problems,
Homoeopathy is the only ultimate solution. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Internet Age has ushered dramatic changes. Computerized repertories (lists of symptoms and the remedies which produce them) and Materia Medicas (comprehensive lists of remedies) are making remedy selection faster and easier for practitioners.
A job that once took hours is now done in five minutes. RADAR
(a great tool for homeopaths to find the right remedies) is available in CD form (Rs 25,000) and as a book (RS 1,250) also."
Incidentally, in over three decades, B. Jain has published 1,200 book titles, most of which are still in print.
Another excellent software in the market is the HOMPATH Classic, a CD-ROM brought out by DR Jawahar Shah from Mumbai. HOMPATH includes numerous classical repertories such as Kent, Boenninghausen, Boericke, Boger, Roberts, Lippe, Clarke, Phatak et al. It also has a comprehensive Materia Medica.
The man behind the world's first homeopathic cyber clinic,
Homeopathy's rising fortunes are illustrated by the fact that in 1996 Greek homeopathic physician George Vithoulkas was one of the three recipients of the Right Livelihood Award—known as Sweden's 'alternative Nobel Prize' and carrying a cash award of $2,50,000—for his outstanding contribution to the revival of classical homeopathy.
Vithoulkas' words mirrored the rising trend of allopaths embracing homeopathy: "It is a truly satisfying experience for me to see that, 2,500 years after Hippocrates, medical doctors are coming back to a Greek island to be taught what I am convinced to be today the most advanced form of therapy."
The same goes for lay people. In trying to buck the steep costs and obnoxious side effects of modern medicine, in the past two decades people have turned in droves to alternative therapies in general and homeopathy in particular. The treatment is also gaining acceptance amongst veterinarians.
Thus, Homeopathy is one of the few medical specialties which carries no penalties—only
benefits.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
