Treat Your Health with Homeopathy
September 3rd, 2007Homeopathy is an alternative medicine practice. Homeopathy is based on the idea of treating ‘like with like’. Homeopathic remedies are diluted agents that often are chosen according to how they affect the body in the undiluted form.
Homeopathy is not really as far fetched from traditional medicine as it may seem. The idea of treating ‘like with like’ is present in traditional medicine. Good examples are vaccinations. Many vaccinations are simply weakened forms of the illness they are aiming to prevent. This is the same basic idea as homeopathy.
Traditional medicine, though, does not recognize homeopathy as an effective medical practice. In fact, many argue that homeopathy is dangerous and can even be fatal.
While there are risks in treating illness with substances that cause the illness, when done correctly it can be quite effective.
The main principle of homeopathy was developed by Hahnemann and is called the ‘Principle of Similars’. To come up with cures there is a process called provings. Healthy individuals are given the remedies and their reactions are documented.
When a homeopath decides upon a remedy they will use two different references. The Homeopathic Materia Medicae lists indexes of each drug along with the descriptions of symptoms associated with it. The Homeopathic Repertory is an index of symptoms with the remedies for each symptom listed with them.
Homeopathy uses a range of ingredients in the remedies. They use animal, mineral and synthetic substances. There is an average of 3000 homeopathic remedies. However, the remedies continue to grow as new ideas such as the use of isopathic (associated with disease) or esoteric agents, come into play.
One of the biggest challenges in homeopathy is the difficulty of matching a remedy to the symptoms. There are many reasons why this is a problem, usually it is due to the complexity of symptoms and the groupings they come in. Homeopaths use a few different methods to determine the remedy to use. They may simply identify the symptoms and then base their choice upon that or they may use dowsing or other psychic powers.
While homeopathy is quite the debate topic in medical circles, it is something that has been used for centuries. Homeopathy is probably one of the earliest forms of medicine and is based on a lot of time-tested strategies.
The fact that science so often disregards the effectiveness of homeopathy may be the real risk, not the homeopathy itself. By taking it so lightly it may give off the wrong impression. People may assume homeopathy is something they can practice themselves, when in fact homeopathy is best left to the trained and experienced homeopath.
