“The highest ideal of cure is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health; that is, lifting and annihilation of the disease in its entire extent in the shortest, most reliable, and least disadvantageous way, according to clearly realizable principles.”
Samuel Hahnemann,
Organon of Medicine, 1810.
History of Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a system of medicine for healing that can improve your health and prevent illness with cost effective remedies made from natural sources. It was developed from the teachings and writings of a German physician named Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). He is truly the Founder of Homeopathy. Homeopathy has been used for more than 200 years. The word ‘Homeopathy’ comes from the Greek language and means ‘similar suffering’. This refers to the central philosophy that a substance that can produce symptoms in a healthy person can cure those symptoms in a person who is ill. A tiny dose of a carefully selected substance in nature is given to stimulate the body’s natural healing ability, enabling people to gently return to health. Hahnemann graduated from medical school in 1779 and started his own medical practice. He soon began his first homeopathic experiments in 1790, because of his disillusionment with the common medical practices during that time in history as purging, bloodletting, and the use of toxic chemicals. Hahnemann actually gave up his own practice to begin working as a chemist while translating medical texts. At one point Hahnemann was working on a project to translate William Cullen’s Materia Medica into German when he began his journey into finding a better way of providing healthcare using the principles of “Similars.” During this project, he became intrigued with a species of South American tree-bark (cinchona). This substance was being used to treat Malaria-induced fever. Hahnemann ingested the bark and discovered that it caused symptoms similar to Malaria. He continued his experimentation into health cures and the notion of “similar suffering,” and began compiling his research findings.
‘Similia Similibus Curentur’, the Latin phrase meaning “Let Likes Be Cured By Likes,” is the primary principle of Homeopathy. Remedies which are capable of producing specific symptoms when consumed in repetitive doses by a healthy individual are also capable of treating a “similar” set of symptoms which have occurred from disease, in a sick person. The remedy stimulates the body’s innate healing powers. (Please refer to The Organon of Medicine by Dr.Samuel Hahnemann to learn more about the theoretical framework and practical application of homeopathy.)
Hahnemann discovered that diluting and succussing (shaking) remedies, which homeopaths call potentisation, not only produced fewer side effects but also produced better results. Homeopathic remedies are drawn from the natural world and prescribed on the principle of treating “like with like” or the way of similars.
What is “like with like”?
Take for example, a case of insomnia. The way of opposites is to treat this by giving a drug to bring on an artificial sleep. This frequently involves the use of large or regular doses of drugs which can sometimes cause side effects or addiction.
The way of similars, the homeopathic way, is to give the patient a minute dose of a substance, such as coffee, which in large doses causes sleeplessness in a healthy person. This can then help the patient to sleep naturally. Of course, this is a simplified example. Homeopathy is patient-centred and a homeopath will prescribe based on the totality of your symptoms and how you, as an individual, experience them. This also takes account of you as a person – your individual characteristics, both emotional and physical.
Homeopathic remedies, properly prescribed, are safe and can also be given to pregnant women, babies and children.
How does it work?
Scientists cannot yet explain the precise mechanism of action for homeopathy but there is published evidence of its efficacy. It is believed that homeopathic remedies work by stimulating the body’s own healing abilities and that this stimulus assists your own system to clear itself of any expressions of imbalance. Scientists David L. Gann and Shui Yin Lo, who are particle physicists, have recently, unintentionally, through their work found a scientific basis laid in solid physics for the effects of homeopathic medicine while doing research on what they calling Double Helix Water.