Define Homeopathy - Getting Back to its Roots

To define homeopathy, one needs to go back to its origins, back to the 1700's. In Greek, Homoios means similar and pathos means disease or suffering.

Homeopathy traces it origins back to Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor, medical translator and chemist.

Hahnemann noticed that the bark from Cinchona, which was used to treat fevers, could actually cause fevers too. He experimented, firstly on himself and then on his friends and family, to test the effects of other substances. Nice guy, eh? He found that certain substances used to treat a condition would cause the same symptoms as the condition when used in higher doses.

Homeopathy was born.

Hippocrates said some 500 years bc, that the substances that cause diseases can also cure them. So Hahnemann's theories have sound historical backing.

Homeopathic medicine uses very small doses of natural materials (plants, animals, or minerals) to stimulate a sick person's natural defences. The medicines are selected on the basis of their ability to cause in overdose similar symptoms to those the person is experiencing.

Present day homeopaths follow the example set by Samuel Hahnemann, and continue to test and experiment on humans. No animal experiments are carried out. Since many of the substances used are toxic in themselves, a process is needed to carry out the tests required to verify the results of use. Hahnemann himself created a process to do this called potentisation. Potentisation involves successive dilution of a small amount of an original substance, thus reducing toxicity, whilst retaining the substances original properties. Based on the homeopathic theory, Homeopaths will continue to distill the original substance to obtain a minimum effective dose to treat a particular ailment.

In summary, the work of Hahnemann led us to the three postulates of homeopathy.

LAW OF SIMILARS, which states that there is a similarity between the toxicity of a substance and it’s therapeutic action. In other words there should be a connection between illness and remedy.

INFINITESIMALITY is the use of vegetal, mineral and animal substances in repeatedly diluted strength whose experimental effects are similar to the symptoms of the patient.

TOTALITY of the person being treated as a whole. Homeopathic treatment is based on the assumption that every illness presents a set of symptoms which are characteristic of the disease and that every illness is a manifestation of the person's response to that particular illness.

Scientific evidence exists that suggests that some homeopathic remedies are effective. However, many consider the placebo effect of many of the medicines supplied, and of course no evidence exists to disprove this theory.