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“The long-term benefit of homeopathy to the patient is that it not only alleviates the presenting symptoms but it reestablishes internal order at the deepest levels and thereby provides a lasting cure.” George Vithoulkas, Director,Athenian School of Homeopathic Medicine The World Health Organization has cited homeopathy as one of the systems of traditional medicine that should be integrated worldwide with conventional medicine in order to provide adequate global health care. In Britain, homeopathic hospitals and out-patient clinics are part of the national health system, and homeopathy is recognized as a postgraduate medical specialty by virtue of an act of Parliament. Homeopathy has also enjoyed the patronage of the British royalfamilyfor the pastfour generations. The highest ideal of cure is the speedy, gentle, and enduring restoration of health by the most trustworthy and least harmfiil way. -Samuel Hahnemann,founder of Homeopathy Homeopathy is well suited to self-care and can become an integral part of your and your family's health maintenance program. Official acceptance of homeopathy and its integration into the American health care system couldprove to have an enormous impact on lowering the cost Of national health care due to the low cost, safety, and effectiveness of homeopathic remedies. |
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Homeopathy is a low-cost, nontoxic system of medicine used by hundreds of millions ofpeople worldwide. It is particularly effective in treating chronic illnesses thatfail to respond to conventional treatment, and is also a superb method of self-care for minor conditions such as the common cold and flu. The word homeopathy derives from the Greek word homoios, meaning "similar," and pathos, meaning "suffering." Homeopathic remedies are generally dilutions of natural substances from plants, minerals, and animals. Based on the principle of "like cures like," these remedies specifically match different symptom patterns or "profiles" of illness, and act to stimulate the body's natural healing response. Throughout its 180-year history, homeopathy 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, homeopathy has been continually attacked by the medical establishment. Nonetheless, homeopathy is practiced around the world, with an estimated 500 million people receiving homeopathic treatment. The World Health Organization has cited homeopathy as one of the systems of traditional medicine that should be integrated worldwide with conventional medicine in order to provide adequate global health care. In the United States, an estimated three thousand medical doctors and licensed health care providers practice homeopathy, and the number continues to rise annually.The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recognizes homeopathic remedies as official drugs and regulates their manufacturing, labeling, and dispensing. Homeopathic remedies also have their own official compendium, the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States firstpublished in 1897.In Europe, the birthplace of homeopathy, there are approximately six thousand practitioners in Germany and five thousand in France. All French pharmacies are required to carry homeopathic remedies along with conventional drugs. In fact, the homeopathic remedy Oscillococcinum" is the largest selling cold and flu remedy in France. In Britain, homeopathic hospitals and out-patient clinics are part of the national health system, and homeopathy is recognized as a postgraduate medical specialty by virtue ofan act of Parliament. Homeopathy has also enjoyed the patronage of the British royal family for the past four generations.2 It is also widely practiced in India (where over twenty-five thousand doctors practice homeopathy), Mexico, Argentina, and Brazi How Homeopathy Works Homeopathy was founded in the late eighteenth century by the celebrated German physician Samuel Hahnemann, known for his work in pharmacology, hygiene, public health, industrial toxicology, and psychiatry. Reacting to the barbarous practices of his day, such as bloodletting (the use of leeches), and toxic mercury-based laxatives, Dr. Hahnemann set out to find a more rational and humane approach to medicine. Dr. Hahnemann's breakthrough came during an experiment in which he twice daily ingested cinchona, a Peruvian bark well known as a cure for malaria. Soon after Dr. Hahnemann began his experiment he developed periodic fevers common to malaria. As soon as he stopped taking the cinchona, his symptoms disappeared. Dr. Hahnemann theorized that, if taking a large dose of cinchona created symptoms of malaria in a healthy person, this same substance, taken in a smaller dose by a person suffering from malaria, might stimulate the body to fight the disease. His theory was borne out by years of experiments with hundreds of substances that produced similar results. Based on his work, Dr. Hahnemann formulated the principles of homeopathy: Like cures like (Law of Similars). The more a remedy is diluted, the greater its potency (Law of the Infinitesimal Dose). An illness is specific to the individual (a holistic medical model). Like Cures Like 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. |
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