What is homeopathy?
Homeopathy is an exceptionally safe form of medicine which treats the whole individual. It is equally concerned with maintaining good health and aiding recovery from ill health, and like all forms of medicine - even those which use powerful drugs and high technology surgery - relies for its effects on the body's own powers of self-regulation and self-healing. Since its development nearly two hundred years ago homeopathy has benefited millions of people, young and old, from all walks of life, in countries all over the world.
The word 'homeopathy' (also spelt 'homoeopathy') comes from two Greek words, omio meaning 'same' and pathos meaning 'suffering'. A homeopathic remedy is one which produces the same symptoms as those the sick person complains of, and in doing so sharply provokes the body into throwing them off. 'Like may be cured by like', also expressed as similia similibus curentur, is the basic principle of homeopathic therapeutics. The opposite therapeutic approach is 'allopathy', which is defined as a system of therapeutics in which diseases are treated by producing a condition incompatible with or antagonistic to the condition to be cured or alleviated.
The idea that remedies and symptoms sharing certain key features might interact in such a way as to banish illness, and the implied corollary that two similar states of discomfort cannot exist in the same body, was not new even two centuries ago. The great achievement of Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, was that he systematically studied, for himself, all the orthodox medical remedies of his day, noted their effects on healthy people, and then used this knowledge to give very specific and safe treatment to sick people. This was revolutionary in an age when medicines were indiscriminately prescribed, often in poisonous quantities.
Homeopathy is a naturopathic form of medicine - it seeks to assist Nature rather than bludgeon her, to assist the body's own healing energies rather than override them. The 'disease' is not only the virus or the bacteria - these are merely the organisms which move in when the body's defences are low. The discovery of legions of microorganisms since Hahnemann's time has done nothing to alter this fundamental truth. The fever, the inflammation, the diarrhoea, the headache -these are not the disease either, but the body's attempt to return to normality. Such ideas may be difficult to adjust to if one has been brought up in the belief that both attack and cure come from the outside, but they are ideas which have been accepted by humanistic physicians since the time of Hippocrates.
Another tenet of naturopathic and therefore of homeopathic philosophy is that every person is different. The same remedy, the same diet, the same general advice does not necessarily help everyone with the same ailment. Indeed there is no such thing as the same ailment; the course of a particular kind of cancer in one person will not be the same as that in another. Accordingly, homeopathy has the most flexible system of remedy prescribing of any system of therapeutics. The most effective remedy is always the one which matches three things: the physical symptoms, the mental and emotional symptoms, and the general sensitivities of the person concerned. It is also taken in the least possible dose for the least possible time.
Homeopathy is also a rational system of medicine. If the body's defence systems are handicapped by poor diet, bad habits, destructive emotions, and environmental stresses, it stands to reason that homeopathic remedies, of themselves, will be of limited benefit. When you consult a homeopath, she may suggest a change of diet or lifestyle before prescribing any remedy. Homeopathy is not a system for those in search of instant, easy answers, although it can act very swiftly in acute conditions. It requires careful self-monitoring and a willingness to stick to a course of action. The prize is higher vitality and greater resistance to all disease processes.
The consultation
At your first consultation there are a great many questions to answer. Janna will want to know about the symptoms of your illness and what affects them, about your medical history from your mother's pregnancy onwards, your appetite, likes and dislikes, and the regularity of your bodily functions.
Some questions are aimed at deciding which constitutional group you fit into. Your activities, occupational and recreational, are discussed, along with your emotional state.
The homeopath will prescribe a remedy, which she may dispense herself or which you can obtain from a homeopathic pharmacist; she may also give you advice on any changes you should make in your lifestyle and on the sort of diet you should follow. (Hahnemann stated that nutrition was one of the principal factors which could modify the body's response to disease. He was very strict about what his patients ate, especially those with chronic illness.)
In a second consultation where constitutional treatment is concerned the homeopath must interpret your response to the prescription in detail, and decide how to continue treatment.
Increasingly homeopaths are making use of advances in computer technology, and several extremely good computerised homeopathic programs now exist. These do not influence the quality of homeopathy, but they considerably shorten the time taken to choose the appropriate medicine.
Constitutional prescribing
Most people, when they are ill, suffer not only from the basic diagnostic symptoms of the disease, but also from other symptoms which are specific to each person. In orthodox medicine, these individual symptoms are mostly unimportant. But in homeopathy, they are vital for giving the correct prescription. This is why different patients may receive different remedies for the same disease.
Many homeopaths who worked on the provings (see the History section - link), especially the American, James Tyler Kent, noticed that different types of people reacted strongly to certain remedies and proposed that people could be placed in different categories, called 'constitutional types'. Homeopaths talk of, for example, 'phosphoric types' (people who react strongly to phosphorus) or 'arsenicum album types' (those who react strongly to arsenicum album). The belief is that people of one type share similarities in terms of body shape, character and personality, and the sorts of diseases from which they suffer. Of course, constitutional types have their limitations. In reality, each person is an individual, and so there are as many constitutional types as there are human beings, and account must be taken of the sum total of the person's inherited predispositions, past illnesses, diet, general reactions to the environment, intellectual and emotional features, and general attitude to life.
(Adapted from "A family guide to homeopathy" by Dr. Andrew Lockie)
THE HISTORY OF HOMEOPATHY
THE SCIENCE OF HOMEOPATHY
