Homeopathy

Homeopathy
Homeopathy
Alternative Medicine

The term homeopathy comes from the Greek words homeo, meaning similar, and pathos, meaning suffering or disease. However, Homeopathy was invented in the late 1700s, by Samuel Hahnemann, a physician, chemist, and linguist in Germany.

Homeopathy is an alternative medical system. Homeopathy takes a different approach from conventional medicine in diagnosing, classifying, and treating medical problems.

In homeopathy, a key premise is that every person has energy called a vital force or self-healing response. When this energy is disrupted or imbalanced, health problems develop. Homeopathy aims to stimulate the body’s own healing responses.

Homeopathic treatment involves giving extremely small doses of substances that produce characteristic symptoms of illness in healthy people when given in larger doses. This approach is called "like cures like."

Homeopathy seeks to stimulate the body’s defence mechanisms and processes so as to prevent or treat illness.

Treatment in homeopathy is individualized (tailored to each person). Homeopathic practitioners select remedies according to a total picture of the patient, including not only symptoms but lifestyle, emotional and mental states, and other factors.

Typically, in homeopathy, patients have a lengthy first visit, during which the provider takes an in-depth assessment of the patient. This is used to guide the selection of one or more homeopathic remedies. During follow-up visits, patients report how they are responding to the remedy or remedies, which helps the practitioner make decisions about further treatment.

Most homeopathic remedies are derived from natural substances that come from plants, minerals, or animals. A remedy is prepared by diluting the substance in a series of steps. Homeopathy asserts that this process can maintain a substance’s healing properties regardless of how many times it has been diluted. Many homeopathic remedies are so highly diluted that not one molecule of the original natural substance remains. Remedies are sold in liquid, pellet, and tablet forms.

Remedies are required to meet certain legal standards for strength, quality, purity, and packaging. Homeopathic remedies are regulated by the FDA in the same manner as non-prescription, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, which means that they can be purchased without a physician’s prescription. The FDA requires the label to list ingredients, dilutions, and instructions for safe use.

Here is some general information that has been reported about risks and side effects in homeopathy: Homeopathic medicines in high dilutions, taken under the supervision of trained professionals, are considered safe and unlikely to cause severe adverse reactions.

Some patients report feeling worse for a brief period of time after starting homeopathic remedies. Homeopaths interpret this as the body temporarily stimulating symptoms while it makes an effort to restore health.

Liquid homeopathic remedies can contain alcohol and are permitted to have higher levels of alcohol than conventional drugs for adults. This may be of concern to some consumers. However, no adverse effects from the alcohol levels have been reported.

Homeopathic remedies are not known to interfere with conventional drugs; however, if you are considering using homeopathic remedies, you should discuss this with your health care provider. If you have more than one provider, discuss it with each one.

As with all medicinal products, a person taking a homeopathic remedy is best advised to:

Contact his health care provider if his symptoms continue unimproved for more than 5 days.

Keep the remedy out of the reach of children.

Consult a health care provider before using the product if the user is a woman who is pregnant or nursing a baby.

Homeopathy is an area of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) that has seen high levels of controversy and debate, largely because a number of its key concepts do not follow the laws of science (particularly chemistry and physics).

There is a point of view that homeopathy does work, but that modern scientific methods have not yet explained why. The failure of science to provide full explanations for all treatments is not unique to homeopathy.

Some people feel that if homeopathy appears to be helpful and safe, then scientifically valid explanations or proofs of this alternative system of medicine are not necessary.