Homeopathy

What are Homeopathics?

Homeopathic remedies (also called homeopathics) are a system of medicine based on three principles:

• Like cures like
  For example, if the symptoms of your cold are similar to poisoning by mercury, then mercury would be your homeopathic remedy.
• Minimal Dose
  The remedy is taken in an extremely dilute form; normally one part of the remedy to around 1,000,000,000,000 parts of water.
• The Single Remedy
  No matter how many symptoms are experienced, only one remedy is taken, and that remedy will be aimed at all those symptoms.
• Composites
  In some cases, several remedies are combined together into one bottle for a certain condition like insomnia

Similar principals forms the basis of conventional allergy treatment, where the allergic substance is given in a small dose, and in vaccines where an impotent form of the virus is given to bolster the immune system against that particular virus.

Why use Homeopathics?

Homeopathy is the second most widely used system of medicine in the world. Its growth in popularity in the United States has been around 25 to 50 percent a year throughout the last decade.

This success is fueled by several factors:

• Homeopathy is extremely effective. When the correct remedy is taken, results can be rapid, complete and permanent.
• Homeopathy is completely safe. Even babies and pregnant women can use Homeopathy without the danger of side effects. Homeopathic remedies can also be taken alongside other medication without producing unwanted side effects.
• Homeopathy is natural. Homeopathic remedies are normally based on natural ingredients.
• Homeopathy works in harmony with your immune system, unlike some conventional medicines which suppress the immune system. (For example, cough medicines suppress the cough reflex, which is your body's attempt to clear the lungs)
• Homeopathic remedies are not addictive - once relief is felt, you should stop taking them. If no relief is felt, you are probably taking the wrong homeopathic remedy.
• Homeopathy is holistic. It treats all the symptoms as one, which in practical terms means that it addresses the cause, not the symptoms. This often means that symptoms tackled with Homeopathy do not recur.

But there is a catch...

Every silver lining has a cloud, and there are two main barriers to the effective use of homeopathy:

• Prescribing the right homeopathic remedy takes a little more time and patience than conventional medicine. Exactly the right remedy needs to be taken for your symptoms. There is no such thing as a standard homeopathic headache remedy (though, sadly that doesn't mean no such product is sold...).
  The remedy you take has to be matched to your particular headache - where it occurs, what brings it on, what type of pain it is, what aggravates it, what makes it feel worse, your state of mind and what other symptoms you experience.
• The sheer range of remedies in use can cause practical problems for an average sized pharmacy. If the right remedy is not one of 30 or so commonly used remedies, they can be difficult to obtain.

Does homeopathy work?

Many ridicule homeopathy out of serious consideration as a clinical practice, sometimes resorting to unscientific, unbalanced and unrefered editorial diatribe. One of the main reasons concerning this disbelief in the efficacy of homeopathy lies in the difficulty in understanding how it might work. If an acceptable theory was available then more people would consider it more seriously. However, it is difficult at present to sustain a theory as to why a truly infinitely diluted aqueous solution, consisting of just H₂O molecules, should retain any difference from any other such solution. It is even more difficult to put forward a working hypothesis as to how small quantities of such 'solutions' can act to elicit a specific response when confronted with large amounts of complex solution in a subject. A major problem in this area is that, without a testable hypothesis for the generally acknowledged potency of homeopathy, there is a growing possibility of others making fraudulent claims in related areas, as perhaps evidenced by the increasing use of the internet to advertise 'healthy' water concentrates using dubious (sometimes published but irreproducible) scientific and spiritual evidence.