What is homeopathy?
For over 250 years homeopathy has offered a system of healthcare that is very different from conventional medicine and it is one of the five most widely sought forms of complementary medicine.Homeopathy is a ‘holistic’ system of healthcare that focuses on the patient as an ‘individual’ to provide enduring health and well being.
Homeopathic medicines are remedies, not drugs and are made from a variety of 'natural substances' such as plants and minerals. They are prepared in licensed laboratories under strict quality control. Homeopathic remedies cannot cause side effects and you cannot become addicted to them. This is because they are prepared in highly diluted forms and only a minute amount of the active ingredient is prescribed. In over 250 years of use no homeopathic remedy has ever been withdrawn for adverse side effects.To discuss the meaning of the name homeopathy is to take it back to its Greek roots. It incorporates two Greek words ‘homoios’ and ‘pathos’. Homoios implies ‘like or similar’ and pathos means ‘suffering’. The two words put together give a single term that implies ‘like suffering’. It is often summarised by saying ‘treating like with like’ – an illness is treated with a ‘natural’ substance, which could produce similar symptoms in a healthy person.
For example, Belladonna the common hedgerow Deadly Nightshade provokes a high restless fever, thirst, irritability and a burning sore throat when accidentally ingested. Belladonna taken in its homeopathic preparation can help a person with similar symptoms who is restless, has a high fever, is thirsty, burning hot and irritable with an acute inflammatory sore throat.
Therefore, to restore health a homeopath has to find a remedy that matches the patient’s symptoms.
Homeopathic remedies work with the body, acting as a catalyst to stimulate the body's natural ability to heal itself. Homeopathy is a bit like getting a jump start from another car! The energy sources are the remedies so that the body can run on all cylinders again.
The major difference between homeopathy and conventional medicine is that homeopaths treat the ‘whole person' with the illness, rather than simply treating the physical and/or emotional symptoms in isolation. We can greatly underestimate the part our emotions play in maintaining health and well being. Just as joy, laughter and the feeling of being cared for can keep us in good health, the opposite feelings of sadness, grief, anxiety and insecurity can be the cause of physical symptoms. The opposite is also true in that pain can cause depression, anger and anxiety.
Homeopaths understand that establishing good health involves treating both the mind and body, rather than concentrating on any one area of the body or particular symptom. A truly holistic form of healthcare!
As homeopathy is such an ‘individualised’ form of healthcare, no two patients with the same diagnosis and apparently similar symptoms will receive the same remedy. For example, two patients may visit a homeopath with hay fever and display similar physical symptoms, such as sneezing, a runny nose and sore, itching eyes. The differences between the patients that would warrant different remedies are based upon personalities, lifestyles and the cause of the hay fever etc...The treatment of one patient with apparently the same condition/diagnosis as another will more than likely be totally different. A truly unique and individualised form of healthcare!
This philosophy is fundamental in the treatment of children as well as adults. For instance, a teething infant may be angry with the pain, whereas another infant may be clingy and whining. If anger is prominent in a teething child the remedy Chamomilla may be prescribed, whereas the remedy Pulsatilla may be prescribed if the child is whining and clingy.
Homeopathic treatments are always tailored to the ‘individual’ whatever age or sex, as each individual person will express his/her symptoms in their own way.
