Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a holistic approach to health and disease, one which considers the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of a person in order to determine treatment. Based upon the idea that a substance which causes certain symptoms in a healthy person will treat those same symptoms in a sick person, homeopathy may be employed to heal both acute and chronic problems. Homeopathic remedies prepared specifically for the individual who is sick will often cure the problem, rather than merely alleviate the symptoms.

Frustrated with the accepted approaches to healing in his day, eighteenth-century German physician Samuel Hahnemann can be credited with developing the homeopathic system of medicine. While translating medical texts to earn extra money, he read that the bark of the cinchona tree was considered effective in treating malaria due to its bitter taste. Doubting this reasoning, he experimented on himself. Although he did not have malaria, he ate the bark. He began to develop symptoms similar to that of the disease, but these symptoms disappeared when he stopped eating the bark. He based further experiments on the premise that a substance which causes a certain reaction in a healthy person may cure a person who is sick with those symptoms. Hahnemann began researching this hypothesis with other plants and minerals. This led him to further develop his theories which now form the basis of modern homeopathy.


The correct homeopathic remedy will frequently cure a chronic condition. The goal of homeopathy is to eliminate disease and restore health, not merely manage symptoms. It can treat many common ailments such as asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal and menstrual disorders, infertility, depression, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, allergies, attention deficit disorder, eczema, fibromyalgia, chronic ear infections and just about anything that would cause a person to visit a physician.

Using the unique homeopathic approach, the individual is treated, not the specific "disease" per se. A homeopath asks questions about troublesome symptoms, and then evaluates how the individual interacts with their environment. Relevant information includes sleep patterns, foods craved, fears, the effects of weather and much more. The homeopath is trained to determine a single remedy to treat all of the individual's ailments. Determining the correct homeopathic remedy out of about 2500 possible remedies for chronic diseases requires time and skill. Different people with the same disease often require different remedies because we all express disease uniquely.

All health conditions, whether they are acute or chronic, are known to respond favorably to homeopathic medicine. More and more, people are adding homeopathy to their tools for good health.