What is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a system of natural medicine that has been used globally for over 200 years. It is recognized by the World Health Organization as the planet’s second most widely-used medical modality. Millions of people benefit daily from Homeopathy, many using it as their chief source of health care.  Generations of families swear by it, and the incredible longevity and good health of the British royal family – lifelong Homeopathy consumers – is a testament to its exceptional gentleness and efficacy. 

The word Homeopathy comes from its founder, Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a medical doctor, rigorous scientific researcher, and one of the first-ever chemists, born in Meissen, Germany.  The name is derived from the Greek words for ‘similar suffering' (homoios + patheia).  From this alone we can see how Hahnemann opposed the 'anti' bent of his medical colleagues – in other words, their preference to give a medicine that opposes the patient's symptoms, such as a laxative for constipation, rather than one that is capable of evoking the exact same symptoms in healthy people and, therefore, can cure them in sick people.  Through repetitive scientific experimentation, publishing only after he was certain of a principle and not during its speculative developmental period, Hahnemann created his homeopathic system of medicine. His careful observations led him to uncover the laws of healing found in nature upon which homeopathy is based.

Homeopathy is founded on two main principles. The first, mentioned above, is: ‘Like cures like.’ This means that a substance capable of producing certain symptoms in a healthy person can be used to treat those same symptoms in a diseased person. Just as your skin instinctively heals itself when you get a small cut, Homeopathy recognizes that the body will always attempt to initiate a healing response to an injury or illness. This response is familiar to you as “symptoms.” By using similar (not 'anti') medicines that stimulate an even stronger healing response, we help boost the body’s own vitality, and work with it – instead of against it. Symptoms don’t retreat back into the body – appearing on the surface as gone but actually infiltrating tissues at a deeper level; they work their way out, as they were meant to do, resulting in cure.

Medicines in Hahnemann’s day were administered in such large doses that it engendered the phrase “Salivation is salvation” – in other words, give the patient a large dose just slightly less toxic than would kill him; if he salivates, he might just survive the treatment (and, possibly, the disease). As a result, Hahnemann developed the second main principle of Homeopathy: only ‘the minimum dose’ should be given – enough to stimulate a healing response, but small enough to avoid side effects (and, more importantly, death). 

We live in a materialistic world, and the expectation is that our healing agents should also be material in size.  Homeopathy, however, is a vitalistic medical discipline that recognizes that there are forces beyond the physical and chemical at play in both the body and the medicine, and that stimulating this “vital force” to evoke a healing response is a fundamental prerequisite to restoring health. The actual size of the dose is not as important as the energy within the medicine – which is released by Homeopathy's unique preparation methodology – and the energy's capacity to stimulate the body to heal itself. And because the dose is so small, it can bypass cell barriers that most traditional drugs cannot, entering into the cell (the centre of DNA production) and potentially healing at the genetic level – so that you not only heal yourself, but you may also stop passing on your family's history of infection and disease to your offspring.  Recovery is accomplished in a gentle, rapid, and natural way, without engendering any new diseases. Kiss 'side effects' goodbye.

Homeopathy doesn't just 'manage' your illness; it can actually vanquish it, so that it doesn't come back again and again. Exciting, isn't it? This is what awaits you as you embark on your first homeopathic appointment!