“The physician’s highest and only calling is to make the sick healthy, to cure, as it is called. The highest ideal of cure is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health; that is, the lifting and annihilation of the disease in its entire extent in the shortest, most reliable, and least disadvantageous way, according to clearly realizable principles.”
~ Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the Founder of Homeopathy
Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, was a German physician, chemist, linguist, historian of medicine and one of the greatest medical thinkers. Early in his medical practice he became so disillusioned with the methods he was taught in medical school, believing he was causing more harm than good and lacking an ability to help his own children that he stopped practicing medicine.
After translating William Cullen’s Materia Medica and learning about the toxicology of Cinchona, he conducted experiments over several years establishing that any medicine can cure a particular disease if it produces the same symptoms in a healthy individual. Furthermore, use of minute, potentized medicine had an increased curative power and significantly reduced adverse effects. This led to his discovery that medicine and disease act dynamically, not materially.
Over the course of his career from 1783-1843 when he died, Samuel Hahnemann defined a philosophy and practice of medicine that developed into the homeopathic model of medical treatment. To be a homeopath is to be a medical-art practitioner.
Homeopathy is based on the following principles:
The Law of Similars: The concept that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in a healthy person.
The principle of the single remedy: One remedy should cover all the physical, emotional, and mental symptoms of an illness.
The principle of the minimum dose: The lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness.
Treatment of the individual: Treat the unique individual rather than the disease and treat using compassionate medicine.
Homeopathic preparations are termed remedies and prepared using a process of homeopathic dilution. Remedies are often made from organic substances and dispensed in the form of tiny sugar pellets. They are placed under the tongue until dissolved, making this an easy delivery method for all patients, especially infants and children. Remedy selection is based upon each individual and is common for different people with the same health complaint to receive a different remedy.
An example of how homeopathic medicines work can be viewed using the similarity of symptoms experienced with chopping onions and an allergic reaction. After cutting an onion, your eyes will water and your nose begins to run. Similar symptoms may arise from an allergy to pollen or after contact with a pet. A homeopathic remedy, Allium cepa which is made from onion can be the most appropriate choice to treat these symptoms.
Homeopathy uses a specific diagnostic system of analysis and recognizes clinical patterns of signs and symptoms that differ from those of conventional medicine. Instead of masking symptoms, the medicine sends the body a signal to stimulate the body’s physiological responses to help it rebalance and heal.
Interested in discovering what homeopathy can do for you? Schedule a homeopathic consultation to determine the most appropriate remedy prescription for your specific health needs.
Initially developed in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the main theory behind homeopathic medicine is simple: “like cures like”. In short, homeopathy stems from the belief that if something causes symptoms in a healthy person, it may cure those same symptoms in a person with an illness.
An example of a homeopathic remedy would be using a weak solution containing caffeine to help address insomnia. Utilizing a small amount of the disease-causing substance, can in turn help stimulate your body to heal itself.
Homeopathy is based on three principles:
The law of similars: The “like cures like” theory.
The principle of the single remedy: One remedy should cover all the physical, emotional, and mental symptoms of an illness.
The principle of the minimum dose: Only a small amount of substance is first used at first, followed by minuscule increases over time.