Homeopathy As Alternative Medicine – Holistic Approach to Treatment

Homeopathy is an alternative medicine system pioneered and developed by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann, around the end of the 18th century. It is a science of acknowledging the wholeness of a person, not just the ailments or problems- but the mind, body, spirit, soul and psychology of a person affected when there is illness present. The science does not alienate the disease from the person; rather the focus is laid on the origin, progress, impacts, and effects of the sickness on the individual. Homeopathic medicines, or ‘remedies’ being very different from the allopathic or over the counter ones, stimulate the body’s self-regulating mechanisms to initiate the healing process.

This philosophy believes that when a person is attacked by illness, it not only affects his physical body but the totality of him, i.e. the whole person is sick: body, mind, and spirit. The body manifests symptoms of illness but it is not the origin of the illness. The origin of illness usually lies in an imbalance of forces residing within an individual. The symptoms expressed by the body, mind, and spirit are the manifestation of that imbalance. When an appropriate homeopathic remedy is provided to match the symptoms of illness, the balance of the vital living forces is maintained. When the healing begins, the symptoms begin to disappear.

Homeopathy has been formed on the powerful and central blocks of principles that are its founding platform. These principles have proved their substance, sustaining for over 200 years, treating sickness of most kinds.

The first principle of homeopathy is likes cure likes – Homoeo means similar, and pathos means suffering, this is the code on which the theory was named on. It states that a substance that can create an illness in a healthy person can be used to obtain a healing response in someone presenting with a similar disease. Every person shows symptoms of the illness in the form of changes in the body/mind/spirit. Some of these symptoms are common to that particular illness, others maybe the attributes of that person. A homeopathic practitioner would match the symptoms of the remedy to the symptoms of the person, with special focus to those symptoms which are unique to the individual.

The second principle of homeopathy is The Single Remedy – According to this only one homeopathic remedy should be given at one time. It saves one from accounting for the working of several medicines at one time. Not just that, it also allows one to ascertain the complete effect of the given medicine. It safeguards from the unpredictability and ambiguity of practices and remedies of alternative medicine.

The third principle of homeopathy is The Minimum Dosage – The principle that only ‘the minimum dose’ should be employed is based upon the understanding that the Minimum single dose stimulus of the medicine triggers the intrinsic healing response. Following this principle, we give only enough medicine to initiate this healing response. This response then carries on, driven by the body’s need to maintain health and balance.

The fourth principle of homeopathy is The Potentized Remedy – The dilution process that converts any natural substance to a homeopathic remedy is called Potentizing. The concept of potentizing is the process by which natural substances become harmless as well as more effective as remedies. The process transforms a substance from the material state into the energetic state.

Homeopathic remedies have been known to work for more than centuries now. Today it has gotten its fair share of criticism and praise, and stands as a popular and effective way of treatment. People who haven’t had any success with allopathic or other forms of drugs have well invested their faith in it. Placebo or not, this form of alternative medicine has managed to stay in the world with more than million success stories.