WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY?

To try and define Homeopathy is not an easy task, but its natural

therapeutic approach clearly distinguishes it from traditional

medicine and its main characteristics can be pointed out.

Homeopathy considers illness as the body’s reaction to

external aggression. It identifies substances that flow with

the body's natural energy. The body needs a minimum level

of vital energy in order to react. A homeopathic treatment

cannot be of any help to a listless body. This capacity to

react is absolutely essential in order to reap benefits from

homeopathy. Homeopathy considers the patient as a whole,

without limiting itself to illness-related symptoms. It devises

individual treatments according to every patient's personal

reactions and takes into account a patient's constitution,

heredity and environment, in order to compare and establish

relationships between one individual's reactions and those of

others who have similar characteristics or symptoms. Finally,

Homeopathy tries to restore the patient's disturbed

equilibrium through the use of appropriate natural

substances. Homeopathy also gives primary importance to a

patient's own direct information.

THREE PRINCIPLES

Homeopathy is based on three important principles, which are:

• Similitude: there should be a connection between illness

and remedy.

• Infinitesimality: homeopathy uses vegetable, mineral and

animal substances in repeatedly diluted strength to

administer minute doses.

• Totality: since homeopathy considers a person as a whole,

every treatment is based on the assumption that every

illness is the apparent manifestation of a much deeperrooted

disorder.

Other noticeable points that distinguish Homeopathy from

conventional medicine are: Physical presentation of the

medication, dosage and duration of treatment and the

substances used.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Although Homeopathy has gained popularity in America

throughout the seventies and eighties, it must not be

concluded that it is a recent form of therapy. In fact, we must

refer to ancient times to discover its fundamental principles.

Some five centuries before the birth of Christ the Greek

physician known as the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates,

first wrote, "Equals are cured by equals". Unfortunately, that

great medical principle, which means that there should

always be a connection between illness and remedy, has for

a long time been forgotten. However, it resurfaced by the

end of the eighteenth century, thanks to a German physician

who revived the Hippocratic tradition and became the true

founder of Homeopathy, as it is known today.

SAMUEL HAHNEMANN

Born in the city of Meissen in Germany in 1755, Samuel

Hahnemann studied medicine and chemistry before

becoming a practitioner. But he soon lost interest in his

profession, after noticing that the doctors of his time too

often applied drastic and inefficient treatments in severe

cases. Abusive use of practices such as bloodletting,

purges, severe enemas and uncontrolled diets, so offended

him that he became disenchanted with traditional medicine

and abandoned its practice to work as a translator of

scientific and medical documents. This new occupation really

excited him, because it allowed him to discover recent and

sometimes ancient writings about values, principles, and

truths, which captivated him. Little by little, through his

reading and reflections, he came to realize that the medical

practice of his day had been wrong in ignoring certain basic

medical rules.

A WHOLE NEW CONCEPT

While still translating documents to earn a living, Hahnemann

continued his introspection and finally came to the

conclusion that there was a need for a new kind of therapy,

one that would incorporate rigorous observation and

scientific objectivity. He could no longer accept all the unsubstantiated

statements that came to his attention, even when

formulated by the most celebrated physicians of his time. He

wanted undeniable proof. His immense curiosity led him to

closely investigate many substances. He even went as far as

to test them on himself. Without realizing it, Hahnemann was

already laying down the foundations of an altogether new

therapeutic approach to health that would survive him and

conquer the entire world, the one that we now know as

Homeopathy.

WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY?

THE LAW OF SIMILARS

Hahnemann kept on making new medical experiments, each

one more revealing than the previous. So one day he

decided to try a new substance on himself, one that was

being used against malaria, quinine. As he had expected,

after absorbing repeated doses of quinine, he started

developing all the symptoms of malaria. At the risk of

permanently damaging his health, Hahnemann pursued the

experiment but reduced the quantities, trying to diminish the

negative and toxic effects of the offending substance. The

symptoms of malaria reappeared, but with less intensity.

Elated by those preliminary results, Hahnemann repeated his

experiment many times, with the same substance and then

with others, and then he concluded that: “Any medicine

capable of developing the symptoms of an illness in a

healthy person can cure a sick person who shows the same

symptoms."

Thus, with proof in hand, Hahnemann reasserted a principle

that had already been affirmed centuries before, in ancient

times, that: "EQUALS ARE CURED BY EQUALS." Thanks to

his incredible intuition, based on close observation and some

daring experimentation, Hahnemann had simply reiterated a

medical principle that had already been put into practice two

thousand years earlier by the famous Hippocrates.

WELL-DESERVED SUCCESS

After coming to his conclusion, Hahnemann prudently waited

a dozen years or so before making public the results of his

research, but they nevertheless raised controversy. After all,

he had created so much of a disturbance by shaking the

foundations of the traditional medical structures of his time,

that he could not avoid controversy. He fought hard to

defend his theory and, although at the end of his life he

attained well-deserved recognition, nevertheless he had had

to sustain a long struggle. In spite of all, Hahnemann

managed to solidly establish the basic principles of

Homeopathy that we still honour today. His doctrine now has

many disciples who help advance his resolutely different

therapeutic approach by constantly pushing the limits of the

unknown.

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH

Almost two centuries after the death of its initiator, Homeopathy

has only recently gained respectability in America. What a great

victory for the man of visions, whom, in his lifetime, had

managed to make Homeopathy known and appreciated

throughout Europe. In France, where Hahnemann spent his last

days, as well as in Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, India, the

former republics of the USSR, Canada and the United States,

Homeopathy is now recognized as a valid, natural complement

to official medicine, one that is able to prevent and treat many

benign, acute and chronic illnesses.

A NOTION OF MEDIUM

We have said that the homeopathic approach seeks to be,

first of all, a personal one, considering the patient and his or

her reactions in relation to the illness. It should also be said

that Homeopathy would not hesitate to make certain

comparisons and regroup certain categories of individuals,

according to heredity for instance. It is obvious that a number

of individuals will observe that their bodies react to abuses in

similar ways, inasmuch as they have such things in common

as physical constitution, type of heredity and predisposition to

illness.

BIOLOGICAL SUPPORT

These various approaches involve the notion of medium. And,

in this context, the word medium corresponds to a biological

support, which can react in its own particular way under

stimulation. That sort of predisposition explains why certain

individuals would have allergic reactions when exposed to

certain environmental elements, while other would not. This

notion of medium, which was first recognized in Hippocrates'

time, has been carried over into our modern world and is more

than ever alive and well today. As for the definition of medium,

Hahnemann himself explains it by defining illness in the

following terms: "We become ill only... when our body lacks

resistance and is, therefore, predisposed to succumb to

whichever pathogenic cause is present at any given time."

Now, this notion of medium cannot be dissociated from

Homeopathy. It puts the patient in a more global context. It

considers his or her particular predisposition to react in such

or such a way, in a situation where his or her health is

threatened. In that sense it can be said that sickness is the

consequence of a disorder within the body itself, and, in order

to treat that illness, it is necessary to refer back to its source.

The body has natural defences that homeopathic remedies

are capable of stimulating. Thus, the so-called medium being

used is reinforced in such a way that it becomes better able to

help the body defend itself against attacking micro-organisms

and toxins susceptible of generating specific illnesses.

TO SUMMARIZE

Homeopathy is a form of natural therapy that treats illnesses

with minute, and therefore innocuous doses of certain

substances, selected according to the patient's own

individuality, reactions and heredity, as well as family and

social environments. Samuel Hahnemann was the initiator,

the actual Father of Homeopathy. His research, and

especially his experimentation, allowed him to rediscover

and reactivate a medical principle, the LAW OF SIMILARS,

first stated and put into practice in ancient times by the

Father of Medicine himself, the great Hippocrates. From this

same principle, Hahnemann advanced the proposition of a

new and natural therapeutic approach that was spread out

and now enjoys worldwide recognition, that is, Homeopathy.

The homeopathic notion of medium corresponds to the fact

that different individuals react in different ways when an

external attack upsets their body equilibrium and threatens

their health.

SUBSTANCES INVOLVED

The best way to discover Homeopathy is to make a close

analysis of the substances involved in the various

homeopathic remedies and treatments. It is also important

to understand the different phases involved in the production

of the homeopathic remedies.

VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES

Vegetable substances are definitely the most prevalent

among the various ingredients being used in the production

of homeopathic remedies. Whole plants are usually picked

and used at full maturity, that is, just before the blooming

stage. Sometimes, only the flowers, the roots, or the fruits

are used. Curiously, certain toxic plants sometimes have

medicinal properties which, when used in minute doses,

prove highly efficient in Homeopathy. Plants being used,

toxic or not, come from every corner of the Earth.

As for the manufacturing process of homeopathic remedies,

it is fairly simple. After being picked and washed, the plant is

cut up and dried, after which it is sent to a laboratory,

submitted to numerous controls and macerated in alcohol for

at least three weeks. Finally, the resulting liquid is filtered to

a juice called "Mother Tincture," from which dilutions are

made. But the production chain does not stop there.

Dilutions obtained are then included in different

preparations, such as drops, pellets, and globules.

WHAT IS HOMEOPATHY?

ANIMAL SUBSTANCES

Less romantic than their plant counter-parts that can be

gathered in the fields and woods, animal substances are

nonetheless just as useful and as effective as vegetable

substances. The animal substances used in homeopathy

are: the honey-bee, cantharis (Spanish-fly), sepia (a mollusc

whose ink possesses therapeutic properties) and snake

venom, among others.

MINERAL SUBSTANCES

Mineral substances are also natural products. For instance,

there is calcium (extracted from oysters) and sea salt,

phosphorus, arsenic (that's right!) and sulphur, described as

simple elements, as well as composite elements such as

sodium salts, potassium salts and caustic soda. Those are

but a few examples among the many mineral products

regularly used in homeopathic remedies. However, new

substances are being selected, experimented and tried,

every day.

OTHER SUBSTANCES

Besides substances extracted from vegetable and mineral

sources, Homeopathy also uses products of microbial origin,

vaccines, and even some human secretions and excretions.

Those bio-therapeutic products generally complement other

so-called natural substances. Finally, according to the

presumed cause of illness, Homeopathy sometimes uses

other made-to-measure preparations, so to speak. Special

products are sometimes tailored to special cases. For

instance, blood, urine, or other substances may be taken

from the patient and used in the preparation of some very

specific homeopathic remedies. Other so-called autoisopathic

concoctions are also derived from external

substances, deemed to have - or suspected of having -

caused the patient's illness, such as dust, hair, etc.

Having spoken about substances of all sorts, it is now worth

repeating that, in Homeopathy, all substances and remedies

are administered in minute doses, so minute that any danger

of contamination, side effects or complications are

inexistent.