Homeopathy

Modern Medicine from the Past

By Dr. Thomas Stearns Lee, NMD

Homeopathy is a type of medicine practiced by many doctors and lay healers all over the world.  You might have noticed that more health product labels or articles on natural medicine in the news are mentioning homeopathic ingredients or approaches.

This system is gaining in popularity in America after being almost shut down by the monopolistic practices of modern pharmacy and medicine during the early part of the 20th century.  Presently, the only medical schools that teach this discipline to their students are the Naturopathic colleges.  Soon they all will.

What homeopathy is, and the reason it is coming back, is that it has proven to be a safe, effective, and affordable way to understand and treat disease.  Perhaps you could give it a try if you would like another approach to your own health care besides the mainstream medical routines.

Homeopathy was created by Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor, genius, and scholar in Germany of the 1770s.  Hahnemann was dissatisfied by the medical profession of his day due to the overuse of toxic medicines and dangerous surgeries, which he perceived to be causing a lot of unnecessary suffering.  Seeking a better method, Dr. Hahnemann developed Homeopathy as a gentle and effective way to use minimal doses of medicines to get the best results.

These "energy medicines" work directly on the patient's "vital force" to activate a correcting, or balancing process.  Times are different now, we would hope, but modern vital forces still need help, and Homeopathy is appreciated as one way to provide that support.

A basic principle of Homeopathy is using like to treat like, hence the prefix "Homeo," or same.  The idea was that if something causes certain symptoms when we are overdosed to the point of being actually poisoned by it, then the same medicine at a more proper dilute dose would be helpful in treating those same symptoms, whatever their cause.

The effects of these variously diluted medicines were carefully indexed by way of provings.  These were early medical experiments where healthy volunteers would take a specific medicine, and every minute detail of their experience would be noted and double-checked.  The resulting piles of information were carefully organized, published, and added to by several generations of brilliant and meticulous scientists, many of whom were Americans.  Today these books, repertories, and materia medicae are still valued as references by Homeopathic doctors and practitioners.

By learning the unique characteristics of these medicines -- their "personalities," almost -- doctors can add a variety of gentle but effective tools to their arsenal for helping to ease the suffering and promote the health of their patients.  Perhaps you have noticed that many health products, often from Europe, bear a list of Greek or Latin names followed by a number and the Roman numeral X, L, or C.  These indicators represent the botanical names of certain herbs and the description of a specific dilution (1:10 or 1:50 or 1:100)  that was used in the preparation.

Some Homeopathic doctors prefer to use a single remedy, rather than a mixture, or "combination remedy."  As with any old and developed profession, many opinions and interpretations have developed to liven the modern debates.  I find that both styles have merit when used by a sensitive practitioner.  Most experienced physicians are glad to have any and all tools available to work on the complex people and situations of our modern world.

Homeopathic remedies can be found in finer health food stores and pharmacies.  There are some great books available to help explain the basics of this interesting branch of medicine.  I would recommend starting with a word search using one of the larger Internet search engines.

Because of tremendous changes sweeping over medicine, a market has been rediscovered for Homeopathy.  This is showing up as more health food stores, pharmacies, and MD mail-order promoters sell these products throughout the world.

Learn all you can, and try out homeopathy on your family in the lower potency ranges (below 30X or 30C).

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