Homeopathy

(photo by Kai Reschke from Pixabay)

Homeopathic medicine is a favorable alternative to the use of mainstream drugs.  While drugs are sometimes necessary, they may produce negative side effects and do not cure the underlying causes.  Drugs only mask the cause.  Homeopathic remedies, on the other hand, only have positive or neutral effects and work to assist the body to heal properly when the proper remedy, or combination of remedies, are selected.

As most acute remedies are at low dosages and are sold over-the-counter, individuals can use them without a doctor’s intervention and without harming themselves, as long as the remedy is not abused.  For constitutional symptoms, however, it is necessary to rely on a homeopathic doctor to prescribe the proper remedy.  Constitutional or chronic symptoms are more serious issues that require remedies with higher doses that are not sold over-the-counter.  The doctor may create the remedy herself.

When a body is out of balance, the body produces symptoms such as fever.  Our first thought may be to get the fever down as quickly as possible, suppress it and make it go away now.  The homeopathic viewpoint is that a symptom is the body’s way of fighting off the foreign substance or imbalance and needs the natural course of time to win the battle and heal.  The symptom is not the underlying cause of the body imbalance.  The symptom should be viewed as a signal from the body that something needs to be addressed by the person.  What may have caused the symptom to occur?  What is going on in my life right now from an emotional standpoint that may need attention and closure?  Similar to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy looks at the whole person of mind, body and spirit as one integrative system where every part must be healthy and in motion, working in unison.

When not feeling well, it is recommended that we write down our symptoms to assist in selecting a homeopathic remedy.  Similarly, in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), writing down our symptoms can help us determine if the symptom is yang or yin. This helps determine whether yang or yin is deficient or excessive, leading to a TCM remedy.  So in both homeopathic medicine and TCM, physically writing down symptoms is an important step in the assessment process.

A substance that produces symptoms in a healthy person cures those symptoms in a sick person.  Someone who has insomnia, for example, may receive a homeopathic remedy that contains coffee.  The caffeine in coffee may cause someone who sleeps well to lose sleep after consuming coffee while for someone who has insomnia, coffee in a homeopathic remedy, may have the opposite effect and bring the individual back into balance, thus alleviating the insomnia.  The amount of coffee included in the homeopathic remedy is very small.  By diluting the coffee and shaking the ingredients together, this newly combined substance is no longer in the form of coffee as we know it.  It is even possible that the coffee in the homeopathic remedy is gone except for its energy, which is really the component that would bring the body, mind and spirit back into balance.

We get sick so we can heal.  Imbalances begin in our mind or spirit.  Then these negative energies convert into the body as illness or pain.  These are signs that we need to focus our attention on concerns that we have in some aspect of our lives.

Sometimes the illness or pain comes upon us quickly and sharply.  Other times it gradually makes its way over, perhaps as a dull chronic pain.  If the correct homeopathic remedy is used, the pains that occurred quickly and sharply, for example, should dissipate in the same manner upon taking the remedy.

If interested, here is a video: Dr. Lauri Grossman’s Journey to Discover Homeopathy. It is 6:40 long.

And for more information, here is a Homeopathy article on the the National Institutes of Health website:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1116906/