About homeopathy:
Homeopathy, as is well known was founded by Dr Christian Fredrich Samuel Hahnemann in the early 19th century. It is based on the Law of Similars – ‘Similia Similibus Curentar’. Homoepathy is the second choice of people all over the world after conventional medicine. There are plenty of sites that give you the methodology of the ‘Law of Similars’ or ‘Like cures Like’ in detail. I wish to take you on a very simple but thoughtful journey about the way homeopathy works. To know more click here
The homeopathic functioning:
The law of similar is quite easy to understand if explained by simple examples of what we see in our lives. Homeopathy is the most natural of all therapies because the cause and effect is just as we see in nature. Dominance in any aspect of life cannot be shared. There is only one head. The others lose their dominance. Consider an organisation, say a family, company, factory, even a animal colony; there is one dominant member. The rest follow the leader. What happens when another dominant individual comes in? There is a fight for the top post. The old dominant wishes to retain the position while the new entrant wishes to take over. In case the new entrant is more powerful what happens to the old leader? He is subdued and must beat a retreat.
Now let us change the characters – the organisation is the human body, the old dominant leader is the disease and the new entrant is the homeopathic medicine. When the correct homeopathic remedy is introduced into the system, the remedy acts like the old dominant leader and being artificial in nature (not living but its power controlled by the homeopath) the strength of the new entrant can be increased or decreased to perfectly meet and overcome the strength of the old dominant disease. The erstwhile dominant disease then succumbs under the strength of the new similarly dominant homeopathic medicine.
Now the homeopathic medicine being artificial loses its strength in a short span of time and dissipates away leaving the living organism free from any dominating force and the harmony returns to the organization which is the state of health!!
Dr Hahnemann connected the links together when he realised that on ingestion of the Cinchona bark, the condition of the person closely resembled that of a person suffering from Malaria with the same kind of fever and shivering etc. This laid the foundation of homeopathy!! The understanding of the law of similar has now grown leaps and bounds leading the contemporary homeopath to closely perceive and understand the most similar remedy in all kinds of ailments.
Homeopathy is best indicated for which kind of diseases:
Homeopathy works wonderfully well in almost any kind of disease, be it acute or chronic, be it physical or mental, be it pathological or psychosomatic in nature. This therapy is very different from the other therapies of the world. All other therapies use the material form of the active principle of any medicinal substance, however, homeopathy is the only one which uses the energy of the substance for therapy.
The benefits of this subtle use of energy is that there are no side-effects what so ever, the medicines act fast and gently without any residual drug induced effects. To give you an example, if a case of fever because of any infection is being treated by any other therapy, some tablet / herb / substance having an anti-pyretic quality is administered along with some kind of anti-biotic or herbs and substances that have anti-biotic properties. Interestingly, the meaning of the word anti-biotic is (an environment not conducive for life – [English] – anti – a prefix meaning ‘against’ or ‘opposite’ and [Greek] – biotic – fit for life). The antibiotic though is an efficient tool to combat the invasive bacteria, the material dose also effects the person consuming the medicine. This results in a removal of symptoms like the fever reduces, the pain killer takes care of the body ache and headache but generally you still feel weak and down. There is no appetite, there is no general feeling of wellbeing! A time frame must pass before the body returns to its normal healthy condition.
I call this outsourcing. You outsource the project of getting the body back to health to a company outside your body and the company rectifies the mistake in the method that it deems fit. Your body or mind has no say in the way the infection is dealt with. To take care of the ill effects of such medication, the regular prescription includes an antacid, probiotic capsules, some multivitamins to help you bear the onslaught of the anti-biotic etc. But the body is unhappy because it does not happen the way it wants. Good bacteria and friends are all killed in the clean-up program. Hence the body gets weak and though the work is done, there lingers an ill feeling which time heals.
Homeopathy on the other hand utilizes the energy of the same substance with such properties and gives the body the resource to do the work itself. The energy that is given by the correct homeopathic remedy helps the body to rectify itself and it makes the changes itself thus ensuring a smooth transition from disease to health without the side effects of any external force. Hence, in my practice I have seen that even painful diseases like chikungunya, typhoid fever, rheumatoid arthritis all getting better in a short time (as fast as 10 minutes) and the patient feeling as energetic as ever. This kind of fast recovery and well being is seen only by homeopathic medication on the sole condition that the remedy selected for the patient is the similimum*.
*Every homeopathic patient is like a lock that is to be opened with the help of a homeopathic remedy. However, homeopathy has around 3000 remedies (read as keys) to unlock the particular patient and it is the judgement of the homeopathic physician to select the correct key to that patient. A wrong selection will only result in ‘no action’. The patient will feel no change in his state of health and no sense of well being or relief in symptoms will be seen. On the contrary if the right remedy is selected, the patient immediately feels a sense of well being in most cases and the symptomatic relief follows soon. This is the similimum!!
Why is homeopathy such a mystery?
Science is still progressing and as a scientific community we are unaware of the extent of knowledge that we need to unravel to understand the universe and its components. As close as a century ago, one would have been considered a fool to think that a person, snuggling comfortably in his favourite living room couch can view what is happening across the world on a contraption that hung on a wall!! Even lets say someone flying down to another place was unheard of some years ago. As science progresses, the metaphysical aspects are converted into physical and hopefully soon science will be able to unravel the mysteries behind the functioning of homeopathic medicines and its effect on the diseased person.
The process of homeopathic treatment is still baffling to the scientific fraternity because the mode of action of the homeopathic medicines are still not clearly understood. One of the main reasons for this could be that science has not progressed enough to the extent to know the functioning of the homeopathic medicine after it is administered. Even the very reason how homeopathic medicines carry their medicinal properties are still a mystery. As a result, the whole science of homeopathy is still very mysterious. The reason why homeopathy is still the first choice of alternative therapy across the world is because of its curing properties which has been experienced by many patients. Those patients who have experienced cure through homeopathy will swear by its efficacy and remain faithful to homeopathic method of cure for the rest of their lives.
Homeopath as a multi-specialist
A homeopath though gives physical and other symptoms full attention and helps and tries to diagnose the disease the patient is suffering from; the information is used as a prognostic tool rather than a prescriptive tool. For a homeopath, the totality of the symptoms and the way the patient deals with his disease and his mannerisms during the phase of disease. In acute ailments, it is much easier for the physician to understand the patient. This is because the mannerisms of the patient is very evident and clear. In chronic ailments the patient gets used to the symptoms and learns to live with them and hence his mannerisms become habitual and so it is difficult to understand his deviated mannerisms.