ALTHOUGH popular for years in Asia, homeopathy has recently become Europe’s fastest-growing form of alternative medicine.
Last year sales of homeopathic medicines in Europe topped £3billion.
Debates about how it scientifically works are heated. Still, most Europeans are now going to a homeopath as their first course of treatment and 20 percent of Scottish GPs currently practice the specialty. Even Gandhi one of the founders of modern India sought to make the medical system of the new state based on homeopathy.
In orthodox medicine, if seven people went for treatment for a throat infection they would all get the same medicine. In homeopathic treatment, they probably would all be prescribed a different remedy, due to, but not limited by, how their personalities differ.
The object of homeopathy is to match the person with the remedy that fits them.
During a one-hour consultation, the homeopath notes all of the patient’s symptoms including emotions, mental outlook and physical signs.
The patient becomes completely involved in the healing process of homeopathy.
Homeopathic Remedies
Homeopathy used by 100 million Europeans is a flexible system of medicine that can be used by just about anyone. Over 100 million Europeans are. Minor ailments can be treated at home using a standard homeopathic first-aid kit but more serious complaints need to be seen by a professional, as there are more than 3000 remedies to choose from.
If you are getting a cold regularly, you need to see a homeopath to figure out the causes and be prescribed a remedy to improve your immune system.
A homeopathic medicine seeks to raise your weakened ‘vital force’ which results in recurring illness.
How Homeopathy Was Discovered
Two centuries ago a German doctor named Samuel Hahnemann discovered homeopathy. When working as a medical writer he landed on some research by a Scotsman called Dr Cullen who was also a chemist and an expert on medicinal substances. Cullen had discovered that quinine, a chemical found in Peruvian Bark, helped malaria due to its astringency. This set Hahnemann thinking.
As a chemist he knew there were more powerful astringents available, so why was quinine so effective?
To investigate further, he dosed himself for several days with quinine and, to his surprise, he developed the symptoms of malaria, one after another — despite the fact he did not have the disease.
He saw that like would cure like and this is the first and foremost rule of homeopathy. When a chemical that would cause symptoms of a disease in a healthy person is given to a person with the disease, the symptoms are canceled and the person returns to normal health.
For example, to cure nausea, one would take homeopathic Nux Vomica — a remedy derived from the poison nut that contains strychnine, causing nausea in its chemical form. Hahnemann then set about recording the symptoms caused by another 100 chemicals. He called this process ‘proving’ and noted the physical, emotional and mental results.
Some of the remedies were poisonous and had to be diluted.
His next discovery was that as the chemicals were diluted, their effects increased. The result is homeopathic medicine in its current form — where remedies are a result of dilution. What is called potentisation (or strengthening of a remedy) is the basis of dosage levels. The medicine is administered in 6c, 30c, 200c and 1m (1m being a thousand times dilution) concentrations.
Homeopathic remedies are derived from a variety of sources including allium from the
onion and urtica from the stinging nettle.
The Best Homeopathic Flu Medicine - Boiron Oscillococcinum
France’s number one over-the-counter remedy for colds is a homeopathic medicine derived from fresh duck’s liver and heart. The homeopathic medicine is so dilute that not even a molecule of the duck remains.
Critics of homeopathy say that the medicine is no more than the placebo effect —psychological factors causing improvement unrelated to drug therapy. However, Dr David Reilly of The Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital led a team of scientists who compared placebo and homeopathy in four trials conducted over 15 years in patients with allergies such as hayfever and asthma.
All four studies showed a greater effect from the homeopathic medicine than from the placebo.
The Scientific Case for Homeopathy
Overall there have been over 200 trials and over 70 per cent of these conclude that homeopathy is better than placebo. Private European insurers cover homeopathic treatments, and The World Health Organisation recommends them. A few years ago Spain took the initiative to incorporate homeopathy into its national health service.
Homeopathic medicine is also making headway in other areas. Two years ago I interviewed an entrepreneur who was importing organic wine from France where some of the producers were using homeopathic medicines on grape vines rather than pesticides.
This medicine is set to become bigger in a culture where people are taking more of an interest in, and responsibility for, their health.
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