Homeopathy or homeopathic medicine, is a holistic system of treatment that originated in the late eighteenth century. The namehomeopathy is derived from two Greek words that mean "like disease." The system is based on the idea that substances that producesymptoms of sickness in healthy people will have a curative effect when given in very dilute quantities to sick people who exhibit thosesame symptoms. Homeopathic remedies are believed to stimulate the body's own healing processes. Homeopaths use the term"allopathy," or "different than disease," to describe the use of drugs used in conventional medicine to oppose or counteract the symptombeing treated.

Purpose

Homeopathic physicians seek to cure their patients on the physical, mental and emotional levels, and each treatment is tailored to apatient's individual needs. Homeopathy is generally a safe treatment, as it uses medicines in extremely diluted quantities, and there areusually minimal side effects. Its non-toxicity makes it a good choice for the treatment of children. Another benefit of homeopathy is thecost of treatments; homeopathic remedies are inexpensive, often a fraction of the cost of conventional drugs.

Homeopathic treatment has been shown effective in treating many conditions. Colds and flu may be effectively treated with aconite andbryonia. Influenza suffers in a double-blind study found that they were twice as likely to recover in 48 hours when they took homeopathicremedies. Studies have been published in British medical journals confirming the efficacy of homeopathic treatment for rheumatoidarthritis. Homeopathic remedies are effective in treating infections, circulatory problems, respiratory problems, heart disease, depressionand nervous disorders, migraine headaches, allergies, arthritis, and diabetes. Homeopathy is a good treatment to explore for acute andchronic illnesses, particularly if these are found in the early stages and where there is not severe damage. Homeopathy can be used toassist the healing process after surgery or chemotherapy

Description

Origins

Homeopathy was founded by German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), who was much disturbed by the medical system of histime, believing that its cures were crude and some of its strong drugs and treatments did more harm than good to patients. Hahnemannperformed experiments on himself using Peruvian bark, which contains quinine, a malaria remedy. He concluded that in a healthy person,quinine creates the same symptoms as malaria, including fevers and chills, which is the reason why it is effective as a remedy. He thenbegan to analyze the remedies available in nature by what he called provings. Provings of homeopathic remedies are still compiled bydosing healthy adults with various substances and documenting the results, in terms of the dose needed to produce the symptoms andthe length of the dose's effectiveness. The provings are collected in large homeopathic references called materia medica or materials ofmedicine.