Introduction To Homeopathy

By Mark Archer

You may have heard of homeopathy, but do you know what it is? Some people confuse it with aromatherapy or acupuncture. Homeopathy began in Europe in the 18th century and was once more highly respected than traditional medicine. Today in the United States, homeopathy is the second most sought out medical treatment after traditional allopathic medicine.

The concept of homeopathy is based on the law of similarities. This is very much like the idea behind vaccinations. When we get a vaccination for a disease, we get a little diluted dose of the disease and our immune system fights off the disease. Most healthy people who get vaccinated will develop a little sickness after the vaccination, but it will quickly disappear. This is because their immune system kicked in and killed the disease. Once the disease has been cured by the immune system, it does not reoccur.

Those same principals are applied in homeopathy. Ther are roughly thirty basic remedies used in dealing with a variety of ailments. What the patient receives is a highly diluted dose of the same ailment. Homeopathy then relies on the body's natural immune system to heal itself. This is why it effective in many ailments.

When a patient goes to see a homeopath, the first thing that will happen is the practitioner will take a thorough history of the patient. This history will include the emotional, mental and physical states of the patient, their current life situation as well as any physical or mental illnesses. The homeopath takes all this information and applies it to a formula of all symptoms, likes, dislikes, predispositions and body type. They will then determine the remedy for the problem at hand. You get a tailor made solution for your ailment. An ordinary doctor would just hand out a "one cure all" pill.

Instead of traditional medications such as chemotherapy and radiation to treat cancer that may or may not work, homeopathy uses the natural immune system to fight off the cancer. This has been known to work in some people. There has been a medical link between the immune system and cancer. Most people, however, choose to use traditional medicine when treating cancer. Actress Suzanne Somers was criticized for using homeopathic remedies to treating her breast cancer, but she survived her ordeal. Other celebrities with this disease were not so fortunate, yet they went the traditional medicine route.

Homeopathy may or may not work on each individual. Most homeopaths believe that disease or ailments come because of a disturbance in the life force. When an ailment refuses the remedies of homeopathy, it is thought that the disease was inherent and would have been unable to be treated even with traditional medicine. This happens often when people, as a last resort, use homeopathy as a way to cure certain diseases after traditional medicine has failed.

Homeopathy has been enjoying a new popularity lately, though it has been around for about two hundred years. As more people get acquainted with it, more and more people are finding out about its effectiveness and gentleness.

About the Author:

Learn more about homeopathy by checking out Mark Archer's website