About Homeopathy

Learn more about homeopathy

The name homeopathy was created by Samuel Hahnemann in 1807. At that point he felt that medicine could do more harm than good, and was starting to evolve a system of healing that was based on 'like cures like'. He had noticed that some medicines created in healthy people all the symptoms that they were supposed to treat. He first noticed this when he took cinchona bark, an early version of quinine to treat malaria. His self-medication of cinchona gave him all the symptoms of malaria, which led him to the healing principle "that which can produce a set of symptoms in a healthy individual, can treat a sick individual who is manifesting a similar set of symptoms" or 'like cures like'. The term homeopathy comes from the Greek and simply means 'similar suffering'.

This is why a homeopathic consultation is always about you and your symptoms - because these symptoms need to be matched to an appropriate remedy. My understanding of how remedies prescribed homeopathically work is that the similarity provokes the body's own healing response to deal with this new disease and that this response also resolves the original symptoms. I feel that this is why there are no side effects, because the body heals itself. However, this is simply the model I work with, and there is no evidence to support my ideas.

We find out what a homeopathic remedy does by giving it to a healthy individual and noting the symptoms that result from this - we call this 'proving' a remedy and it is usually done under very strict guidelines.

Homeopathic remedies are manufactured in UK pharmacies using a process combining serial dilution and succussion (vigorous shaking). They are made primarily from plants and minerals and highly diluted before being added to tablets or pills, although they can also be prescribed in liquid form as well.

If you want to know any more about Hahnemann, provings and homeopathy in general please talk to me - I have a large library of books that I lend to clients.