As you are aware by now there are many alternative medicines are available to us today, and each has their own history of evolvement and, of course, their own successes. Many of these are not new forms of medicines but old…very old medicines & therapies. In todays podcast, I want to tell you specifically about Homeopathic Medicine, which is over 200 years old.
First let me say the idea or slogan for homeopathy is that LESS IS MORE! You will see why in a minute. Let’s answer 10 common questions about homeopathy and then you will totally understand this form of alternative medicine & how it differs from other modalities or even from standard medical treatment.
1. So what is homeopathy anyway? I know it is herbs or natural medicine made from plants right?
I have found that it is often best when describing homeopathy to start out with what it is not. So here we go…
IT IS NOT:
A form of herbs or herbal treatment
A blanket name for anything that is “au naturel.”
A natural remedy made from only plants
Similar to any other form of medicine or medicinal systems.
Over the years people tell me they have done homeopathy when they have taken natural products like echinacea when sick. But that is not homeopathy unless they took a homeopathic remedy made in a homeopathic pharmacy of that substance.
2. So what is it then?
It is its own complete system of medicine that doesn’t rely on any other system to work. As a matter of fact it works better on its own so that nothing interferes with the healing process. Homeopathy is a safe, gentle, effective system of medicine that seeks to stimulate the body’s own natural healing capacity. Dr. Samuel Hahnemann’s revolutionary system of healing is based on the four fundamental principles.
There are 4 Principles of Homeopathy
The law of similars
The single remedy,
• The minimal dose, and
The potentized remedy
Now let’s go over each of these principles and you will see what makes homeopathy unique & powerful.
Principle #1- The law of similars
This is the idea of LIKE CURES LIKE. Meaning the totality or total picture of the patient which include the mental, emotional, physical and general symptoms should be as similar as possible to the drug picture of the selected remedy. Because people with the same illness often express a different totality therefore the same illness in two patients may call for two different remedies.
Now you may ask but how do you know what the drug picture is or who determines what symptoms a remedy can treat?
This drug picture of scope of action of a remedy is determined thru provings. Homeopathic remedies are always proven before they are used in practice. Provings show us what a remedy is capable of because during a proving a selected number of healthy people are given an unknown remedy and they all record their symptoms and changes from their norm and report them to proving supervisors. Then after a couple months all symptoms from every prover are extracted and recorded carefully and that determines the starting drug picture. When we know the symptoms of the remedy from the proving we then know what that remedy is going to cure in the sick.
….So for example if during a proving all or most provers got headaches on the right side of head on waking in the morning, felt more irritable than usual, and craved lemons, then we know this remedy will also cure these same symptoms when given to a patient that comes to you with that symptom picture. Now I hope you understand why it is known as LIKE CURES LIKE… because anything that is capable of producing symptoms in a healthy person is capable of curing those in a sick person. Can you see already the advantage to this? Think now how much more individualized this system of medicine is just based on this principal.
Principle #2- The single remedy
This one is EASY. This means that only one remedy is given at a time because one remedy can correspond properly to a patient’s complete condition or totality. When someone says they practice classical homeopathy it means they use single remedies. There are also combination remedies but that is not consider classical homeopathy.
Principle #3- The minimal dose
Homeopathic remedies are diluted to extremely small or infinitesimal doses. That’s because in homeopathy, less is more. The great things about this is that also allows almost any substance to be used as remedies without any side effects.
So you may wonder what remedies are made from & how are they made?
Once you learn how remedies are made you will understand why they are so safe YET so powerful! First of all, a homeopathic remedy starts from a plant, animal, mineral, poison, or substance etc. Then the original substance is made into a tincture and one drop of tincture is placed into a vial with 99 drops of alcohol added to it. Then the vial is hit 100 times against the palm of the hand or as they did in the old days a leather bound book. Then 1 drop of this vial is added to a new vial and 99 drops of alcohol is added….then hit again 100 more times on the hand. The process of dilution continues and when they get to 30 dilutions and this is called a 30c potency, which is a common potency you find in the store.
Maybe at this point you are understanding why scientists don’t like homeopathy. They can’t understand how something can work so powerful when it is diluted to the point where there is no more actual substance left in the vial.
OK by now you must be asking how can they be so powerful if they are so diluted? Good question…and the answer will come when you learn the 4th and the last principle of homeopathy.
Principle #4- The potentized remedy
The process during dilution when they hit the vial against the palm of the hand or on a book is called SUCCUSSION. It is this process of succussion that potentizes or energizes the remedy substance. Potentizing a substance is unique only to homeopathic remedies and it is this process that increases their healing energy.
So I assume you are wondering WHY potentizing a remedy increases its power and how can a remedy becoming stronger as it is becoming more diluted? Great question!
It is believed that when a remedy is succussed or shaken vigorously, the water molecules take on a photographic memory of the original substance. And remember with every dilution that remedy was succussed or shaken vigorously 100x. Each of those succussions keeps imprinting the original substance energetically into the molecules which means it is becoming MORE powerful. Therefore the more a remedy is diluted, the stronger it becomes and its ability to stimulate healing becomes stronger too.
Do you understand this?
Because this is point many people don’t get as it is so different than conventional medicine. To further understand this let’s compare 2 common potencies you can find in your local health food stores. A 6c and a 30c potency. A 6c has been diluted 6 times and a 30c has been diluted 30 times, yet the 30c is more potent although it has been diluted many more times. WHY? Because it was succussed or vigorously shaken 100x100x100x100 … 30 times and so if you think in terms of ENERGY and not dilutions then you can see that a 30c is MUCH more potent. Try to remember to think of energy and not dilutions and you will never be confused again.
So homeopathy is a form of an energy medicine and since disease occurs on an energetic level maybe now you can see why homeopathy can heal so deeply when you can match the energy of the disease to the remedy.
Now you can also understand the LESS IS MORE concept right?
Other questions you may have
How do remedies actually work?
Homeopathic remedies act as a catalyst; the energy of the remedy stimulates the person’s own vital force to heal itself. It not only rids the patient of his symptoms, but it enables the person to feel that their life force is flowing. In order to be able to stimulate the person’s vital force to heal we must find a remedy that matches the patients existing symptom picture along with using characteristic traits of the person. This is the concept of Like cures Like remember?
Is homeopathy safe & are there any side effects or cautions?
Homeopathy is safe
Since there is only an infinitesimal or a non detectable amount of the original substance in the remedy homeopathy is extremely safe. The other great thing is there are no contra indications with other substances or allopathic medicines. It is safe for babies, pregnant women, older people with weakened immune systems, pets etc. and there are no real side effects. You can take too much of a remedy and produce a temporary worsening of your condition but once you stop that goes away.
Homeopathy can be used for acute and chronic illnesses.
How is homeopathy different than conventional medicine also known as allopathic medicine?
Conventional medicine typically views symptoms as something wrong and tries to suppress or eliminate them. By contrast, homeopathy considers symptoms the vocabulary of disease. A symptom is the body’s attempt to restore balance. When it can’t keep its balance any longer it throws out a symptom and no matter how uncomfortable it may seem it is still the natural mechanism of the body trying to be in homeostasis which is a fancy word for balanced or stable. In other words, a symptom is the body’s way to express something is out of balance deep inside. The goal is to understand and treat the root cause of these symptoms and not mask their existence or suppress them. It is actually dangerous to take symptoms away as we are suppressing the body’s natural mechanism of expression. When we suppress a symptom enough times we usually end up with a much deeper form of disease.
Conventional medicine also has many dangerous side effects and the act of suppression of the symptoms is especially dangerous as I have stated.
So now you can see that conventional medicine treats by managing and suppressing symptoms with drugs and surgery and does not consider the root cause or the individuality of the patient. Some times in life threatening conditions and other emergencies we need to do this but many ailments today are being unnecessarily suppressed when they could be treated successfully with homeopathy.
I am not against doctors nor do I tell people what they should do unless they ask for my advice. Doctors provide millions of life saving surgeries every day. Look at Lloyd you remember he needed an artificial aorta after his ruptured in his accident. That is a miracle. But today people are on 3-5 medications by the age of 60 and most are treating chronic diseases that are considered only life style diseases. That means we could eliminate them only by changing our diet and lifestyle. 8 out of the top 10 killers are all lifestyle diseases. Treating these diseases with medications only to suppress the symptoms is very dangerous and making our society sicker and sicker because with every suppression we just drive the disease process deeper and deeper. That is why I feel the need to speak out and help you learn about the dangers of suppression and alternative options for you to heal naturally and safely!
The homeopath considers all aspects of a patient’s being: physical, emotional and mental. This healing system is based on the philosophy that the body, mind and emotions are not separate entities, but fully integrated. Also important is the family and medical history. Because homeopaths are trying to treat the root cause and not the symptoms they look for what triggers may have caused these symptoms to become expressed in the first place. Often a patient gets their first symptoms months after a grief, or a shock for example. This is extremely important to know in order to successfully help the patient.
So remember homeopathy looks at individuals, not diseases.
For example, no two colds are alike. One may come on slowly and be runny; another may come on quickly and include a dry cough. In one, the person may be irritable and want to be left alone and in another, he or she will want comfort and company. A well-trained homeopath most likely will treat each cold with different remedies.
Example: Story of my mom.
When my sister died my mom went into deep grief as you can imagine.
With months after her death my mom developed psoriasis which she never had before. It was all over her legs and trunk and back. It was angry and red. My dad being a medical doctor of course took her to a dermatologist and they of course prescribed steroid creams… one after the other with no success. Now think about this from what you have learned today… if your body has a grief like this and needs to throw out a symptom like this and then you suppress it with a cream and push the symptom back inside… what do you think that may do? Pushing it back inside has not done anything to treat the cause of mechanism that put that symptom there in the first place. My dad being a doctor didn’t understand at that time the dangers of taking my mom to a dermatologist instead of a homeopath or other natural practitioner that would address the cause. He of course wanted to help my mom and had no idea of this concept of suppression since he never learned that in medical school. I begged him not to do the creams but the psoriasis was so bad he felt he had to. In the end they did not work and I asked him to let me treat my mom. I gave my mom a remedy for the GRIEF and feeling of loss and anger over my sister’s death and in a month her eczema was already going away and over the period of 4-6 months it resolved. This is why treating the cause and not the symptom is important in homeopathy. Sometimes the cause is not known but then we still use the totality of the patient’s case to find the remedy specific to them.
Treating chronic disease takes a professional
That story of my mom demonstrates how when you treat the cause the body can heal itself. But it also takes a professional homeopath to treat these kind of serious cases. Chronic disease is an epidemic today. It is due to all the suppressions of symptoms that have pushed people level of health into a much deeper state. Treating chronic disease takes years to reverse so please don’t attempt to do this yourself with homeopathy and find a classical homeopath to work with. I am putting in my show notes a list of directories for you to find one near you.
How can I start using homeopathy & learn?
No matter what age you are or what level if knowledge you have you can always learn more. Agreat way to start using homeopathy is to first buy a few good reference books and start treating the small acutes in your everyday life. Acutes that are not serious are often what bring many people to homeopathy because they get to see results and begin to get some confidence in how to use homeopathy. You will learn as you go how to ask the right questions when someone has an acute so you can find the STRANGE RARE & PECULIAR (SRP) symptoms of your patient, which will help lead you to the remedy. So start by treating your self, family & pets for everyday ailments.
There are many good books on homeopathy and I will list a few I like in the show notes.
A good book should teach you how to ask the right questions and how to differentiate between different remedies in a situation.
Summary
So now you know the 4 Principles of homeopathy that tell the whole story of how homeopathy works but also how it is different than any other form of natural medicine.
Remember the 4 principles are:
The Law of Similars
A Single Remedy
Minimum Dose
Potentized
Closing
Health is more than the absence of disease…if you read my blog about What is Health you will know that I describe health as FREEDOM because when you are healthy you feel good enough to do whatever you want and you have the energy to do it too! Health is a sense of well being on all levels that gives us a sense of freedom and the ability to withstand stress. Remember in the last episode Dr. Master said that suppression of symptoms by a drug is a form of stress to the body and soon the body & organs can’t take anymore and we become sicker on a deeper level. We have an epidemic of chronic disease and that is why I chose to do this podcast so I could speak out and teach people other ways to heal and find health.
There is much evidence over the years that homeopathy works in serious crises such as the flu epidemics of the past, in acute diseases, and also in chronic diseases, and once you see how powerful these remedies act, you will never question the concept of energy again!
Be Healthy!
Be Free
Live Life!
Links for homeopathy & to find a practitioner
LAhomeopathy.com
vidalSPEAKS.com
Nash Directory to find a homeopath in your area:
https://www.homeopathy.org/homeopaths-directory/
National Center of Homeopathy – Join, support homeopathy & learn more & find a homeopath.
http://www.homeopathycenter.org
CCH – Another directory to find a homeopath
http://www.homeopathicdirectory.com
Homeopathy Pharmacy & GREAT KITS.
http://a2zhomeopathy.com
Homeopathic Pharmacy in England
Another good pharmacy to order homeopathic products from. They are in England but often carry things we can’t get in the states and shipping is reasonable.
http://www.helios.co.uk
