Homeopathy Basics HOW & WHY IT WORKS & WHY YOU SHOULD TRY IT!

SHOW NOTES
Podcast #5

Title:  Homeopathy Basics
HOW & WHY IT WORKS & WHY YOU SHOULD TRY IT!

Welcome
Welcome back everyone.  Another week has gone by can you believe it?  Todays show is episode #5 – and yes you guessed it…. I am Deborah Vidal, your host of the vidalSPEAKS podcast.  

Today’s show idea came from a listener named Armita, who sent an email request to me for a show idea. Actually, Armita is a long time patient of mine, who has amazing stories about the positive effects of homeopathy.  Her son is one of my great success cases and maybe one day she will come on the podcast and share her experience with homeopathy. She wanted to me to do a show on the basics of homeopathy because most of her friends have no real idea how it works or what it is exactly … other than some form of alternative medicine. After listening to the first 4 podcasts she forwarded them to her friends who continued to ask her more questions about homeopathy… she then wrote me saying, “My friends don’t understand homeopathy can you please do a show to explain it correctly to them?”

I also thought it could be a good idea to do a show dedicated to homeopathy basics early on in our vidalSPEAKS journey, so in the future you can refer back to it when I speak of something that you may not understand, or when new listeners join the show at a later date.  And now after this episode you will have something easy to share with your friends and family to explain it for you!  All you have to do is go to my website vidalSPEAKS.com and to the podcast page and copy the link and send it to your friends.  And for those of you that are practitioners and listening you can send your patients there to help explain it and save you some time!  Also, my other website, which was the one I used only for my practice, is LAhomeopathy.com and there is a lot of information on that site about homeopathy.  

Although the vidalSPEAKS podcast is about anything having to do with health I want it to invite and attract people of all ages and of all levels of knowledge on health and homeopathy.  Still I thought doing a show on homeopathy basics is important because I will be speaking a lot of homeopathy throughout episodes, after all it is my specialty, my passion and it is truly an amazing system of medicine that has for sure shaped my view of health that I want to share with all of you.
 
Homeopathy can heal VERY deeply and I want you to understand how and why it works, so you can see the importance of treating the root cause of disease and not just masking or removing the symptoms with a drug which is called SUPPRESSION.  So lets establish a good understanding of the basics in this episode, along with learning some homeopathic vocabulary and then all will begin to make sense.  For those of you that are more advanced and already using or practicing homeopathy I think you can still learn from this and I promise to add some more advanced things to keep you here too!

Business

Before we get started let’s take care of a little business.

Accepted into Stitcher Radio Announcement!
I want to let you know that vidalSPEAKS was accepted by Stitcher Radio. I am super excited about this because Stitcher is a huge app for world for podcast listening.

For those of you that are not avid podcast listeners till now, or for those of you that are not apple iTunes users, …. and even those that are avid users of iTunes,  I suggest you download the free Stitcher app because it is seems easy to use and even if you have iTunes you may like this one better.  One nice feature is you can listen to part of a podcast and then you can close the app and when you re open it back up it plays from where you last left off and you don’t have to start all over and try to fast forward to find your place.  I think iTunes does this too, but sometimes it has not worked for me so I personally use Stitcher app a lot.

Next is my Call to ACTION – and ask for a favor
The biggest thing you can do for me right now is to PLEASE help me by writing reviews in Stitcher and iTunes. I have less than 7 weeks to try get into that category of New & Noteworthy. If I can get into this category it allows me to stay there for many months with great exposure which then increases my chance of success by gaining more listeners who search that category daily looking for new interesting podcasts.

Thanks for Reviews
First of all I want to say THANK YOU to all of you that successfully downloaded, subscribed & reviewed the vidalSPEAKS podcast in itunes.  Don’t forget to subscribe if you have not already that way it will download into your favorite box every week and be waiting for you!

Sadly I received at least 30 emails from those of you that could not figure out how to review it in iTunes even after many attempts. That kills me because I want those reviews. It is strange that writing a review in both Stitcher & iTunes seems so difficult, especially because reviews matter so much and podcasters work so hard to get them. get into the top category and to get exposure and that many you were actually putting in time trying to do it for me.

Problems with REVIEWS SOLVED

Since there has been so many problems writing reviews I have been thinking & researching all week to find an easier way to help you help me. See….  I told you I am an endless researcher… but it paid off because I found a way to create NEW EASY LINKS that take you directly to the review page now in both Stitcher AND iTunes. You will find them in show notes (below)

So can I ask you to please try review vidalSPEAKS ONE MORE TIME? I would appreciate you reviewing them in both Stitcher & iTunes, but if don’t have iTunes can you review it in Stitcher then please.
Remember the next 7 weeks are critical. I ask you please HELP ME GET THERE by using my NEW LINKS in the show notes to easily write a review in both Stitcher & iTunes BUT ALSO by passing on the links to your Facebook community or to your friends and family as it will take a grass roots effort to get the word out.
I really feel the need to help many people and I have chance now, finally, to do that.  Podcasting is such a great tool to help people and I am having a blast already just hearing so many nice comments how the show inspired listeners.  Those of you that know me, know I am a communicator.  My desire to use this skill of communication to build a huge listener base is strong right now, because I want to feel I have given my all in this lifetime to help turn around our current health crisis!  I never felt so strongly to speak out as I do now…  so thank you for sharing the show to help me get the word out, which in the end allows me to feel I am doing the work I need to be doing right now!

LINKS TO REVEIW BELOW
Please Review the vidalSPEAKS podcast in both Stitcher & iTunes if you can and if you don’t have iTunes installed then please at least review in Stitcher

iTunes REVIEW LINK
http://tinyurl.com/http-vidalspeaks-itunereview

Click on the View IN iTunes button
Click on Rating & Reviews tab & scroll down a bit & click on Write a Review

Stitcher Radio REVIEW LINK
http://tinyurl.com/http-vidalspeaks-stitcher

Click on 5 stars under vidalSPEAKS logo & a new window opens to write review

Next….

Next thank you so much to all of you that donated thru the donate button at vidalSPEAKS.com I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that & it touches me deeply that you did that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart really.

vidalSPEAKS.com continues to add new features.
Don’t forget to keep checking out vidalSPEAKS.com.
Changes and little things are being added everyday!

Coming soon I will have a tool on my website where you can click on it and speak directly into it and it will send me your voice message by email.  I want you to ask me questions that you would like answered in a show and then I can put the voice question on the show and answer it for you during the show.  Also I can keep questions and when I get enough I will dedicate an entire episode just to answering your questions.
I think people learn a lot from others questions.  Just make sure they are health related.

About the show
I am having fun learning all the ins and outs of podcasting. I like to be creative so I am wanting to add a few little segments to the show to make it fun.
If there are things in the news to discuss I want to do a short segment on that.
I would like to do a health tip at the end of the show if possible or share a great recipe or idea to help you for that week stay motivated or to learn a new tip to try.
So be sure to listen to the end and let me know what you think.

OK now let’s get on with the show now! HERE WE GO!
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 potenized 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!

Well I think we did it.
I hope you enjoyed the show and if you feel the need to re-listen to review all we spoke about please do so because I really covered the basics of homeopathy in detail and this will help you learn and begin your journey.

So now you know what time it is… time to say goodbye,

Vidal has spoken!

Be Healthy!
Be Free
Live Life!

 

Links mentioned in Show
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

 

Homeopathic BOOKS – (Buy from link on Products page of vidalSPEAKS.com)

Homeopathic Self Care The Quick & Easy Guide for the Whole Family by Robert Ullman & Judith Reichenberg Ullman

Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants by Dana Ullman

Homeopathic Medicine At Home by Maesimund B. Panos MD

The Family Guide to Homeopathy: Symptoms and Natural Solutions by Andrew Lockie