What is homeopathy? You may have heard the term but not understood what this approach to health care entailed. You may have confused it with an Eastern art such as aromatherapy. Homeopathy is a European concept that began in the 18th century and was, at one time, more highly regarded than traditional medicine. Today, homeopathy is the second most sought after treatment in the United States next to traditional 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.
Homeopathy is based on those same principals. There are about 30 different remedies that are commonly used in treating a variety of ailments in homeopathy. They are generally a small dose, very heavily diluted, of the same cause of your ailment. Homeopathy depends on the immune system to rally and fight off any disease. This is why any disease cured by homeopathy does not return.
In addition to using the natural immune system in the body, homeopathy also treats the entire body and seeks the cause of the illness instead of just treating the symptoms, as in the case of traditional medicine. In traditional medicine, if you go to the doctor for an ache or a pain, the ache or pain will be treated. If you have a cancer, the cancer will be treated. As medical science does not know the cause of cancer, this cannot be treated.
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 is nothing new and has seen quite a comeback since being introduced in the 18th century. Today it is becoming a very popular alternative to traditional medicine.
by George Mole
