Homeopathy 101: What's the Big Idea?
Homeopathy is a big, fat, powerful medicine of tiny proportions. Used correctly, these remedies, containing minute doses, can bring you real relief and healing.
The idea behind homeopathy is that our body can usually return to balance (health) if given the correct stimulus. The human body is a miraculous machine. It’s capable of great resilience and healing ability—often in spite of our abuses. Over-the-counter and prescribed medications suppress these strengths, however. This is why one illness often follows another when drugs are used to “control” symptoms of illness.
In some parts of the world, such as in China, people believe that the best medicine is to use no medicines at all. My Sicilian grandmothers believed you went to the hospital to die. They birthed their babies at home; treated colds and flu with a good dose of sweat, sleep, and garlic; and nursed their big families through many ills without the aid of doctors, clinics, hospitals, and drugs.
For the last two hundred years, households in Europe, India, and South America have kept homeopathic remedies in the family chest. Educated Americans did the same until the 1940s, when the American pharmaceutical industry nudged homeopathy out of the marketplace.
Homeopathy doesn’t mean “home remedy,” as many people think. The word homeopathy is based on the Greek words “homios” for similar and “pathos” for disease. Its underlying principal is known as the “Law of Similars,” established in the eighteenth century, which declares that any substance which can cause symptoms when given to healthy people can also heal those same symptoms in people who are not well.
Even at that time, this was not a new concept. In the fourth century, Hippocrates wrote: “Through the like, disease is produced and through the application of the like, it is cured.”
Homeopathic remedies have developed a worldwide reputation for being one of the most curative medicines ever discovered. They are considered safe, non-addictive, and non-reactive with conventional drugs. Gandhi commented, ”Homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other method of treatment; it is beyond a doubt safer and more economical, and most complete medical science.”
The primary principle of preparation for homeopathic remedies is dilution. Some call it nano-dosing. The dilution process allows the curative action of the original substance to remain available, while eliminating any possibility of toxic effects. Hence, a remedy such as belladonna, a poisonous herb, can be used to treat fever in children.
The key lies in the controlled method homeopathic pharmacy uses to progressively reduce the proportion of a substance in dilution. Once reduced to remedy proportion, the substance is free to act in a most remarkable way; it stimulates the body’s natural ability to cure itself.
Don’t you love self-sufficiency? It is achievable when you have the correct tools. Homeopathy is the ultimate instrument of autonomy. If you want to learn more, a good homeopathy book, a few CDs, and a class will start you on your way toward developing confidence in your ability to leverage the great good contained in these tiny packages.
Joette Calabrese, HMC, CCH, RSHom(Na)is a homeopathic consultant/educator who works with and trains clients via SKYPE and phone. Visit homeopathyworks.net for more information on her practice and her homeopathy system.