About Homeopathy

What is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a medical science developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann(1755-1843), a German physician. It is based on the principle that “like cures like”. In simple words, it means that any substance, which can produce symptoms in a healthy person, can cure similar symptoms in a person who is sick. This idea is referred to as the “Law of Similars“, and was understood by Aristotle and Hippocrates and mentioned in ancient Hindu manuscripts. It was Hahnemann, however, who turned it into a science of healing.

History of Homeopathy

1789 : LEIPZIG , GERMANY A young German doctor was translating Cullen’s Materia Medica from English to German, when he came across the explanation given by Cullen about the curative powers of Peruvian ( Cinchona ) bark in curing cases of Malaria. The doctor was uneasy with the explanation which was given, so he took the crude drug himself to see how it acted. To his great surprise he soon developed symptoms like malaria. After a few days he repeated the experiments with the same results. The doctor was convinced that the drug which was the best agent to cure malaria in the sick had produced the very same symptoms of Malaria in his healthy body.

Samuel Hahnemann was born on 10th April 1755, to a porcelain painter of Meissen, Saxony Germany. He was the eldest of a family of ten. There was not enough to support a large family & therefore his father wanted him to follow the same trade as himself. But even as a child he showed an intense passion & wonderful aptitude for learning, so that even when his father removed him from school, he continued his studies on his own. Soon his teachers prevailed upon his father to allow the boy to continue his studies & they offered to forego all their fees. Such was his brilliance that by the age of 22, he had mastered 9 languages including Hebrew, Greek, English, Latin, French, Spanish & Italian. Whenever he wanted to know anything contained in a foreign language, he learned that language & obtained from it whatever he needed. In 1779, he got his M.D. & set himself in practice. Besides seeing patients, he wrote many articles on different topics. He became a recognized authority on chemistry & there are some chemical tests in use even today that were formulated by him. As a doctor too he was a physician of such mature reflection & experience, that soon he was accepted as ” one of the most distinguished physicians of Germany”.

After his experiments with the Cinchona bark in 1789, he conducted similar experiments { Provings } on himself, his family & friends during a span of 6 yrs. He recorded the symptoms thus produced & correlated them with the symptoms of the diseases they were being prescribed for. In 1796, Hahnemann published his findings in an article entitled “Essay on the new principle for ascertaining the curative power of drugs” wherein he explained his theory of Similia Similibus Curantur.

By 1810 , he proved many more drugs to be absolutely certain about his hypothesis about the mode of action of drugs. It was then that he published his most important book “The Organon of Rational Art of Healing”. In it he laid down the principles of treatment of diseases & called this system “HOMOEOPATHY”

Over the next 11 yrs. he had to move from place to place because of the opposition to his system. In 1821, he settled in Koethen , where he practiced for the next 14 yrs. In 1835, he moved to Paris where he remained till his death in 1843. After his death his pupils started to practice

Here are examples of this principle:

  1. An onion is a substance which makes your eyes water and your nose burn. If you are having an attack of hay fever with watering eyes and a burning nose, a homeopathic remedy made from onion can relieve it.

  2. Poison ivy causes redness, intense itching, burning, blistering and sometimes stiff muscles. Homeopathically it has been used for everything from herpes and burns to eczema and arthritis.

  3. When you are stung by a bee you feel a burning, stinging pain and the tissues surrounding the area swell up. Some relief is gained from applying cold to the area. If you had swollen tonsils with burning and stinging pain relieved by cold, a homeopathic remedy prepared from the same source could cure.

Homeopathy is a medical science developed by Dr. Currently there are three thousand substances used as homeopathic remedies to treat everything from colds and cough to arthritis and cancer. A second principle of homeopathy is that you should give the least amount of medicine necessary to evoke a healing response. This is called the “Minimum Dose”. We all know that normal medicines can cause side effects, leading to much suffering or even death. In an effort to prevent side effects, Hahnemann began successive dilution with agitation of his medicines, to find the point at which they would be therapeutic, but not toxic.