Discover Homeopathy
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 foundation of homeopathy is the law of similarities. This is similar to the theory behind vaccinations. When you get a vaccination for say, the measles, you get a very small, diluted dose of the disease. Your immune system detects it and fights it off, creating antibodies. The majority of healthy people who get vaccinated will suffer a minor illness which clears quickly. This is because their immune system was stimulated and fought off the disease. Once the disease has been cured by the immune system, you have the antibodies to detect it should you ever come back in contact with it.
Those same principals are applied in homeopathy. Ther are roughly thirty basic remedies used in dealing with a variety of ailments. What the patient receives is a highly diluted dose of the same ailment. Homeopathy then relies on the body’s natural immune system to heal itself. This is why it effective in many ailments.
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, only the ache or pain will be treated.
Let’s look at cancer, for instance. Traditional medicine uses radiation and chemotherapy to treat cancer. This sickens the entire body in the hope of killing off a few cells, kind of like using a cannon to kill a fly. Homeopathy uses the immune system to fight cancer. It has been shown to be effective in some cases. Studies have shown a medical link between the immune system and cancer. Most people, however choose traditional methods to treat cancer. It is familiar to them. Suzanne Somers, the actress, used homeopathics to treat her breast cancer successfully, even though she was criticized for doing so.
Homeopathy may work for you, or it may not. Many homeopaths believe that a disturbance in the life force is what causes illness in the body. When an illness is resistant, it is considered to be inherent, and that the illness would have been untreatable no matter what medicine treatment was used. This is frequently seen in people who use homeopathy as a last resort after being failed by traditional medicine.
Homeopathy is not a new fad, merely it is seeing a resurgance in popularity as more people question the effectiveness of modern medicine.