Homeopathy is a school of medicine founded 200 years ago by one of the greatest physicians and teachers of all times, Samuel Hahnemann. He discovered a different approach to the cure of disease based on the Law of Similars. The law of similars states that a disease is cured by a medicine that can create symptoms similar to those the patient is experiencing (like cures like).

There are two possible ways to cure people, by contraries or by similars. The conventional medicine has followed the way of the contraries trying to suppress the symptoms through regular use of medical drugs. Anti-depressants, anti-biotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, tell us clearly what they do, oppose the symptoms and the disease.

A person who takes a pill for high blood pressure every day is not undergoing a cure but is only controlling the symptoms. If the medication is withdrawn, the person returns to illness, and there has been no cure.

We all know intuitively that this concept is true because we experienced it in our own life on many occasions. You may keep taking painkillers, but until you address the cause, the pain keeps coming back again and again - and often it gets worse and worse. This routine suppression of symptoms inevitably leads to chronic disease in the long term.

By contrast, homeopathy seeks to stimulate the symptoms rather than suppressing them. The symptoms are our body's messengers, telling us that something is wrong. They are not the problem, it is what is causing the symptoms that is most important, the cause of the problem. And that should be treated.

Uniqueness is another important concept to understand. We are unique individuals and as a result each person needs unique treatment. We all produce slightly different symptoms even when we are suffering from the same illness. No two people suffering from influenza will have exactly the same symptoms. For a common cold, ten patients can get ten different remedies, according to their individual reaction to the disease.
It is the patient who needs treatment not the disease.

Another concept to note is that treating one part of the body by a specialist in that area is not possible with homeopathy because this is a truly holistic medicine, meaning it treats the person as a whole - mentally, emotionally and physically - not just the parts.

For example, if a person suffers from stomach pains, eczema and migraines, the homeopath does not treat them separately, one by one. Instead he carefully studies all the symptoms - physical, mental and emotional - and tries to find a remedy that match the patient personality and its symptoms as a whole. When this unique remedy is found, all the symptoms are going to disappear. You hit at the centre and everything falls apart.

By stimulating the symptoms using homeopathic medicines the homeopath helps and stimulates the body's own defense and immune processes, to start the healing process. We have to remember that the homeopathic aim is to help you heal yourself or as Samuel Hahnemann said "The complete restoration of perfect health".

To summarize, homeopathy is a medical approach that respects the wisdom of the body. It is an approach that utilizes medicines that stimulate the body's own immune and defense system to initiate the healing process. It is an approach that individualizes medicines according to the totality of the person's physical, emotional, and mental symptoms. It is an approach that is widely recognized as one of the safest. And it is an approach that can be potentially very effective in treating the new types of diseases that is going to affect us in the 21st century. No wonder many people envision homeopathy as the 21st century medicine.


© 2004 Virgil Paun. All rights reserved.