Homoeopathy is a system of medicine that aims to help the body heal itself, by boosting the immune system. For example, in case of runny nose instead of trying to dry up the discharge with antihistamines, a homoeopath will use a remedy that will stimulate the body to move in the direction it is already going and in the process , clear the runny nose.

Homoeopathy believes in the holistic and individualistic approach. The concept of disease in homoeopathy is that disease is a total affection of mind and body, the disturbance of the whole being. Individual organs are not the cause of illness but disturbance at the inner level (vital energy of the body) is the cause of the disease. Homoeopathy always examines patients mental makeup in all cases and remedies are given acting at the level of Mind and Body together, thus eradicating the disease.

Although Homoeopathy cannot replace forms of health care in life-threatening situations and situations where surgical intervention is necessary, it can be used to treat a wide range of conditions including recuperative and preventive health care.

To obtain the best results and full benefits of homoeopathic science, one should resort to homoeopathy in the early phase of sickness. Because of ignorance and lack of awareness about the usefulness of homoeopathy usually many patients approach homoeopathy very late. By this time the disease process advances to an incurable stage and homoeopathy can offer little then, to the otherwise curable disease. The benefits of homoeopathy built overtime. The longer you use it, the stronger your immune system develops often patients experience a sensation of well being themselves.

Homoeopathy treats each patient individually and as a whole on all levels – Mind, Body and Soul. There is no standard treatment. Several people with same main complaint may need a different homoeopathic remedy because their constitutions are different. The medicines are individually chosen and given according to the personal needs of the patient. But in Conventional Medicine a common series of drugs are given to dry the nose, to bring down the fever, to suppress the cough or something to relieve the headache.

Medicines are administered in such minute quantities, according to Hahnemann’s law of the minimum dose, that they have a stimulating effect on the body rather than a harmful effect. Moreover there is no physical substance of the original left in the remedies (medicines), just the energy, activated through a process of potentisation. That is why homoeopathy is Dynamic or Pure Energy Medicine.

What is Homoeopathy?

Homoeopathy can be defined as a system of Drug Therapeutics based on the law of similars or “similia similibus curantur”(let likes be treated by likes).

This law states that a drug ,capable of producing in a healthy person a disease –state exactly similar to that observed in a diseased person, acts as a curative agent if the disease is in a curable stage. In the incurable stage of the disease, however, the same drug acts as the best palliative.

The concept of Totality, Individualization and Susceptible constitution are the most important concepts in Homoeopathy on which successful application of law of similars depends.

Fonder of Homoeopathy

The Founder of Homoeopathy was the great German Physician,Dr.Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, a famous chemist and excellent philologist. A native of German, born in Meissen on April 10,1755 and died in Paris on July 2,1843.

Discovery of Homoeopathy

Practically the whole of the 18th century in Europe was marked by plethora of theories and hypothesis concerning the nature of disease and its aetiology, consequently methods of therapeutics practice were as numerous and diverse as the theories. The uncertainity and lack of any fixed principle of healing disappointed Hahnemann.After taking his Doctorate of Medicine from Erlangen University in the Year 1779 he started with his medical practice. But Hahnemann was not happy with the one sided theories, shot-gun prescriptions and loathsome mixtures, blood-letting, cupping and other crude and torture-some therapeutic practices existed during that period. He gave up his practice and moved to Dresden to turn his attention to the study of Chemistry, Philosophy, Pharmacy and Medicine. Like a noble man ,an honest man, Hahnemann refused to make a pretence of curing where he believed he did not cure at all. He earned his living by translating foreign medical books into German. Hahnemann knew 14 languages in which he could translate. At an early age he became world famous by translating French Chemist Demachy’s book on Chemistry in two volumes.

While he was engaged in translating Cullen’s Materia Medica he came across the mention of Cinchona bark attributing its success in the treatment of malaria to its bitterness. He started taking the piece of Cinchona bark for a few days and he suffered from the symptoms of an illness similar to those of malarial fever. After this he came to the conclusion that if this could produce symptoms similar to those of malaria, it then might be the curative for malaria. It is then that he first coined the words Similia Similibus Curentur, let like be cured by like, which is the slogan of Homoeopathy. Hahnemann started to prove several so called specific drug on himself and others and in every case he noticed the similarity of symptoms produced by drugs to those of the natural disease for which they were specifics.

After a few years, these experiments led him to the establishment of a new system of healing. This is how Homoeopathy was discovered by Hahnemann in the year1790, and then Homoeopathy was born when he published an article in Hufeland’s Journal titled “Essay on a New Principle for ascertain the Curative Powers of Drugs”. From 1790 to 1839 (50 years) Hahnemann experimented with 99 drugs and recorded his observation of their action in “Fragmenta de viribus Medicamentorum Positivis”, “Materia Medica Pura” and Chronic Disease”.

Conclusion

Homoeopathy was first shaped by Dr.Samuel Hahnemann although he realised that it had been mentioned by Hippocrates and again by Paracelsus. It often been said that homoeopathy existed before Hahnemann. So it did,in the same way as gravity existed before Newton.