Homeopathic Medicines
Homeopathic remedies are dilutions of original, mostly natural substances. Their production involves two processes – dilution and ‘succussion’ (a form of vigorous shaking). The raw extracts (from plants or animals) or triturations (from minerals and salts) are made into a ‘tincture’ with alcohol. This is then diluted with water or alcohol and succussed many times.
Remedies come in different potencies depending on the number of times they are diluted then succussed. For example, a ’6c’ remedy has been diluted one part in a trillion. The higher the figure, the more dilute the substance.
Remedies of 12c and above are unlikely to contain a single molecule of the original substance. This means that the remedy is technically inactive. However diluting a remedy in this way actually makes it more effective.
Homeopaths believe water can store information about substances with which it has been in contact. The idea is that the water used for dilution is imprinted with information from the original substance during the shaking that takes place during succussion. This message carried by the water is thought to allow such ultra-high dilutions to work.
Currently there are three thousand substances used as homeopathic remedies to treat everything from colds and coughs to arthritis and cancer.
How are the Homeopathic Medicines Prescribed
There are a number of signs and symptoms that characterise the disease and that allows the nosological diagnosis. But there are also a number of symptoms and signs that are characteristic of a disease but may not present in another patient with the same disease.
To treat a sick person with a homeopathic medicine we consider both the characteristic symptoms of the disease and the particular symptoms of the patient’s reaction to illness and give him a homeopathic drug that is capable of causing, experimentally in a healthy person, the whole symptoms presented by the patient. Homeopathy as a therapeutic method of treatment is very safe and effective.
Homeopathic medicine is not specific to a particular disease but is specific to a ‘form of illness’, that causes the same disease in different people. It can be treated with different medications depending on the reaction caused in each patient and that same drug can be used to treat different diseases provided the clinical picture of the patient match the pathogenesis of the drug. Therefore homeopathy is an individualised treatment.
Homeopathic Medicine continues faithfully in its doctrine and its therapeutic premise that we must treat patients, not diseases and the single most important mission of the doctor is to recover the health of their patient so he can “reach the high end of his existence. ” This is a therapeutic method for the prevention, alleviation or cure of diseases using homeopathic medicines.
Homeopathy is effective in both preventing and treating acute illnesses (flu, cough, diarrhoea, migraine, bruises etc.) and chronic illnesses (allergy, dermatitis, asthma, rheumatic disorders, anxiety etc.), in recurrent infections (throat, ears, gynecological, urinary etc.), and even in palliative care (control of symptoms such as pain or constipation and relief of side effects like nausea from chemotherapy).
In homeopathy, especially in chronic diseases, the aim is to go beyond the relief of symptoms that appear, but seek to help the patient restore their natural balance completely.
These medicines have the advantage that in general, no contraindications, drug interactions or serious adverse effects are associated with taking the remedy, which is usually recommended for all patients, including children, pregnant women and patients with polypharmacy(use of multiple medications by a patient).
As appropriate, these drugs are used alone, exclusively, or along with other treatments, especially in chronic diseases. In this case, the use of homeopathy associated with conventional treatments can in many cases, under the supervision of a specialist, reduce the conventional medication side effects.
