“The highest ideal of cure is the rapid, gentle, and permanent restoration of health; that is, the lifting and annihilation of the disease in its entire extent in the shortest, most reliable, and least disadvantageous way, according to clearly realizable principles.”
- Samuel Hahnemann, MD, Organon of the Medical Art
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Homeopathy: a system of medicine based on observed empirical effects
Homeopathy is a complete and alternative medical system that is capable of treating the full range of physical and mental afflictions - from ear infections to allergies, from asthma to tuberculosis to psychosis - using natural pain relief solutions. One of the four most widespread approaches to medical treatment in the world (alongside traditional Chinese, herbal, and conventional medicine), contemporary Western homeopathic medicine was developed by an 18th-century German physician, chemist, and scholar named Samuel Hahnemann and uses natural health remedies as a basis for healing.
Views the body as intrinsically self-healing
Inspired by the ancient and revered medical traditions of China and India, Hahnemann used the concept of "vital force" to describe the body's innate wisdom and ability to protect and heal itself. Thus, the foundation of homeopathy rests on the premise that human bodies are intrinsically self-healing and self-repairing. In this view, a physical symptom—such as a tumor—is seen as the end result of a disturbance in the vital force, not as the root cause of disease in itself.
Cures acute and chronic illness through the Law of Similars
Derived from the Greek homeo, meaning "same", and pathos, meaning "suffering", homeopathy obeys the "Law of Similars" to treat "like with like." In other words, if a substance can cause symptoms of an illness in a healthy person, it can cure those same symptoms in a sick person by stimulating their Vital Forces to rebalance bodily systems. For example: If you suffer from hay fever, your eyes might get watery and you might experience a burning nasal discharge. Instead of prescribing an antihistamine to dry up the discharge, a homeopath might prescribe natural health remedies such as Allium cepa, a tiny dose of onion, because onion is known to cause watery eyes and a burning nasal discharge. Or, perhaps your mind is always going and you have trouble getting to sleep. Instead of prescribing a conventional sleeping pill, a homeopath might give you a remedy of Coffea, a homeopathic preparation made from extremely diluted coffee. Most modern vaccinations are based on this concept as well. For instance, a flu shot contains a tiny amount of the flu virus it is designed to protect against.