The term homeopathy was coined by the Saxon physician Samuel
Hahnemann (1755–1843) and first published in 1796. Homeopathy is
a system of medicine that is based on the Law of Similars. The
truth of this law has been verified experimentally and
clinically for the last 200 years.
Homeopathy is derived
from the Greek words hómoios (similar). It is a system of
alternative medicine that treats like with like, using remedies
that it is claimed would, in healthy individuals, produce
similar symptoms to those it would treat in an ill patient.
Classical homeopathy originated in the 19th century with Samuel
Christian Friedrich Hahnemann as an alternative to the standard
medical practices of the day, such as phlebotomy or
bloodletting. Opening veins to bleed patients, force disease out
of the body, and restore the humors to a proper balance was a
popular medical practice until the late19th century.
Practitioners believe that the potency of a remedy can be
increased by systematically diluting the dosage, along with
succession or shaking, to a point where it is unlikely that even
a molecule of the original ingredient is present.
Homeopathy is reported to be growing in popularity, growing in
popularity in the United States faster than any other method of
alternative healing, and as increasingly being endorsed by
doctors.
Homeopathy is founded on the Law of Similars,
first expressed by Hahnemann in the exhortation similia
similibus curentur or let likes cure likes. The law of similars
is based on Hahnemanns conclusion that a given constellation of
symptoms ellicited by a given homeopathic remedy in a group of
healthy individuals will cure an ill individual exhibiting a
similar constellations of symptoms. Symptom patterns associated
with various remedies are determined by provings, in which
healthy volunteers are given remedies in homeopathic form, and
the physical, mental and spiritual symptoms they develop are
recorded and compiled by observers. Homeopathic practitioners
rely on two types of reference in prescribing.
Homeopathic remedies are prepared by dilution of a substence
with succussion, or shaking, between dilutions. The remedies in
homeopathy are often so dilute that they are statistically
unlikely to contain any molecules of the original substance. At
first, Hahnemann tested substances commonly used as medicines in
his time and poisions in homeopathic provings.
He
recorded his findings in his Materia Medica Pura. Kents Lectures
on Homoeopathic Materia Medica lists 217 remedies, and new
substances are being added continually to contemporary versions.
Homeopathy uses many animal, plant, mineral, and chemical
substances of natural or synthetic origin. Examples include
Natrum muriaticum (sodium chloride or table salt), lachesis muta
(the venom of the bushmaster snake), Opium, and Thyroidinum
(thyroid hormone). Other homeopathic remedies, (isopathic
remedies) involve dilutions of the agent or the product of the
disease. Rabies nosode, for example, is made by potentizing the
saliva of a rabid dog.
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