The history of homeopathy
In 1796, a German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, encountered a different paradigm for treating patients. He termed the field "homeopathy" from the Greek words meaning "similar suffering". The field was defined by the basic principle of treating a disease or condition with a little bit of the cause or irritant.
"For example, belladonna (Deadly Nightshade) produces a hot, dry, flushed
skin and hallucinations, both of which may occur in scarlet fever. Belladonna
was therefore used by Hahnemann to treat, and prevent, scarlet fever. Another
example is the use of a medicine derived from onions to treat the common cold,
because onions cause the eyes and nose to discharge profusely." Source: History
of Homeopathy Dr. Jim's Web page.
The originating climate of homeopathy
The medical practices of Hahnemann.s day were harsh and drastic. They consisted mainly of bleeding and large doses of dangerous and potential harmful drugs. Hahnemann became dissatisfied with the pervasive medical theory of his time and began looking for alternative treatment that would produce better results and not be as hard on the system in the process.
"For a long time he was unsuccessful, and for many years he abandoned the practice of medicine altogether. Towards the end of the 18th century, however, he conducted an experiment on himself; he took some cinchona bark (quinine) to see what would happen.
To his surprise he experienced, for a few hours, the symptoms of malaria. Perhaps, he thought, quinine cures malaria because it can produce the symptoms of malaria in a healthy person." This idea was the seed of homoeopathy.
The debut of homeopathy
While he did not make this theory public initially Hahnemann began practicing according to his new system by 1805. He quickly became successful. "Between 1811 and 1821 he was in Leipzig, where he lectured at the university and built up a small but devoted band of followers."
"In 1821 he was forced by the hostility of the Leipzig apothecaries to leave the town; he moved to the small principality of Kothen to act as physician to the Duke. He was now famous and patients flocked to him from all over Europe, but his practice became pretty much confined to the treatment of chronic disease."
"His wife died in 1830, when he was 75; in 1834, to everyone's surprise, he married again, to a fashionable young Frenchwoman called Melanie. She soon took him off to Paris, where he established a prosperous practice. After his death his wife continued to practice homoeopathy, which she had learned at his feet." Source: History of Homeopathy Dr. Jim.s Web page.
The new paradigm of homeopathy
The new medical paradigm of homoeopathy challenged the established medical order of the time, which believed in drastic treatments to cure serious illness. The problem with these treatments was that they often caused severe side effects and/or addiction.
In contrast, the remedies of homeopathy never cause side effects or encourage addiction because they are prepared with only a minute amount of the active ingredient. While these preparations have shown promise in curing various conditions, they are relatively risk-free treatments because they don.t create other problems when they are used.
Also, the common practice in homeopathy is to tailor the formula to the physical and emotional characteristics of each patient, further increasing the precision and efficacy of the treatment. From its inception to modern day, homeopathy has always been outside of mainstream medicine. Despite its track record of success, and world-wide popularity it continues to be categorized as alternative medicine.
Homeopathy: Gaining recognition and credibility
Homeopathy did not gain recognition and popularity in the Western world until 1986 when it proved effective in controlled trials at preventing hay fever. This breakthrough came even after homeopathy was shown to be effective in treating cholera in the 19th century and treating mustard gas burns during World War II.
Again in 1995, a team of researcher from Glasgow University reinforced again in controlled trials, that homeopathy was effective in treating hay fever and asthma with 30c potencies of pollen and house dust mites.
Despite the success and prevalence of homeopathy around the world, no theory has been proposed to explain why and exactly how homeopathy produces these reactions in the human body. As medical science grows more sophisticated, no doubt a viable theory on how potentized remedies work will be put forward and fully understood.
The theoretical development of homeopathy
"Although this is often thought to be the defining characteristic of homoeopathy, it was really a fairly late development in Hahnemann's thinking. At first he had used small doses, certainly, but not tiny ones."
"Not until 1817 did he mention what later came to be called the potency idea; and the seemingly paradoxical notion that the more you dilute a medicine, the more powerful it becomes, was never accepted by all physicians practicing homoeopathy. Most did allow that highly dilute substances do have a therapeutic action, but not all of them believed that the action becomes stronger as dilution continues."
The controversy surrounding homeopathy
Due to the nature of homeopathy, there has always been much controversy about the efficacy of homeopathy from outside sources as well as disagreement within the profession about the strength of tinctures and the method of diagnosis. Like the field of traditional medicine, each practitioner learns the fundamentals and interprets the science to his or her individual intuition and analysis. In medicine it is hard to be exact or come to an agreement on what will work for everyone. In homeopathy, as in traditional medicine, each case should be practiced based on its unique facts and situation.
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