You Mention Herbs: Is Homeopathy Like Herbal Medicine?
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Many homeopathic medicines originate from herbs, but after they are prepared homeopathically they have quite different actions from natural herbs (i.e., the ones you buy in the health food store). The same goes for minerals. Once they are prepared homeopathically, common minerals such as calcium carbonate have their own specific actions – quite unlike their effects on the body when they are taken as nutritional supplements. (See the section which follows on microdoses.)
Where Does Homeopathy Come From?
The German physician Samuel Hahnemann, born in 1753, made a critical observation in the 1790s when he experimented on himself by taking the drug Cinchona Bark which contains quinine. At the time, Hahnemann was translating a medical text concerning Cinchona from English into German. The English text seemed to contradict his own earlier experience with Cinchona, which he had taken when he was ill with intermittent fever (malaria).
To verify what he was translating, Hahnemann decided to take Cinchona in spite of the fact that he was perfectly healthy. To his interest and surprise, he soon fell ill with symptoms indistinguishable from intermittent fever. He discontinued the medicine and returned to health.
Hahnemann wondered if the reason Cinchona worked against intermittent fever was because it caused very similar symptoms in a healthy person. He gave it to other healthy persons; they, too, fell sick as though with intermittent fever. We can only imagine his excitement at this discovery, one of the most significant in the history of medicine.
Hahnemann continued to experiment (primarily on himself), testing various herbal and mineral substances. Without discriminating between physical, mental, and emotional symptoms, he noted all of the symptoms produced by each medicine in meticulous detail. He found that no two substances produced exactly the same set of symptoms; rather, each caused its own unique pattern of symptoms.
Eventually Hahnemann formulated his Law of Similars, and he began to treat sick people.
How Do Homeopathic Medicines Work?
Hahnemann postulated that in giving a sick person a medicine known to produce symptoms similar to what he was suffering, he was substituting a temporary drug disease for the natural disease. This drug disease, he maintained, was more powerful than the natural disease and would drive it out.
From our perspective in the late twentieth century, we reason that the homeopathic medicine strengthens the immune system – enabling it to better fight the disease. But the homeopathic medicine is not limited to strengthening just the immune system. All systems (nervous, endocrine, respiratory, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, etc.) are strengthened and balanced. These different systems then work to restore the person to health. It is important to realize that often the entire organism is improved by the homeopathic medicine. Many of the beneficial effects are, therefore, mental and emotional as well as physical.
