Homeopathy
As a homeopath I view symptoms as the result of dis-ease. I always write dis-ease with a hyphen because it shows that there is a lack of ease in the system. It is this dis-ease or dis-order in our energetic healing system, that is trying to correct itself and come back to ease and order. Homeopathy’s goal is to understand the dis-order and the person and then support the healing from within, gently, effectively and completely. Homeopaths do this with infinitesimal doses of specially prepared medicines, you can think of it as nano-particles, that can physically stimulate the energetic healing system of the body to achieve the order it is striving towards.
Traditional or conventional medicine
Traditional medical intervention groups symptoms together and arrives at a diagnosis and aims to standardize treatment. The goal is to eliminate the symptoms by opposing them with medication that changes our body chemistry. This type of treatment may change the outward symptoms, but it does not change the underlying dis-ease or dis-order, therefore these conditions are considered by today’s medical standard as incurable, ie. you need to take the medicine for life.
As homeopaths we call this type of treatment suppression, the outward signs of eczema or psoriasis may be gone, but the inner dis-ease will move to another system. Like asthma, arthritis or………migraines? And then there is the harm to liver and kidneys and another prescription.
Each year new medicines are advertised to us on TV in beautiful imagery. Hey! who wouldn’t want to feel like the people in the commercials? And often within a year or two it is taken off the market for having caused harm and death.
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) lists in their statistic of deaths caused by negative effects of drugs or medicines (that are correctly prescribed, this number does not include additional deaths from prescription errors): 106,000 deaths per year.
NO homeopathic medicine has ever been taken off the market for having caused any harm in homeopathy’s 200 year history.
Placebo?
There will always be people that say homeopathy is only placebo or ineffective. Many times in the past there have been individuals that set out to discredit homeopathy. The true scientists, however, that actually study the homeopathic principles of application and see it’s healing powers become great supporters of homeopathy.
All types of treatments have an element of the placebo effect, after all we are searching for help with pain and suffering and the hope of a kind practitioner and hope of finding the solution makes us feel better, for a while.
The test of lasting effectiveness lies in improved lab results and long lasting changes in how a person feels and can live their life. People in comas and infants respond to remedies as well as animals, none of whom have the capacity to understand that they are receiving treatment. To witness a screaming, colicky baby return to calmness within seconds of a few dissolved drops of the correct remedy on the inside of their lips and there is no doubt that something remarkable has happened. It is called the power of healing, naturally.
And let’s not forget cost!
Homeopaths select ONE remedy for a person’s entire complex of symptoms, not one or more for each diagnostic label. Remedies cost from $6 to $60 depending on potency (strength – another topic) and quantity and pharmacy. One remedy may last for months, because the doses are very small and the remedy may not be needed every day. I do not recommend additional supplements or herbal tinctures (expensive!), as starting many things at once makes it impossible to know what is actually helping.
Appointments take too long!
To write a prescription for a diagnosis and suppress symptoms can be done in 5-10 minutes.
To understand the complexity of not just the symptoms belonging to a labeled diagnosis but all the subtle changes and sensations, takes in depth investigation. This is why we spend about 1-1½ hours in conversation. A homeopath listens to you uninterrupted, making careful notes of all the symptoms and how you describe them. It even makes a difference whether you tend to crave salty foods or sweets, whether you drink everything ice-cold or prefer hot drinks. Maybe every time you get a migraine your feet are cold a few days before, or your sleep pattern changes or you have a craving. These are important clues that help in selecting your homeopathic remedy. The research to select your remedy is done after your appointment and may take a few additional hours. Does your Doctor research your individual expression of dis-ease after you leave?
Below is a screen shot of just a tiny portion of head pain symptoms in this case the pain location that a homeopath considers in selecting a remedy.
There are many more sub symptoms and sensations or symptoms to add into the research from all systems of the body as well as the mental emotional make up of the person with the head pain. The number in parenthesis indicates how many remedies are known to address head pain in that location of the head.
As you can see there isn’t a remedy for headache, there is a remedy for the person with a specific, individual headache.