What Is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a medical science that uses natural substances to mimic illness and stimulate healing. It is based on the idea of "like cures like." Any substance that can produce symptoms in a healthy person can cure those same symptoms in a sick person.

Here are several examples of this principle: a. An onion is a substance that makes your eyes water and your nose burn. So if you are having an attack of hay fever with watering eyes and a burning nose, a few doses of homeopathic onion can relieve it.

b. Poison ivy causes redness, small blisters, intense itching, and stiff muscles. Homeopathically it has been used for everything from herpes and burns to eczema and arthritis.

c. Coffee can overstimulate the mind and trigger insomnia. Homeopathic coffee can help restore sleep disturbed by an overactive mind.

d. When you are stung by a bee you feel a burning, stinging pain, and the tissues surrounding the area swell up. Some relief is obtained from applying cold to the area. If you had swollen tonsils with burning and stinging pain relieved by cold, homeopathic bee sting could cure.

Over two thousand substances are now used as remedies to treat everything from colds and cough to arthritis and cancer.

Why Turn to Homeopathy?

1. When antibiotics fail, homeopathic remedies will still work. Germs can never develop a resistance to homeopathic remedies.

The remedies do not kill the germs directly, but rather, they stimulate the immune system to do the healing. For the last two hundred years, homeopaths have cured meningitis, endocarditis, pneumonia, nephritis, tuberculosis, plague, and venereal diseases using homeopathic remedies alone.

Homeopathic remedies are effective against viruses, but antibiotics are not. In 1918, the worldwide influenza epidemic killed over twenty million people, and over five hundred thousand in the United States. At a time when survival rates were 70% with conventional medicine, they were 98% with homeopathy.

Some other viral diseases are Ebola, hantavirus, viral pneumonia, viral hepatitis, yellow fever, polio, rabies, viral meningitis, viral encephalitis, dengue fever, mumps, chickenpox, measles, herpes simplex and zoster, and mononucleosis.

2. Homeopathy is affordable-homeopathic remedies cost about eight cents per dose. Thousands of people could be treated during an emergency for just a few dollars. The antibiotic used to treat sepsis infections costs $4,000 for one day's treatment. The equivalent homeopathic remedies cost 8¢ per dose.

3. You can begin prescribing without a diagnosis. Homeopathic remedies are prescribed based on the person's symptoms. You don't have to know the name of the disease. This is especially important when new or exotic diseases arise.

4. Homeopathic remedies are extremely safe and free of chemical side effects. By following a few simple rules, any intelligent person can use the remedies without danger. Prescription drugs, on the other hand, are not safe for amateurs. In fact, they are quite dangerous even when used by doctors. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (April 15, 1998) concluded that prescription drugs, properly prescribed and properly taken, are between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the United States (after heart attack, stroke, and cancer). The study found that prescription drugs kill over one hundred thousand Americans a year.

5. Homeopathic remedies can be used prophylactically, much like vaccines. Thousands of people could be inoculated quickly and cheaply if an epidemic threatened. A remedy made from the chick pea (Lathyrus) has been used with great success during polio epidemics.

6. People who are allergic to antibiotics and other drugs can still use homeopathic remedies. Homeopathic remedies can substitute for almost all conventional drugs.

7. You can heal faster. Conventional drugs can relieve pain or reduce inflammation, but they don't speed healing. All homeopathic remedies, when properly selected, speed the healing process.

8. You can sometimes avoid surgery. Polyps, tonsillitis, hemorrhoids, ulcers, abscesses, gall bladder problems, and more, often yield to homeopathic treatment. Surgery is always an option, but when possible, why not try a less invasive method first?

9. Homeopathic remedies remove toxins from the body. Conventional drugs increase the toxic load.

What You Can Accomplish with Homeopathy If conventional medical care were not available, what could the average person hope to accomplish with homeopathy? You wouldn't be an expert, but you could still prevent illness, relieve pain, and save lives.

First Aid Just as a person can learn conventional first aid, so one can learn homeopathic first aid. This includes treating anything from cuts and sprains to concussions and broken bones. For first aid injuries, you simply look up the type of injury. The book will list the appropriate remedy. For example, bruises require Arnica and burns need Cantharis. It's quite straightforward. You can look up the remedies for first aid in chapter 3, "Ailments A to Z."

Acute Care This involves anything from colds and coughs to influenza, infected wounds, and pneumonia. If you know the name of the ailment, you can look it up in this book. It involves more decisions than treating first aid problems, because you'll have more remedies to choose from. Match the remedy...(Continues)