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Introduction: MICHÈLE BOISVERT, PHARMACIST, HOMEOPATH, AND PRESIDENT OF HOMEOLAB, GIVES YOU A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE MAKING OF HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES, AND OFFERS YOU GUIDANCE IN THE SELECTION OF THE RIGHT HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY: To try and define homeopathy is not an easy task, but its natural therapeutic approach clearly distinguishes it from traditional medicine and its main characteristics can be pointed out. While homeopathy considers illness as the bodys reaction to external aggression, it also takes into account a patients constitution, heredity and environment, in order to compare and establish relationships between one individuals reactions and those of others who have similar characteristics or symptoms.
Homeopathy considers the patient as a whole, without limiting itself to illness-related symptoms, and tries to restore a patients disturbed equilibrium through the use of appropriate natural substances. Furthermore, homeopathy identifies substances which are flowing with the bodys natural energy, as a homeopathic treatment cannot help a listless body, because a minimum level of vital energy is essential in order to react and benefit from the treatment.
MAKING OF THE REMEDIES Substances from which homeopathic remedies are produced are drastically changed before being sold to the public. From a basic Mother Tincture, also called Herbal Extract, a final product only emerges after going through several essential stages. Homeopathy is a therapeutic approach that uses medicines which act by stimulating the bodys own regulatory mechanisms.
Homeopathy has been defined as a therapeutic method which clinically applies the Law of Similars and uses medically active substances in infinitesimal doses.
Hippocrates first wrote of the homeopathic principle five centuries before the birth of Christ: The same things which cause the disease can cure it. While other doctors made similar observations in the centuries to follow it was Samuel Christian Hahneman, a German physician and toxicologist, who brought Homeopathy to itÕs place as a scientific therapeutic method. Around 1790, Hahneman hypothesized It would appear that certain medicines are able to cure symptoms which are similar to those which they themselves can cause. He went on to discover that his hypotheses was confirmed only when minutely small or infinitesimal doses were used. The exhaustive works of Hahnemann at the end of the 18th century led to the understanding of the three postulates of homeopathic therapy: LAW OF SIMILARS, which states that there is a similarity between the toxicity of a substance and its therapeutic action. In other words there should be a connection between illness and remedy.
INFINITESIMALITY is the use of vegetal, mineral and animal substances in repeatedly diluted strength whose experimental effects are similar to the symptoms of the patient. TOTALITY of the person being treated as a whole. Homeopathic treatment is based on the assumption that every illness presents a set of symptoms which are characteristic of the disease and that every illness is a manifestation of the person's response to that particular illness.
Homeopathic medicines are available in a number of official dosage forms including pellets, oral liquid, syrups, creams and suppositories.
Homeopathic medicines are expressed in their potency or, in other words, to the extent of their dilution. The manufactured remedies are typically diluted in either the decimal (X) scale or the centesimal (C) scale. Simply stated, X potencies are a dilution of 1 part base substance and 9 parts diluent. Consequently, C potencies are 1 part base substance and 99 parts diluent. During the manufacturing process the base substances are progressively diluted with a diluent. It is between each progressive dilution that the remery is vigorously shaken, or dynamized. This process is been shown to be an integral step in the manufacturing process, without which there seems to be no therapeutic value to the substances. For a listing of indications and remedies, please click here. |