Some FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) about Homoeopathy.
(See also a complete lay man's
guide, some basic facts and
complete technical details)
--
Is
it faith healing or placebo?
Is it magic?
Is it a fake?
What is it really?
Why such doubts arise about
Homeopathy?
Who is a true Homeopath?
What are the peculiarities
of Homeopathy?
How safe is Homeopathic medicines?
Are homeopathic drugs
slow to act?
Does a Homeopath give the same
drug for all the illnesses?
Does Homeopathic drugs contain steroids?
Is it necessary for a Homeopath to
have knowledge in the allied subjects of medicine?
Who was Dr. Hahnemann, the founder of the system?
Is
it faith healing?
Homoeopathy is definitely not faith healing or
placebo,
even though faith is an important ingredient for the effective
treatment in Homoeopathy. As for that matter faith is
needed in as much amount for the effective implementation of any
system. Because if you work on any thing without faith in
it, you are not likely to be succeeding in it. That much amount
of faith is only needed in Homoeopathy also. Moreover for
placebo or faith healing to work one should imagine that
they are taking medicines even though they are not having
anything medicinal. But homeopathy works equally well in infants
and small children, mentally ill persons and even in animals and
birds all of them cannot possibly know they are taking medicines
or not.
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Is
it magic?
It is not at all magic. In fact none of the elements
of magic comes in to play during Homoeopathic treatment.
There is no illusions or stage effects in the out-patient
departments of Homoeopaths all over the world. The medicines
given by a true homoeopath can be always examined and the
effects of all of them are known and definite.
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Is
it a fake?
It is nothing but a fake system. True
Homoeopathic physicians always listens to the difficulties
of their patients and work, rather very hard on it to find out
the correct remedy for each individual. Note that there are
about 5000 medicines in homeopathy presently. The medicines are available internationally with any Homoeopathic
chemist/pharmacy. There are fixed principles behind the
system. and it works well if these are observed strictly.
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What
is it really?
In reality Homoeopathy is a system of
medicine, which treats the illnesses based on a special law
"Similia Similibus Curentur". The word meaning is 'let
likes be treated by likes'. Here drug substances are selected
according to their property to cause certain diseases in the
healthy individuals if they consume them. If such medicinal
substances are given to naturally ill individuals, because of a
wonderful action of the nature the disease disappears. Contrary
to common belief here the drug substances are used only in the
micro minute doses, so that they can not harm the body further.
In order to find out which drug substance is required for each
individual disease condition extensive searching is necessary.
After this the physician matches these data from the patient
regarding the illness with a recorded set of symptoms each drug
is capable to produce in healthy individuals. Please
understand that as said elsewhere there are over 5000 drugs currently in use in
Homoeopathy. Only if this process is done correctly you get the
exact drug needed in each condition. And if this matching is
done well the drug effects a fast, gentle and permanent
cure.
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Why
such doubts arise about Homoeopathy?
The major reason Homoeopathy getting a bad picture
in the public is due to people who mishandle it. As there are
many well-written books available in Homoeopathy and as there
seems apparently no side effects to Homeopathic
medicines, and as the medicines are easily available and
comparatively less costly, so many people use it as a home
treatment for self use as well as prescribe it for many minor
and some major diseases to others. Actually if you use any medicine
without knowing the exact and complete action of it and also
without taking into consideration the process and nature of the
disease, it is most likely that the attempt fails. Some times it
may go even further by worsening the disease and occasionally it
will culminate in causing serious damage to the body as well as
mind. Naturally all these blame go to Homoeopathy instead of the
senseless individuals who made such a scenario. The
result; a wonderful system getting the enmity of the very people
whom it is supposed to serve.
One other reason for the bad image of homeopathy is a deliberate
attempt by many learned men of allopathic system of medicines
and their drug companies by which they try to protect their
sales and monopoly over the illnesses of men. These people come
up with propaganda like periodical tarnishing articles, false
study reports etc. which most of the people believe due their
high reputation and position in society.
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Who is a true Homoeopath?
A true Homoeopath is a person who got the proper
qualification to practice the system form a recognized authority
able to grant such a qualification. He should definitely have a
medical background, if the qualification in Homoeopathy is not
in itself a medical degree.
In India we have an apex body called Central Council of
Homoeopathy (CCH), under the guidance of whom various
Universities provide Government recognized diplomas and degrees.
The qualifications available today, in the descending order of
their hierarchy are, MD(hom), BHMS (Bachelor of Homoeopathic
Medicine and Surgery), DHMS (Diploma in Homoeopathic
Medicine and Surgery) and Dip NIH (Diploma from the National
Institute of Homoeopathy). Also some very old practitioners are
having MF hom, and LF home, which were qualifications
awarded at London earlier in the three four decades back.
In other countries there are various Professional bodies,
associations/organisations to provide these qualifications. Some
examples are the North American Society of Homoeopath (NASH) in
the USA, Japan Homoeopathic Medical Association (JPHMA) in
Japan. Homoeopathic Medical Association (HMA) in the England,
Canadian Certified Classical Homeopath (CCHC), in Canada etc.
A true Homoeopath should have a through knowledge in the
practice of medicine and pathology besides his/her knowledge in
Homoeopathy. He will always consider all the aspect of the
disease and then only prescribe any medicines. He will also
examine the patient very thoroughly and will be well acquainted
with all the modern diagnosing facilities as well as disease
management techniques and will use them as and when necessary.
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What
are the peculiarities of Homoeopathy.
*In Homoeopathy every individual details, how trivial it
may seem, of the patient as well as the drugs are important.
This may be the excellence as well as the draw back of the
system. The benefit in it is this that by searching so you can
find out even the deepest roots of the disease and that may be
the reason we can provide relief to almost every disease where
you will not have an answer in all the other systems of
medicines. But the drawback is that, as this is the case,
you cannot get results from the system if you do not work very
hard and in each individual case. So if any body is a little
careless or is inclined to be lazy will definitely spoils the
case.
*We uses drugs in very simple and extremely small doses.
Generally almost all the medicines are prepared using Methyl
Alcohol as the base. Which will be colorless and odorless
except of the odor of the spirit. There are certain other
preparation called Mother tinctures which are having their
characteristic color too. It is not advisable to consume the
above two type of Homoeopathic medicinal preparations as such,
particularly in children. Usually these medicines are given a
small quantity of it mixed with milk sugar (pure lactose- a
white mildly sweet powder), Sugar pills (globules) or pure
water. Generally there are no colored tablets or pills in
Homoeopathy except the general nutritional supplements such as
Vitamins and Mineral supplements.
*The system gives special importance to the mental state
of the patient. So that you can get treatment for a variety of
mental agitations which are dismissed as mere indispositions by
other system of treatments.
*The Homoeopathic medicines are non-addictive and are devoid of
serious consequences and adverse effects even if you consume
them for long periods of time.
*They do not have major contraindications except a very few ones
of which the physician warns you, usually if they are
prescribed.
* As these medicines are taken by placing on the tongue and
slowly melted down, it is heavily advised that they are consumed
on a clean tongue, preferably with an interval of at least 15
minutes with any food and drinks except pure water. Also refrain
from taking any other medications along with Homoeopathic
medicines, except in certain conditions only as directed by the
physician.
*It is always better to avoid taking alcoholic drinks and
smoking/chewing tobacco during treatment with Homoeopathic
drugs.
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How
safe is Homoeopathic medicines
If properly administered it is
hundred percent safe. Three most frequently met with complaints
about homoeopathic medicines are the following
(i) They will cause damage to kidneys
(ii) They may cause addiction as theses drugs are prepared
in alcohol and
(iii) They will cause severe aggravation of symptoms at first
before they do produce relief or cure
Let's
examine each of them.
The homoeopathic medicines are prepared by taking the drugs and
diluting them in a peculiar way step by step using pure milk
sugar (Saccharum lactis officianale), water or a mixture
of water and alcohol. Even after a few steps the material
content of drugs in the medicines will be very negligible.
Usually the medicines used by a classical Homoeopath will be
diluted many steps further. And when giving these to a sick man
only a very small portion of the medicine is used as a dose. The
first bad impression arises from the fact that Homoeopathic
medicines
include metals and even heavy metals like copper, mercury, gold
etc., which when taken in material doses will of course cause
serious damage to excretory system. But as mentioned above the
dose administered in actual practice is indeed harmless.
The second notion is also baseless. A classical Homoeopath when
administering the drugs -indeed prepared in alcohol- first mix
it with either water, sugar globules or milk sugar. this mixing
is in the proportion of about one drop alcohol-medicine to sixty
sugar globules and only two to three such globules are consumed
per dose and about three to four such doses per day. This makes
it to a maximum of twelve globules out of the sixty using
only one drop of alcohol. Calculate yourself the addicting
capacity of them!
The third notion is at least have some ground in it. These drugs
because of their unique ability of agitating the inner vital
power will definitely cause some disturbance in the mechanism of
the subject as part of initiating the curing action. But by
carefully adjusting the level of dilution (potency) and the dose
the physician can abolish any such disturbing action to absolute
minimum. But in the hands of unskilled or quack
practitioners theses drugs nay become real danger in this
regard. But never in case of a qualified classical Homoeopath.
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Are homeopathic drugs
slow to act?
This is perhaps the most mistaken identity about homeopathy. In
fact there is no truth farther than this. In most of the cases
homeopathic drugs are the quickest to act. This is mainly
because the rout of action. See the fastest allopathic drugs are
those given via injections that also via intravenous rout. It is
well known that any thing injected in to the blood stream will
reach all over body within two minutes an if the drug is
powerful enough its action will also start soon afterward. But
homeopathic drugs are usually administered through oral rout and
they never go to the blood stream but to the nervous system. It
is a little hard to believe but is true. The unique mode of
preparation makes
them capable of penetrating deep in to the nervous system and
act in a peculiar way. And know that nerve impulses can travel a
whole lot faster than blood. So too the action of
homeopathic drugs. Whether it is head ache, fever or cough.
Infection, inflammation or simple injury.
Now why this allegation aroused in the first place is due to this. Earlier when homeopathy was still young most of the people resorted to it mainly for chronic ailments. The old.. old.. cases of itch, rheumatism, asthma, ulcer, head aches etc. Those where cases which penetrated deep in to the system and already caused much damage to body and mind. Such cases needed so much time and effort to repair fully and sometimes even became totally incurable too. On the contrary they never seek homeopathic help for acute cases like fever, headache, or any inflammation or injury. By and by it spread that homeopathy takes so long to cure illness. Those who spread this never noted that homeopathy took so long to cure those illnesses which was so old and unmanageable by any other system and also those illnesses which where even proclaimed as incurable.
Now there
are families who resort to
homeopathic treatment for any or all of their illnesses. They
will take only homeopathic drugs for pain killers and healing
even after extracting their teeth. There are cases of
paralytic stroke
completely reversed within hours because homeopathic drugs are
given shortly after the attack (remember that once stroke
settles in it takes usually months or even years to completely
regain the functions under conventional medicine). There are
also cases of homeopathy successfully curing serious illnesses
like acute appendicitis and gastritis.
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Does
a Homoeopath give the same medicine to all the illnesses?
This is a good question. The doubt is raised by so many
that it seems there are some basis in it. In fact homoeopaths
use mainly three kinds of substances for dispensing their
medicines. They are sugar of milk (lactose), sugar pills
(globules) and distilled water (aqua pura). There are more than
five thousand different drugs in Homoeopathy. Almost all of them
are prepared and stored in rectified spirit. These drugs are
actually concentrated forms and should not be taken as such as
they will produce severe aggravations of the disease. As and
when required the physician will take a small quantity of the
required drug and mix it with some of the above said dispensing
material before giving it to the patient. So it is natural that
many of the patient will get apparently similar drug
preparations and they think of getting same drugs for all the
illnesses.
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Does Homeopathic drugs contain steroids?
Another good question.
Before answering the question let's find out what are steroids.
They are a group of chemicals produced by body to
control/maintain and sometimes repair vital body functions. The
synthetic version of them are widely used in allopathic
system of medicine to fight in case of emergencies like sever
respiratory distress (asthma), severe skin infections/eczema and
a variety of other illness. Their peculiarity being they give
wonderful results in a very short time most of the time saving
the life of the victim. But the bad news is that their
frequent/overuse is very dangerous to the body. It can damage
kidney, liver and other vital organs and partially/completely
destroy the immunity of the body. The result being frequent
infections and other illnesses and constant use of one or the
other drugs. Despite all this majority of allopathic physicians
use steroids freely in order to get quick relief and to impress
patients.
Now genuine
homeopathic
medicines do not contain
steroids. To stress the point, It is repeated that homeopathic
medicines do not contain steroids. But this common
misunderstanding arises when contrary to the expectation of
critics homeopathic drugs deliver quick and lasting beneficial
results! Ironically they accuse homeopathy of slow to act. But
when it really act fast and sure they tell it is because they
are steroids! It only sheds light to the fact that how little
they know about this wonderful healing system and how little
they try to understand
further.
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Is
it necessary for a Homoeopath to have knowledge in the allied
subjects of medicine?
To be true a homoeopath should not only have knowledge but
should be an expert in all the allied subjects of medicine such
as pathology, pharmacology, forensic medicine and toxicology,
preventive and social medicine, gynaecology, surgery,
microbiology, internal
medicine, psychiatry etc. Even though homoeopathic medicines are chosen
according to symptom similarity, they will be more accurate and
effective if one apply the pathological changes peculiar to the
illness also in the selection. Also it will make the selection
easier. Besides, the general management, which is an inevitable
component of any successful treatment plan, is designed
according to the peculiarities of the illness. For e.g.. in a
case of liver degeneration one should restrict rich fatty food.
In fever and hyperthermia light, fluid foods with high calorie
should be given. For hypertensive patients any kind of physical
or mental exertion should be avoided. One another aspect of this
is for prognosis (studying and deciding how the illness behaves
according to the treatment). For this also such a knowledge is
must. Please understand that today's basic degree courses in the
system like BHMS
is giving a comprehensive coverage to all the allied medicine
with ample practical training also.
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