Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
What Is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is an alternative medical approach developed over 200 years ago by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in Germany. It’s based on two relatively unconventional principles:
- “Like cures like”—the principle that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people. For example, a substance that causes drowsiness in a healthy person might be used in homeopathy to treat a person with sleep difficulties.
- “Law of minimum dose”—the principle that the effectiveness of a remedy increases as it becomes more diluted. Homeopathic solutions are often so highly diluted that they may contain little or no detectable amount of the original ingredient.
What are Homeopathic Remedies?
Homeopathic remedies are natural products made from plants, minerals, or even animal sources. For example, ingredients like red onion, arnica (a mountain herb), poison ivy, belladonna, and stinging nettle are used from plants, while white arsenic is a common mineral ingredient. Certain animal-derived ingredients are also used. Many of these sources have long histories of medicinal use.These remedies often come as small sugar pellets that dissolve under the tongue, but they’re also available as ointments, gels, drops, creams, or tablets. Preparing a homeopathic remedy involves taking the original substance and repeatedly diluting it in a water and alcohol mixture, shaking it vigorously with each dilution (a process called "succussion"). This can be done a few times or up to thousands of times. The resulting diluted solution is either taken as is or applied to tablets or pellets for easier use.
How is Homeopathy different from conventional medicine?
Homeopathy differs from conventional medicine by taking a holistic view of health and treatment. Instead of focusing only on specific symptoms or the disease itself, homeopathy sees symptoms as indicators of an underlying imbalance affecting the whole person. So, rather than simply targeting isolated symptoms, it aims to bring harmony to the person as a whole.This approach considers not only the symptoms but also the individual’s unique experience of illness, their lifestyle, and their overall health. Because of this personalized approach, homeopathy can be used to address a wide range of conditions, adapting to each individual’s specific needs.
One of the unique features of homeopathy is its focus on individualized treatments. For example, two people with similar symptoms, such as headaches, might receive different remedies depending on their unique symptoms, general health, and ways of dealing with stress. Even the same person might require different remedies for the same issue at different times. This customization is intended to treat the person’s overall well-being, not just the illness itself.
Why do homeopaths ask so many questions? Why do they ask for detailed case history including life situation and emotional suffering?
We strongly believe that the cause of the chronic disease is in the mind due to its emotional suffering. Simply put: Any ’emotion’ is conveyed to our mind by way of some chemical change in our brain. For example, when you are happy, there are specific chemicals associated with this in the body, such as endorphins and dopamine.When you are unhappy or trying to ‘adjust or adapt’ to a given situation or any bitter memory these are a different set of chemicals, norepinephrine, or hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
The chemicals associated with negative experiences also lower your immunity and that is the time some significant/chronic disease starts. To get rid of that disease permanently and to heal the individual, we must balance that negativity and for that, we must know the reason for that negative emotion and its effect on you.Only then can we balance it, bring back immunity, and cure the disease permanently. If not, these symptoms keep coming back repeatedly as soon as you stop medicines. One of the other areas where homeopathy fundamentally differs from conventional medicine is in its belief that the human body has a life force (immunity) which tries to heal itself. Hence, instead of fighting against the body with medications, antibiotics, and anti-depressants externally, we treat the body to restore its function, its immunity, and health itself, which is what brings about a sustained cure.The present problem of a patient is not usually an isolated occurrence. It is part of a sequence. The family history and the events through childhood are considered as homeopathy treats not only the present symptoms but the entire sequence, thereby preventing the progress of the disease.
Why are patients instructed not eat or drink anything 15 minutes before and after the medicine?
This is because homeopathic medicines are absorbed from mucus membranes of the mouth. Homeopathic medicines are very mild medicines due to dilutions – they can get altered due to any strong smell in the mouth.
Can diabetic patients take sweet sugar pills?
Yes, they can. The amount of sugar present is negligible for it to affect diabetics. Most of the times, it is a combined dose of less than 1 gm of sugar per day.
