Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with conventional medicine, and alternative healing modalities are on the rise. According to a report in Newsweek, Americans spend over $30 billion a year on alternative therapies. But of the 600-million alternative-practitioner visits a year, only 0.5% includes visits to homeopathic doctors.
This may be in part due to high out-of-pocket expenses. A University of Maryland analysis of 6 major health insurance providers showed that none covers homeopathy. Expense aside, the medical establishment has done its best to ruin the credibility of this 200-year-old medical system.
Homeopathy healing is a system of medicine designed to optimize complete body and mind wellness by treating and preventing disease. As such, homeopathic practitioners take into account genetics, personal health history, body type, and physical, emotional and mental symptoms. Conventional medicine prescribes the same course of treatment to 
individuals suffering from the same ailment.
Homeopathy healing, on the other hand, tailors treatment to the individual; even though the disease may be the same, the game plan varies from patient to patient.
Homeopathy healing also addresses the patients’ attitude, as practitioners expect the patient to take an active role in his or her own health. Not only has homeopathy healing proven effective in diminishing physical symptoms — such as arthritis, asthma, migraines, flu, ear infections, digestive disorders, skin conditions and much more — it has also been shown to increase patients’ confidence, positivity, ambition and cognitive ability.
It is difficult for the Western medical establishment to accept a remedy whose potency cannot be scientifically explained. Yet there are many accepted treatments and medications whose efficacy and mechanisms of action are still listed as “unknown” in the Physician’s Desk Reference.
Aspirin was used for 90 years without understanding how it worked! Critics can point to homeopathy’s “implausibility” all they want — nonetheless, results indicate a much different point of view.
One study published in the British Medical Journal cited an analysis of 107 controlled homeopathy healing studies conducted over 25 years. Eighty-one (76%) of the trials were proven effective, 24 (22%) were somewhat effective or ineffective, and 2 were inconclusive.
A German trial indicated that a homeopathic treatment for vertigo surpassed the pharmaceutical remedy. A review of 89 double-blind placebo-controlled studies showed that homeopathic cures worked 2½ times better than the placebo. By contrast, most studies pitting prescription drugs against placebos don’t even comes close to that edge! In fact, placebos (inert sugar pills) are beginning to cure people better than all the new pharmaceutical drugs — and in some cases, are doing even better than long established drugs.
The Science Behind Homeopathy’s Magic
In the mid-18th century, German physician Samuel Christian Hahnemann developed homeopathy healing while experimenting with cinchona, the South American tree bark that alleviates symptoms of malaria. Hahnemann discovered one of the main tenets of homeopathy healing: the principle of similar, or “like cures like.”
He found that consuming the bark made him feel achy, thirsty, cold and anxious – all symptoms of malaria. He theorized that if a substance could produce symptoms in a healthy individual, then small amounts of the same substance could cure an afflicted person.
Homeopaths believe that symptoms are not signs of disease, but an indication that the body is healing itself. Homeopathic treatment works not to eradicate symptoms, but to facilitate the body’s innate healing process by treating patients with highly diluted plant, mineral and animal substances.
Homeopathic medicine practices the “law of minimum dose,” which means that the smaller the dose, the greater the efficacy. Substances are diluted to such a great degree, that there is little, if any, of the original material left. The step-by-step process, however, is extremely precise: after every dilution, the practitioner energetically shakes the formulation, thereby affecting the “memory” of the water.
Water is able to modulate its vibrations according to its environment and the chemicals with which it is interacting. Homeopathic medicine maintains that the substance leaves its marrow in the medicine.
Homeopathic remedies are generally safe, won’t cause severe reactions, and can be used as supplements to conventional medicine, as they do not interfere with other drugs. If interested in joining the 39 million adults already benefiting from homeopathy healing, be sure to seek guidance from a licensed homeopathic practitioner or naturopathic doctor (ND).
