What is homeopathy?

Question

Who could benifit and do you know of any good practitioners (UK)?

Answer 1

Well Homeopathy is The Art of Healing, and its a total beauty !
For more please visit these webpages and you will get all the information you want on Homeopathy :-
http://www.homeoint.org/english/index.htm
http://homeoint.org/books5/clarkehomeo/index.htm
http://www.hpathy.com/homeopathy/

And about Homeopaths in UK you have a few good answers here about them please follow the given links.
I hope the provided webpages help you in your quest for information about Homeopathy and you can disregard the Anti Homeopathy statements, some people are a bit slow in learning newer smarter things, they learn in due time :o), please accept my humble apologies for their lack of intelligence :o) ! Feel free to email me if you need any help regarding Homeopathic remedies and I will be happy to help out !

Take Care and God Bless you !

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Homeopathic remedies (also called homeopathics) are a system of medicine based on three principles:

Like cures like:
For example, if the symptoms of your cold are similar to poisoning by mercury, then mercury would be your homeopathic remedy.
Minimal Dose:
The remedy is taken in an extremely dilute form; normally one part of the remedy to around 1,000,000,000,000 parts of water.
The Single Remedy:
No matter how many symptoms are experienced, only one remedy is taken, and that remedy will be aimed at all those symptoms.

Similar principals forms the basis of conventional allergy treatment, where the allergic substance is given in a small dose, and in vaccines where an impotent form of the virus is given to bolster the immune system against that particular virus.

Answer 4

I won't repeat what others have already told you, but I'd like to add that the reason homoeopathy works is that water is know to be able to keep"memory" of particles dissolved in it. This memory allows water to retain the properties of the original solute even when there is literally no solute left in the solution, hence the still effective remedy despite the high dilution. That's the principle of vibrational medicine, and the basis of other systems such as the Bach Flower Remedies, to name one.

Answer 5

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that attempts to treat "like with like." The term "homeopathy" was coined by the German physician Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) and first appeared in print in 1807, although he had previously outlined his axiom of medical similars in a series of articles and monographs commencing in 1796.

Homeopathy rests on the premise of treating sick persons with extremely diluted agents that - in undiluted doses - are deemed to produce similar symptoms in a healthy individual. Its adherents and practitioners assert that the therapeutic potency of a remedy can be increased by serial dilution of the drug, combined with succussion or vigorous shaking. In common with conventional medicine, homeopathy regards diseases as morbid derangements of the organism. However, homeopathy states that instances of disease in different people differ fundamentally. Homeopathy views a sick person as having a dynamic disturbance in a hypothetical "vital force," and so rejects the standard medical diagnoses of named diseases.

Critics of homeopathic medicine frequently describe it as pseudoscience and quackery. The theory of homeopathy is inconsistent with known laws of chemistry and physics, since it states that extreme dilution makes drugs more powerful by enhancing their "spirit-like medicinal powers."Placebo-controlled clinical trials have given both negative and positive results, but most trials have methodological problems, and better-quality trials are more likely to give negative results.Additionally, cases have been reported of life-threatening complications resulting from attempts to treat serious conditions solely with homeopathic remedies.

Homeopathy is particularly popular in Europe and India, although less so in the USA,[15] where such therapies have been subject to tighter regulation. Stricter European regulations have also been implemented recently by the EDQM.

click here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#The_principle_of_medical_similars

Answer 6

I wouldn't bother, the Lancet published an article recently stating that it is completely useless. I agree, how can something which is diluted hundreds of times work, really it is just water, a load of rubbish.

Answer 7

Go to the link below, should help you....

Answer 8

http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/

This link should help

Answer 9

its a scam, its a minute amount of a herb with water and its meant to cure your ailments.

Answer 10

Homeopathy (also spelled homœopathy or homoeopathy) from the Greek words όμοιος, hómoios (similar) and πάθος, páthos (suffering)[1], is a form of alternative medicine that attempts to treat "like with like." The term "homeopathy" was coined by the German physician Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) and first appeared in print in 1807,[2] although he had previously outlined his axiom of medical similars in a series of articles and monographs commencing in 1796.[3]

Homeopathy rests on the premise of treating sick persons with extremely diluted agents that - in undiluted doses - are deemed to produce similar symptoms in a healthy individual. Its adherents and practitioners assert that the therapeutic potency of a remedy can be increased by serial dilution of the drug, combined with succussion or vigorous shaking. In common with conventional medicine, homeopathy regards diseases as morbid derangements of the organism.[4] However, homeopathy states that instances of disease in different people differ fundamentally.[5] Homeopathy views a sick person as having a dynamic disturbance in a hypothetical "vital force," and so rejects the standard medical diagnoses of named diseases.[6]

Critics of homeopathic medicine frequently describe it as pseudoscience[7] and quackery.[8] The theory of homeopathy is inconsistent with known laws of chemistry and physics, since it states that extreme dilution makes drugs more powerful by enhancing their "spirit-like medicinal powers."[9] Placebo-controlled clinical trials have given both negative and positive results, but most trials have methodological problems, and better-quality trials are more likely to give negative results.[10] Additionally, cases have been reported of life-threatening complications resulting from attempts to treat serious conditions solely with homeopathic remedies.[11][12]

Homeopathy is particularly popular in Europe and India,[13][14] although less so in the USA,[15] where such therapies have been subject to tighter regulation. Stricter European regulations have also been implemented recently by the EDQM.[16]

Homeopathy is based on the 'Principle of Similars', first expressed by Hahnemann in the exhortation similia similibus curentur or 'let likes cure likes'. This is the exact opposite of 'contraries' upon which the Galenic medicine of his day was based, which Hahnemann initially practised and in which he had been trained.

The 'law of similars' is an ancient medical maxim,[17][18] but its modern form is based on Hahnemann's conclusion that a constellation of symptoms induced by a given homeopathic remedy in a group of healthy individuals will cure a similar set of symptoms in the sick. Symptom patterns associated with various remedies are determined by 'provings', in which healthy volunteers are given remedies, often in molecular doses, and the resulting physical, mental and spiritual symptoms are compiled by observers into a 'Drug Picture'.

Speaking of the attitude his first proving inspired in him, Hahnemann states: "with this first trial broke upon me the dawn that has since brightened into the most brilliant day of the medical art; that it is only in virtue of their power to make the healthy human being ill that medicines can cure morbid states, and indeed, only such morbid states are composed of symptoms which the drug to be selected for them can itself produce in similarity on the healthy."[19]

Homeopathic practitioners rely on two types of reference in prescribing. The Homeopathic Materia Medicae comprise alphabetical indexes of Drug Pictures organized by remedy and describe the symptom patterns associated with individual remedies. The Homeopathic repertory consists of an index of sickness symptoms, listing all remedies associated with specific symptoms. The first such Homeopathic repertory was George Jahr's Repertory, published in 1835.[20]

At first, Hahnemann tested in homeopathic provings substances commonly used as medicines in his time, such as Antimony and Rhubarb, and also poisons like Arsenic, Mercury and Belladonna. Perhaps in this he was mindful of Paracelsus: "poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy."[21] This subtle connection between poison and medicine, or 'what can kill can cure' was also observed by Shakespeare: "In the infant rind of this small flower, poison hath residence and medicine power:..."[22]

Hahnemann recorded his first provings of 27 drugs in the Fragmenta de viribus in 1805 and later in his Materia Medica Pura, which contained 65 proven drugs. He was most heavily engaged in proving in the 1790s and early 1800s, but he never abandoned these experiments. Another phase of proving commenced with his Miasm theory and The Chronic Diseases,[23] published in 1828, and containing 48 freshly 'proven' drugs.

Kent's Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica (1905) lists 217 remedies, and new substances are continually added to contemporary versions. Homeopathy uses many animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic substances. Examples include Natrum muriaticum (sodium chloride or table salt), Lachesis muta (the venom of the bushmaster snake), Opium, and Thyroidinum (thyroid hormone). Other homeopathic remedies, ('isopathic' remedies') involve dilution of the agent or product of the disease. Rabies nosode, for example, is made by diluting the saliva of a rabid dog. Some modern homeopaths are exploring the use of more esoteric substances, known as "imponderables" because they do not originate from a material but from electromagnetic energy presumed to have been somehow "captured" by alcohol or lactose (X-ray, Sol (sunlight), Positronium, and Electricitas (electricity) or through the use of a telescope (Polaris). Recent ventures by homeopaths into even more esoteric substances include Tempesta (thunderstorm), and Berlin wall.

Today, about 3000 remedies are used in homeopathy; about 300 are based on comprehensive Materia Medica information, about 1500 on relatively fragmentary knowledge and the rest are used experimentally in difficult cases based on the law of similars, either without knowledge of their homeopathic properties or through speculative knowledge independent of the law of similars. This modern approach also harks back to the ancient 'doctrine of signatures,' which Hahnemann definitely rejected as uncertain guesswork: "The ancients imagined that the yellow colour of the juice of...(Chelidonium, Yellow Poppy) was an indication (signature) of its utility in bilious diseases. The moderns from this extended its employment to hepatic diseases...the importance of human health does not admit of any such uncertain directions for the employment of medicines. It would be criminal frivolity to rest contented with such guesswork at the bedside of the sick. Only that which the drugs themselves unequivocally reveal of their peculiar powers in their effects on the healthy human body – that is to say, only their pure symptoms – can teach us loudly and clearly when they can be advantageously used with certainty; and this is when they are administered in morbid states very similar to those they are able to produce on the healthy body."[24]

Examples of this impulse to expand the materia medica include: the use of an isopathic (disease associated) agent as a first prescription in a 'stuck' case,[25] when the beginning of disease coincides with a specific event such as vaccination; the use of a chemically-related substance when a remedy that was well-indicated fails. A good example of this is found in the Bowel Nosodes[26] which were introduced by the British homeopaths, Edward Bach (1886-1936), John Paterson (1890-1954) and Charles Edwin Wheeler (1868-1946) in the 1920s. Their use is based on the variable bowel bacterial flora thought to be associated with persons of different homeopathic constitutional types. Though receiving more attention today, the Bowel Nosodes are rarely used outside British homeopathy.

More recently, homeopathy has embraced the use of substances based on their elemental classification (the periodic table or biological taxonomy).[27][28] This approach may well create neat systems for grouping remedies and classifying the ever-burgeoning Materia Medica, but its usefulness is questioned by some purists on the basis that inherently it involves speculation about remedy action without provings.[29]

There are many methods for determining the most-similar remedy (the simillimum), and homeopaths sometimes disagree about the required remedy. This is partly due to the complexity of the 'totality of symptoms' concept; homeopaths do not use all symptoms, but decide which are the most characteristic; this subjective evaluation of case analysis rests crucially on knowledge and experience. Finally, the Drug Picture in the Materia Medica is always more comprehensive than the symptoms exhibited by any individual. These factors mean that a homeopathic prescription can remain presumptive until it is verified by testing the effect of the remedy on the patient.

Alternative modes of selecting remedies are through medical dowsing[30] or the use of other psychic powers.[31][32] However, these methods are controversial and not accepted by most homeopathic practitioners.

The law of similars is more of a guiding principle than a scientific law. It is not built on a hypothesis that can be falsified; a failure to cure homeopathically can always be attributed to incorrect selection of a remedy: I have often heard physicians tell me that it was due to suggestion that my medicines acted so well; but my answer to this is, that I suggest just as strongly with my wrong remedy as with the right one, and my patients improve only when they have received the similar or correct remedy.[33]

The most characteristic—and controversial—principle of homeopathy is that the potency of a remedy can be enhanced (and the side-effects diminished) by dilution, in a procedure known as dynamization or potentization. Liquids are progressively diluted (with water, or alcohol) and shaken by ten hard strikes against an elastic body (succussion). For this purpose, Hahnemann had a saddlemaker construct a special wooden striking board covered in leather on one side and stuffed with horsehair. It can be viewed at the Hahnemann Museum in Stuttgart.[34] Insoluble solids, such as Quartz and Oyster shell, are diluted by grinding them with lactose (trituration). The original serial dilutions by Hahnemann were performed using a 1 part in 100 or centesimal scale, or 1 part in 50,000 or Quintamillesimal (LM or Q potencies). Higher 'potencies' are considered to be stronger 'deep-acting' remedies.

The dilution factor at each stage is traditionally 1:10 ('D' or 'X' potencies) or 1:100 ('C' potencies). Hahnemann advocated 30C dilutions for most purposes, i.e. dilution by a factor of 10030 = 1060. As Avogadro's number is only 6.02 × 1023 particles/mole, the chance of any molecule of the original substance being present in a 15C solution is small, and it is extremely unlikely that one molecule of the original solution would be present in a 30C dilution. For a perspective on these numbers, there are in the order of 1032 molecules of water in an Olympic size swimming pool; to expect to get one molecule of a 15C solution, one would need to take 1% of the volume of such a pool, or roughly 25 metric tons of water. Thus, homeopathic remedies of a high "potency" contain, with overwhelming probability, only water. Practitioners of homeopathy believe that this water retains some 'essential property' of one of the substances that it has contacted in the past.

Water will have been in contact with millions of different substances in its history. According to this molecular paradigm, any glass of water must be regarded as an extreme dilution of almost any agent you care to mention. Thus, critics argue that by drinking water one receives homeopathic treatment for every imaginable condition.[35][36] Proponents of homeopathy are unable to accept the molecular paradigm as a complete account of life phenomena and therapeutics. They believe that the methodical dilution of a particular substance, beginning with a 10% solution and working downwards, produces a therapeutically active 'remedy', in contrast to regular water which is therapeutically inert. However, in terms of chemistry, a dilution of anything at 30C is identical to water.

High potency remedies were first produced in the 1830s. Though Hahnemann wished to see 30c as standard potency in homeopathy, the majority of his contemporaries preferred tinctures and 3x, while others, like the powerfully-built horse-trainer, Caspar Julius Jenichen (1787-1849),[37] General Korsakoff (1788-1853) and Dr N Schreter (1803-1864), were busy raising potency to heights beyond his wildest dreams.

Jenichen sat or stood stripped naked to the waist, holding the bottle in his fist in an oblique direction from left to right, and shook it in a vertical direction. The fluid, at every stroke, emitted a sound like the ringing of silver coins. He paused after every 25th potency, and the muscles of his naked arm vibrated...he was latterly able to give 8400 strokes in an hour.[38]

Such high potencies could not be made by traditional methods, but required succussion without dilution (Jenichen), higher dilution factors (LM potencies are diluted by a factor of 50,000), or machines which integrate dilution and succussion into a continuous process (Korsakoff). Such a Korsakoff potentising machine can be seen (here) and (here). Some old potentising devices can be seen (here). Such machines are still on sale today and some manufacturers claim it is undefined "vibrations" that produce the healing effect and, when the correct vibration is selected, only water need be added to produce a remedy.[39] Today, radionics potentising devices are used by many homeopaths to prepare remedies.[40] These are based on the work of the British engineer, Malcom Rae (1913-1979)[41] and the potentising devices he developed in the 1960s.[42]

Yet another bizarre technique used by a few homeopaths involves using "a paper remedy. Write the remedy and potency on a piece of paper and place the paper on the left hand side of the body with the writing towards the body."[43] One homeopath, "finds out what they need, writes the remedy down on a piece of paper, they put it in their pocket and it works."[44] In essence, this comprises an emerging alternative homeopathic tradition, "`paper remedies' i.e., a name of a remedy just written on a piece of paper."[45]

The practitioner's choice of what potency is appropriate derives in part from a judgement as to whether the disease is acute and superficial or 'deeper' and more chronic in nature; whether it is primarily physical or more mental/emotional; the patient's general sensitivity and previous reactions to remedies; and the practitioner's preferred posology (dosing regimen), e.g. low potency repeated often, vs. high potency repeated seldom. For example, French and German homeopaths generally prefer to use lower potencies than their American & British counterparts. Most homeopaths assert that the choice of potency is secondary to the choice of remedy: i.e. that a well-chosen remedy will act in a variety of potencies, but an approximately matched remedy might act only in certain potencies, or not at all.

There are estimated[56] to be more than 100,000 physicians practising homeopathy worldwide, with an estimated 500 million people receiving treatment. More than 12,000 medical doctors and licensed health care practitioners administer homeopathic treatment in the UK, France, and Germany. Homeopathy was regulated by the European Union in 2001, by Directive 2001/83/EC.

Britain Homeopathy was first established in Britain by Dr Frederick Quin (1799-1878) around 1827, though two Italian homeopathic doctors (Drs Romani and Roberta) had been employed two years previously by the Earl of Shrewsbury based at Alton Towers in North Staffordshire; however, they soon returned to Naples as they could not tolerate the cool damp English climate. Homeopathy in the UK quickly became the preferred medical treatment of the upper classes: Regarding Dr Quin, "...with his connections, he was quickly established among the well-known and wealthy. Quin counted the Dukes of Edinburgh and Beaufort among his patients, and became physician to the household of the Duchess of Cambridge."[57] Furthermore, "the principal supporters of the (homeopathic) hospital, until Quin's death in 1878, were members of the aristocracy."[58] Homeopathy in Britain "...retained an elite clientele, including members of the royal family."[59] and "...homeopathy still had much support from people in high places in the mid-nineteenth century..."[60] At its peak in the 1870s Britain had numerous homeopathic dispensaries and small hospitals as well as large busy hospitals in Liverpool, Birmingham,[61] Glasgow, London and Bristol, almost exclusively funded and run by members of the local gentry.[62] For example, the Bristol hospital Image was funded and run by several generations of the W.D. & H.O. Wills tobacco family, while the Hahnemann Hospital Liverpool Image was built by members of the Tate family of sugar importers, who also funded the Tate Gallery in London.[63]

In Britain, homeopathic remedies are sold over the counter. Today Britain has five homeopathic hospitals, funded by the National Health Service, and many regional clinics. Homeopathy is not practised by most of the medical profession, but there is public support for it, including from the Prince of Wales and many other members of the royal family.

Rumour has it that it was after homeopathy was used in treating King George V for seasickness in the 1920s or 1930s that the British royal family became firm devotees of this medical system.[64]

The largest organisation of homeopaths in Britain, the Society of Homeopaths, was founded in 1978 and has been growing steadily since then; it now has 1300 members, an increasing proportion of whom are women.[65] The medically qualified homeopaths in Britain are represented by the Faculty of Homeopathy based in London: "The Faculty, which was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1950, has over 1,400 members throughout the world and is poised for growth as interest in homeopathy increases both among the public and within the health care sector."[66]

India Homeopathy arrived in India with Dr John Martin Honigberger (1795-1869) in Lahore, in 1829-30,[67] and is officially recognized. "The first doctor who brought homeopathy to India was Dr. Martin Honigburger, who first came to the Punjab...in 1829."[68] India has the largest homeopathic infrastructure in the world, with 300,000 qualified homeopaths, 180 colleges, 7500 government clinics, and 307 hospitals.[69] The Association of Qualified Homoeopaths in India (IHMA) is the largest of its kind.[70]

Homeopathy is much more popular in Europe and India than in the USA. A study exploring the use of complementary medicine found the following percentages of various countries' population to be using homeopathy for some of their health needs (data from 1985-92):[82]

Country Percentage of population using homeopathy
Belgium 56%
Denmark 28%
France 32%
Netherlands 31%
Sweden 15%
UK 16%
USA 3%

The number of people using homeopathy is also increasing in Europe, with the British market increasing by about 20% per year, with even higher rates of growth in Germany and Portugal.[83] Interestingly, while in Europe alternative medicine is usually regarded as complementary to conventional medical treatment, in India, 10% of the population are estimated to use homeopathy exclusively for their medical needs.[84]

A more recent study indicates that the percentage of people seeking homeopathic treatment in the United States significantly declined from 3.4% in 1997 to 1.7% in 2002.[85]

Online homeopathy advocate, Dana Ullman estimates that "over 30% of French physicians and 20% of German physicians prescribe homeopathic medicines, that over 40% of British physicians refer patients to homeopathic doctors, and that 45% of Dutch physicians consider homeopathic medicines to be effective."[86]

In Britain, the number of homeopaths registered with the Society of Homeopaths increased from 15 to 708 between 1979 and 1999.[87] More recent data from the same source shows currently 1300 homeopaths, over 75% of whom are women.

Similarly, the number of homeopathic doctors in the UK was for most of the 20th century static at about 100-150. For example, it gradually rose from 185 in 1932 to 244 in 1972,[88] an increase of 3.3% per annum, but in the 1980s it began to grow faster: for example, from 1972 to 1988 it grew from 244 to 586, a real increase of 15% per annum. This increase may reflect the number of British people using homeopathic treatment, as discussed above. Today, "the Faculty, which was incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1950, has over 1,400 members throughout the world and is poised for growth as interest in homeopathy increases both among the public and within the health care sector.



the list of homeopathic practitioners in uk are available in this website.

http://www.local.co.uk/uk/Homeopathic_Practitioners