Homeopathy – from Ancient to Modern Medicine

Homeopathy has evolved from and within the culture of western and particularly European medicine. It was postulated by the ancient Greek and Babylonian physicians over 200 years ago and then re-discovered and formulated over 200 years ago by a German physician Dr Samuel Hahnemann. Since then it has developed into a sophisticated science of diagnosis and prescription. Based on the similarity principle – "Let like be used to cure like" – recognized by physicians and philosophers since ancient times, but it was Hahnemann who recognized the universality of this principle and made it the basis of a complete system of medical treatment.

Skilled prescribing by Homeopathic Physicians

The similarity principle means that substances capable of causing disorder on any level in healthy subjects can be used as medicines to remedy similar patterns of disorder experienced by people when they are ill. In fact, Homeopathy relates individual patterns of responding to environmental influences, infectious agents and stressors to specific Homeopathic Medicines that can remedy these susceptibility patterns. Skilled prescribing by Homeopathic Physicians requires that the characteristics of the chosen Homeopathic Medicine should be as similar as possible to the characteristics of the illness in the patient. The more detailed the understanding of the symptom nuances of the patient, the more accurate the prescription.

Homeopathy - highly individualized and based upon a holistic assessment

Thus Homeopathy is highly individualized and based upon a holistic assessment. As well as the patient’s actual complaint and conventional diagnosis, the following factors play an important part in medicine selection, especially in chronic disease: the patient’s constitution, emotional and mental make-up, the way the patient responds to physical, emotional and mental influences/stress in his/her life, the patient’s personality, temperament, genetic predispositions and strong family history of particular diseases.

Homeopathy’s holistic approach - consistent with modern concepts

Medical philosophy is coming more and more to the conclusion that the mere treatment of symptoms and organs by synthetic drugs can only help temporarily and that it is the healing power of the body as a whole that has to be enhanced. Homeopathy’s holistic approach is surprisingly consistent with modern concepts of systems biology and complexity science. Follow this link to read this article which explains the effect of the homeopathic remedy Anagallis Arvensis on a 24 year old woman suffering from ezcema.