"What are homeopathic remedies?"
"How can they successfully cure various illnesses?"

Answers:
All alternative medicines tend to be linked together in people's minds and homeopathy is no exception. It is often confused with herbalism, faith healing, aromatherapy etc. which it is not. Homeopathy is one of the most scientific and precise forms of medicine available. Discovered by Samuel Hahnemann in the 18th century, it is based on the concept that "like cures like". Being a true scientist, he then proceeded to test his theory by years of "provings". Initially, these were done by giving various substances to healthy people and recording the effects on them. Later, in an attempt to find the lowest dose which would elicit a response, he discovered that the more dilute the "potency" the more dramatic the effect. Conventional medicine, whether using antipathy (the treatment by opposites to neutralize a disease symptom) or allopathy (the treatment by an unrelated substance to try to alter the body's response to disease) is totally different in this respect. If one dilutes below the usual dose the efficacy is lost. His method of systematic serial dilution and succussion successfully eliminated the dangers of toxicity in poisonous substances while amplifying the medicinal value of the substance. This process produces what homeopathic practitioners today call remedies. They are classified first by their botanical or elemental name in Latin and then by their method and number of dilution. Thus, Arnica 30c is a Tincture made by diluting Arnica ( a poisonous plant also known as leopard bane) one in one hundred parts, thirty times. Succussion is performed each time and is believed to be the key to the successful transfer of the medicinal quality of the herb while removing the harmful qualities. In fact none of the original organic compound remains, only it's "essence" imprinted on the diluent (usually pure water and/or alcohol).

A significant difference between homeopathy and allopathic medicine is that homeopathy works not by counteracting the body's reaction to disease (called symptoms) but by mobilizing the body's natural defenses to correct imbalances and/or overcome the causative agents.

The other significant difference is that homeopathy must always treat the entire patient, including, physical, mental and emotional symptoms. Since illness or dis-ease is seen as an imbalance in the energy or life force of each individual being, a similar imbalance may produce very different symptoms in different beings. Only when the whole person (or animal) is considered can the correct remedy be chosen. The potency given to the patient is then based on the length and duration of all symptoms, and progress or cure is viewed only when a return to health (rather than the elimination of symptoms) is seen.

Homeopathy is an extremely complex method of healing to use and should be used only by trained persons. It is not a replacement for orthodox medicine but an adjunct to it. Naturopathic Doctors (in Canada) must complete up to seven years of schooling to learn this (among other things). Please refer to a professional about the use of these remedies.
Jean Huffman, Wholistic Animal Health Consultant, Ontario, Canada

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It's not easy to describe within a few lines on Homeopathy, which is not common to our way of of thinking. I'll just try to give some basic information on this kind of treatment. Already Hippocrates, the 'father of medicine', advocated that there are two ways of healing. One can heal with a remedy working against a symptom or disease (i.e. with anti-biotics, anti-diabetics etc) or with a remedy which urges the body to fight the disease by its own innate healing-forces. This second way is used by Homeopathy. It applies pharmacological substances from natural sources (mainly plants and minerals) in very small dosages to the patient. Prior to this the patient and his/her condition has to be exactly and carefully analysed and examined as a psychosomatic whole. It is not the symptoms or the diseases which are treated, but the patient as a whole with his/her very special individuality and way of expressing the imbalance, which has occurred and led to the disease. The purpose is not just to treat a malady, but to heal and cure the patient. There are no negative side effects of the remedy. In opposition to allopathy, where the physician usually can never be sure about the possible side effects of a certain remedy and the possible damage it may inflict. Homeopathy applies strictly to the oath of Hippocrates, which says that any damage to the patient should be avoided.

Critics say, because of the very small dosage of substances used in homeopathy, that it is just a placebo. It's true, that the way of preparing (homeopaths call it 'potenticing') the remedies leads in certain cases to the point, that no trace of the original substance can be found in the dissolution (carrier substance of the remedy itself) by the usual ways of biochemical analysis. But homeopaths disagree maintaining that it is not a question of the material substance in this case, but a biophysical, energetic phenomenon. The dissolution carries the information of the original substance within it, it is impregnated with it. Biophysical analysis of homeopathic remedies in recent years, measuring its electromagnetic and energetical state, reinforce this view.

What is, from strictly chemical viewpoint, the difference between the same computer with and without a program? You won't find the difference, because the way of analysing the difference is inadequate. Similarily homeopaths maintain this about their remedies. The information is the aspect which counts. Furthermore, there are already plenty of "lege artis" studies on the University level, which prove the effectiveness of homeopathy. Some of these studies prove its effectiveness, even with animals and lower organisms, like microbes. In this connection, to simply talk about placebo-effects does not seem to be logical. Finally, millions of patients around the world every year, treated and being cured by homeopathy, believe simply in the fact that whoever cures is right. Naturally, homeopathy also has its limitations. It is true, as I can tell clearly from my own experiences, that it quite often cures so-called 'incurable' diseases, but it is not a supernatural miracle-performer. Moreover, it will not evolve to be, in my humble opinion, the major part of the medicine of the future as its supporters uphold, because it is a curing of people, who are already sick. It is not a preventive medicine. The medicine of the future has to be first of all preventive and include mainly, according to 'Abdu'l-Baha, nutrition and hydrotherapy. Furthermore, neither allopathy nor homeopathy usually consider the importance and major role of spiritual healing.

Dr. Bernhard Koppold, M.D., Volos, Greece