Classical Homeopathy in Naturopathic Practice
added to the NHAND Articles & Essays archives on 14 Sep 2004
Over the years, thousands of patients have benefited from homeopathic treatment here at North Coast Family Health. People have experienced healing of tremendous anxiety, depression, nightmares, migraines, asthma, colitis, arthritis and many other acute and chronic conditions. The purpose of this article is to share a little about homeopathy and it’s use in naturopathic practice.
Homeopathy is the art and science of healing based on the “law of similars” or like cures like. Essentially, the substance that causes specific symptoms in a healthy person cures similar symptoms in a sick person. This was discovered over 200 years ago when the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, demonstrated when he took toxic doses of quinine, it caused similar symptoms to malaria in himself. Then he found minute doses of quinine would often cure malaria during the malaria epidemic in the late 1700s.
Homeopathic medicine is truly holistic in that mental, emotional and physical symptoms respond curatively to the correct prescription. The beauty of homeopathy is that the deeper symptoms heal first, such as confusion or sleep disorders and then emotional symptoms heal and lastly physical symptoms. It may take a few days to a few years to completely heal from the inside out depending on the nature of the illness, the vitality of the patient, and whether any suppressive therapies are being used concurrently. An example of a suppressive therapy would be the use of cortisone cream for eczema, which essentially treats the inflammation rather than the underlying cause of the eczema.
Your homeopathic doctor’s goal is to perceive your mental, emotional, physical and sensory symptoms as clearly as possible. Therefore a thorough interview is often needed for this process. The information you provide is very useful to your naturopathic doctor in selecting the remedy that will promote healing.
Homeopathic remedies are commonly made from plant, animal or mineral substances. They are prepared according to guidelines of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States. The medicines are taken orally as directed by your naturopathic doctor.
The following is a case of Seizure Disorder that I’ve been treating to give an example of how deep acting homeopathic treatment is. Marge came in for chronic epilepsy in February of 2003. She was taking prescribed anti-seizure medications and her grand mal seizures were more frequent than ever before. At that time she was experiencing a seizure 3 or more times a week. During the course of the interview, it was immediately apparent that Marge’s memory was disturbed because she couldn’t remember what she’d just told me moments before. Her responses to my questions were delayed, slow and uncertain. She’d fallen on her head when a teenager from a two-story height and her seizures began within a few years. I prescribed a remedy for Marge to be taken daily and within a month her memory was completely restored and her seizures had decreased to one or two a month and she was able to come off of all conventional anti-seizure medications. Since then, Marge has been seizure free for up to 10 weeks at a time and she says the seizures are less intense and not as long when they do occur. She is functioning quite well in her work and home duties and we are working together towards a seizure free future.
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