Homeopathy as Alternative Medicine
You may have heard of homeopathy, but do you know what it is? Some people confuse it with aromatherapy or acupuncture. Homeopathy began in Europe in the 18th century and was once more highly respected than traditional medicine. Today in the United States, homeopathy is the second most sought out medical treatment after traditional allopathic medicine.
The foundation of homeopathy is the law of similarities. This is similar to the theory behind vaccinations. When you get a vaccination for say, the measles, you get a very small, diluted dose of the disease. Your immune system detects it and fights it off, creating antibodies. The majority of healthy people who get vaccinated will suffer a minor illness which clears quickly. This is because their immune system was stimulated and fought off the disease. Once the disease has been cured by the immune system, you have the antibodies to detect it should you ever come back in contact with it.
Homeopathy is similar. There are approximately thirty common remedies used to treat a variety of ailments. You get a small dose of the remedy that has been highly diluted. This remedy would create the symptoms of your ailment in a healthy person. Homeopathy depends on and strengthens the immune system to come to the rescue. This is why homeopathy works so well for many ailments.
Homeopathy also treats the entire body. When diagnosing, all elements are taken into account to find the right remedy to address this individual complaint. Homeopathy treats every problem as an individual, instead of just handing out the latest most popular cure. With traditional medicine, drugs are given out as a one size fits all cure. They treat the symptoms, not the cause of the illness.
Let's look at cancer, for instance. Traditional medicine uses radiation and chemotherapy to treat cancer. This sickens the entire body in the hope of killing off a few cells, kind of like using a cannon to kill a fly. Homeopathy uses the immune system to fight cancer. It has been shown to be effective in some cases. Studies have shown a medical link between the immune system and cancer. Most people, however choose traditional methods to treat cancer. It is familiar to them. Suzanne Somers, the actress, used homeopathics to treat her breast cancer successfully, even though she was criticized for doing so.
Homeopathy may work for you, or it may not. Many homeopaths believe that a disturbance in the life force is what causes illness in the body. When an illness is resistant, it is considered to be inherent, and that the illness would have been untreatable no matter what medicine treatment was used. This is frequently seen in people who use homeopathy as a last resort after being failed by traditional medicine.
Homeopathy has been enjoying a new popularity lately, though it has been around for about two hundred years. As more people get acquainted with it, more and more people are finding out about its effectiveness and gentleness.
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