Intro to Homeopathy
The University of Michigan Homeopathic College 1900
Natural remedies such as therapeutic essential oils, homeopathy, and herbs can offer a gentle correction or rebalancing for the body/mind system before things reach a crisis.
Seeing homeopathy in action is often what sells it best - for me it was waking up one night to my hot, sweaty, feverish, red-cheeked young son. It was the sort of 3 a.m. moment that makes a mother's heart sink and think, "Oh crap, here we go. Tomorrow is shot, maybe the whole week!" While I had been dabbling in homeopathy, I hadn't yet felt very empowered or impressed. But I stumbled through the little homeopathic booklet in the glare of the bathroom light, selected "Belladonna" ('red' & 'hot' being the guiding symptoms), and our little guy fell back asleep shortly after the little pellet dissolved in his mouth. And then.....he woke up in the morning absolutely normal and healthy in every way! WOW. I knew the very sick place we had been headed, and his smooth, sound turn around really got my attention.
In the dozen years since that night, I've turned to homeopathy in education and health crisis's over and over, reading books, attending seminars, guiding hundreds of customers in our local natural store, and using it to great affect with birthing mothers and even newborn babies!
Homeopathy is a safe, gentle, and natural therapeutic method that uses highly diluted natural substances to relieve symptoms. The active ingredients in homeopathic medicines are dilute properties from plants, animals and minerals that relieve the same symptoms they would cause at full strength (i.e., a micro-dose of coffee bean helps nervousness). Instead of masking symptoms, the medicine sends the body a signal to help it rebalance and heal.
Homeopathy has been used for more than 200 years, building a remarkable safety record and generating a great body of knowledge. Since homeopathic remedies are devoid of all chemical toxicity, homeopathy is the ideal system of care for people of all ages, even the most sensitive like an expectant mother or a newborn baby. With homeopathy, many difficulties during pregnancy, delivery or problems experienced by the newborn can be dealt with very efficiently and without side effects.
They have no interactions with conventional medications or herbal remedies, no contraindications with pre-existing conditions, and they do not mask symptoms. Therefore, homeopathy is a great choice when self-medicating.
Homeopathy is based on the principle that “like cures like,” demonstrating that a substance that produces a certain set of symptoms in a healthy person can cure a sick person experiencing those same symptoms. For instance, onions make your eyes water when you cut them. If you have a cold or allergies and your symptoms include a runny nose, the likely remedy to treat your runny nose would be Allium Cepa, which is made from onions.
Unlike conventional medicines, a homeopathic medicine is believed to be more effective when a minimal dose is used; its active ingredient is diluted and succussed (shaken vigorously). Data indicates that the homeopathic medicine gains increased effectiveness with each additional dilution-succussion step. So perhaps counter-intuitively, homeopathic remedies get more effective as they get more diluted.
Application:
Remedies are selected according the bigger picture, including emotional and mental states in addition to physical symptoms. What dosage to use? The letter ‘X’ represents a 1:10 dilution (such as 12x), ‘C’ is considered stronger at 1:100 dilution (30c, 200c).
As a general rule, Chronic (on-going) illnesses are treated with low potencies (6x or 6c), and Acute (new or urgent) conditions respond best to higher potencies (30x – 200c). Homeopathic remedies should be taken on a clean palate when possible. Strong flavors, such as coffee or mint toothpaste can disrupt the working of a remedy. Once there is relief of symptoms, stop taking it unless the exact same symptoms present again.
What homeopathic remedies have been the most useful with your family? Love to hear from you!