Nicky Whitehead Homeopathy

About Homeopathy

Homeopathy is essentially an exploration of your health, and of the interaction between your physical symptoms, thoughts and emotions.

It does not reject the wonders of modern medical science. It does recognise that different approaches to health work for different people and different conditions. There is a choice ; not necessarily an "either/or", sometimes an "and".

"Homeo" is Greek and translates as "like". Homeopathy is the medical practice of treating like with like.

Historical context

The principle of treating like with like was known to Hippocrates (460BC - 370 BC) and Paracelsus (1493 - 1541), but much is credited to Samuel Hahnemann (1755 - 1843), as the "founder" of homeopathy.

Hahnemann was motivated by dissatisfaction with the harm often caused by the orthodox medical practices of his time. He believed that human beings have a capacity to heal themselves and that the physician's aim was to discover the cause of disease and stimulate the individual's healing vital force to achieve a rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health.

Health

The World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".

Our state of health is dynamic - we have a constant need to adapt to the changing environment around us to maintain a healthy condition. This adaptation is the role of our vital force.

The vital force

The vital force is the invisible but dynamic energy that animates the human body. Without it, the body would be dead.

In a state of health, it keeps every part of us, including feelings as well as functions, in harmony.

In a state of disease, it is "mistuned" and makes this known through symptoms of disease in feelings and/or functions.

Homeopathy aims to restore health and harmony by restoring balance and adaptability to the vital force.

The remedies

Homeopathy aims to restore health and harmony by restoring balance and adaptability to the vital force.

This is achieved by giving a dynamic medicine that can produce an artificial disease state most similar to (but not the same as), and slightly stronger than the natural disease. This artificial disease, being stronger than the natural disease, extinguishes it. The artificial disease has a short duration and is soon extinguished by the vital force, restoring a state of health.

Proving homeopathic remedies

Homeopathic medicines are therefore artificial dynamic diseases, similar to the natural diseases they seek to cure.

To understand and observe the symptoms of these artificial diseases, homeopathic medicine is taken by healthy people. Through close observation of changes in their feelings and functions, the symptoms of the artificial disease are ascertained. This process is called a "proving" and usually takes place with a group of "provers" taking the homeopathic medicine over a period of time.

Once the symptoms of the artificial disease are known, they can be compared with the symptoms of individual cases of natural disease to treat like with like.

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