Getting Pregnant Naturally_ Healthy Choi - Winifred Conkling [23]
Homeopathy was put to the test in dealing with epidemic diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, and scarlet fever. The success of the treatment led to widespread interest in its practice. The first homeopathy college opened in Philadelphia in 1836, and eight years later a group of homeopaths formed the American Institute of Homeopathy, the first national medical organization in the country. By the end of the nineteenth century, there were fifteen thousand homeopaths and twenty-two schools of homeopathy nationwide. Homeopathy also flourished and continues to thrive in Europe, particularly in Great Britain, where the Queen of England has her own homeopathic physician and the British National Health Service covers homeopathic procedures.
In the United States, however, homeopathy rapidly fell out of favor. At the end of the nineteenth century one out of every five American doctors practiced homeopathy, but by the middle of the twentieth century the American practice of homeopathy had all but disappeared. The discovery of antibiotics and other advances in modern medicine lured people to support a more “scientific” approach to healing. Professional medical groups, influenced by these developments, began to expel physicians who practiced homeopathy or consulted with homeopaths. Hahnemann’s theories have never been accepted by scientifically oriented physicians in the United States, who charge that homeopathic remedies are placebos.
Only recently has the homeopathic revival begun in the United States, in part because skeptics have been quieted by a number of studies showing that homeopathic remedies do help in the healing process. In 1991 the British Medical Journal tried to put the question to rest by publishing an analysis of 105 clinical studies involving the efficacy of homeopathy. More than eighty of the studies showed that the homeopathic treatment was more effective than a placebo.
No one knows exactly why homeopathy works, but some experts theorize that the repeated dilution and shaking establishes a certain electrochemical pattern in the water. Then, when someone takes a homeopathic remedy, the electrochemical pattern in the remedy affects the electrochemical pattern of the water in the human body. Other experts suggest that the potentization changes the electromagnetic fields in the body in some subtle way. Both of these theories involve energy changes at a subatomic level, a level that we can never see and few of us will ever understand.
Additional research will undoubtedly be conducted to prove or disprove various theories about homeopathy. In the meantime, homeopaths and open-minded patients will continue to use the treatments, not because they understand how they work but because they know from firsthand experience that they do.
TREAT THE PERSON, NOT THE DISEASE
Homeopaths and traditional doctors approach healing from different points of view. Homeopaths believe illness is not localized in one organ or manifested in one symptom, so when prescribing treatment they consider the entire person, both mind and body. While traditional physicians attempt to manage illness by relieving symptoms, homeopaths consider physical symptoms positive signs that the body is hard at work defending and healing itself. Rather than trying to eliminate symptoms, homeopathic remedies sometimes even aggravate symptoms for a short period of time as they stimulate the body’s self-healing mechanism.
PRACTICING HOMEOPATHY
Unlike other medical practices, the selection of the appropriate homeopathic remedy varies from patient to patient, depending on the patient profile and the specific symptoms that are present. When you use the right remedy, it will work quickly and you can discontinue treatment. The wrong remedy will cause no harm, but it will not help you conceive.
Homeopathic remedies are prepared according