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What Is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a system of medicine created by the German physician, chemist and linguist Samuel Hahnemann in 1796.

In some respects, homeopathy is the opposite of conventional medicine. Instead of treating illnesses with drugs to suppress their symptoms, homeopathy works on the principle that a substance that can produce symptoms of disease in a healthy person can cure the same symptoms in a sick person. It achieves this by stimulating the body's own powers of repair and recovery. The remedies that homeopathy use are mostly derived from plants, but minerals, metals and some poisons, which have been used medicinally for generations, are used, too. They are made by serial dilution and succussion (vigorous shaking) in a solution of alcohol and water. This may be done a few times or many thousands of times. The liquid dilution is then used itself as a remedy or soaked into tablets or granules for convenience. The medicines used are selected by the homeopath on the basis of all of the symptoms of the patient, so each treatment, like each patient, is unique.