Homeopathy is a unique form of natural medicine.

Homeopathy is based on three ideas.

1: The law of similars,

2: The idea of a minimum dose

3: Individualized treatments.

The entire discipline of Homeopathy was developed by a German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, almost 200 years ago.

In the 18th century, the practice of medicine mainly consisted of purgatives, blood-letting, and the use of harsh doses of whatever drugs and herbs they had available.

Perhaps it is these methods that explain people's almost instinctive fear of medical care.

Imagine this: It is 200 years ago, and you have some sort of infection. You have a fever, and feel terrible.

The doctor comes to your house and goes to work. First he takes a pint or two of your blood. He then gives you some "medicine", most likely ipecac to induce violent vomiting.

After a few days of this, you are not better and are too weak to have a strong understanding of what is happening.  

Hahnemann was not impressed with these methods and refused to concede that this was the only way.

In addition to being a doctor, he was also fluent in 8 languages. Hahnemann translated medical and pharmaceutical textbooks to make extra money. In the process, he developed extensive knowledge of substances that were used all over the world to treat different illnesses.

One day, he decided to do some experimentation and obtained some "cinchona officinalis", or Peruvian bark. This was a plant used in South America to treat malaria. Hahnemann discovered that if a healthy person was treated for malaria, he developed the exact symptoms of malaria.

This became the first premise of homeopathy: "Like cures Like". The plan was to find a substance that would create an "artificial desease" in the person that would push against his illness and provide a cure. The key here was to find the closest match to the symptoms the person was experiencing.

Hahneman and his students then began the quest to test out as many different drugs as they could and carefully recorded their experiences, including the mental and emotional symptoms.

The second part of homeopathy is the idea of minimum dosage. Hahnemann tried to determine how small a dose could be and still be effective. He was disturbed with the existing methods of giving people huge doses of drugs to force the body into submission.

As Hahnemann was diluting the doses, he made an interesting discovery. The more diluted the substance, the better it worked to treat people and with fewer side effects.

Hahnemann developed a process where the homeopathic solution was diluted and succused (shaken repeatedly). He found that the dilutiing was not enough, and shaking was not enough. By doing both, he created a medicine that was effective and gentle.

Hahnemann and his followers were real pioneers. They developed a process that worked and had little to no ill effect on the person.

One of the most prominent homeopaths was Constantine Hering. Hering was working with venom from the Lachesis mutus snake and suffered permanent partial paralysis on the right side because he continuously tested higher and higher doses on himself. This reinforced the premise that the minimum dose is best.

The third, and hardest part of Homeopathy is the concept of indiviual treatment. Each person will manifest an illness differently. The flu will affect each family member in unique ways. One may have a fever, one may have food cravings, and one may just sleep. So, the remedy selection is not done by the illness of "flu", but in the unique pattern of symptoms. A Homeopath visiting this house would likely prescribe different remedies for each person.

Homeopathy is incredibly powerful, and effective. The reason homeopathy has lost popularity in America is it is time and work intensive. The remedies are so inexpensive, so there is little monetary motivation to develop it is a treatment option.

For complex and long term cases, treatment requires knowledgable practioners, and time to determine the right remedy.