Homeopathy: a gentle nudge toward healing.
A carefully selected, highly diluted natural remedy that stimulates your body's innate healing mechanisms, prescribed by a physician who has taken the time to understand you in detail.
Not the same as naturopathic medicine.
Many people think "naturopathic medicine" and "homeopathy" mean the same thing. In fact, homeopathy is just one type of treatment that some naturopathic doctors use, a specific therapeutic system with its own principles and approach.
Homeopathy involves the use of highly diluted natural substances given to stimulate the body's innate healing mechanisms. These substances are tiny sugar-coated pellets dissolved on the tongue. The remedy on the pellets has been diluted so many times in a specific way that there is nothing detectable left of the original substance. Because they are so highly diluted, they are usually very safe for patients of all ages and constitutions.
A remedy is carefully selected by a homeopathically trained physician after reviewing a detailed questionnaire and conducting a 1- to 2-hour homeopathic consultation. This visit is separate from a normal medical visit and goes into greater detail about your symptoms. The symptoms that are the most strong, unique or unusual are some of the signs that lead the practitioner to selecting the right remedy.
It can be helpful if you pay attention to any strong or unusual symptoms prior to your visit. What stands out to you as different, odd or particularly intense about what you're experiencing is often exactly what points to the right remedy.
What to expect after a remedy
Most patients see improvements immediately or within the first week. Upon starting a new remedy, your current symptoms may initially aggravate for a few hours or days, and old symptoms from the past may reappear. Both of these are considered normal and even positive reactions: signs that the remedy is engaging your body's healing response.
Remedies are effective for varying lengths of time and are highly dependent on your individual progression. Regular, much shorter follow-ups are encouraged to assess whether a dose or remedy should be changed.
A note on medical safety
Homeopathy is never prescribed in lieu of appropriate medical treatment or referrals and will only be recommended by a physician after performing a regular new patient medical intake and determining homeopathy to be a safe form of treatment.
Is there any science or logic to this?
The principle of "like cures like"
Homeopathy is based on the principle that a substance which would usually cause negative symptoms in a healthy person can be given, in highly diluted form, to cure those same symptoms in a sick person. For example, coffee can cause jitters in a healthy person, so a highly diluted coffee remedy might be given to an anxious, jittery person.
Think of it as a little messenger: the remedy reminds a body stuck in a pattern that something is off and needs to be fixed. This theory was initially validated by conducting "provings" of homeopathic substances in groups of healthy people and observing the symptoms they produced, then using those same substances in diluted form to treat sick people presenting with similar symptoms. Homeopathic theory also suggests that the more diluted a remedy is, the more potent it is. That's why you'll see large numbers like 200C and 1M for doses.
A balanced look at the evidence
Because homeopathy's principles don't follow modern scientific logic, it has attracted many skeptics. Choosing a remedy is highly individualised, and it can be very difficult to study these types of alternative treatments with the same scientific methods we use for studying pharmaceutical drugs. In terms of randomised clinical trials, the data is inconclusive.
However, there are thousands of published individual case studies demonstrating the safety and efficacy of homeopathy. It's worth remembering that we don't always know exactly how something works: scientists still don't know the precise mechanism by which Tylenol relieves pain, but that doesn't stop it from being useful. There may be good reasons for using an alternative therapy, including lack of available alternatives, treatment accessibility, potential side effects of conventional options, patient preference, treatment compliance and avoiding drug interactions.
Sometimes the body just needs a gentle reminder.
Homeopathy isn't right for every condition, but when it fits, it can be a safe, gentle and effective part of your healing. Book an appointment or start with a free consult to see if it's right for you.