HOMEOPATHY
A NATURAL TREATMENT
by Dr. Lawrence Seliski
naturopathic Physician
N.D.; B.E.S.; B.N.
Homeopathy is a 200 year old science, an art of medicine, and
one of the treatment modalities used by Naturopathic Physicians and Homeopaths
throughout the world. This treatment, which has been popular in Great Britain,
France, Germany, Russia, Greece, India, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico to name a
few places is seeing a resurgence in popularity in North America as a safe
alternative to the invasive and pharmaceutical approach of Medical Doctors.
Strong supporters of the use of homeopathy have included Mahatma Gandhi, John D.
Rockefeller, and Yehudi Menuhin. England’s Royal Family have had homeopathic
physicians on staff for approximately 150 years.
Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a medical doctor and
researcher in pharmacology, is the father of homeopathy. He became disillusioned
and gave up his medical practice after neither he nor other medical doctors
could help his severely ill daughter. By experimenting on himself, he discovered
that any substance capable of producing symptoms in a healthy individual can
cure these same symptoms in a sick individual. The concept of “Let Likes Be
Treated by Likes” had first been recorded by Hippocrates and had been
simplistically considered by others to mean that the best therapeutic agent to
use to treat a disease or ailment needed to look like the disease or ailment.
For example, a herb with a part shaped like a kidney was used for kidney
ailments or something red might be used for blood building. Through other
doctors and himself testing more substances, Hahnemann rediscovered the true law
of similars which is the foundation of Homeopathy.
The word homeopathy is derived from the Greek words homoios
(similar) and pathos (suffering). The homeopathic practitioner does not treat a
particular illness or disease process but rather evaluates the whole person
considering not only the physical symptoms but mental symptoms, emotional
symptoms, general reactions to heat, cold, position, time of day, food, etc. as
well as any striking or peculiar symptoms. In this way, the homeopathic
practitioner individualizes each case (as no two people will react with the
exact symptoms in a given illness or disease) and selects the remedy that most
closely matches the symptom picture of the individual. A comprehensive interview
and a clear symptom picture is important as there are over 2,000 remedies to
choose from. Minute, non-toxic doses of plant, mineral or animal substances are
used to prepare the remedies in different dilutions in the accepted and
regulated process developed and tested by Dr. Hahnemann.
Two hundred years of testing, proving, and using homeopathic
remedies have shown that since symptoms are the body’s way of defending and
healing itself as well as dealing with stress, homeopathic remedies work with,
rather than against the individual’s overall defense system and provide a
gentle but powerful healing stimulus. It should be noted, however, that just as
the state of health of each individual varies, so does the length of time that
it takes for homeopathy to help each individual reach optimal health.
Editor’s Paw Notes:
Dr. Lawrence Seliski is a naturopathic physician who is located in White Rock, B.C. We would like to thank Dr. Seliski for the information on
homeopathy and would like to remind people that the principles of homeopathy are the same with homeopathic veterinarians.
Continue
