HOMEOPATHY - Introduction

Homeopathy is a system of medicine introduced by a German physician Dr Samuel Hauptmann. He was basically an pathological doctor who has left the practice because of side effects and temporary relief of symptoms of osteopathy. For his bread and butter he started translating the medical books to different languages.While he was translating Cullen's material medics he came across a herbal medicine called cinchona.It was written that cinchona can cure malaria and it can also produce symptoms similar to malaria on healthy individuals.This point clicked hangman's brain and he prepared an extract of cinchona bark and taken himself.To his surprise he developed some symptoms of malaria like chills and aching. He started doing the same experiment on different individuals and the result was the same.

By this experiment Hauptmann came to know that any drug which can produce a set of symptoms on a healthy human being can be used to cure the similar symptoms in a diseased person.He gave cinchona to various malaria patients and the result was wonderful and a system called homeopathy originated.The word homo means similar,path means suffering.The basic principle of homeopathy is 'sim ilia similitude currant' means like cures cure. Hauptmann prepared some other drugs using alcohol as a vehicle and started experimenting on different age groups and noted down the symptoms produced in them.He proved nearly 30 drugs and the symptoms produced  were noted down systematically.The symptoms collected by drug proving were categorized in the order in a book form  named material medics pure.
                       
Hauptmann noticed that by diluting the crude drug substances in spirit a dynamic power is developed and is responsible for producing the symptoms on healthy people. Hauptmann started giving treatment to Romany diseased persons with the medicines prepared by him on applying the principle sim ilia similitude currant and got wonderful cures and homeopathy started spreading all over the world.
             
He gave medicines to some patients and noticed that symptoms are coming back again.So he understood that the cause for the disease should be treated .After doing experiments and observations he came to know that diseases are actually caused by some dynamic forces and he named them as miasma.[psoriasis ,syphilis,psychosis] He noticed that to cure a person completely these miasma should be eradicated using a similar dynamic force.This idea lead to anticlimactic drugs which are drugs having disease producing power similar to miasma. He developed anti miasma tic drugs and experimented on diseased persons and got wonderful cures.

Development of homeopathy

The principles of homeopathy was written in book form and he named it org anon of medicine. Lateran he started publishing these works and six editions of org anon were published.Right from the beginning of homeopathy Romany doctors of other system started working against homeopathy. But those who were against homeopathy later on came to know the truth behind homeopathy and started practicing the same.Physicians like Dr J T Kent,Dr Herring,Dr Boardinghouse etc followed Dr hangman's mission and developed the system.They all started preparing Romany other drugs on the basis of guidelines given by Hauptmann. Physicians came to know that by diluting the drug substance in spirit in a systematic way the medicinal power is increasing even though the quantity of drug decreases.Since diseases are due to dynamic causes the medicine also should be dynamic.By a process called exponentiation same drug in different levels of potentiates were made.They found that by increasing the potency the penetrating power of medicine is increased so that it act on a higher level than the usual material form of drugs used in other systems.This unique nature of homeopathic medicine is the reason for the wonderful cures of even the mental diseases.
                 

General principles

Homeopathy treats the diseased individual as a whole rather than treating diseased parts or organs.The physical,mental,emotional,social spheres of a person is considered for a permanent cure.This system believes that the diseases are caused due to the derangement of vital force which is an invisible power in every individual.In a healthy state the vital force maintains the equilibrium of mind body and soul .During this man will have normal sensations and functions.When the vital force gets affected there will be external manifestations in the form of signs and symptoms.The imbalance in the body functions makes a shelter for foreign organisms(bacteria,viruses,fungi,protozoa etc) and allow them to proliferate &produce so called diseases. Homeopathy believes they the real disease comes before the bacteria & viruses,hence the root cause of the disease has to be treated for a permanent cure.The antibacterial and antiviral agents only remove the secondary causes mentioned above.

Diseases are produced by noxious morbid agents called Miasma which are dynamic influences which affect the vital force.There are mainly three miasma PSORIASIS ,SYPHILIS&PSYCHOSIS. These three causes are accepted by other schools of medicine but called by different names. Psoriasis causes functional disturbances, syphilis causes structural changes in the form of destruction and psychosis causes changes in the form of overgrowth.These three miasma can act individually or in combined form to produce different disease conditions.

Preparation of medicine in homeopath

In homeopathy medicines are prepared from different sources like minerals, plants, animals, toxins, diseased parts etc. Medicines are prepared from these substances by a special process called exponentiation. Here the soluble  substances are potentiated by diluting(mixing with spirit with a downward stroke) with spirit and insoluble substances by grinding(saturation) with sugar of milk.The crude drug substance is first mixed with a calculated quantity of spirit and water and kept for few days .From this mixture extract is taken and is called mother tincture(denoted as Q).From this mother tincture dilutions are prepared by potentisation.Potentisation is a mathematical process by which the quantity of original drug substance reduces but medicinal power increases. Depending upon the ratio of quantity of drug substance and vehicle(spirit or sugar of milk)there are different scales for this process.Each scale has got different potentiates which indicate power of medicine.Example in decimal scale the drug substance vehicle ratio isl/10 and the available potentiates are 3x,6x.12x etc. In centrist 1/100 and the available potentiates are 30c,20alism scale the ratio 0c etc,in ML potency the ratio is 1/50000 and the available potentiates are 0/1,0/2,0/3 etc. Potency is written after the name of every medicine

Same medicine is available in different potentiates. Suitable potency is selected according to so many factors like severity,depth of disease,condition of the patient ,nature of disease ,type of symptoms,age of patient and etc.

Subjects studied in homeopathy:-

History of medicine

History & development of homeopathy

Pioneers of homeopathy

Org anon of medicine

Homeopathic philosophy

Material medics

Homeopathic pharmacy & pharmacology

Homeopathic repertory

Homeopathic case taking

Homeopathic therapeutics

General medical subjects:

( Anatomy,physiology,pathology,microbiology,parapsychology,toxicology,forensic medicine,social &  preventive medicine,surgery ,NET ,gynecology & obstetrics, ophthalmology, dentistry, orthopedics, surgery,general medicine,pediatrics,dermatology ,psychiatry and etc)

Homeopathic case taking and prescription.

Cure by a homeopathic medicine is rapid ,gentle and permanent if correct remedy in suitable dose is given. . Just giving one drug for one disease (specific drugs)may not give good result.To come to a correct remedial diagnosis we should have the symptomatically of the person .It is the total symptoms of a person which includes mental generals,physical generals,particular symptoms etc.

All signs and symptoms (mental&physical)of the person is taken in detail.Knowledge about past illness,family history of diseases,food & bowel habits,notable causes,relation to climatic changes and constitution etc are noted down in a systematic order.

Mental symptoms:

Example: fear,anxiety,depression,anger,jealousy and etc....

Physical symptoms:

Example: Body makeup, appetite, thirst, desires, aversions, bowels, urination, sleep, taste, nature of smell, discharges any abnormal sensations like pain, burning, climatic changes, thermal relations, and etc...

Peculiar uncommon symptoms:
HOMEOPATHY  - Introduction




This is the specialty of homeopathic system of medicine.For the selection of a suitable remedy these symptoms are very important.common symptoms which are seen almost in all patients are least important.  This is the reason for giving different medicines to different individuals suffering from same disease.Example: Five people suffering from typhoid may get five different remedies because of changes of individual symptoms.

Particular/local signs&symptoms:

This include signs &symptoms related to body parts &organs.

Example: Part affected,any swelling,discoloration etc. 
                     
Systemic examination:-

Different systems are examined in a systematic order.(Respiratory system ,digestive system,nervous system,cardio vascular system and etc....)                                                                                                                                                                        Vital signs

Pulse,blood pressure,temperature,respiratory rate etc are checked here.

General physical examination:

Here body parts are examined from head to foot to find out any changes.

provisional disease diagnosis;  Here probable diseases are diagnosed. In homeopathy disease diagnosis is not that much important for the selection of a  remedy,but needed for general management and to know the prognosis.

Investigations : This includes lab investigations and other methods to find out any other major illnesses.
                                                                                                                       
Final disease diagnosis:

After doing all investigations the disease is diagnosed.

Remedial diagnosis:

This is the most important part as far as homeopathy is concerned. For this the selected symptoms are arranged in a systematic order on the basis of importance. Symptoms are analysed to find out the importance of each symptom for the selection of a remedy.Remedies are selected on the basis of similarity.

Suitable remedies are diagnosed by a process called repatriation. Here books called repertories are used. Repertory is the index of symptoms of material medics(books which  contain the symptoms of drugs).Nowadays computer software are used for representational. By this process we will get the remedies covering  maximum important symptom of the patient.

Among this group of remedies  the most suitable remedy is selected by referring various books and considering the life space investigation of the patient..The selected medicine is given in suitable potency & dose.

ANTI MIASMA TIC TREATMENT:

The root cause of disease is miasma which should be eradicated using suitable anti  drugs.Every drug can eradicate the imams if there is symptom similarity.There are anti psoriasis drugs,anti syphilitic drugs and anti psychotic drugs.After diagnosing the imams suitable anti miasma tic drug has to be given to complete the cure.