Homeopathy
Homeopathy is closely related to herbal therapy in that it is mainly based on the use of plants, plant extracts and minerals. Practitioners of homeopathy are called homeopaths.
Homeopathy originated in Germany with the key premise being that each individual has healing energy within themselves. When this vital energy is interrupted, illness and disease surfaces. The goal of homeopathy is to provoke the body's self-healing responses into action.
In the late 1700s the most common medical treatments were inhumane at best. Usual treatments included bloodletting and purging. Thank heavens for a German physician named Samuel Hahnemann who proposed a new approach to medical treatment of illnesses. Dr. Hahnemann felt that there should be less-threatening means to treating people. He began using the concept of 'like cures like'. This approach involves giving minute doses of plant derived substances that produce characteristic symptoms of illness in healthy people if given to them in large doses.
An easier way to understand the 'like cures like' theory is that symptoms are part of the body's attempt to heal itself, such as, a fever can develop as a response to the body fighting an infection, and a cough may help to eliminate mucus, therefore medication may be given to support this self-healing response.
continue to Homeopathy Part 2