A Brief Introduction | More Details on Homeopathy | View All | Research

1. What homeopathy is not
2. What is homeopathy?
3. How does homeopathy work?
4. What is a homeopathic remedy?
5. Is there any research that shows homeopathy to be effective?
6. What happens during the initial visit to a homeopathic physician?
7. Can I continue taking prescription drugs while under homeopathic treatment?
8. Which diseases can be treated with homeopathy?
9. Can a pregnant woman or a newborn baby benefit from homeopathy?
10. How does homeopathy deal with patients affected with problems resulting from emotional trauma, severe grief or the consequence of mood disorders such as anger, depression or anxiety?
11. How does homeopathy address patients with infections diseases?
12. Which conditions are outside the scope of homeopathy?
13. Homeopathy: past, present, and future

1. What homeopathy is not
Because homeopathy is so poorly understood, before explaining what homeopathy is, it is useful to explain what it is not.

While homeopathy is a natural form of treatment and may be used along with nutritional therapies, it does not specifically involve the use of vitamins, minerals, and herbal therapies. Rather than using many different (and often expensive) vitamins and herbs, homeopaths typically prescribe only one single carefully chosen homeopathic remedy to address all of the patient's symptoms. Exactly what a homeopathic remedy is will be discussed in a later section.

In homeopathy, we do not treat the disease or suppress symptoms. Instead, we treat the patient directly, so that the body is able to overcome the disease naturally, safely, and permanently. An underlying philosophy of homeopathy is that, under the proper conditions, the body has the ability to heal itself, even in diseases that may seem hopeless.

Homeopathy’s success does not rely on the placebo effect. While the placebo effect has been widely studied and understood to often exert a powerful influence on human health, homeopathy works in a much different way. For example, the placebo effect has been demonstrated to act quickly, at the beginning of treatment, but then to diminish over time. This is typically the exact opposite of how a patient responds to a homeopathic remedy. In other words, most patients under homeopathic care will feel better the longer they are under treatment, until complete cure is achieved. At that point, the remedy can be discontinued, but the improved state of health remains. The placebo effect, and how it differs from the effects of homeopathy, will be discussed in greater detail in a later section.

Homeopathy is not an unproven science. Despite many obstacles to research, including the lack of a multi-billion dollar industry to fund it, many studies have been conducted in reputable medical journals, including double-blind, randomized controlled trials, which demonstrate the effectiveness of homeopathy. This will be discussed in detail in a later section.