Why Homeopathy is So Popular & Why You Should Try It

About Homeopathy

Homeopathy is the second most widely used system of medicine in the world. More then 200 million people seek out it's benefits on a regular basis. It's proponents include royalty such as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

It is used by sports stars such as Usain Bolt and David Beckham, singers like Tina Turner and Paul McCarthny, and movie stars like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Aniston, and Emma Watson.

So what is the craze all about? Why do so many people turn to homeopathy for their health? Read on to find out why it is so popular and why should you try it.

Mokhtar Akbari, Homeopath

Mokhtar Akbari is a co-founder of the Ottawa Gatineau Homeopathy Clinic. He is passionate about helping patients learn about holistic medicine and its benefits.

This article covers:

What is homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a system of natural medicine that is safe, effective and holistic.

A System of Natural Medicine

Homeopathy a system of natural medicine that was discovered in Germany in the early 1800s and that has then spread across the world. Today, it is used regularly by more than 200 million people. It is the second most widely used system of medicine in the world.

Homeopathy is its own complete system of medicine. It can be used to treat most health conditions, either on its own or in combination with other types of medicine. When used in combination with other types of medicine, including conventional medicine, it is safe and poses no risk of drugs interacting in a negative way.

Homeopathy is Scientific and Organized Along Well-Defined Principles

Homeopathy is a system of medicine that is highly structured and organized. Here's how it works:

1. Scientific studies are first carried out on healthy people to discover the properties of the remedies.

2. These remedies are then selected for patients using strict guidelines and principles.

3. Very specific patterns of improvement are then expected in these patients, including improvements of the symptoms, improvements in the general health and energy of the patient, and improvements in his or her ability to withstand life stresses on the mental-emotional level.

4. After a remedy has successfully treated a person with a specific disease, this knowledge is then added back in the homeopathy textbooks about the properties of that remedy. In this way, the knowledge of remedies is being continually refined.

As such, homeopathy is a very organized and scientific system of medicine. It has clear principles and methodology.

Homeopathy has 3 essential features: it is safe, effective and holistic.

1. Homeopathy is Safe

Homeopathy is a very safe treatment because of the following reasons:

It's Natural

The remedies that homeopaths use are natural. They come from plant, mineral or animal sources.

Homeopaths Always use the Minimum Dose Needed

The remedies are produced following the principle of the minimum dose.

Basically, this principle states that homeopaths should always strive to use the least amount of medicine possible in order to help re-establish health, balance, and order in the patient’s system.

Homeopathy Works with the Body's Own Healing Mechanism

Homeopathy works by nurturing and supporting the body’s own healing mechanism. Homeopathy does not act chemically on the body like most types of medication. Rather, it nudges the patient’s defense mechanism just enough to trigger a healing response.

In homeopathy, the goal is to learn to harness the body’s own healing capacity and to gently push it the right direction. The remedies help the body re-establish balance and health on it's own.

For this reason, homeopathy does not require large amounts of medicine. Homeopaths use the least amount of medicine needed in order to trigger healing. This makes homeopathy safe, non-toxic and it means that side effects are rare.

It also helps you to see how homeopathy respects and nurture’s our body’s own defense mechanism. It tries to help it and make it stronger.

Homeopathic remedies come in the form of small pills or drops that be taken directly into the mouth or mixed in water and ingested.

It Does not Create Addictions

Homeopathy does not produce any addictions, period.

Everyone Can Take It

And homeopathy is safe to use for everyone. It is safe for children and the elderly, as well as pregnant women. It is also safe for people suffering from diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

It Does not Need to be Tested on Animals

Homeopathic remedies do not need to be tested on animals.

2. Homeopathy is Effective

Homeopathy's Results Speak for Themselves

Homeopathy has a track record of 200 hundred years with literally millions of patients receiving successful treatment. The personal accounts of these people is the strongest proof that homeopathy is effective. You can read many cases of patients we have treated on our website and see how homeopathy has helped them. Case presentations by homeopaths and personal accounts of successful treatment with homeopathy also abound all over the internet. Examples can be viewed at the Interhomeopathy Journal and the Homeopathy Worked For Me Facebook Campaign.

My Own Story

I myself am one of these people. As a young person, I had an over-active thyroid gland. This is a condition called hyperthyroidism. I was treated successfully with homeopathy and my thyroid was back in balance within a few months.

Scientific Evidence for Specific Conditions

Homeopathy also has the backing of an abundant number of studies. There are studies that show the positive results of homeopathic treatment in a vast array of conditions. Here are just a few:

Sinusitis
Ear Infections
Hay Fever Allergies
Vertigo
Diarrhea
Respiratory Conditions
Digestive Diseases
Muscle and Joint pains
Sleep, Anxiety and Depression

References for all these can be found in the reference section below.

Large-Scale Meta-Analysis Studies

There are also large-scale studies that look at the combined effect of many high quality studies. These are called meta-analysis studies and they look at many Randomized Controlled Trials together to measure their overall effect.

Of the last 6 meta-analysis studies done in homeopathy, 5 of them clearly showed that homeopathy has effects that are different than placebo. Theses are studies done by Mathie, Kleijnen, Linde (2 studies), Cucherat, and Shang. You can find links to all of these studies and more in the attached Reference list.

Although some people are still skeptical about the effectiveness of homeopathy, their doubts are mostly philosophical in nature. They mistakenly believe that homeopathy cannot work because of the small amounts of medicine that it uses to trigger the body.

But the large body of scientific evidence at hand as well as the experience of the millions of people that see homeopathy's benefits every day cannot be ignored. They will tell you: homeopathy works for me. It is effective.

3. Homeopathy is Holistic

The third essential feature of homeopathy is that it is holistic. It is holistic in 3 major ways:

It uses a holistic method of assessment.
It offers personalized holistic treatment.
It stimulates deep holistic healing.

3. A. Homeopathy Uses a Holistic Assessment

The Different Parts Form a Cohesive Whole

Homeopathy is based on the fact that all the systems of the body work together in an interconnected way. They form a cohesive whole. When you are sick, it is the imbalance in this whole that need to be treated, not just the specific symptoms that can be seen in one part of your body.

But how can we identify what kind of imbalance is happening in the whole person?

The Signs and Symptoms Form a Cohesive Whole Too!

In the same way that all your bodily systems form one cohesive whole, the signs and symptoms that appear in different parts of you also form a cohesive whole. They show to the homeopath a picture of the imbalance that is happening within you as a whole person.

In this way, the different discomforts and symptoms you have in various parts of yourself create a recognizable pattern that the homeopath can identify.

This pattern underlies and sustains your symptoms. It is the basis for them. And it is the primary thing that needs to be healed if your specific complaint is really to improve in a lasting and sustainable way.

Investigating the Whole Body and Mind

So when you go to see a homeopath, they investigate your whole person, even if your pain or problem is only in one spot. They ask you:

How is your digestion?
How is your hunger and thirst?
Do you have pain anywhere else?
Do you get headaches?
How do you react to warm and cold weather or damp or dry weather?
How do your symptoms affect your mental state when they get bad?
What kind of life stresses affect you the most?

The Disease in One Part Connects to the Imbalance in the Whole Person

In this way, your homeopath paints a picture of the imbalance within you. They understand both the disease in the specific body part and how it connects to whole person sitting in front of them.

They can then find the most suitable remedy to treat this overall imbalance and to re-establish harmony and health within you.

3. B. Homeopathy Provides Personalized Holistic Treatment

This process explains why homeopathy provides such personalized treatment. The natural remedy you get not only depends on the specific disease you have in your body part but on the pattern of the overall imbalance that pervades all your symptoms.

A Unique Pattern of Imbalance

This pattern will be unique to you. Even though many people might be suffering from the same disease, say for instance back pain, the overall pattern and expression of this disease will be different for each person.

Since your homeopath is prescribing for this overall pattern, the remedy you get will be specifically tailored to you. It is highly personalized medicine.

In homeopathy, each person's pattern of imbalance will depend on many different factors. Among these are the specific location of the disease, the factors that increase of decrease its symptoms, and the qualities that bind together the various diseases in one person.

To better understand these factors, and how different diseases can connect together into a recognizable pattern, lets look at some case examples.

Examples of Personalized Treatment

Homeopathy personalizes your treatment based on many different factors.

Factor 1: The Body Parts

Homeopathy personalizes the treatment based on which combination of body parts are affected. For instance, one person might have back pain and heartburn, while a second person might have back pain and headaches, while a third person might have back pain and knee pain. All of these different combinations lead to a different pattern of imbalance and thus to different remedies in homeopathy.

Back Pain

Heartburn

Person A

Back Pain

Headaches

Person B

Back Pain

Knee Pain

Person C

Factor 2: The Unique Expression of Disease in Each Person

Another factor that personalizes the treatment is the unique expression of the disease in a single body part.

Although many people can be suffering from the same disease, the symptoms of this disease will express themselves in particular way in each person.

So for 2 people that have back pain caused by arthritis, one person might notice their pain gets worse in damp weather while another person notices that the pain gets worse in dry weather.

One person might feel that their pain is worse when the weather is warm while another person feels that their pain improves when the weather is warm.

One person’s pain gets better when they get a massage while another person’s pain gets worse. In homeopathy, we call these modalities and they help define the specific way that the disease is expressing itself in one particular patient. Each of these modalities shows a particular pattern of imbalance. Therefore, each of them will lead to a particular remedy that will be unique to the needs of that particular patient.

Back Pain

Worse in Damp Weather

Person A

Back Pain

Worse in Dry Weather

Person B

Factor 3: The Key Features of the Unique Pattern of Imbalance Pervading the Whole Person

A third factor that personalizes treatment in homeopathy has to do with the way different diseases link together in one person. This link shows unique pattern of imbalance that is pervading the whole person.

A simple way to illustrate this is to consider how dryness and water imbalance can affect a person's body. Let's say someone called Alice has trouble retaining water in her body. This can lead to problems and signs in different parts of her body.

For instance, she may say that she is very thirsty all the time. This is because her body is dry and is constantly trying to hydrate itself.

She might suffer from dry skin that cracks in the winter, especially in the hands and feet.

She might get arthritis and pain in her knees beginning at an early age, because the cartilage in her joints is dry and will get damaged more easily when she uses them.

She might suffer from difficult stools and constipation. Her stools are hard and difficult to pass, because they are dry. Her body could not retain enough water to give them a normal consistency.

We could say that Alice has 3 different health problems: cracking skin, constipation and arthritis in her knees. And then we could give some cream or medication for each one of these.

But for a homeopath, these are not 3 different problems but one unique pattern of imbalance. They identify the problem in Alice as being a dryness imbalance in her and will give a single remedy to correct this imbalance. For instance, the remedy for her could be Bryonia or Alumina. These can both treat a dryness imbalance.

Dry Cracking Skin

Dry Knees

Dry Stools

Alice

Dryness Imbalance

Bryonia

Alumina

Other Dryness

Remedies

The remedy selected for Alice will depend on all the features that make her case unique. It will take into account the location of her complaints, their modalities, as well as the dryness that links them all together. This one remedy will solve all 3 of her issues together because it will correct the deeper imbalance that was causing these issues in the first place.

Once her body starts retaining water more normally, she will find that her skin gets softer and no longer cracks. She will see that her stool and bowel movements are becoming more normal. She will also notice that the pains in her knees are reducing and that she can walk for longer periods. This is because her joints are becoming more lubricated and less dry.

In this way, a single remedy can solve multiple diseases that are linked together. This is because they are all caused by the same underlying imbalance.

3. C. Homeopathy Creates Truly Holistic Healing

Feeling Well Inside

Most people have had moments in their life when they felt well, serene and balanced in both their body and mind. In these moments, we get a taste of what it means to be truly healthy. This state of balance and serenity, of vitality, strength and happiness is what homeopaths seek to bring about in their patients.

With homeopathic treatment, this level of health is possible for people.

More Energy and a Boost to Your Immune System

Because homeopathic treatment helps to re-establish balance in the whole person, the results are truly holistic. In addition to improvements in their main complaint, patients regularly say that they feel a greater sense of well-being and vitality.

Their energy and sleep improves. Their immunity is boosted. They get sick less often than they did before. And they have a greater capacity to resolve the life challenges and stresses that they face.

Holistic Healing Means you Grow Stronger in the Face of your Life Challenges

It is not uncommon for a patient to say that a relationship or work situation that used to bother them so much is now much less bothersome. The sting of it is gone. Although the situation might still be there, they have found new strength to deal with it. As a result, this stress just does not hold the same power over them as it once did.

Or it might be that in growing with their remedy, they have learned to remove the stressful factor or resolve the situation entirely.

Balance on the mental-emotional level also means that patients learn to better express their human qualities. If they had trouble speaking their mind, they become more courageous in doing so. If they had trouble listening and letting others speak, they learn to grow this part of themselves.

In this way, they grow stronger as a person, and more equipped to deal with life's challenges. When a treatment leads to greater balance, its benefits extend further into us and have a greater impact on our lives.

For some people, this type of deep healing might appear to be exaggerated. But for those who experience homeopathic treatment with a professional homeopath, it is just a fact.

I invite you to take a moment to really think about it. If true healing means greater physical and emotional balance, is it not logical that it should lead to deep improvements in both the body and mind? Is it not natural that we should expect such treatment to move us towards a state of harmony and serenity?

Any treatment that controls a painful symptom in one part of the body will ease the mind temporarily. But when the treatment addresses both the disease and the individual as a whole person, this brings about a deeper state of mental and emotional balance.

Holistic Healing Gives Sustained Improvements

Another by-product of holistic treatment is that improvements are sustained and long-lasting. You do not need to take homeopathic remedies forever. In most cases, once a homeopathic remedy starts helping, the body re-establishes a new balance and can sustain it.

This means that at some point, the homeopathic remedy can be stopped and the improvements will usually be maintained. The length of treatment needed to achieve this will be different in each case. It will depend of course on the severity of the disease and how long it has been present.

Not All Disease Can Be Resolved

It is also important to know that homeopathy is not a miracle cure for everything. Our body has it's limits and some very severe diseases might not be treatable with homeopathy. But even when the disease cannot be entirely resolved, homeopathy can still be immensely helpful to help control symptoms and improve patient's quality of life.

For instance, homeopathy is often used to control pain in palliative care and in the management of the side effects of chemotherapy.

Homeopathy: Why It Is So Popular And Why You Should Use It

So homeopathy uses a holistic assessment method and provides personalized holistic treatment.

Such holistic treatment helps to resolve the symptoms of the main disease as well as the whole pattern of imbalance that underlies it. It also helps to resolve the other diseases and symptoms that were connected to this pattern of imbalance.

It boosts the person’s immune system and brings about strength to deal with life challenges.

It improves energy and vitality, and leads to a long-lasting shift towards a greater sense of balance and well-being.

Homeopathy is honest about it's limitations and can be used to control symptoms when these can no longer be entirely resolved. It can also be used in a cooperative approach, in combination with conventional treatment, for the greater benefit of the patient.

This is why homeopathy is so popular across the world today. It has these clear benefits related to the holistic way that it treats people. And it is proven to be safe and effective.

Homeopathy: It's safe, effective, and holistic!

This is why millions of people turn to it for their healthcare needs. And this is also why you and your family should consider homeopathic remedies for your health care needs.

Ottawa Holistic Healing Clinic

Why Homeopathy is So Popular & Why You Should Try It

What is homeopathy?

A System of Natural Medicine

Homeopathy is Scientific and Organized Along Well-Defined Principles

1. Homeopathy is Safe

It's Natural

Homeopaths Always use the Minimum Dose Needed

​

Homeopathy Works with the Body's Own Healing Mechanism

It Does not Create Addictions

Everyone Can Take It

It Does not Need to be Tested on Animals

2. Homeopathy is Effective

Homeopathy's Results Speak for Themselves

My Own Story

Scientific Evidence for Specific Conditions

Large-Scale Meta-Analysis Studies

3. Homeopathy is Holistic

3. A. Homeopathy Uses a Holistic Assessment

​

The Different Parts Form a Cohesive Whole

The Signs and Symptoms Form a Cohesive Whole Too!

Investigating the Whole Body and Mind

The Disease in One Part Connects to the Imbalance in the Whole Person

3. B. Homeopathy Provides Personalized Holistic Treatment

A Unique Pattern of Imbalance

Examples of Personalized Treatment

3. C. Homeopathy Creates Truly Holistic Healing

Feeling Well Inside

More Energy and a Boost to Your Immune System

Holistic Healing Means you Grow Stronger in the Face of your Life Challenges

Holistic Healing Gives Sustained Improvements

Homeopathy: Why It Is So Popular And Why You Should Use It

​

References