‘Health is Wealth and Health is Happiness.’ Everyone who is sick wants to be healthy and disease free. Have you ever wondered what health and disease really is? According to WHO, ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ Disease comes from the word ‘dis-ease’ meaning being not at ease. This ‘dis-ease’ can be experienced at all levels, emotionally, mentally, physically and generally. So it will not be wrong to say that when a person is at ease in every aspect of his life, will he be truly healthy.
Over the years, different systems of medicine have developed and are used in the treatment of diseases; the common ones being Allopathy, Ayurveda, Unani, Naturopathy and Homoeopathy. Each of these systems operates on different principles which govern it. Some of these systems of medicine base their treatment on purely relieving the symptoms rather than addressing it holistically at all levels. The medicine and the disease have no connection with each other. Each person suffering from the same disease receives the same medicine. Some of the other systems of medicine including Homoeopathy believe in approaching the disease holistically. In Homoeopathy the disease is not seen as being separate from the person but a part of him as a whole. The body, mind and spirit are considered one and the disease is approached and understood on all levels before a particular medicine which is specific for the person is given. After all, isn’t that the modern definition of ‘health’ – to consider all aspects of individual and to balance them in order to restore complete state of health?
Homoeopathy is a system of medicine which was founded by the pioneering German physician Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843).The basic principle which individualizes Homoeopathy from other systems of medicine is the Law of Similars: “SimiliaSimilibusCurenter’ which means ‘Like cures like’. Though Dr. Hahnemann used this concept in the 18th century, the origins of this concept can be traced right to the beginning of the era of medicine; back to the time of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine (460-370 BC). There is a very famous Greek quote by Hippocrates: “Omoia Omoiois Eisin Iamata” which means “Similars cure Similars”. In the ancient tradition of Greece the ‘Law of Similars’ was known and used in many mystic schools of Greece. Although it was a known concept right from the beginning, it was Dr. Hahnemann who experimented and studied extensively on this principle and gave it a scientific structure. This is the principle which laid the foundation for what we know as homoeopathy today.
Born in Germany, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann began his journey in the medical field as an allopath. He studied medicine and attained the degree of M.D. in 1779. After practicing in various places for several years he moved to Leipzig in 1789. Though he was a successful practitioner he was not happy with the method of treatment being used. In those days, very unscientific, crude, inhuman and you could even say barbaric methods were being used to treat patients. Patients were purged and sweated, bled and branded. Hahnemann was extremely dissatisfied with these methods and in utter disgust he gave up his medical practice. He was always a believer that the cure must take place in the gentlest way possible. He continued to study and experiment in an effort to evolve a more rational method of treatment. During this time,he was translating William Cullen’s Lectures on the Materia Medica into German, and he came across a line which said that Malaria was cured by the bark of a tree called Cinchona. A curiosity arose in him and he needed to find out more so he began his experiments. He himself took some Cinchona and to his surprise he noticed that he developed chill and fever, a condition very much similar to Malaria! When he used the same Cinchona on a patient suffering from Malaria, it cured him. Amazed by this finding, he did many more experiments with other plants. All these experiments led him to assert the theory that “likes are cured by likes,” i.e., diseases are cured (or should be treated) by those drugs that produce in healthy people,similar symptoms of the diseases.
Since any new concept or idea is not accepted easily by people, Dr. Hahnemann faced a lot of challenges and oppositions from the different schools of medicine but in spite of that he continued to work tirelessly. All the people who have been pioneers in some particular branch of science have had to face very harsh unfavorable circumstances and in spite these obstacles they have dared to be different. Dr. Hahnemann was one such inspiration. An entire science based on nature’s laws developed around it which is why Homoeopathy is not only logical but also scientific.
This law has since then been applied to innumerable cases with remarkable results. To give an example, at the other song we recently saw a patient having lot of activity of thoughts, restlessness and sleeplessness. He had a very active imagination which would not cease even when lying in bed making him sleepless. He was given Coffea Cruda, a remedy prepared from the coffee plant and there were positive results in his state in just 10 days.
Isn’t this strange? Coffee is known to produce the precise state of restlessness, sleeplessness and active thoughts and imagination. When we have to work long hours or burn the night lamp, who does not resort to a cup of coffee to clear up the grogginess and help rejuvenate our mind? The way Coffee was successfully used for the patient reinstates the Law of Similars. The medicine is given in minimum doses, in extreme dilution after being potentized so that it stimulates the body to help activate its system which will fight off the disease and bring about harmony.
The symptoms of restless, sleeplessness and an active imagination are also found in other remedies like China, Phosphorus, Stramonium etc. So the choice of a remedy for an individual depends on the uniqueness of the individual. To know more about this, read the upcoming article “Individualism in Homoeopathy” in the next issue.
BILBLIOGRAPHY:
Hpathy- Organon and Philosophy
World Health Organization (WHO)- definitions of health and disease
Newsletter –About Homoeopathy
By Dr. Mumuksha Gandhi
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