Homeopathic MedicineThe goal of homeopathic medicine is the cure of chronic illness and restoration of health. This is fundamentally different from the goal of allopathic medicine, which is management of chronic disease and suppression of symptoms.
Classical homeopathy was developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in Germany over 200 years ago, although the discipline was founded on principles which were expressed in Chinese medicine and in the ancient world over 2,000 years ago. In Dr. Hahnemann's day, very powerful toxic substances were being used as medicines. For example, mercury was injected as a cure for syphilis. Other fashionable treatments included purgatives, bleeding, and blistering plasters that were more harmful than effective. Dr. Hahnemann stopped using these treatments, because he felt that the effect of the medicine was worse than the effect of the disease which they purported to treat. We are not so different today. We continue to inject mercury and viruses into the most vulnerable members of our society, the very young and the very old, in an effort to treat or prevent disease. In the process, we have inadvertently raised an entire generation of children with autism, pervasive developmental disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma, diabetes and other chronic illness. We give antipsychotic medications to very young children, despite the side effects of extreme carbohydrate cravings and weight gain. We give antidepressants to adolescents, despite the well-described side effect of increased suicidal tendencies. Most high blood pressure is deemed to be "idiopathic" meaning it has no discernible cause. And it is suppressed with pharmaceutical medication alone, with no curiosity as to what is the source of the high blood pressure.
Hahneman believed that approaches to disease must be studied from the viewpoint of vitality, meaning the life and health of an individual, and not from the suppression of symptoms. Dr. Hahnemann was most scornful of those practitioners of medicine who declared that all the infinite variety of sufferings could be reduced to a few salient symptoms and meaningless general terms, ignoring all the complexity of the individual's expression of illness.1 By meaningless general terms he included things like headache, backache, pains in the limbs, convulsions, etc. From the perspective of advanced homeopathic medicine, all disease or dysfunction is an external manifestation of an internal bioenergetic disorder unique to the individual. Homeopathic medicine looks for that substance which will correct the energetic defects or dysfunctions unique to a given individual, and restore that individual to the original template of full health. As technology has advanced, we have learned how to measure energetic dysfunctions and departures from the original template. We are now able to treat with substances which can restore the disharmony of the information systems which subtend the body's cellular function, right down to the level of the DNA. These substances may include things like electromagnetic energy, homeopathic remedies, combination remedies, and even physical remedies such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids. Allopathic medicine has not yet discovered how to modify DNA switches which have been turned off or on by toxins presented to the body. Homeopathic medicine carries the potential to modify these switches, and can thus restore full functionality to the physical organism. The fundamental law of homeopathy is that "like cures like." This is the doctrine of the similimum - the idea that that which produces symptoms in a healthy person can cure those same symptoms in someone who is ill. So why is homeopathic medicine not the standard of medicine in this modern age? By 1900 there were 22 homeopathic medical schools, at least 100 homeopathic hospitals, and over 1000 homeopathic pharmacies in the United States.2 In 1910 the Carnegie Foundation released a report, commonly known as the Flexner report, on the state of medical schools and medical education in the United States.3 This report is credited with the demise of all forms of medical education beyond the allopathic "scientific" model embraced by the Johns Hopkins medical school. Physicians in the early 20th century were apparently regarded on approximately the same level as mechanics. Two major medical sects, allopaths and homeopaths, competed with each other for patients. Allopaths used big doses of drugs to suppress symptoms. Homeopaths did not support the use of pharmaceuticals. The Rockefellers, major supporters of the Carnegie Foundation, had invested heavily in pharmaceutical companies. In 1908 the AMA's Council on Medical Education wrote to Andrew Carnegie to propose a collaboration with the purpose of reforming medical education, a collaboration that was to be kept secret from the public, so as to preserve the illusion that the Carnegie Foundation's report was impartial. Abraham Flexner was an unemployed schoolmaster in 1908, with depleted resources, looking for a job. He was employed by the Carnegie Foundation, with the help of his brother, the director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and President Ira Remsen of the Johns Hopkins University. His task was to make a report on the state of medical education in the United States. Flexner himself had no experience with medical schools or medical education. Sir William Osler, on the faculty of Johns Hopkins, expressed the opinion that Flexner was unqualified to make any judgment of the adequacy of any medical education. Flexner began his duties in 1908. Visits to facilities were rushed (in most cases, less than one day was spent), and sometimes unaccompanied by school officials (at one school rooms were unlocked for Flexner by a janitor). His findings, not surprisingly, heavily favored the allopathic medical schools, and decried preceptorships and all other forms of medical education. Chiropractors were called "quacks," eclectics were called "drug mad." Flexner stated that far too many physicians were being educated. He recommended specialization and research as goals for Despite the clear bias against all forms of medical treatment other than allopathic, and despite Flexner's lack of knowledge concerning the field of medicine as a whole, and more specifically concerning the various modalities about which he pronounced judgment, his report, when published, was widely acclaimed by the allopathic medical community. In fact, it sent shock waves through the medical schools of the United States. Within three years, twenty-five schools closed. Between 1900 and 1930 the ratio of physicians to population fell by twenty percent. The new requirements promoted physicians to a category of "professional elite," resulting in a dramatic decrease in the number of physicians from poorer backgrounds, and a dramatic decrease in the number of physicians serving rural and poor areas. The country has still not recovered from the effects of this report. There still are no homeopathic medical schools, although one is scheduled to open in Phoenix, Arizona in 2009. Chiropractors are still looked down upon as quacks by most allopathic physicians, although they have staged a comeback in the minds of patients who seek care outside the "traditional" allopathic model. Osteopathy, chiropractic and naturopathy all developed as systems in the early part of the 20th century, and are now accepted in many (but not all) parts of the country by state governments as valid modalities of health care. All these modalities, and more, play a part in modern advanced homeopathic medicine as it is defined in the State of Arizona. What differentiates homeopathic medicine from conventional medicine? . Homeopathy rests on a core philosophy and set of principles that guide its practice. Conventional medicine has no real philosophy or principles. How is homeopathic medicine different than other forms of alternative medicine? h more than 250 forms of alternative medicine, it can be confusing to separate one system from another. The following are some distinctions that make homeopathic medicine unique: . Homeopathic medicine is one of the older forms of alternative medicine with historical roots dating back to ancient Greece. Homeopathy is the heir to the vitalist (empirical medicine) tradition of healing. Finally, allopathic medicine is beginning to discover that even people with the same genetic inheritance will manifest disease in different ways. Angelman and Willi-Prader syndromes are both due to the same micro-deletion on chromosome 15. The difference in expression depends on whether the chromosome was inherited from the father or the mother.
1 Quoted from S. Hahnemann. Introduction to Materia Medica Pura, as quoted on the following website: http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/medical-observer.html
2 http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/homeopathy_1900_1924.html 3 Beck AH. The Flexner Report and the Standardization of American Medical Education. JAMA 291;17:2139-40 (May 5, 2004). |
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full time faculty, and recommended that most of the schools for women and blacks be closed, since women showed a "decreasing inclination" to enter the profession, and blacks were a potential source of infection and contagion."