More and more people are turning to complementary therapies like acupuncture, osteopathy, and reflexology to help with their health problems, but what is homeopathy, and could it be an option?

Homeopathy isn’t a new system of medicine, in fact it’s philosophy was first mentioned by Hippocrates in ancient times however, homeopathy as it is practiced today was discovered by a German doctor called Samuel Hahnemann in the 1800’s. He made the discovery after ingesting a type of bark that was noted for helping with the symptoms of malaria. On ingesting, he started to experience symptoms similar to those of malaria and the theory of ‘like cures like’ was coined. An example for this is that an onion can make your eyes water, yet it is also used very effectively as a homeopathic remedy for hay-fever, where the eyes water. Similarly, it is why we listen to sad music when we are sad; it makes us feel better. Hahnemann successfully treated all of his patients in this way, but still found that when the medicine was used in a conventional way it would often cause lots of side effects. He decided to dilute the medicine to see if it still worked. To his surprise he discovered that the more diluted the substance was, the more powerful it was in its healing effects and with no side effects.

Hahnemann is famous for his success rates in treating the smallpox epidemic, where he had a much higher survival rate than conventional medicine. There are literally thousands of homeopathic remedies, made from everything you can imagine, to help any emotional or physical condition of the body.

There are three important things to remember about homeopathy

1. It is holistic

This means that it looks at the whole picture not just the presenting symptoms, like conventional medicine does. This is important as no one part of the body works in isolation. The whole body is connected in many ways and to just look at one part means that you are putting a plaster over the symptoms, as opposed to dealing with the root cause.

2. It treats the individual rather than the condition

We all experience ailments in different ways, so it would be wrong to treat everyone with the same remedy. Take headaches for example, they can be over the eyes, on the forehead, on the top of the head, back of the head, side of the head. The pain can be shooting, stabbing, aching, dull, sharp. They may make some people angry, some irritable some emotional. They might be due to work stress, diet, hormones, emotional upset etc. Each case, therefore, has to be taken and treated individually.

3. It is gentle in its healing

There are no side-effects with homeopathy like there can be with conventional medicine, which makes it ideal for children and pregnancy. It works with the body in a natural way, gently encouraging the body’s own healing response.

There has been a lot of talk in the press recently about homeopathy and whether it should be funded on the NHS. Currently the NHS spends between £2-4m on homeopathy a year. This money is used to help support the homeopathic hospitals in London, to support paediatrics, and in Bristol to support the treatment of cancer; all of the homeopaths there are medical doctors who are trained in homeopathy. It does not fund or support people nationally for using homeopathy as a treatment instead of, or alongside, conventional medicine. This is a mere drop in the ocean considering that the NHS spent around £2m on art over the course of 2 years and a whopping £2.5bn on the adverse effects of prescription drugs!

In fact, a leading economist, Christopher Smallwood, was commissioned to take an independent look at the contribution that complementary therapies can potentially make to the delivery of healthcare in the UK. He concluded that if only 4% of GPs were to offer homeopathic treatment, this would result in an annual saving for the NHS of £190m. Imagine what could be achieved if all GPs recommended homeopathy for just minor infections like tonsillitis and ear infections instead of using expensive and damaging antibiotics, which are leading to antibiotic resistance.

For homeopaths in the UK treatment is either privately funded or reimbursed on private healthcare. There are no NHS referrals, so for homeopaths it therefore makes little difference if the funds are withdrawn. It does unfortunately affect you; however, the people who believe that choice is important and who find homeopathy useful.