How Does it Work?

Your health is important!
Why leave it in someone else’s hands?

Until we are ill, we take our health for granted. We punish our bodies in a variety of ways; working hard, playing late, eating badly, and most of the time we get away with it.

We, in common with other animals, are blessed with a miraculous system, our immune system. Headaches, sore throats, infections, lethargy, insomnia, these are all ways in which the immune system is telling us to slow down and give it a chance to get back in control. These symptoms start as just a little nag; “Yeah! Yeah!” We say, “Go away, I am fine”. So the nagging gets a bit louder, the headaches become more regular, we start to feel slightly over- whelmed by ordinary things, we get more colds, chest infections, urine infections, etc. But we think we can cure it with a few extra multi-vitamins, or an energy boosting drink. Then the loud nagging starts to become a shout “Help me! I cannot cope!” the itchy skins is now psoriasis or eczema, the headaches are migraines, the over-whelmed feelings are full blown panic attacks, and we have to stop!

At this stage the majority of us will visit the doctor, if they have not done so before.

Anti-biotics, anti-histamines, anti- depressants, painkillers or steroids; all of these things attack the body, giving it another problem to deal with. We have an immune system, which can deal with all of these problems, but we insist on bypassing our own in-built healing and act as if we know better. So the body reacts “I was trying to tell you I needed help but you wouldn’t listen!” In desperation, it turns on itself, auto-immune disease; rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, allergies etc.

This whole sequence of events is happening over and over again, in individuals around the world, the modern reaction to the next symptom is to suppress the immune system further, with more and more drugs.

But there is another way, and we have known about it for hundreds of years. Firstly, we need to re-engage our body’s unique and amazing system of healing- our own immune system. We could start by sleeping at least 8 hours, drinking plenty of plain water, and eating properly. All of those things are really important, but when our body is really ill we may need more than that.

Over two hundred years ago, Samuel Hahnemann discovered that when a substance could cause a symptom in a person, it could also cure that symptom. Imagine a toxic substance entering the body, for example arsenic. In small amounts this would cause, vomiting diarrhoea, stomach cramps and excessive sweating, in larger amounts it would lead to death. But in dilute amounts, the symptoms, similar to those produced by arsenic poisoning, could be cured (the homeopathic law of “Like Cures Like”).

For example, a person eats some food, they start to vomit, have diarrhoea, and sweat copiously, this is the natural way the body reacts to get rid of the toxic substance. In order to support the system in its battle against the food poisoning, a remedy is taken, made from arsenic. The immune system believes it is under attack again, so it rallies the forces harder, to combat this second toxic substance, and with this renewed effort it beats the invaders: health is restored. In the meantime, as the homeopathic remedy was very dilute, and no real threat to the immune system, it dissolves away, leaving the immune system, as the conqueror, and greatly strengthened by all the exercise.

From the moment we are born our immune system is being undermined, and told to take a backseat. Homeopathy acts in a very gentle but stimulating way, allowing your body to do what it is meant to do; heal itself. From small, acute ailments, to mental illness and chronic disease, homeopathy works in the same way, gently encouraging the whole body to sort the problem out. Our body is very delicately balanced so each system works in harmony with the others, this is known as homeostasis. An in balance in one area, however it may have been causes by strong medication, viruses, outside events, can often have a knock-on effect; homeopathy will remind our systems how to get back into balance. There will be times when conventional medicine may be needed; homeopathy can be a complementary medicine, as well as an alternative.

In this country, because we can have free health care, we tend, to let the doctors (and the drug companies) take responsibility for our health, when really it is our responsibility to look after ourselves; and our body is more than capable of doing the job, with the occasional help from homeopathic remedies. This way of thinking is changing as people are realising that there are other options out there, ones that are safe, effective, and have no side effects.

Homeopathy can make a real difference: when we feel well, we can use it to stay that way, when we are ill, we can use it to stimulate our own body to heal itself, or when we are going through times in our life, such as pregnancy and childbirth, we are not ill, but need some extra help, homeopathy can do just that. Children and animals all respond well to homeopathy. Traumas, grief, puberty, menopause, all these times in life can be eased with homeopathic remedies, as well as supporting our systems through stressful situations, divorce, new job, new school, being bullied or feeling anxious for no apparent reason.