Homeopathy FAQ
Is homeopathy safe?
Homeopathy is safe unless you self-prescribe incorrectly, not being mindful of the homeopathic view of health and disease. For instance, if you take too many homeopathic pills over a period of time it is possible to ‘prove’ a remedy – that is, to suffer from the symptoms that the remedy was supposed to cure if you do not follow correct procedures. This is the danger of self-prescribing and over-the-counter prescribing without professional advice or a clear understanding of how homeopathy works.
Is it a form of herbalism?
While a proportion of homeopathic remedies are based on plants and the herbalist prescribes on the individual, the principles that govern the two therapies are quite different. Due to the method of preparation homeopathic remedies are completely safe and non-toxic; nor are they based solely on plants, also using animal milks and venom, metals, and minerals.
Is it a form of vaccination?
Often people say that they understand homeopathy to be like a vaccination in that the patient is given a small quantity of the disease he already has in order to make him immune to it. This is not true. Homeopathy and vaccination have similar, not the same, concepts and very different practices. Vaccines work on the physical body in a very specific way, in that they stimulate the immune system directly to produce specific antibodies as if that person had contracted that particular disease; in so doing they are, of course, stressing the immune system. Homeopathic remedies affect the energy patterns or the vital force of a person and by so doing stimulate the body to heal itself; they are administered orally in a diluted and safe dose as opposed to being introduced directly into the bloodstream. The remedies are not tested on animals and do not have side-effects.