Dr Syed Mansoor Ahmad, MBBS
Integrative Medical Practitioner: Bridging Allopathy and Homeopath
How Homeopathic Remedies Work
The foundational principle of homeopathy lies in understanding how a remedy stimulates the body’s natural healing response. To comprehend this mechanism, it is essential to first recognize how the human body reacts to external stimuli.
The Body’s Natural Defense Mechanisms
In a state of health, the human body maintains internal balance (homeostasis) through various feedback systems (1). When exposed to external influences—whether environmental, infectious, or otherwise—the body responds as a unified system. This response involves activating different defense mechanisms to address the disturbance.
For instance, if an infectious agent invades, the immune system recognizes it and initiates a specific, multi-layered defense process. Symptoms arising from this response—fever, fatigue, localized inflammation, or pain—reflect the body’s collective effort to neutralize the invader. These symptoms represent the totality of the body’s response, a concept central to homeopathy.
Examples of the Body’s Opposite Reactions
The body’s ability to counteract stimuli can be observed in everyday situations:
1. Cold Water Experiment: When you immerse your hand in ice-cold water, it becomes painful, prompting you to withdraw it. Subsequently, the hand warms up and may feel even hotter than the other hand. This heightened warmth is a compensatory reaction to the cold stimulus.
2. Opium Withdrawal in Habitual Users: Opium slows bowel movements and has a sedative effect. When it is abruptly stopped, the body compensates with restlessness, anxiety, and an increase in bowel activity, often resulting in diarrhea. This demonstrates the body’s tendency to react oppositely to an external stimulus (2).
These examples highlight the concept of the body’s secondary response, which is often opposite to the initial stimulus. This principle is instrumental in understanding how homeopathy facilitates recovery.
Homeopathic Proving and Symptom Totality
Homeopathic remedies are derived from substances “proved” on healthy individuals. In proving, participants take a specific remedy repeatedly until they exhibit distinct physical, emotional, and mental symptoms (3). This creates an artificial disease state, with a comprehensive set of symptoms that are meticulously documented in materia medica. Each remedy, therefore, corresponds to a unique “symptom totality” or sickness picture. When a patient presents with a disease whose symptoms match those produced by a particular remedy during proving, that remedy is selected.
How Homeopathic Remedies Stimulate Healing
When a remedy matching the patient’s symptom totality is administered, it acts as a signal to the body’s defense system, mimicking the disease and prompting a healing response. The body reacts oppositely to the remedy’s primary action, initiating a natural recovery process. This recovery involves the activation of the body’s auto-regulatory mechanisms, restoring health holistically (4).
Preparation of Homeopathic Remedies
Homeopathic remedies are prepared through a process of dilution and potentiation. This involves repeatedly diluting the original medicinal substance and vigorously shaking (succussing) the solution. This method is believed to enhance the latent properties of the substance, enabling it to elicit subtle mental and physical symptoms during proving5.
These remedies, when administered, impacts the central consciousness, which mounts a secondary reaction leading to natural healing . The symptoms recorded during proving help guide practitioners in selecting the remedy that most closely matches the patient’s symptom profile.
Conclusion
Homeopathy is built on the principle of “like cures like” and the body’s natural tendency to heal itself. By carefully selecting remedies that correspond to the patient’s symptoms, homeopathy aims to stimulate a secondary response that restores balance and promotes recovery. This individualized approach ensures that healing addresses not just physical symptoms, but also mental and emotional well-being. The classical version of homeopathy “like cures like “is proved on humans by Dr Hahnimann and his prime followers . The subsequent versions of homeopathy like mixing the remedies may have some clinical benefits some in patients but still lack the original provings in cohort of humans beings.
Acknowledgment
This article was written by Dr Mansoor, and eviewed with AI assistance. All claims are supported by credible, peer-reviewed references, for accuracy and authenticity. The AI synthesized information, ensuring scientific integrity throughout. In the event of any inadvertent errors, the responsibility lies with the AI, and corrections will be made promptly upon identification. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to DR Qaisar Qayyum, DrTahira Khalid and Doctor Zainab Qadeer Doctor Homeopath for their thoughtful review and invaluable feedback. Their expertise and guidance have played a pivotal role in refining and enhancing this article. which were validated and and
Conflict of Interest Statement
Dr Mansoor do not report any conflict of interest.
References
Guyton, A.C., & Hall, J.E. (13th Edition). Textbook of Medical Physiology, pp. 3-10.
Katzung, B.G. (12th Edition). Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, p. 555.
Kent, J.T. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy.
Kent, J.T. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy.
Kent, J.T. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy.
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