Clinical Studies

Homeopathic remedies work by stimulating the body's own ability to heal. You might think of a remedy as a bit of information - a trigger that sets the body's inherent ability to heal into action using its self-defense and self-regulating mechanisms.

Many ailments, such as the common cold, can cure themselves over time, but in more chronic diseases, the body requires assistance. In homeopathy, this assistance is provided by way of a Homeopathic remedy to provide the stimulus your body needs to set the curative process into action. With the correctly prescribed homeopathic remedy, your body is allowed to be returned to a more normal state of functioning - naturally, safely and with no side effects.

Listen to the "Homeopathy as a Mirror Analogy" as described by homeopath, Fran Sheffield on her show Homeopathy Plus! on World Talk Radio.

Healing occurs by addressing  imbalances in the individual that have led the patient  to a diseased state. Homeopathic medicine was founded  on one law of nature, that being the law of Similars or  "like cures like". This law states that substances which  are capable of producing specific symptoms when consumed  in repetitive doses by a healthy individual are also capable  of treating a "similar" set of symptoms, the result of disease,  in a sick person. The word homeopathy reflects this law,  being derived from two Greek words, "homeo" meaning similar  and "pathos" meaning suffering. 

In homeopathy, minute potentized doses of natural substances  are used to stimulate the body's own natural ability to heal  itself. In any case of disease a prescription is based on the  totality of symptoms expressed by the patient ie., physical,  mental and emotional. A single remedy, exhibiting similar  symptoms, is then introduced to the body which then triggers  and initiates the healing process. 

Symptoms produced by a patient are not the "disease", as seen  in traditional or allopathic medicine. Instead, they are viewed  as a visual, external expression of the body's own imbalance and  its own attempt at cure. In homeopathy, "disease" in terms of  specific pathology is not treated directly. Instead, it is the  fundamental "imbalance" that is seen to exist in the patient;  as defined by the patient's symptoms, that is therefore addressed.  It is sometimes said that homeopathy treats the patient, not the  disease. This will then lead to the gentle restoration of  health. The focus of homeopathy is to stabilize the individual through the  introduction of natural substances, designed to resonate with the  body in the same way it is deemed to be out of balance. 

No Side Effects ... No Suppression 

Homeopathy encourages the body to continue healing in a way  similar to its own initial reaction to the disturbance  (nature's response is seen to be the best response). In this  way, the individual's own attempts at cure are honoured and  not subdued. Side effects, as often noted in other types of  medicine, are not an issue as homeopathy only stimulates the  body's own natural attempts at cure. 

Classical homeopathy (which is what I primarily practice) means that  only one homeopathic medicine is given at a time because only  one homeopathic medicine can correspond to the total picture  of the patient. A prescription that does not aim for this  totality is not homeopathic. Your homeopath may change  the prescription over time. As the presenting symptoms change,  so can the medicine given. By analogy, in homeopathic philosophy,  cases present themselves somewhat like the layers of an onion,  each with their own set of symptoms, where all of the layers  together represent the entirety of the patient. 

A prescription for complementary supplements can also be  prescribed along with the homeopathic medicine to deal with  the more superficial complaints or "obstacles to cure". For  instance there is little chance that a homeopathic medicine  will work if the individual is deficient in a vitamin and will  continue to be so if no supplementation is prescribed. This  deficiency is one example of an obstacle to cure. 

There are hundreds of clinical trials showing the efficacy of homeopathic  medicine as well as over 200 years of ,clinical data and experience. 

For more detailed information on homeopathy, I recommend the  following books and articles written for a general audience: