Vegetables provide many essential nutrients

Because a homeopathic remedy corresponds only superficially to a particular disease, it must be customized to match the individual with that disease, a process we call “individualization”. The very same illness in another patient will most often be cured with an entirely different remedy – thus we could have two different remedies that cure two different patients with the same disease.

Let’s look at an example: If your child accidentally ingests certain poisons, you may be advised to administer Syrup of Ipecac to induce vomiting. Ipecac is derived from the root of a South American plant called Ipecacuanha. The name, in the native language, means “the plant by the road that makes you throw up.” Eating the plant causes vomiting.

When a group of healthy volunteers took this substance to determine the effects of this drug, they found that the drug induced other symptoms as well. The mouth retained much saliva. The tongue was very clean. There was a cough so severe that it led to gagging and vomiting. There was incessant nausea. While it is expected that vomiting would usually relieve the nausea, this was not the case. Such an experiment, using healthy volunteers, is called a proving, and it is the homeopath’s source of information about the action of a drug.

Of what use could this plant be? If a person were suffering from a gagging cough after a cold, or a woman were experiencing morning sickness with incessant nausea that is not relieved by vomiting, then ipecacuanha, administered in a minute dose, specially prepared by a homeopathic pharmacy in accordance with FDA-approved guidelines, can allay the “similar” suffering.

Homeopathy is a system that attempts to stimulate the body to heal itself. All symptoms, no matter how uncomfortable they are, represent the body’s attempt to restore itself to health. So instead of trying to dry up the runny nose from a cold with antihistamines, a homeopath will use a remedy that will stimulate the body to move in the direction it is already going and, in the process, clear the runny nose!

It is a system that looks at individuals and not at diseases. Each of us suffers a cold in his or her unique way. Yet conventional medicine makes the assumption that all colds are alike and offers a common series of drugs to dry the nose, bring down the fever, suppress the cough, and ease the headache.

Homeopathy, on the other hand, looks for the one substance that will cure the individual case. The person with a beginning cold, characterized by slow onset, aching, loss of appetite, chills, and a desire to be left alone will need a different remedy than the person whose cold comes on a bit quicker and is characterized by intense sneezing, a runny nose that burns the upper lip, a desire for hot drinks, a bone chilling coldness, and a desire not to be left alone. We characterize both as colds, but they are expressed differently and therefore are in need of different homeopathic remedies.

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