Homeopathic medicines are returning to popularity because they are safe, gentle, and affordable. Progressive pharmacies now stock many remedies that a few years ago could only be found in the dispensaries of naturopathic physicians.

Homeopathic medicines are returning to popularity because they are safe, gentle, and affordable. Progressive pharmacies now stock many remedies that a few years ago could only be found in the dispensaries of naturopathic physicians.

We have been the keepers of this system since medical doctors stopped being licensed as homeopaths in B.C. in 1966. When the first Medical Act was passed in this province in 1843 it registered the regular drug and surgery doctors as "allopaths" and also accepted the "homeopath" doctors, who usually made up 20% to 30% of the group. It was homeopathic medical doctors in 1900 who added herbs, physical therapies and nutrition who created the "naturopathic" profession.

Homeopaths used very dilute forms of natural preparations to trigger the body to heal itself. A remedy is selected which in a crude drug dose could provoke the same symptoms in a healthy person. When given in a really dilute form it can no longer cause those symptoms, but has enough information to focus the immune system and control systems on the problem. Some remedies are so diluted they have no actual atoms of the original substance left, and are purely a pattern, imprint or information about the substance. While subtle, these remedies have real biological effects. They are not mere placebos or blanks. They are similar to vaccinations in how they work. How do you desensitize someone to an allergy? Give them repeated doses of tiny amounts of what causes the allergy! That’s a type of homeopathic therapy.

Homeopathics can be made from plants, minerals, animal tissue, or anything imaginable. Whether poisonous or harmless, when very dilute they become safe. The body can cure almost anything, and homeopathics help it get on task. They can provoke some brief symptoms as the healing works through, but no lasting harm.

This type of medicine is wonderful for children. Children like this medicine because it is in the form of sugar pellets. Try them for earaches, colic, digestive upsets and skin problems. Teens love them for acne, moods, sport injuries and immune problems. Adults like how they help arthritis, indigestion, colitis, anxiety, grief reactions, etc. They are very popular as injections, such as the homeopathic flu shots. In homeopathic treatment, ideally only one medicine should be used at a time.

Many good books guide the novice, but an experienced homeopath is the ultimate resource.