Niamh Hynes
RSHom LCHE
About homeopathy
Homeopathy is a safe, scientific and effective system of medicine which assists the natural tendency of the body to heal itself. It recognises the individuality of each person and also acknowledges that disease is expressed through physical, mental and emotional symptoms in a pattern that is essentially unique.
The World Health Organisation has stated that homeopathy is the second leading system of medicine for primary healthcare in the world. Over 30 million people in Europe alone use homeopathic medicine and there are approximately 100,000 practitioners worldwide.
The aim of homeopathic treatment
The aim of a homeopath is to help patients to successfully deal with the many challenges - physical, emotional and psychological - that we all will inevitably bring from time to
time as we go through life. 
Rather than having patients become dependant on treatment of any kind, the homeopath strives to help the patient to reach a level of health where
they are no longer dependant on any medicine or therapy.
In other words, homeopathy is a system that promotes health rather than one that simply treats illness.
History of homeopathy
In 1755, Samuel Hahnemann - the man widely accepted as the founder of homeopathy - was born in Meissen, Germany. After training in botany and science, Hahnemann qualified as a doctor.
However, he soon became disillusioned with medicine and began to work instead as a translator. Coincidentally, it was while he was translating some medical texts that he made his most significant medical discovery - namely that quinine - which is still used to treat malaria - produces the same symptoms as malaria itself.
To investigate this phenomenon he decided to experiment with quinine by taking the drug himself. The results of this were to prove hugely significant. As soon as Dr. Hahnemann took the quinine (known as Peruvian Bark at the time) he developed all the symptoms of malaria.
When he stopped taking the Bark, the symptoms disappeared. From this experiment Dr. Hahnemann began to draw some important conclusions about human illness and health.
As Dr Hahnemann said himself: "Every effective drug provokes in the human body a sort of disease of its own, and the stronger the drug, the more characteristic, and the more marked and more violent the disease."
"We should imitate nature which sometimes cures a chronic affliction with another supervening disease, and prescribe for the illness we wish to cure, especially if chronic, a drug with the power to provoke another, artificial disease, as similar as possible, and the former disease will be cured: fight like with like."
After he concluded his experimentation with quinine, Dr Hahnemann began his work of looking for other substances that would act just as quinine did but on a
variety of illnesses. Gradually he discovered that this phenomenon was not restricted simply to quinine and malaria but that indeed many, many substances could
be used in much the same way to produce the same beneficial effect on a wide spectrum of illnesses.
His ideas quickly spread and in 1810 he published his book, The Organon of the Medical Art attracting both admiration and hostility from his fellow physicians.
In 1831 a cholera epidemic spread throughout Europe. Homeopaths who treated those suffering from cholera had a great deal of success - only 4% of their patients died of this disease - as opposed to their more conventional counterparts who had 59% of their patients die.
An English doctor - Dr. Fredric Quin - brought the idea of homeopathy to Britain. In 1849, Dr. Quin founded the London Homeopathic Hospital (now the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital). In 1854 the European cholera epidemic reached London and once again the homeopathic approach proved more successful. Cholera deaths at the London Homeopathic Hospital averaged at 16.4%, in comparison to a 50% average for the other hospitals.
As well as investigating and discovering new medicines that could be used to support the body's natural healing without side effects, Dr. Hahnemann also pioneered a radical new approach to treating people.
He saw that his patients were individuals, recognising that many factors - emotional and psychological as well as physical - had a fundamental impact on their health and well-being.