What is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a safe and gentle system of medicine. It is based upon the principle of like curing like - so that any substance that can make you ill can also, in homeopathic form, treat you. The particular symptoms caused by a substance can therefore be treated by that same substance. An example is coffee - coffee causes insomnia and wakefulness and so the homeopathic remedy made from coffee is one of those used to treat insomnia.
Every person experiences ill health differently - two people with eczema will have different symptoms and will react differently. Homeopathy takes this into account and, rather than there being one remedy to treat a particular disease, there are many hundreds of possible remedies from which to choose, depending upon the whole individual. Treatment is therefore highly individualised.
Remedies are made from a huge variety of materials including minerals, plants and animal sources.
There are over 3000 remedies currently in use, with more being added all the time. Remedies are tested on healthy individuals first, and have no toxic effects.
The effectiveness of homeopathy has been demostrated empirically over more than two hundred years (homeopathy is the world's second most used system of medicine) as well as in a number of independent trials. Details of the evidence base for the efficacy and effectiveness of homeopathy can be found on the Society of Homeopaths research pages
