How does homeopathy differ from conventional medicine?
A. Homoeopathy is a system of medicine which has a different approach to disease and remedy from that of conventional or Allopathic medicine. In the Allopathic approach, medicines are used that work against diseases and their symptoms. In Homoeopathy, the symptoms of an illness are viewed as a direct manifestation of the body’s attempt to heal itself and a Homoeopathic substance is given that is capable of producing similar symptoms if given to a well person. In so doing, Homoeopathic attempts to stimulate the body’s own natural healing capacity with Homoeopathic remedies acting as a trigger for the body’s own healing forces.
Homeopaths believe that all illness begins on a deep level in the body with an energetic disturbance that interferes with the body’s self-healing mechanisms. Homeopathic treatment seeks to correct the energy disturbance so that the body can heal itself. It respects the curative function of symptoms—the body’s healing responses to attack or imbalance. In contrast, conventional or allopathic medicine identifies a cluster of symptoms and labels it a “disease.” Allopathic treatments oppose and attack symptoms, most often with pharmaceutical drugs that affect all the systems of the body, causing new disruptions and symptoms called “side effects.” It erroneously equates healing with the elimination of symptoms and doesn’t address the underlying energetic disturbance at the root of illness.
