Homoeopathy is a natural system of medicine which stimulates the body to heal itself.

The earliest practitioners of homoeopathy, most notably  the German, Dr Samuel Hahnemann, in the eighteenth century realised that large doses of a herbal medicine given to a patient as a cure, could cause those same symptoms of illness even if given to someone who did not have the disease. This phenomenon became known as the Law of Similars or "let like be cured with like" and is a fundamental principle of homoeopathy. This is also the principle that forms the basis of modern immunisations. A tiny amount of a virus like polio or TB introduced into the bloodstream produces immunity against the disease.

There is one important difference between the conventional approach to medicine and homoeopathic philosophy.  Western medicine has always equated the symptom with the disease and has just treated the symptom expecting that to cure the disease and for the patient to feel better.  Homoeopathy, on the other hand, recognises symptoms as indicators that something has become unbalanced in the living system and treats the underlying disease instead of just the symptom.

Homoeopathy uses dilute doses of  naturally occurring plant, mineral or animal derivatives which are prepared in a specialised manner to enable the remedy to become properly potentised. Strangely, the more dilute a remedy becomes, the more potent it becomes. The good news is that the natural approach of homoeopathy makes side effects and complications virtually unheard of.  It is recognised to be an extremely safe method for treating dogs of any age.

 © 2001 Frances Gavin