Feature: Most of us have heard of homoeopathy but  most of our knowledge is limited. Also, there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding it. Since April 10 to 16 is World Homoeopathy Awareness Week, we asked experts in the field to separate wheat from chaff. Read on to know more..

What is homoeopathy?

Homoeopathy works at the level of mind and body, which mirror each other. It helps improve overall state of wellbeing — like better sleep, improved stamina, regulates appetite and thirst. It is the answer for a safe, gentle, holistic and permanent cure, says Dr Khushnoom H Talati, consultant homoeopath, MD, Homeopathy.

She adds, “Homoeopathy is not about treating an illness, rather, it is about treating the person who is ill. An allopath would prescribe antacids to three individuals suffering from a bout of acidity. But in homoeopathy, each of these three individuals would be given a tailor-made, customised medicine as per the history, considering the personality of the sufferer and treat the cause of illness, not just the effects, improve his/her adaptation to circumstances and environment and thus, prevent subsequent bouts of acidity.”

Homoeopathy medication should be taken only as prescribed by a qualified homeopath – Thinkstock

Its USP

In today’s world, people are taking so many allopathy drugs for so many ailments and there’s rampant antibiotic abuse and resistance. What’s the USP of homoeopathy? Dr Kunal Shah, MD, Consulting Homoeopath, explains, “Antibiotics along with destroying bad bacteria, kill good bacteria in the body as well. That, in turn, causes lot of side effects in patients like weakness, nausea, vomiting, gastritis, etc. Also, nowadays several strains of bacteria have become resistant to many antibiotics and so they are not killed by first line of antibiotics. They have to be given higher doses for much longer period of time, which further aggravates the above mentioned complaints.”

He adds that in comparison, homoeopathy is a much milder and gentler form of treatment with minimal side-effects. Also, these medicines are easy to administer for all age groups, are very economical and not to forget, homoeopathy medicines have a wide range of action.

Myth: Homoeopathy is slow and can cure only chronic cases

Dr Talati says that generally, people turn to homoeopathy as a last resort when all conventional methods fail to give a cure. By then, the disease becomes a long standing one. Time taken for a cure to take place is proportional to the time of onset of illness.

Dr Yatri Thacker, Homoeopathic Physician, Parent and child counsellor, International Childbirth Educator says, “Homoeopathy is the fastest to cure without side-effects. The treatment depends on how long the person is suffering. For example, acute stomach infection can be treated in two days and arthritis takes longer to treat, as it is a chronic disease.”

Myth: Homoeopathy is no better than placebo

Homoeopathy cures infants and animals, who would certainly not know if they’ve been given a placebo. Throughout history there have been documentations of homoeopathy successfully treating epidemics of scarlet fevers, cholera, typhus and influenza pandemic, reasons Dr Talati.

Myth: Homoeopathy is quackery

Dr Shah informs Homoeopathic Materia Medica (book) is a vast repertoire of more than 1,200 drugs for various conditions that have been effectively used since past 200 years in curing various illnesses. Also, homoeopathy is officially recognised by the Indian government and has a central body CCH (Central council of Homoeopathy), registration and research bodies attached to Health Ministry. Alongwith the Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) course now, MD in Homoeopathy has also started, which is a full-time course of five-and-a-half and three years, respectively.

Myth: Homoeopathic self-medication is harmless

Homoeopathy medication should be taken only as prescribed by a qualified homeopath. A wrongly administered remedy can do more harm than good, cautions Dr Talati.

Myth: Homoeopathy cannot be given to pregnant women and newborns

Dr Thacker says that homoeopathy can be safely consumed during pregnancy. In fact, it works best for morning sickness, low appetite, diabetes or hypertension induced during pregnancy and post-partum depression. As for infants, homoeopathy is safest. It can be given to a newborn in low doses and it can be dissolved into mother’s milk.

Myth: There’s no proof of how homoeopathy medicines act

Homoeopathic medicines are prepared through specific pharmacological process of trituration and succession (dilution and vigorous shaking) as per the rules laid down in Indian Homoeopathic Pharmacopeia. Generally, it’s believed that in homoeopathy, medicines have a very small amount of medicinal substance, so how can it act? In the past few years, there has been lot of study in this matter, informs Dr Shah. He adds that in 2013, a study showed how subtle electromagnetic signals from homoeopathic remedies have their effect on a body. Shahabi and colleagues published, Like cures like. A neuroimmunological model based on electro magnetic resonance.

Myth: Homoeopathy medicines contain steroids, cortisol

Dr Thacker says homoeopathy has no steroids or cortisol. If cortisol is given for more than 30 days, it gives rise to symptoms such as swelling or puffiness of face, brittle bones, rise in blood sugar, etc. None of these symptoms appear when homoeopathy is taken for more than 30 days.

Dr Shah says that no homoeopathy doctor will use steroids for any of the complaints because they are not the answer to all problems. Also, steroids have lot of side-effects if taken for a long period of time. Patients can develop moon face, osteoporosis, pepticulcers, etc. There are many people taking homoeopathy medicines for years without any such complaints.

Myth: In homoeopathy, complaints increase first

This is not true, argues Dr Shah, adding that it does not happen in all cases but only in very few which the doctor informs the patient in advance. Also, during homoeopathy treatment, one is asked to stop all the other local applications like balm, ointments, drops, etc. Therefore, complaints may increase not because of homoeopathy but because of stopping these, as they cause suppression of the lesions or discharges