...Garrett Lundry AS 101 Homeopathy Homeopathy is an alternative form of medicine which involves treating individuals with “natural” substances at an attempt to trigger the body’s natural method of healing. There are three basic principles of Homeopathy. First, Homeopaths believe in the idea that you can treat “like with like.” Homeopathy contends that substances that produce symptoms in healthy people can cure those symptoms in sick people. The second is the principle of minimum dose which says that extreme dilution enhances the curative properties of a substance, while eliminating any possible side effects. Homeopathic remedies are prepared by highly diluting the substance in water or alcohol, often until none of the original substance remains. Last is the idea that when prescribing a remedy a doctor must study the person as whole. Basically your emotional characteristics and personality might match you with a different treatment then someone is exhibiting identical symptoms. This means there could be countless possible remedies for each person. (ICBS, Inc) The idea of Homeopathy has been around for around 200 years and the supporting evidence is continued to be tested and analyzed. The theory that you can treat “like with like”, or Law of Similars, was developed by Samueal Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy. Hahnemann based this idea off of his study of cinchona bark, which is used to treat malaria. Upon ingesting the substance he experienced symptoms...
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...of questions came to mind. These questions consisted of; Why is there a child laying on the teacher’s desk while someone is holding their heart? What is that creature floating outside of the window? Who is that person wearing a hood in the back? Why is there a cat in the back left corner? I then realized that I didn’t even know what the name of this piece meant. This then led me to looking up the definition of Homeopathic, which I then learned comes from the term Homeopathy. The definition of Homeopathy is “Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann based on his doctrine of like cures like (similia similibus curentur), a claim that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people would cure similar symptoms in sick people. Large-scale studies have found homeopathic preparations to be no more effective than a placebo, suggesting that positive feelings after taking homeopathic medicines are due to the placebo effect and normal recovery from illness. Homeopathy is what is known as a pseudoscience, a belief that is incorrectly presented as scientific and is ineffective for treating any condition.”...
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...practice falls into five main categories as classified by National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). These include alternative medical systems such as acupuncture, ayurveda, homeopathy, and naturopathic medicine; mind-body interventions like art therapy, dance therapy, hypnotherapy and meditation; biologically-based therapies like diet supplements, herbal products and megavitamins; manipulative and body-based methods such as chiropractic massage therapy, osteotherapy, reflexology and acupressure and finally energy therapies like biofield therapies (e.g. therapeutic touch and Qi gong) and bioelectromagnetic-based therapies like pulsed fields and magnetic fields (Wong, 2009). With a lot of controversy arising as to whether alternative medicine is quackery, this paper focuses on homeopathy with specific attention on the way it is believed to work and the various controversial issues about homeopathy such as dilution problem, quantum entanglement, and clinical evidence and whether it is simply an elaborate placebo. Homeopathy is a system of medicine whereby individuals are treated with natural substances which are highly diluted. These remedies trigger the body’s natural healing power thereby providing relief from physical and emotional states. The principle of homeopathy is Similia Similibus Curenturc meaning that “let likes cure likes”. The implication of this is that if a substance can bring about signs and symptoms in a health individual, the same...
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...Homeopathy-Why Is It Called the Gentle Cure? Homeopathy is a method of treatment based on the principle of ‘Similia Similibus Curantur”- which is nothing but Greek for similar cures similars. Homeopathy is a unique line of treatment, since it has rightly maintained its old worldly charm while seamlessly blending in with the present and promising an optimistic future. To understand why homeopathy is frequently referred to as the gentle cure, we need to first of all, understand the term-gentle. What are the things that cross your minds, when you think of gentle? Is it a newborn baby, a snowy white baby rabbit or maybe the touch of a rose petal against your cheek? Well, homeopathy is as mild and gentle as any of these things could be. Homeopathy works gently on your body, to help your inherent immunity to overcome the onslaught of disease. It does not entail any torturing or agonizing measures like blood letting, needle pricking or usage of any heavy doses of chemical drug concoctions. Homeopathic medications will begin their action and bring about an effective cure, as gently, mildly and effortlessly as your breath passes through your nostrils. You might not even realize when you were cured of your long standing chronic pain or disease. The doses used in homeopathy are as minute as they could be. Using just as much of medicinal substance as could be held on the tip of a needle, effective cures for major disorders like Heart or Liver disorders could be brought about...
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...homeopathy and the search for meaning[1] By Joseph Zarfaty Introduction We all know that when homeopaths meet to discuss a case, they rarely come out with the same remedy. An article I read in The Homeopath (Boulderstone 1994) suggested an inspiring explanation. Boulderstone said that two or more observers, albeit unprejudiced, cannot be the same. For this reason, different analyses of a case will exist with their different accompanying remedies. What causes the cure, is not the actual remedy given but the whole process of taking the case and understanding the patient. I believe that the act of understanding is closely linked with the notion of meaning. In this paper I will discuss this concept briefly and will then introduce the work of David Bohm, a preeminent 20th Century physicist and philosopher. His theories of Wholeness and the Implicate Order and Unfolding Meaning can provide a platform on which a better understanding of homeopathy's magic action becomes possible. What is meaning? Grasping the term 'meaning', or worse than that, understanding what is the 'meaning of meaning' is no easy task. There are various levels in which meaning can be defined, starting with the simple, day to day use of the word and ending up with deep linguistic and philosophical questions. The word 'meaning' is derived from an old English word denoting to 'recite, tell, intend, wish'. In today's English it implies 'that which is conveyed' but also 'a significant quality'. Without...
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...Homeopathy: An alternative means of Treatment Nicoline Lami Edie Langston University Introduction Homeopathy is an alternative medicine developed more than 200 years ago in Germany at the end of the 18th century by Dr Samuel Hahneman. This natural healing system is based on the theory “of like cures like” wherein an actual substance that produces symptoms in a healthy person can stimulate self-healing of similar symptoms in a sick person. Plants, minerals and animals are compounded into different forms such as ointment gels, drops, creams and tablets. The word homeopathy comes from the Greek word; “homeos”, which means similar and “pathos”, meaning disease (Wyatt, Sikorskii & You, 2013, p. 34). Our rationale for choosing this topic is our desire to broaden our knowledge on the intricacies of homeopathy. It is a concept that eludes us as nursing students. As people who collectively have as final goal to provide health care to the population in general, it will be of interest to know what other forms of complementary medicines our clients are using. In addition, people who use homeopathic medicine do so while still actively seeking the services of medical practitioners or cannot afford conventional medicine or better still because it is a practice that has been handed to them from generation to generation. According to Zimmerman (2012), 30% of nurse-midwives in North Carolina recommended Statistical data suggest that homeopathy is a well-known...
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...a remedy in Homeopathy that is especially prepared out of a tiny portion of jellyfish ink, a dark-brown tint employed by painters and printers. In 1834, Hahnemann (founder of Homeopathy) noticed the ill effects experienced by an artist who, while painting, often licked his paintbrush soaked in jellyfish ink. Because a substance that causes similar symptoms to a disease has the capacity to cure it in minimal doses, Hahnemann developed Sepia. It is considered by many Homeopaths a "polychrest," that is, a remedy with an extensive number of uses. Although Sepia is mainly employed in women's health, it has much more to offer. Women's Health Hormone imbalance related to premenstrual syndrome, hot flashes experienced during menopause, and any type of menstruation troubles. Pregnancy symptoms, physical or emotional, such as nausea and fatigue. Painful intimate relationships. There may be incontinence and heavy abdominal pressure when coughing or laughing, which indicates the uterus prolapsed (Sepia Homeopathy can also help with this). Yeast infections also call for this remedy....
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...James Tyler Kent Written by Christine Lipsett Ontario College of Homeopathy Dr. James Tyler Ken was born on March 31, 1849 in Woodhull, New York. His father was Stephen Kent. Dr. Kent was a loyal Baptist. He went to elementary and secondary school at the Franklin Academy in Plattsburg. He graduated from the Electric Medical Institute of Cincinnati at the age of twenty five. In 1874 he married his wife Caroline, a Baptist like himself. In 1878 his wife became very ill. Caroline’s illness did not respond to electric or allopathic treatment. Some other form of medical treatment was to be needed. Homeopath care was used on Caroline and she was cured by a homeopath. This is when Dr. Kent’s enthusiasm in Homeopathic Medicine began. Dr. Kent then became a student of Hahnemann’s Organon school and completely converted to homeopathic medicine. Dr. Kent resigned from the Electric Medical Association in 1879 and was appointed to the chair of anatomy in the homeopathic medical college of Missouri. He held this position from 1883 to 1888. In 1881 he accepted a chair of professor anatomy from the Homeopathic College of Missouri and then the chair of surgery. During that same year Dr. Kent’s first wife passed away. Dr.Kent me his second wife, Clara-Louise. She was a practising physician. Later on he was dean and professor of Materia Medica in the Post Graduate School of Homeopathies, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and dean and professor of Herring Medical College, Chicago. In 1905 he held the...
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...Homeopathic Philosophy Describe your understanding of the basic philosophy and principles of homeopathy and how they differ from allopathy. The world of modern-day medicine is full of different approaches. We can find traditional, oriental, preventive, natural, herbal, dynamic therapies, but all of them could be divided into homeopathic and allopathic due to the main idea of these terms. The word 'homeopathy' was invented by Samuel Hahnemann in 1810, it derives from Greek roots 'omeos', meaning 'similar', and 'pathos', meaning 'suffering'. Thus 'homeopathy' means “to treat with something that produces an effect similar to the suffering” (Vithoulkas 1985, p.16). Whereas the term 'allopathy' uses the root 'allo' ('other') and means the method of cure that creates the opposite effect in the body (Vithoulkas 1985). Therefore the first and the most important difference is that any treatment may be either homeopathic or allopathic if it is given on the understanding what symptoms it may initiate in other circumstances - similar or opposite (Roy 2009). In my view it's important to keep in mind that the names of the methods “allopathic”, “palliative” or “antipathic” are the terms created by Hahnemann (1989) with the aim of separating his new revolutionary approach to cure from school of medicine and since that time have been used by homeopaths mostly to emphasize the opposite principle of cure. Consequently, the basic principles of allopathy can be reviewed only in comparison...
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...The Placebo Effect The activity I chose to write about was on Dr. Walter A. Brown’s article in Scientific American about placebos and their effect on the patients. His article described what a placebo is and if it is ethical for doctors to prescribe this treatment to their patients. Dr. Brown, who is a psychologist at Brown University, decided to do a study on the effects of a placebo. A placebo is any treatment or drug with no medicinal value that is given to a patient to relieve symptoms of an ailment. His hypothesis in the article focused on if the placebos had any effect on the patients who took the placebos. To test his hypothesis, Dr. Brown and his colleagues performed experiments on patients who had depression. To test his idea, he employed what is known as the double blind technique. This type of experimentation involves that neither the doctors nor the patients know if they are receiving the real stuff or simply sugar pills (placebos). Only the experimenters know who gets what. What this supposedly does is that the patient will mentally think that the doctor is giving him/her the real drug and they will soon be feeling better. When in reality, it is themselves, not the medicine, which makes them feel better. These are the findings of Dr. Brown. In his experiments on the placebos, he found that the placebo can make a person feel better, but it can also have no effect what-so-ever. In his study of the depressed patients, about 50% of the subjects...
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...Sharon Begley. “Placebo Nation: Just Believe” Newsweek. March 17, 2008 This magazine article from Newsweek was very useful and compared to other sources it was less scientifically written. It was from a reliable source the Newsweek and it was objective for my research, and the goal of this article was to inform you of how placebos work and if they are effective. W. Grant Thompson, MD. The Placebo Effect and Health: Combining Science and Compassionate Care. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books, 2005 This book was useful it was a whole book focused on how placebos were used, worked and different concepts to it, this source is different due it being something directly talking about m topic. Yes the source is reliable, and this source is objective, and the goal of this source was to inform how placebos come with many scientific concepts and reasoning. Miller, `Franklin G, and Luana Colloca. “The Legitimacy of Placebos treatments in clinical practice: evidence and ethics”. The American Journal of Bioethics. AJOB9 no.12 December 2009; 39-47. MEDLINE, EBSCOhost, Oct. 23,2011. Classical Library “Psychotherapy”. 1985. 22, 163-169. In Understanding Psychotherapy: Fifty years of Client- centered Theory and Practice. PCCS Books.2000 “Placebo”. The Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Ed. K Lee and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner 4th Vol. Detroit. Gale, 2008. P.3325-3346 Gale Virtual Reference Library Web. Oct 23, 2011. Classical Library. < http://go.galegroup/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX2830101798&v=2...
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...Therapeutic Touch By Chelsie Boyce Let me begin by saying that after watching several videos (including those provided by you) and reading even more articles, I am more mixed about my acceptance of therapeutic touch. Before this assignment I would have said I was strongly against this practice, but now I am more open to the idea. However, I still believe that therapeutic touch is not a true form of medical healing. To begin with, the Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary states that this alternative medicine is a practice where the nurse or practitioner treats a patient by passing his or her hands over a person’s body to promote relaxation, pain reduction and or healing. I must say that the thought of someone’s hands hovering over my body kind of makes me giggle. I keep replaying a scene from Karate Kid over and over again in my head and thinking “yea right” if only it were that easy. After reviewing my resources, I am still very skeptical. Yes, some stated that patients believed they were doing better. But to me that was just it… a belief. Those who had a strong faith in this technique did show signs of relaxation and possible improvement, but I am not sure if the technique caused the reaction or the patient themselves invited the result. Just like Emily Rosa’s experiment supported, as nurses or practitioners we want to believe we can feel the energy being given off and that we are interacting with our patient. Yet, more times than not we are wrong. Along...
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...One of the main reasons for skepticism in Homeopathy is due to the way homeopathic medicine is created. When a homeopathic doctor creates their remedies, they are diluted and potentized. One of the downfalls of proving that homeopathic therapy works is the process used. Science Based Medicine, Allopathic Medicine, does not want to believe that reducing the potency of the medicine you are still succeeding at bring proper treatment to the patient (Milgrom, L. R. (2006)). The law of similar and the minimum dose principle has been the cause behind the controversy in the belief that Homeopathic therapy can be considered a medical treatment. The principle of the law of similar is that the substance used will cause an array of symptoms in a healthy...
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...Homeopathy is a popular form of medicine to treat cancer. BS, BA, Crystal Rosser, in her article, Homeopathy in Cancer Care: Part I—An Introduction to “Like Curing Like”, describes that oncology nurses should be aware of the challenges of homeopathy in cancer care. The purpose of the article is to be informative and bring awareness of homeopathic remedies. In addition, the author's purpose is defined by using examples to illustrate the explanations to her overall message. The article is written in a formal format and is serious in tone. This choice of tone creates a powerful message to readers to highlight and reiterate the message of the importance of exercising caution with patients who chose alternative forms of treatment. The targeted audience is narrow to oncology nurses however the information in the article could be extended to a broader audience of healthcare professionals or patients. Crystal Rosser, BS, BA, is a cancer research fellow at the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. Her credentials appear to be a creditable source on the subject. This author does not regularly produce articles. The article was published in The Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing for Volume eight Number three on June 2004. The author’s message is that oncology nurses should be aware of the practice of homeopathy to provide accurate and reliable information to patients. The author lists several studies that supported the...
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...Homeopathy and Naturopathy: Nature Benefiting Nurture According to the 2009 Milliman Medical Index, an average family of four, covered by an employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) insurance plan, will still spend almost $17,000 in medical expenses annually. Traditional doctors charge outrageous prices for medical care that is generated to target a broad array of ailments as well as prescribe chemically infused drugs that cause harmful side effects. Traditional prescriptions also lack a singular healing focus, and target multiple issues-even when unneeded. Alternative medical options are growing more popular as individuals branch out in search of more natural healing options. Naturopathic and Homeopathic treatments are becoming more influential as individuals search for a way to avoid harmful side effects, courtesy of chemically infused drugs, as well as less expensive forms of medical care. The principle of Homeopathy has been known since the time of Hippocrates, the founder of medicine, around 450. Over a thousand years later Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist, employed the same system based on the principle of ‘like cures like’. In the late 18th century Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, an accomplished and admired German physician evolved the concept of Homeopathy. Disgusted with the inhumane and at times barbaric medical practices of the time, he began to develop and practice safe, gentle, and effective methods of healing. Dr. Hahnemann...
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