Homoeopathy is a holistic system of medicine, which aims to stimulate the body to heal itself. It is based on the principle 'like cures like'. It was founded by a German doctor Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) in the late 18th century. The word 'homoios' means 'like' or 'similar' and 'pathos' means 'suffering' and so Homoeopathy is a 'Medicine of likes'. It is a method of curing the sufferings in a diseased individual by administration of remedies that have the capacity to produce similar sufferings in a relatively healthy individual.
Homeopathy is a holistic system of therapeutics based on the "Law of similars" . It affects the entire organism simultaneously producing positive changes psychologically, emotionally and physically. It is holistic medicine in that the whole human being is considered in any treatment plan. Homeopaths need to gain an understanding of the individual on all levels of their being in order to effectively assist them to return to wholeness or health. Holistic medicine also implies an understanding of the whole human being in the context of their environment. Holistic medicine respects the integrity of the human organism and works with the body's natural healing tendencies to correct imbalances rapidly, gently and permanently.
Some benefits of holistic homeopathy include:
1. curative
2. individualized
3. safe, gentle
4. non-invasive
5. non-toxic
6. non-addictive
7. can be used in conjunction with regular medicine
Homoeopathy today is a rapidly growing system and is being practiced almost all over the world. In India it has become a household name due the safety of its pills and gentleness of its cure. A rough study states that about 10% of the Indian population solely depend Homoeopathy for their Health care needs and is considered as the Second most popular system of medicine in the Country. It is more than a century and a half now that Homoeopathy is being practiced in India. It has blended so well into the roots and traditions of the country that it has been recognised as one of the National System of Medicine and plays a very important role in providing health care to a large number of people. Its strength lies in its evident effectiveness as it takes a holistic approach towards the sick individual through promotion of inner balance at mental, emotional, spiritual and physical levels. The word ‘Homoeopathy’ is derived from two Greek words, Homois meaning similar and pathos meaning suffering. Homoeopathy simply means treating diseases with remedies, prescribed in minute doses, which are capable of producing symptoms similar to the disease when taken by healthy people. It is based on the natural law of healing- "Similia Similibus Curantur” which means "likes are cured by likes”. It was given a scientific basis by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann ( 1755-1843) in the early 19th century. It has been serving suffering humanity for over two centuries and has withstood the upheavals of time and has emerged as a time tested therapy, for the scientific principles propounded by Hahnemann are natural and well proven and continue to be followed with success even today.
An evidence-based medicine is the best standard for accessing efficacy of any health care practice. Homoeopathy, now has all the standards for research methodology and clinical trials as it is completely based on rigorous scientific methods of proving with the results. On other hand the philosophical background of homoeopathy lead into open ended questions and many more challenges. The article aims at the importance and scope for researches, challenges, evolution of homoeopathy in research field.
An evidence-based medicine is the best standard for accessing efficacy and safety of any health care practices. For any stream to progress in this century, it is important that it reflects through its being the element of science. Unless a concept behind a system is scientific, it is taken with a pinch of salt. The basic function of research is to answer why and how of a phenomenon, but searching answers to what, when, how much, etc. and to enhance the stream of research. Today, all branches of Medicine are becoming research-driven, for, as per the contemporary understanding, it is not enough for a system that claims to be a part of medicine to be well-followed, it must also be well-researched. Homeopathy, then, is no exception to the rule , the philosophical background of homoeopathy lead into open ended questions and many more challenges. This challenge is been accepted wisely by many homoeopaths and homoeopathic institutes which are dedicatedly working for the evaluation of homoeopathy. The homoeopathic organization are setting up many institutes for promoting research on new diseases and their treatment. The high-quality research institutes are working best on many diseases like cancer, homoeopathy is been a safer and more preferable palliative medicine as it improves the lifestyles of the individual and a curative medicine in many cases where pathology is in control. Many case studies are there on behavioural diseases, anxiety disorder, autism, ADHD, syzophrenia, OCD and other psychiatric diseases with a positive conclusion. PNED (psychoneuroendocrino disorders) is the vast ground for any type of medical healthcare system to explore with research and homoeopathy is a step ahead in this. A countable research papers have worked on autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, haemophilia, psoriasis with a sufficient number of case studies These also include studies on conditions like tuberculosis, chronic sinusitis, skin problems, respiratory illnesses among others. Not only for diseases but researches helping us to study the plausibility of homoeopathy, clinical efficacy, cost effectiveness as compared to other dispensaries and public faith too. Homoeopathy has been used in veterinary medicine since the early 1900s. Well-documented researches in veterinary and botany fields are more plausible than those done on human beings. The positive results from studies done on animals can overrule the benefit of doubt that goes in favour of ‘placebo effect’, Literary researches, through which one can gauge the relevance of the voluminous homeopathic literature available in the Materia Medica, Repertory and Organon and testify its validity in the current time, are needed to rise up the system to a more relevant standard. There are several terms in Materia Medica that are now obsolete, many rubrics in repertory that are either irrelevant, or beyond the scope of understanding and various concepts in Organon that no longer hold true in the present context. To make the seemingly irrelevant portion of homeopathic literature more understandable by way of scientific and/or literary explanation and to omit or replace the obsolete terms and rubrics in materia medica and repertory with more comprehensive ones will not only be a worthy task, but also contribute to the system up-gradation as a whole. Also, analytical researches on the correct methodology of education, communication and research training are being carried out for an assured quality of the system. Current collection of articles in homoeopathic research are URL Links to 279 studies (Journal-wise) including 171 FULL TEXT papers. Which can be downloaded as pdf and some can be script. The electronic databases: PubMed Central (National Library of medicine, USA), MedWorm, British library Direct (type homeopathy in search box), Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (type homeopathy in search box), Scirus, Google Scholar,HomBRex,The Allied and Complementary Medicine Database,Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trial, Embase ,Science Citation Index, Lilacs and CAM QUEST and Clinical Outcome Research in Homeopathy. Upto the end of year 2010, there have been 299 studies published in 114 medical journals (92 integrative, 9 homeopathy and 13 CAM journals) including 11 meta-analysis, 8 systematic reviews including 1 cochrane review (out of approximately 20 systematic reviews published) and 81 RCT (68 DBRPCT + 2 SBRPCT + 6 DBRCT + 1 RPCT + 4 RCT) out of approx 225 RCT published) in evidence of homoeopathy to produce significant to substantial health benefits in a wide array of health conditions.
Even though pointing out all the problem areas of research in Homeopathy remains a challenge, owing to its wide sphere and variety, it is important that the young homeopaths willing to take up the challenge of homeopathic research make themselves sound for research in order to proceed in the right direction. The present of homoeopathy is what the result of such wisely recorded researches and the future seems more brighter as many more researches are coming for enhancing validity quotient of homoeopathy.
You must look for following qualities in your Homeopathic doctor in order to best serve their patients, some of which are inherent, and others which can be learned. Let’s take a look at some of the key skills homeopaths should have:
According to the Oxford dictionary, Empathy means ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’, as opposed to sympathy which means ‘feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune’. There has been much research in the area of empathy, with debates around whether empathy can be learned or taught. Research seems to show that empathy is both an innate ability as well as something which can be encouraged and learned. Some researchers have said that empathy is something which happens to a person, and is experienced, rather than something which is done. However behaviors such as self-awareness, non-judgement, listening skills and self-confidence can be developed to encourage the experience of empathy.