Homoeopa­thy is a med­ical sys­tem with which any med­ical con­di­tion in any human being of any age has the poten­tial to be treat­ed. Homoeopa­thy is safe and effec­tive, which is proven not only by the world-wide sup­port and inter­est of patients and health pro­fes­sion­als, but also by research and clin­i­cal tri­als in var­i­ous relat­ed areas/fields.

Homoeopa­thy is a ther­a­peu­tic med­ical sys­tem, which is based on the obser­va­tion that sub­stances that are capa­ble of caus­ing dis­eases of the mind or body in healthy peo­ple can be used in the dilute form as reme­dies to treat the sim­i­lar dis­or­der in some­one who is ill. This is the homoeo­path­ic Law of Sim­i­lars also expressed as “Let Likes be Cured by Likes”. The word homoeopa­thy is derived from the Greek words homoios, mean­ing like, and pathos, mean­ing suffering.

Dr. Samuel Hah­ne­mann (1755–1843) was the physi­cian who devel­oped the use of the ther­a­peu­tic prin­ci­ple of sim­i­lars, in 1796.

Specif­i­cal­ly pre­pared and dilut­ed med­i­c­i­nal sub­stances are dis­pensed as poten­tised reme­dies to the patient.

The key to suc­cess­ful homoeo­path­ic treat­ment is iden­ti­fy­ing the sim­i­lar­i­ty between the effects of the orig­i­nal sub­stance in healthy peo­ple and the pat­tern of ill­ness in the indi­vid­ual who is sick. It is the sim­i­lar­i­ty that is essen­tial. The homoeo­path­ic method involves an excep­tion­al­ly com­plete and detailed descrip­tion of the patient, the ill­ness and its evolution.

Patients often make the choice to vis­it a home­opath for a safer yet effec­tive alter­na­tive to con­ven­tion­al med­i­cine. Home­o­path­ic prac­ti­tion­ers are capa­ble of sup­port­ing a con­ven­tion­al med­ical approach both diag­nos­ti­cal­ly and ther­a­peu­ti­cal­ly through var­i­ous options of com­ple­men­tary treat­ment. The home­o­path­ic approach acknowl­edges the impor­tance of indi­vid­u­al­i­sa­tion. Homoeopa­thy is patient dri­ven and caters for the spe­cif­ic needs unique to every patient’s expe­ri­ence of ill­ness. It is a holis­tic sys­tem that can take into account every aspect of the patient’s life and being, mak­ing it a ther­a­peu­tic sys­tem that employs the body’s own heal­ing poten­tial to the ben­e­fit of the patient’s over-all health and wellbeing.

Home­opa­thy in South Africa sup­ports the health objec­tives of the gov­ern­ment of South Africa.

(Adapt­ed from http://www.hsa.org.za/homoeopathy-explained)