NEW WAYS TO HEALTH THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE STIMULATING THE BODY'S NATURAL IMMUNE SYSTEM B Y SARAH RICHARDSON PREFACE BY WILLIAM SHEVIN, M.D. PRESIDENT, THE NATIONALCENTER FOR HOMEOPATHY FOREWORD BY ROBERT SCHILLER, M.D. • *' .' / 01117 0584 STIMULATING THE BODY'S NATURAL IMMUNE SYSTEM BY i SARAH RICHARDSON, RS HOM FOREWORDBY V ROBERT SCHILLER, M.D. PREFACE BY WILLIAM SHEVIN, M.D. PRESIDENT, THE NATIONALCENTER FOR HOMEOPATHY, WASHINGTON, D.C. HARMONY BOOKS NEW YORK © TheHamlyn PublishingGroup Limited 1988 All rights reserved. No partofthisbookmaybe reproduced ortransmittedin any form orbyany means, electronicormechanical, including photocopying, recording, orbyanyinformation storageand retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Harmony Books, a divisionofCrown Publishers, Inc., 225 Park Avenue South, New York, NewYork 10003. Originally publishedin Great Britain in 1988by TheHamlyn Publishing Group Limited, a division ofthe Octopus Publishing Group, HARMONY and colophonare trademarks of Crown Publishers, Inc. Printed and bound in Hong Kong Library ofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data Richardson, Sarah Homeopathy: Stimulating the Body's Natural Immune System (New ways tohealth) Bibliography: p. Includes Index. I. Homeopathy-Popular works. I. Title. II. Series: New ways to health book. RX76.R53 1989 (.15.532 88-16587 ISBN 0-517-57148-X L0987654 3 2 1 I list 1 dition Publisher's Note: I his book is designed .is a source guide foi readers to use when deciding whethei to participate in an overall homeopathic program rhedecisionto seek health advice from .» homeopath is individual choi<< coni rs Foreword 4 Preface 5 INTRODUCTION 7 1 2 HOW CAN HOMEOPATHY HELP? 11 3 HOMEOPATHY IN CONTEXT 31 4 HOW HOMEOPATHY WORKS 45 5 HOMEOPATHY IN ACTION 75 6 RELATED THERAPIES 99 7 FOUNDATIONS OF HOMEOPATHY 123 8 FINDING AND CONSULTING A HOMEOPATH 145 9 USEFUL INFORMATION 155 Useful Addresses 156 Index 157 Acknowledgments 160 Sausalito Public Library Sausalito, California 94965 came to homeopathy the way many doctors do. I used it Ito treatmyself. Aftertaking amedical seminarinhomeo- pathy, I soonhadoccasion to tryit. Carryingahugebundle ofmedicaljournals out to the garbage, I tripped down the stairs and injured my ankle. Cursing those volumes for causing me pain rather than giving me guidance to heal others, Idecidedtotrymynewknowledgeofhomeopathy, and used the remedy Arnica. This was not a study; there is no way to know what the outcome would have been with- outthehomeopathy. However, myanklehealedinoneday. Since then I have developed clinical confidencein this re- markable approach to healing. It is effective not only for treating a multitude ofcommon medical problems, but it canenhancetheimmunesystem and preventillness as well. Homeopathy offers an accessible, effective alternative to conventional medical treatment thatpromotes self-careand usesremedieswithminimalsideeffects. Aftergainingsome experience under the supervision ofa trained practitioner, most people can use it to easily treat a wide range ofhealth problems at home. And, as presently manufactured, homeopathic remedies are significantly less expensive than their conventional counterparts. Increasing numbers ofpeople are seeking out alternative medicines as a result offrustration with our standardhealth caresystemorwiththesystem's failuretohelpthem. Alter- nativeapproachestomedicinefulfilladeepneedbyoffering practical therapeutic answers in a more sensitive, indivi- dualized fashion. Homeopathy is one ofthe more promis- ing ofthese therapies and deserves a wider audience and an important position ina new, comprehensive, morehuman- istic medical system. With her book, Homeopathy: Stimulat- ing the Body's Natural Immune System, Sarah Richardson has performed a great service by providing us with a clear, use- ful summary ofthis vital medical tradition. MP. Robert Schiller. Homeopathyis medicineon thehumanscale. Itis prob- ably the simplest ofthe complementary therapies for people without specialist knowledge to understand. The centraltenet-thatlikecureslike-isasimple, satisfyingidea that is easy to grasp. The homeopathicvocabulary is pleas- ingly uncluttered with medical terms; indeed, the language ofhomeopathy is simply the description ofthe experience ofdisease in the human body, something which is part of everyone's life and therefore accessible to all. Homeopathy is also about individuals: each diagnosis is specificandeachremedyispreciselytailoredtothepatient's symptoms. In other words, the patient is part ofthe cure. Soitisnotsurprisingthatgrowingnumbersofpeopleare turning to homeopathy as part ofthe general shift towards taking more responsibility for one's own health. An essen- tial part ofthis responsibility is self-education. Homeopathy: StimulatingtheBody'sNaturalImmuneSystem will be an indispensable aid to self-education. In a clear, informative text, Sarah Richardson provides a sound basic introduction to this therapy: she covers the history ofthe idea ofhomeopathy, discusses the work and dedication of its founder Dr Samuel Hahnemann and in more practical terms, explains how homeopathic diagnoses are built up, how theremedies aremade, anddescribes theexperienceof homeopathic treatment through different case histories. As a practising homeopathic physician with orthodox training and experience, I know that homeopathy works; rather than merely suppressing symptoms, it actually makes people healthier. Its potential, within medicine, is enormous. Homeopathy: Stimulating the Body's Natural Im- mune System shows you why this is and how homeopathy can work for you. William Shevin, MD, D.Ht President, the National Center for DC Homeopathy, Washington HOMEOPATHY Homeopathy is a system ofmedical therapy that con- centrates on care ofthe whole person by methods that aregentleandsympathetictothebody'sneeds. Itdeveloped from investigations carried out in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by a German physician, Dr Samuel Hahnemann. This development has been generally inde- pendent ofother kinds oftherapy, but homeopathy is, in many ways, complementary to other systems of health care, including Western orthodox medicine. And although conventional doctors cannot explain exactly how homeo- pathy works, work it does - often with quite dramatic and remarkable results. What does 'homeopathy' mean? The Physician's highest The word homeopathy was coined by Hahnemann from calling, his only calling, is two Greek words, homoios (like) andpathos (suffering). The to make sick people first syllable is pronounced to rhyme with Tom, and has healthy - to heal, as it is nothing to do with the Latin homo (man). Hahnemann's termed. word neatly sums up one ofthe basic principles ofhomeo- Samuel Hahnemann pathy, which had been expressed for centuries in medical treatises by the Latin tag similia similibus curantur, meaning 'like is cured by like'. In contrast, orthodox medicine is generally based on the principle of opposites, so Hahne- mann coined the word 'allopathy', from the Greek alios (other), to describe its principles. Like cures like, and the minimum dose Together with the principle of'like cures like' homeopathy couples a second, equallyimportant, concept: the useofthe minimum dose. Theappropriatenessofhomeopathicmedi- cines has been determined by monitoring the effects of various substances on healthy people. This is known as 'proving'. A patient who displayssigns and symptomssimi- larto those produced by the large dose is given a minimum dose ofthe same substance, to stimulate his or her body's own defence systems. Briefly, the illness and the remedy that is prescribed to treat it produce a similar set ofsymp- toms. The key word is 'similar', not 'the same*. Note that 'symptoms' are felt and detected by patients themselves, whereas 'signs' are the outward manifestations that a practi- tioner sees when examining patients. i- )ne major advantage oi homeopathy is its safety. While its medicines arc- powerful in action, working with the Unix \ own defences, theiractual measurablestrength is too