Dr Satish Kumar Attri & Dr Neena Verma
The 10th day of April is a red lettered day in the history of medical reforms as there born a reformer in field of medical science Dr. Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann MD, an eminent Allopath who founded a new science Homoeopathy. Dr Samuel Hahnemann born on 10th April 1755 in Saxony, Germany in the poor family of porcelain painter but still he achieved such a name and fame for his hard work that even today humanity is getting benefitted from his work and remembers him with high respect. World Homoeopathy day is celebrated every year across the world on occasion of his birthday and following whole week is observed as world homoeopathic awareness week. Dr Samuel Hahnemann completed his MD in 1779. At the time of his graduation, scientific advances were beginning to be seen in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology and anatomy. The clinical practice of medicine however was rife with superstition and lack of scientific rigor. The treatments of those days, such as purgatives, bleeding, blistering plasters, herbal preparations and emetics lacked a rational basis and were more harmful than effective. Dr Samuel Hahnemann recognized this and wrote critically about the practices of that time in several papers on topics such as Arsenic poisoning, hygiene, dietetics and psychiatric treatment.
Dr Samuel Hahnemann was the progenitor of several modern medical approaches. Deeming the treatment of insane patients to be cruel and harmful, he advised a humane treatment for the insane. He treated many insane patients with homoeopathy, and became famous for this success. Dr Samuel Hahnemann was quick to recognize poor personal and social hygiene as a contributory cause to the spread of disease. His success with cholera & typhoid fever gave him more recognition. Dr Samuel Hahnemann also emphasized the importance of nursing, diet, bed rest, and isolation of patients during epidemic diseases. Dr Samuel Hahnemann discovered the remedial powers of drugs and inert substances such as gold, platinum, silica, vegetable charcoal, snake poison etc. Dr. Samuel Hahnemann espoused the law of cure known as ‘Similia Similibus Curentur’, or ‘Like Cures Like’. This means that a substance in crude form produces some symptoms in a healthy person and same substance in medicinal form cure those same symptoms when manifested by a person in a diseased state. This law of cure has been verified by millions of homoeopaths and by many other Physicians of other systems of medicines (many of them converted to homoeopathy after seeing the results) all over the world since 1796. Dr Samuel Hahnemann showed how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment. Dr. Hahnemann treated thousands of difficult and chronic cases that defied best care from other Physicians all over the Europe. Thus, he became so famous that physicians from Europe and America came to him for learning Homoeopathy.
So, is it possible that a world renowned much illuminated, visionary and conscientious German Physician having a qualification of MD in 1779 from and who firstly wrote about hereditary links of Diseases in man-kind, one who is regarded as father of Experimental Pharmacology and possess knowledge of more than dozen of languages and one who linked role of emotions and thoughts as a reason behind ones sickness and discovered a holistic concept of treatment and after seeing the results of whom many Physicians of America and Europe left allopathic practice and turned to homoeopathy can discover something like ‘Desi’ or ‘Unscientific’? Absolutely not, it is very inappropriate to call Homoeopathy as Desi or unscientific system of treatment. Homoeopathy as many people thinks to be a system of Desi medicines is not true, in fact homoeopathy is a German system of treatment which is very advanced and highly scientific if practiced on basis of true principles. Homeopathic medicines are mostly prepared from various parts of plants, some from animal, minerals and metal substances. Homoeopathy believes in the ‘vitalistic’ philosophy. According to this belief, along with some external causes, continuous abnormal emotional causes creates a disturbance in the ‘vital force’ (homoeostasis) which negatively affects the health of a person and that is why Homeopaths questions Patients many things about the likings/ dis-likings, behavior and emotional reactions to different situations of life and correlate them with the symptoms of diseases. Homoeopath takes into account the psychological state of Sick along with the physical symptoms of sickness and the modalities which help to individualize the case study for a better prescription. Only Homoeopathy treatment is based on individualization of patient and it chiefly treats the whole man ‘sick’ in disease not only the physical symptoms of sickness. In homoeopathy, the overall goal is to cure rather than palliate the condition by stimulating the organism as a whole to restore the health, to cure. Follow-up criteria of homoeopathy is highly scientific and is as per embryological developmental layers of human, and also in reverse order of appearance of symptoms and for the same reason it is used for treating advanced pathologies and many complex & chronic diseases. The theme for this year World Homoeopathy Day is Homoeoparivar – ‘Sarvajan Swasthya’ or ‘One Health, One Family’.
World Homoeopathy is celebrated to build the capacity and skills of homoeopaths, teaching faculty, researchers, practitioners and students to enhance their skill and quality of homoeopathic treatment. Interactions of Homoeopaths occur on this day which helps to bridge the gaps and create an environment of learning for qualitative transformation of Homoeopaths and Homoeopathy. The discussions over the results, research, experiences and education standards so evolved would help to enhance patient care more effectively, Together we need to make Homoeopathy the first choice of treatment and wellness for suffering humanity. Practitioners get the chance to interact with senior experienced persons to discuss various issues regarding practices and other related issues and on Govt policies also. Some Practitioner/Researchers showcase their work with evidence based results. Practitioners will get an opportunity to interact with researchers, educationists, other practitioners to imbibe best practices in their clinical care. Budding homoeopaths gets learning experience after interacting with educationists and practitioners to evolve as competent professionals. Scientific conventions and seminars on the occasion of the World Homoeopathy Day happens throughout the world. This year the Convention in our country is being organized jointly with the National Commission for Homoeopathy and the National Institute of Homoeopathy. To promote and conduct high quality research programs/projects in fundamental and applied aspects that contributes towards the development of Homoeopathy globally. To Conduct scientific and ethical research thereby enhancing success rate of clinical practice, promotion of safe, efficient and effective treatment in health care delivery and ensuring global acceptance of Homoeopathy. All the organizations are attempting to create an environment of comprehensive development of Homoeopathy in education, research, practice and governance within the country.
The history of Homoeopathy in India is linked with the name of Dr.John Martin Honigberger, a French man who brought homoeopathy to India. He arrived at Lahore in 1829 and was later invited to treat Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab in 1839. Dr Honigberger later on went to Calcutta and started practice there. This system came to be practiced in India during the life time of Dr. Hahnemann, the father of Homoeopathy, when a German Physician and Geologist came to India round about 1810 for geological investigations and remained for some time in Bengal where he distributed homoeopathic medicine to the people. People still had many myths about homoeopathy and because of that they call it to be Desi. Some of the popular myths and true facts are:
Myth- Some people says that Homoeopathy is an unproved science.
Fact- Homoeopathy is based on experimental pharmacological and clinical data recorded by proving of medicines on healthy human beings only. Over the years, homeopathic medicines have been extensively studied for their efficacy in a variety of indications. Clinical studies have been conducted in India as well as other countries. All the principles of homoeopathy are based on sound logic and experimental data only.
Myth- Homoeopathy is slow acting and cannot be used in acute cases.
Fact: Homoeopathy is fast acting in acute cases and can be effectively used in treating acute infections. Unfortunately, people tend to go to a homeopath only when the acute problem becomes chronic and complex. Naturally, these cases take longer to treat. Also, most people take recourse in homoeopathy in cases of arthritis, allergic asthma, thyroid disorders, PCOD or chronic Skin conditions etc., which sometimes had become complex diseases due to suppression of some diseases and hence take a longer time to treat with homoeopathic treatment.
Myth- Homoeopathy is a ‘magic remedy’ that can treat any disorder.
Fact: Homoeopathy like any other field of medicine has its limitations. For example, it cannot treat cases where surgery is unavoidable to save life, bone fractures and many dental caries, etc.
Myth- Homoeopathy cannot be used in diabetic patients due to sweet taste of pills.
Fact: It can be used, the minute amount of sugar in the globules (the little round sweet pills) taken daily does not matter. Sugar intake in the daily diet is significantly higher than that taken by a few globules. In very severe cases, the liquid medicine is prescribed as drops in water or over tasteless lactose powder.
Myth- The homoeopath gives the same white pills for all types of illnesses. How can they be really effective..?
Fact: Depending on the illness, homoeopaths medicate the white sugar pills with different medicines. The white sweet sugar pills serve only as a vehicle for transfer of the medicine to body. The other solid vehicles are lactose powder, pellets, cones and liquid vehicles used are Ethyl Alcohol, Glycerin, distilled water, etc.
Myth- Are there really no side effects of homoeopathy medicine?
Fact: Generally there are no side effects of homoeopathic medicine if given as a single remedy in a proper principled way. But just like any other medicine, homoeopathy medicines should be used with caution and always, they should be taken after consulting a qualified homoeopath.
Homoeopathic treatment is natural and there are no chances of developing any resistance to any medicine. Moreover the need to hospitalize the patient is very less thereby it reduces the cost of treatment. Homoeopathic medicines causes Immunomodulation, it is a kind of regulatory modification in the immune system so as to bring the desired response. Many renowned Personalities of world and India had supported and recommended homoeopathy. Mahatma Gandhi Ji said Homoeopathy cures a greater percentage of cases than other methods of treatment and is the latest & refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently. If taken carefully with proper individualization and under a qualified homeopath, usually homoeopathy has no side effects. The primary goals of World Homeopathy day & Awareness Week are to raise public awareness on homoeopathy &improve accessibility to homeopathy. For the first time in the history of J&K, world homoeopathy day is also being celebrated at Government level by the Directorate of AYUSH J&K and it’s a welcome step by the department and is hailed by all the homoeopaths.
(The authors are Homoeopathic Physicians.)
