For over 200 years, homoeopathy has been recognised as a safe, gentle, effective, but most of all rational system of medicine. At a time when the use of aggressive and highly toxic compounds as medicines was based on unsubstantiated theories, Samuel Hahnemann instituted a system of therapeutics at the end of the 18th century, founded on close observation of the effects of small amounts of medicinal substances on healthy people. Today, the system Hahnemann founded is bringing health benefits to millions around the world, including the British Royal Family.
Homeopathy works by assisting the body's own powers of self-healing, rather than brushing them aside or overriding them, as conventional medical treatments often do. Though not necessarily implying therapeutic superiority (timely conventional medical intervention is often vital in accident and emergency situations), homeopathy has often proved invaluable in the treatment of chronic illnesses, where the best efforts of conventional medicine have failed. Consequently, homeopathy and conventional medicine should be seen as complementary, ideally each fully available to patients and health practitioners as part of a spectrum of therapeutic possibilities.
Homoeopaths use a holistic approach to curing illness which means that as well as noting a patient's physical symptoms, their mental and emotional states may be considered just as important in ascertaining the underlying nature of the disease (often written and pronounced as 'dis-ease').
From this perspective, viruses and bacteria may not be the only causative disease factors - they are opportunistic organisms that take advantage of the body's lowered immune system and defences. Similarly, fevers, skin eruptions, vomiting, or headaches are not the disease either - they represent the body's attempts at re-establishing harmony, which in so doing gives rise to these symptoms. Thus, the goal of homeopathy is to support the patient's immune system while assisting it in its attempts to restore balance.
This is reflected in homeopathy's principles, some of which hark back to an earlier and more ancient appreciation of health and dis-ease. Samuel Hahnemann, the discoverer (some think, the re-discoverer) of homeopathy towards the end of the 18th Century, used Hippocrates' Principle of Similars, referred to as 'like cures like'. In other words, a remedy produces in a healthy person, the same symptoms as those from which a sick person might suffer.
For example, someone suffering with a hot, dry, delirious fever might be treated with a dose of belladonna which produces precisely these symptoms in a healthy person. But, in order to avoid the toxic effects of the drug and any concomitant aggravations or 'side-effects' that might arise from them, the remedy is usually diluted (in some cases, out of all molecular existence), and then strongly agitated. This process, which homoeopaths call potentisation, far from weakening the remedy, is thought to increase its curative powers, while reducing any aggravation of the patient's condition.
For over 200 years, homoeopathy has been recognised as a safe, gentle, effective, but most of all rational system of medicine. At a time when the use of aggressive and highly toxic compounds as medicines was based on unsubstantiated theories, Samuel Hahnemann instituted a system of therapeutics at the end of the 18th century, founded on close observation of the effects of small amounts of medicinal substances on healthy people. Today, the system Hahnemann founded is bringing health benefits to millions around the world, including the British Royal Family. 
This is reflected in homeopathy's principles, some of which hark back to an earlier and more ancient appreciation of health and dis-ease. Samuel Hahnemann, the discoverer (some think, the re-discoverer) of homeopathy towards the end of the 18th Century, used Hippocrates' Principle of Similars, referred to as 'like cures like'. In other words, a remedy produces in a healthy person, the same symptoms as those from which a sick person might suffer.