The Father of Medicine
© T. Darlene Cheek
and medicine be our food..."
The Greek physician Hippocrates is known as "the father of medicine." In the 5th century B.C., he not only discovered the first principles of treating an illness with a remedy to produce like symptoms of that illness, but also that the individual person's belief systems and/or reaction to the illness could be very important in the healing process. He was the first to practice homeopathic medicine.
Physician Samuel Hahnemann further developed and practiced what is known today as homeopathy. He was astounded by such practices as blood-letting, purging and prescribing of large doses of medicine that often created side-effects that were worse than the original ailment, while disease continued to run rampant in the world. Receiving no support and lack of response to his ideas of cleanliness, good diet, fresh air and preventative medicine, he retired in 1789 to become a translator of medical text, which led him to the foundation of the system of homeopathy.
In 1790, he ran across text for the treatment of malaria which included the use of quinine because of its astringent abilities. Hahnemann agreed that quinine was effective but disagreed that it was because of astringency. He then decided to test its effects on himself and found that he developed symptoms of malaria himself, though he did not have malaria. From this, he drew his conclusions and began to test his theory on volunteers. This led to the establishment of over 100 homeopathic remedies, of which there are now over 2000, with those numbers growing every day.
The question is "how" giving a patient the symptoms of a disease can cure the disease. Very simply put, the patient's own body develops the ability to fight the illness a little at a time, increasing its effects over a period of time. This is done, for instance, by diluting the remedy, giving it to the patient, and carefully tracking its effects and increasing or decreasing the amounts given to the patient. It even appears that the more diluted the remedy, the better it works.
One example of this is homeopathy's effect on patients severely allergic to bee stings. Honey bees are used to create a remedy known as Apis mellifica, which is used to treat patients with rashes, burning or stinging. The body, being given diluted doses of this tincture, develops its own immunity over a period of time. Thus is the same effect with all homeopathic remedies.
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