What Homeopathy is Not Homeopathic medicine is natural, but not all natural therapies are homeopathy. Herbal supplements and vitamins are often classified as natural therapies. They both fall into the "nutritional" category. In other words, the nutrients from the herbs and vitamin supplements are usually broken down in the digestive tract, and the chemical constituents are used by the body. 1 Homeopathic medicine is not nutritional, but it can positively affect the body's biochemistry and nutritional absorption. Nutrition is Biochemical Food—which must come into the body from the outside—provides nutrition (in the best case scenario). Nutrition is biochemical, and it generally requires the process of digestion. Bio means "life," so nutrients and vitamins are "life chemicals." Enzymes and hormones, which are normally created in the body, may also come into the body from the outside as supplements, topical applications, or injections. They are not "nutrients" in the strictest meaning of the word. They are more like activators. Simply stated, enzymes cause chemical reactions to take place without themselves being consumed or changed. Hormones also cause reactions and growth patterns to take place in the body. Consider the analogy of workers constructing a brick building. The nutrients the body gains from digestion are like the building blocks—the bricks and mortar—the workers use to make the building's walls. Continuing this analogy, enzymes and hormones are like the foreman with blueprints—they direct and spark the work flow, while following the blueprint as a guide in the building process. Biochemical versus Bioenergetic Homeopathy, on the other hand, is very different. It does not give the body nutrition, and it does not need the digestive process to be utilized. Homeopathy is energy medicine. It works bioenergetically ("life energy"). Rather than going through the digestion process to be broken down, homeopathic remedies deliver their messages almost instantly along the body's nerve pathways. These nerve pathways are part of the bioenergetic system of the body. Scientists estimate that nerve impulses travel along some of these bioenergetic pathways at speeds of about 200 miles per hour!2 What does this mean for the patient? In a word: relief. In some cases, symptomatic relief may be felt in just seconds to minutes when the correct homeopathic remedy is used. How can it work that fast? Because homeopathy is not nutritional, it doesn't require the digestive process to start working. This is a huge advantage, because sick people often have severely impaired digestion, which often results in nutritional deficiencies. In fact, the FDA puts homeopathic medicine in a totally different category from nutritional supplements. The FDA recognizes homeopathy as a pharmaceutical drug product, yet it is a natural drug that anyone can use, including chiropractors. Homeopathy may use the term "medicine," which nutritional and herbal remedies cannot. In addition, homeopathic medicine may legally list health claims on the label, which nutritional and herbal supplements are not permitted to do. To recap, although both are "natural" therapies, nutrition and homeopathy are very different. Nutrition works biochemically and homeopathy works bioenergetically. In my experience from the past forty years, nutrition is more of a supportive therapy, whereas chiropractic and homeopathy are more curative in nature. The factor that impressed me most about homeopathy more than thirty years ago was that it could correct nerve interferences deep inside the body (and mind!) where the hands of the chiropractor cannot reach. What is Homeopathy? We've discussed what homeopathy is not, so now let's look at what it is. Homeopathy is a very old science (more than 200 years) based on the law of similars, which states "likes are cured by likes." Homeopathy began in the late 1700s, when a brilliant German physician and chemist, Samuel Hahnemann, became increasingly disillusioned with the practice of medicine. At the time, doctors used bloodletting, caustic purgatives, and toxic chemicals such as arsenic and mercury. The young Dr. Hahnemann felt these so-called medical "treatments" did more harm than good, and seemed to enrich the medical doctors at the expense of their patients. Dr. Hahnemann left the lucrative practice of medicine for a life of poverty while he translated medical texts in many languages. While engaged in this work, he researched natural remedies from the plant, mineral, and animal kingdoms. After many years of research, experimentation, and detailed documentation, he discovered that a natural substance that causes symptoms when taken in a concentrated form, cured those same symptoms when taken in a homeopathic form. Dr. Hahnemann discovered that when the substance went through a specific process of serial dilutions and succussions (vigorous shaking), it became a potentized, yet harmless medicine. This was the answerto his prayers, a medicine that worked and was also nontoxic: no negative side effects! He called his new system of medicine "homeopathy," based on the Latin words for "similar suffering." This principle of "likes are cured by likes," also called the law of similars, is well known even in modern pharmacology. This is exactly the same principle used today in vaccines and allergy desensitization treatment. How Homeopathy Can Assist Nutrition Going back to our analogy of the brick building, with the nutrition being the bricks and mortar, and the enzymes and hormones being the foreman with the blueprints, homeopathy is like the electricity that powers the tools, as well as the internal energy of the workers. In other words, energy is invisible, just as electricity and life energy are, but it makes everything work better. Energy gives us the ability to work more efficiently and effectively. We all know what it's like to do a job when we have abundant energy versus when we are low on energy. Homeopathy is potentized with serial dilutions and succussions beyond the molecular level, affecting correction at higher levels of our bioenergetic controls. When the energetic control system of the body (e.g., the nervous system) works properly, everything else we do—including balancing body chemistry with supplementation—works better. Every chemical within our body has a very specific charge, in order to respond and do what it is told by the energetic control system. When the total control systems of our body function properly, the nutritional and herbal supplements will work much better. Conversely, when the control systems of our body are not working properly, nutritional supplements cannot achieve their maximum effect. Homeopathy, like chiropractic, works at the highest levels in the hierarchy of our health to maintain homeostasis. The marriage of chiropractic and homeopathy empowers the chiropractor to work more successfully with the whole nervous system and better fulfill the high calling of chiropractic. Homeopathy maximizes the potential of additional natural therapies, such as nutrition. Conclusion Together, homeopathy and chiropractic empower the chiropractorto better balance the whole nervous system. With the application of these two modalities, which clear nerve interferences throughout our entire control system, all the supportive therapies we employ to enhance our patients' health work better: nutrition, herbs, exercise, and so forth. We commonly see improvement even in the ability to think and believe more positively. It is also common to observe the correction of recurring sublux-ation patterns using homeopathy, which indicates its deeper, curative effect(s). In fact, homeopathy works so deeply, that even inherited health problems and weaknesses (called "miasms" in homeopathic literature) can be corrected. Often, doctors think homeopathy is complex and requires years of study. Actually, our contemporary homeopathic protocols make homeopathy easy for every DC to incorporate, regardless of his or her specialty or style of practice, and can these techniques may be used with any company's products. Help your doctor learn more about how safe, effective homeopathic medicine can help your practice thrive in the 21st century. Here are three easy steps: Download the free 200-page manual to learn more about homeopathy. Display seasonal products (e.g., winter: cold and flu; spring: allergies; fall: attention and learning enhancement) on the office counter for passive income. Start with just a few products and grow to whatever level fits your practice. In short, we beneficially influence not just the biochemical realm, but the whole person with homeopathy. Reference: There are some exceptions, such as vitamins A and D that can be applied topically, as well as clove oil used for tooth pain; in general, however, most people take herbal and vitamin supplements internally. Huang, Barney K., Computer Simulation Analysis of Biological and Agricultural Systems, 1994. Dr. Frank King is a nationally recognized researcher, author, and lecturer on homeopathy. Dr. King is also the founder and president of King Bio, an FDA-registered homeopathic manufacturing company in Asheville, N.C., ded- icated to completing chiropractic destiny with the marriage of homeopathy. His free Physician s Reference Manual'will help you understand homeopathy, and outlines how to easily incorporate it into your practice within days. The free downloadable manual about homeopathy is available at: www.SafeCareRx.com. For questions or more information, call866-298-2740, or e-mail: [email protected].
