If recent conversations within the foodie and athletic community are any indication, there is a huge shift in how we think about our health with regards to this modern era. Take a metaphorical stroll through the internet’s health forums and you’ll see a lot of people discussing the benefits of the Paleo Diet — a return to the eating habits of our early Paleolithic ancestors who were sustained on lean meats, seeds, fish, and vegetables.
Make your way into the chatrooms of the health and fitness nuts and you’ll see similar conversations regarding the workout routines of everyone from the cavemen to the ancient Greeks; you’re certainly bound to hear all about yoga, hiking, and lifting really heavy rocks.
Holistic Health, the Ancient Way
Surely, it is no surprise then to see many in the healthcare industry looking to the knowledge of our earliest grandparents for tips on longevity. After all, the historical record is filled with people who lived well into old age who never had access to pharmaceuticals, full of unpronounceable chemicals and priced at an arm and a leg.
Enter: the practice of homeopathy. Homeopathy is characterized by the belief that the body has all that it needs to heal itself without the use of laboratory-created drugs. This doesn’t mean that those who practice homeopathy don’t use any helpful substances at all, just that it is limited to naturally-occurring materials like plants and minerals.
How it Works
Those who practice homeopathy (also known as homeopaths) have a myriad of ways to treat the ailments of the body and work to identify remedies for problems touching upon bodily, mental, and emotional health. Homeopathic treatments follow two guiding principles:
- “Like cures like”
- “Law of minimum dose”
These guidelines are both a mindset and the cornerstone of action within homeopathy. Certainly the benefits of this approach are paired well with other helpful tools, like the benefits of a Migun bed massage, but on the whole can be the sole cause of recovery.
Like Cures Like
The principle of finding relief through the symptoms of a similar, or scaled-back, version of the sickness derives from the Father of Medicine himself, Hippocrates, and is the thinking behind our modern vaccines. By introducing traces of the malady into the stomach or blood of a person, their body will spring to action to develop a defense against the more viral strains. Homeopathy believes that the same principle is true with the symptoms of a sickness, as well.
- Allergies cause itchy eyes and runny noses, so natural substances that do the same are welcome within homeopathy, like the acid from onions or sulfur.
- Insomnia keeps people awake due to their natural flow of vitality becoming “stuck” and not cycling through the body. The application of natural remedies that cause the heart to beat like the caffeine from coffee plants will cause the body to get back into a natural rhythm.
The crux of this practice is to not mask or suppress the symptoms one is feeling, either from the sickness itself or the medicine used to cure it. Instead, letting the symptoms get worked out by the body’s own defenses is of a greater help to recovery of the individual.
Law of Minimum Dose
If traditional homeopathic medicine is created and used, the real goal is to increase its potency by minimizing its dosage. This is why many homeopaths will prescribe trace amounts of the active ingredients, in order to jumpstart the body’s natural actions, and then encourage the patient to enjoy the benefits of a good Migun bed, like those found at the Alpine Clinic.
The law of the minimum dose remains a bedrock principle of homeopathy because the full faith of recovery rests on the body itself, which only needs the smallest amount of the “like symptoms” to become activated. Any more than that and the body will begin to develop a dependence on those ingredients, which runs counter to the goals of homeopathy. Gross side effects are also avoided.
Getting Homeopathic Help
Alpine Clinic is dedicated to the ongoing study and practice of homeopathy as we unlock the holistic health of all our patients. If you are curious about how this ancient practice can help you, especially in conjunction with a Migun bed massage or electrodermal analysis, simply give us a call. We look forward to meeting you and getting you back to full strength.