U for Understanding your Homeopath(Guest Post by Dr. Gopikrishnan Nambiar)

    Nowadays people prefer alternative medicines and out of them huge number are referring Homeopathy. But most of the times we hear people say “Homeopathy treatment is a slow process. It will take time to recover” or “Why does the homeopath need to know about my lifestyle or personal details? What has that to do with treatment for my cold or a headache?”

          Well today’s post will answer all those questions and try to clear common misunderstandings about homeopathic treatments.

Today’s guest post is by Dr.Gopikrishnan Nambiar who is a well-known Homeopath, practicing since 2001 at his clinic Homeoworld at Goregaon and Andheri and also at Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Mira road, and blogs occasionally at Homeoworld.

We were referred to a homeopath by our family physician a few years back as my daughter had recurrent vomiting and stomach infection issues and allopathic medicines used to take a toll on her. Now it’s been five years since she is under Dr. Nambiar’s treatment and her recurrent issues are much under control.

Dr. Gopikrishnan Nambiar became a homeopathic doctor by choice; after the “sweet sugared pills” relieved him of his childhood sickness when other medicines failed. After finishing his graduation in 1995 from Fr. Muller’s Homeopathic Medical college, Mangalore he started his practice. Then in 1997, he joined his MD (homeopathy) in Materia medica at A. M. Shaikh Homeopathic Medical College, Belgaum, Karnataka.

After his completion of MD studies in 2000, he has been working as a Consultant in his clinic “HomeoWorld” since 2001 which is jointly run by him and his wife who is also MD in Homeopathy and as a Consultant in BhaktiVedanta Hospital since 2002.

Now let’s hear what Doc has to say.

Understanding your Homeopath and Homeopathic treatment

Homeopathy is a system of medicine, notable for its practice of prescribing medicines that do not contain chemically active ingredients. It has a wide and growing popularity in areas where it is practiced today, but the way homeopathy medicines work and many of the fundamental principles of homeopathy like the theory of the vital force and chronic miasms are still hotly debated.

Generally, when you visit a homeopath for the first time, you are asked many questions regarding your personal life, mental and emotional status etc. Many of the patients don’t like it and get irritated as they feel it’s not necessary and not related to their ailment. They say “what has my lifestyle got to do with my stomach ache or headache. Just give me medicines to relieve me of my pain.”

Now, that’s where homeopathy tends to differ from other systems of medicines.

Homeopathy as a science of medical treatment has a philosophy of its own and its therapeutics is based on certain fundamental principles. These are:

• Law of Similia,
• Law of Simplex,
• Law of Minimum,
• Doctrine of Drug Proving,
• Theory of Chronic Disease,
• Theory of Vital Force,
• Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation.

As we all know, a tree’s growth depends on the depth and health of the roots, similarly a person’s aliment depends on what is causing it. Homeopathy acts on the root cause rather than superficial symptoms.

For example, if you have got rashes, it’s necessary to know the root cause. Itching and redness are the symptoms, which are just a tip of iceberg. The main and important thing that a homeopath must know to treat and have effective and permanent cure is the main cause of the rash.

So just giving medication and treatment for itching and redness won't completely solve the problem, and hence to know the root cause a doctor must know your lifestyle details and other information and hence the detailed questioning, which some feel are irrelevant.

A common misunderstanding that people have about Homeopathy is that it is very slow. In my clinical experience of more than two decades, I have heard this from people that they think Homeopathy is slow.

It is a natural system, obeys the laws of nature and takes optimum time to cure. Well, the treatment of chronic diseases depends on innumerable factors patient compliance, extent and intensity of damage, age, nature of previous therapies, the physician’s competence, etc. So homeopathy works faster than people normally think.

Because once the root cause is known, the treatment is started which directly attacks the root, hence the effect of medicines is fast as compared to the contrary belief of the ‘slow effect’.

Homeopathy has a two hundred year track record of curing illness. Homeopathy received widespread public attention through its effectiveness during epidemics of cholera in the 19th century. During the great influenza epidemic of the 1920’s, homeopathic hospitals reported low death rates, while hospitals employing conventional medicine reported death rates of 20% to 30%.

The important point that I would like to point is

“Each person is a unique universe, so homeopathy makes the attempt to take into account that wholeness.  Homeopathic medicines are not substitutes for allopathic drugs.  Homeopathic treatment restores the life force, so that your system can recover optimal function.”