The process of potentisation brings out the latent medicinal energy in those substances. By virtue of this process, anything from sand (Silica) to moonlight (Luna) can be used as medicine in homeopathy. The medicines are derived from the following sources:

PLANT KINGDOM
Examples:
Aconite Napellus (Monkshood)
Belladonna Atropa (Deadly Nightshade)
Bryonia Alba (White Bryony)
Lycopodium (Club Moss)

MINERAL KINGDOM
Examples:
Sulphur
Calcarea Carb (Calcium Carbonate)
Nitric-Acid
Natrum-Muriaticum (Common Salt)

This is a fundamental principle of Homeopathy is that it treats the patient as a whole and as an individual. There is no medicine for any particular disease, but there is a medicine for the patient suffering from the disease. ‘the individual, not the disease is the entity’ said the celebrated Sir William Osler.

The homeopath takes into consideration all the symptoms, that distinguish a person as an individual. Even a salesman of ready-made suits must try to fit the ready-made suit. Homeopathy enquires into the details of the patient’s past and family history, his appetite, thirst, bowel habits, sleep, etc., and most importantly his temperament.

It is increasingly acknowledged these days that the mind and body are interlinked. We now see the rapid rise of the holistic concept of disease with an emphasis on its psychosomatic aspect. Hahnemann recognized all this long ago and stressed that bodily and mental symptoms are to be taken together to form the portrait of the disease. The Homeopathics material medica is rich in mental symptoms and we especially use them in the selection of remedies.

The present problem of the patient is not usually an isolated occurrence. It is part of a sequence. The family history and the events through childhood are taken into account as homeopathy treats not only the present symptoms, but the entire sequence, thereby preventing the progress of the disease. Children under homeopathic treatment grow into more healthy adults, they find relief from the scourge of bad inheritance as well.

It has been said that the child is a father of the man. Thus, even in an infant, we can perceive the beginnings of future illness. The infant may perspire so much about its head during sleep as to soak a pillow. Perhaps the fontanelles are slow in closing. The child may be slow in walking and teething and develop the habit of eating mud and chalk. She looks fat, but there is no strength. She may develop enlarged tonsils. She catches colds very often and each cold further enlarges the tonsils. The menses occur too soon and are profuse. She feels cold all the time and lacks energy. Slowly a cough begins and there is the faintest trace of fever. There is a desire for cold milk and eggs. The cough further worsens and the evening fever becomes well-marked, the X-ray shows tuberculosis.

One can see that TB did not appear all at once; it has evolved from childhood. The signs of ill health were all there. They indicate the homeopathic medicine Calcarea carbonica. Had this remedy been given in infancy, the girl would not have developed the later troubles. But it is never too late. Even now Homeopathy will build up her health. In this way, many a problem child has been helped to normalcy by homeopathy.

Good homeopathy learns t perceive disease as a continually evolving process that begins in the womb and unless arrested and cured, end in the tomb. There are many measures to palliate and ease the patient, but the journey continues unless treated on homeopathic principles.

In fact, most, if not all curative therapies (including some forms of psychotherapy, meditation, etc. ) are (consciously or unconsciously) based on the “Similie” principle. The homeopath applies this principle scientifically and systematically using carefully tested medicines.

Sometimes in the course of homeopathic treatment, the history of past illness appears briefly in the reverse order, like a film being played backward. When this happens, we know that not only the present but also its cause in the past has been treated and the future is secure.

To a homeopath, the knowledge of anatomy, physiology, medicine, surgery, and gynecology is necessary since he has to examine the patient and come to a diagnosis. This will help him to know the natural course of the ailment and to manage the case well.

But his most important task is to understand the individuality of each patient fully and correctly, so that he may select the right remedy.

The practice of homeopathy convinces the physician to regard the body as more than a sum of its parts. Unlike a machine, it develops, carries on its function, and repairs itself independently. In this sense, everyone carries within him his own doctor. Ancient physicians were familiar with this natural power of the organism to control disease and they invented for it a beautiful expression ‘Vis Medicatrix Nature’ (Healing Power of Nature). This healing power is a function of the life force itself. Hahnemann called it Vital Force. Disease is recognized as a disturbance of this vital force. For example, out of ten people who get wet in the rain, only one developed pneumonia. Most bacteria can affect us only when our own healing power is of low resistance. Homeopathic medicine aims to correct this disturbed vital force and thus enhances the power of the body to heal itself. It does not aim at removing the symptoms of the parts affected but treats the cause and restores to health. According to Homeopathy, symptoms are a reflection of disturbed vital force.

Sickness is like a sitar whose correct tuning has been disturbed. Naturally, all the notes from such a sitar will be far more melodious. There is no use in trying to correct the individual notes. It is the disturbance in the tuning itself that has to be corrected.

The founder of homeopathy, Hahnemann’s scientific experiments led him to the process of potentization. A step-by-step dilution and jerking of the drug makes it extremely powerful and at the same time renders it harmless. This is in direct contrast to the toxic drugs of modern medicine, and their ‘side effects’. Potencies administered by Homeopathy range from a mother tincture to the 1,00,000th potencies. The sixth potency will have a rough dilution of one drop of the original drug substance diluted in a lake full of water. Each potency is 100 times more dilute than the previous one. Imagine the 1,00,000th dilution!

No one has been able to satisfactorily explain how the remedies act when diluted to such fantastic limits. Yet, potencies are found to act very powerfully. It seems that in the process of potentization, the stored energy of the drug is liberated.

1. Short-Term Response

How quickly you will notice improvement, after beginning homeopathic care, depends on the specific health concern, and on whether you take a single-dose or repeated medicine. With acute problems, such as flu or a bladder infection, you should notice a significant improvement within several hours. With chronic problems, you should notice some change within a week or two after beginning treatment. You may experience a brief worsening of already existing symptoms, which is a good sign. This will be followed by an overall improvement, not only of your chief complaint, but of most or all of your symptoms. Or you may just start feeling better. We wait five to six weeks before your second appointment in order to give the healing response enough time to evaluate carefully.

2. Long-Term Response

With many conditions, we estimate at least a 70 percent improvement in symptoms in order for us to feel satisfied that your medicine is correct. Again, this depends on a variety of factors. After six months to a year, you should feel significant, even remarkably, better regarding your specific problem, energy, mental clarity, and more. We recommend that you continue with treatment for at least a year to maximize your healing. Many of our patients have continued with us for ten years or longer. In our experience, they are generally much healthier than the general population. At the beginning of treatment, your appointments will be every four weeks. As you feel better and better, they will be less often.

We do not advocate the use of Ayurvedic, Unani and homoeopathy together because both are holistic medicine. Therefore, if you take two together, we don’t know how to evaluate your progress. We will not come to know which system you are better. Same with the case with allopathy. Also, these conventional medicines change the symptoms to such an extent that their original presentation of the symptom is lost, making it difficult to gather enough accurate information to prescribe the correct homoeopathic remedy. The symptoms are the compass that a homoeopath uses to find his way to the right remedy. If you were to take conventional medication to treat symptoms after beginning homoeopathic treatment, you could stop the action of the remedy, rendering it ineffective. Most acute conditions are handled well with homoeopathy but in some exceptional conditions, we do advise the patient to take allopathic treatment.

For chronic complaints one should report to the doctor only after a month but in any acute conditions/emergency, one should get in touch with the doctor immediately.

In homeopathy, we do not have separate medicine for the head, nose, ears, throat, etc. We give one single medicine which affects the patient as a whole and removes all his troubles. There is no medicine for any particular disease but there is medicine for the patient who is suffering from the disease. A single remedy is chosen on the basis of a holistic approach which treats different complaints of the same person etc.

First and foremost, you need to tell us how you feel about your chief complaint and associated complaint. Here it is very important that while reporting a chief complaint, it is better you also mention the new problems or if you have suffered from the same problem in the past because they indicate that we need to change your medicine/potency. Do mention your temperament, desires, sleep, dreams, and appetite. In the mental sphere, we need to know if anything had happened to upset you at home or at your workplace, like any quarrel, or some bad news, etc. All these symptoms when told in detail help us to treat you better.

During the course of homoeopathic treatment or after it has been stopped if something happens in your day to day life at the mental or physical level to upset the balance created in your system by the homoeopathic medicine the original complaint can be felt again. But it is true that with homoeopathic treatment, the capacity of the person to handle such upset improves and relapses may not occur.

Rarely after the homoeopathic treatment is given there can be an increase in your complaints. There can be two reasons for this. First and the more common reason can be the stopping of painkillers or ointment applications which may have kept your symptoms suppressed for a long time and due to the removal of that factor, the complaints will be experienced in their actual intensity. In that case, homoeopathic medicine will gradually bring the whole thing under control. Another possibility is that after the homoeopathic treatment, there is slight and short worsening followed by rapid relief. This initial worsening is often the reaction of our body before the cure occurs and is a very good sign. Another reaction that may be noticed during the course of homoeopathic treatment is that your original problems will get better gradually and then some new symptoms may appear. These new problems may indicate that we need to change your medicine and give you something that will cover this new picture and thereby help you in achieving a holistic cure.

You have to keep the medicine on the tongue so that it comes in contact with the nerves. That is the reason why we say not to eat anything half an hour before or after. So that the tongue has nothing else that will interfere with the absorption of the medicine.

Our medicines are energy. They are prepared by serial dilutions and contain no material substance in them. Hence, no side effects.

It is a myth that homeopathy is slow acting. Most of the time what happens is the patient comes to us with a long history of chronic illness. Therefore the treatment takes time. Homeopathy is in fact fast acting in acute conditions such as fever, diarrhea, vomiting, etc.

Homeopathy can produce excellent results in infants, even those only a few days or months old. Infant colic, fevers, colds etc. can be taken care of effectively with homeopathy.

Homeopathic medicines can retain their potency for a very long time if they are kept in dry conditions and away from sunlight in a cool, dark place. They must be discarded if they get moist or change color for example if they go yellow. We prescribe medication for patients who will be out of postal contract for six months at a stretch, for example, because they are traveling abroad or are planning to spend extended periods at sea. Please remember that the medication must be kept away from strong-smelling substances like camphor, mint, menthol, strong oils, and perfumes. 

The problem per se does not recur after the treatment. A mild episode of a chronic problem can recur sporadically due to undue physical or mental stress. However, these episodes will be very rare and their intensity will be minimal. This is because the medication makes you capable of handling situations better and fighting your stress better.