Most medications you take are meant for the alleviation of symptoms. They get rid of your headaches, suppress coughing, reduce fever, etc, for a few hours of relative relief. While this may not sound bad initially, it could potentially worsen things for you in the long run. This suppression of symptoms merely prolongs the overall illness. Symptoms are the body's way of fighting off an infection or illness. When you suppress the symptoms, you suppress your body's natural immune response - you are fighting your own immune system (not a good idea,considering the job of the immune system is to keep you alive). This means it will take longer for the underlying problem to go away.
Homeopathic remedies are different from allopathic (think drug store) medicines. Definitionally speaking,homeopathic remedies are “a tiny amount of a substance(…) that in large doses would induce symptoms like those caused by the illness”, as referenced by the online article “A Mixed Bag of Alternative Remedies” by Lindsay Lyon and January W. Payne, writers for the Journal U.S. News and World Report.
The purpose of homeopathic remedies is to build the body's immunity. An example of this would be the taking of a dose of Rhus Tox, the homeopathic medicinal form of poison oak, to help your body fight off a rash.
Also, unlike most medicines, homeopathic remedies have no side effects. Side effects are a definite sign that your medication and your body are not friends. They slow the healing process by stressing your body, adding to the already present strain of the illness.
Homeopathic dosages are too small to have a negative effect on the body. Because they are not meant to suppress your body's immunity, the dosages don't need to be large. They simply provide a much-needed boost to your immmunity.
Homeopathic remedies are most effectively taken by placing them under your tongue, and allowing them to dissolve there. This introduces the substance directly into your bloodstream, so that your body is provided with an immediate benefit.
Of course, I'm not telling you to stop taking whatever medicine your doctor has prescribed. But a homeopathic remedy could be of help the next time you think you are coming down with something.
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Aha! I knew general medications screwed with your immune system! It's a great business plan, however.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it sounds like a homoeopathic product (for lack of a better word) would generally be intended to be more proactive? Naturally, it would be impossible to be prepared for everything all of the time, but - using your poison oak example - with something like that, how would it be useful after the rash appeared? Introducing even a smaller amount of a poison afterwards seems to be counter-productive.
Alternative health for the most part consists of preventing the illness in the first place as opposed to having to fight it off. So, yes, it is a good idea to take homeopathics proactively, as an immunity builder. The same principle applies to supplements. A great deal of alternative health is proactive as you said. Healthy eating, for example, is employed to prevent a great deal of illness and immunity issues. But alternative health practices are also used in response to unpleasant occurences. It is impossible to prevent everything; so, we respond when it happens.
ReplyDeleteWith a homeopathic remedy, you introduce a substance to your body that is very similar to whatever caused your affliction. This small amount primes your immune system - it learns how to fight effectively against the ailment. As I mentioned before, the dosage is too small to have a negative effect, because we aren't taking it as a symptom suppressant, but rather as an immune system stimulant. Homeopathics can be used preventatively, like if you have seasonal allergies, and you take a homeopathic remedy every morning before you step out the door. But they are also effectively used after the reaction. The fact that they can be taken proactively does not prevent them from also being useful 'reactively'.
It should be definitively. ;)
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