Origins of Homeopathy

Origins

Homeopathy was first developed by a German physician, Dr Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), over 200 years ago. Hahnemann based his principles on the teachings of Hippocrates and Paracelsus. Far from being ideas-based, homeopathy is a completely evidence-based, empirical medicine - a unique concept when it was founded.

Hahnemann was very concerned regarding the toxic and often lethal administrations of the then current medicine practices. He began investigating the effects of various medicinal substances on himself and other healthy volunteers when he deduced that an illness could be treated with a very small amount of a substance that, in larger quantities, could cause that illness.

To avoid harmful effects from normal doses of the substances, he diluted each medicine until he reached the greatest dilution that would still produce a response. These experiments were called provings and led him to observe and describe the basic principles of homeopathic medicine.

For the last 200 years homeopathy has been a thriving European tradition, and until the early 1900s it was taught in American medical schools. Today homeopathy's popularity has spread to many other nations where it has become fully integrated into the public healthcare system.

The World Health Organization says traditional medicine, like homeopathy, “should be an option offered by a well-functioning, people-centred [sic] health system that balances curative services with preventive care.”