What is Homeopathic Medicine?

Have you ever heard of homeopathy? You probably have, but have no idea what it really is. Homeopathy is a system of medicine that treats an illness or condition with highly diluted concentrations of natural ingredients that mimic the symptoms of the condition being treated. It seems like an odd premise, but in spite of the unusual mechanism behind it, it is a very effective method for treating disease.

How do you cure someone of an illness by giving that person a tiny concentration of something that actually causes the illness? According to proponents of the science, homeopathy not only works, but works better than conventional medicine. They say that somewhere along the line the pharmaceutical industry got involved in medicine, at which point natural remedies were abandoned in favor of chemical formulations.

If you browse through your local pharmacy, you will notice that there are actually quite a few products in the Cold & Flu aisle that are homeopathic. The easiest way to to find out if a product you are interested in is homeopathic is to read the label on the back and take a look at the ingredients. In homeopathy, all of the ingredients are diluted, so each ingredient in a homeopathic product has the letter X or C after it.

So, if one of the ingredients is Zinc 20X, that means the product contains Zinc that has been diluted 20 times. One of the most popular cold medicines on the market, Zicam, is actually a homeopathic remedy that consists of nothing more than homeopathic zinc in a nasal gel. Most people that use Zicam do not even realize that it is a homeopathic product.

There are homeopathic remedies available for almost any condition you can think of. Cold, flu, allergy, even bedwetting; there is a homeopathic remedy available for almost every condition. Homeopathy is universally recognized as being safe because the ingredients are always natural substances diluted many times over.

The big drug companies claim that any relief felt from the application of a homeopathic medicine can be attributed to the placebo effect. And, because the FDA does not require homeopathic products to undergo a clinical trial before being sold to the public, the detractors feel that homeopathy is junk science. So, is homeopathy a bunch of hodgepodge, or does it really work?

In my opinion, it works. There have been several clinical trials done over the years to test the efficacy of homeopathic products. Liddell Laboratories makes a product called Vital HGH which contains homeopathic HGH. Vital HGH is designed to treat the symptoms of aging and/or a rundown condition. In a small clinical trial performed years ago, a group of test subjects who were deficient in human growth hormone, ranging in age from 45 years and up, were given the Vital HGH formulation.

The results speak for themselves. During the five month clinical trial, the levels of HGH in the blood increased in every test subject, and more than doubled the average level of HGH. I personally have used homeopathic remedies to treat my allergies, and not only do they work, but they seem to prevent the symptoms from returning for an extended period of time.

The main reason why big drug manufacturers try to downplay the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines is so they will not have to make them. Most homeopathic products are incredibly cheap to manufacture and the profit margins are extremely small. A prescribed conventional medicine costs a lot more.

If the public began demanding natural, homeopathic remedies for their ailments, drug companies would have to make these kinds of products to stay in business, and then their revenues would tumble and their profits would shrink.

Imagine if Pfizer had to stop manufacturing Viagra, which they sell at $20-$30 per pill, and instead make a homeopathic product that would retail for only $20 for a one month supply. That is why drug companies often spend significant money to debunk claims that homeopathy works, using misinformation tactics to instill a belief in the public that homeopathy is a sham. This simply is not true. Homeopathy works, and is much more affordable.

Conventional medicines are still necessary because sometimes homeopathy does not work for each and every individual. But, next time you go to the pharmacy, take a look at some of the homeopathic brands on the shelf and give them a whirl. For common ailments that are not life threatening, homeopathy is probably a cheaper and more effective alternative.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make free HTML forms.