Like cures like: This is also known as the Law of Similars. A substance that can create the symptoms in a healthy body is also the substance that will effectively treat the condition in a sick body. The word ‘homeopathy” has its roots in two Greek words: homeo, meaning the same and pathos, meaning suffering. Belladonna, for example, is used to treat scarlet fever because the symptoms of scarlet fever resemble the symptoms of belladonna poisoning. The toxicity of some of the remedies is not of concern, because they are given in very dilute form (see below).
Dilution:Homeopathic remedies work in very dilute solutions. They are highly active or even poisonous substances. Diluting them helps prevent side-effects. This process is called "potentization" or serial dilution. One part of a remedy is diluted with 99 parts distilled water or ethyl alcohol and then vigorously shaken. One part of this solution is diluted further with 99 parts distilled water or ethyl alcohol and then shaken again, and so forth.
The letter “C” on the label of a homeopathic remedy means that the medicine was diluted 1:99. When a remedy is labeled "X" or "D", it was diluted 1:9. When a medicine is described as a "30x," this means it will diluted 1:9 and vigorously shaken; then that solution is diluted again 1:9 and shaken; this procedure is repeated 30 times. If a remedy is labeled “6c”, it was diluted 1:99 and vigorously shaken, then that solution was diluted 1:99 again—repeating the process six times. When a medicine is labeled "LM", it was diluted approximately 1:50,000. If it is labeled “m”, it was diluted 1:1,000.
The more diluted a remedy is, the stronger it is. The higher the number (20x vs 10x, for example), the more dilute the remedy is and the stronger it is.
Laws of cure: These three laws were developed by Dr. Constantine Hering, a 19th century American homeopath. They are as follows:
- Symptoms move from the inner organs to the outer organs as a patient progress towards a cure.
- Cure usually progresses from the top of the body to the bottom.
- Old symptoms often recur during treatment. They usually appear in the opposite order from when they originally appeared.