Monday, May 6, 2013

The New Medicine again, by Iza

I already posted my book report on this but this is according to Iza, again, just had to post it...

I study homeopathy. I started last September. Homeopathy is amazing. With all due respect to the modern, western medicine - I think Homeopathy has way more to offer. With no side effects, and a very gentle approach, it's something that all of us should look into. Today's society is often overprescribed and overmedicated. Everyone just wants a "pill" to cure all their pains and emotions. So what do we do - we go to a doctor and get that pill. We pop it, suppress everything which was bothering us and we feel great. Until the pill stops working and the old pain (or emotion) decides to show up again. What do we do next - we pop another pill. Or maybe two of them this time...Do you see where I'm going with that? It's a vicious cycle. We are not fixing anything except adding more layers to already existing problem. So, let me introduce you to Homeopathy. A few months ago as a school assignment, I had to write a book report. I chose a short, easy and quick to read book called "Homeopathy - Beyond Flat Earth Medicine" by Timothy R. Dooley. Here's the report. I can only wish that it will interest you in finding out more about what homeopathy is and what it can do. As always feel free to leave your comments!

“…At worst, homeopathy is a harmless placebo demonstrating that much of conventional medicine is unnecessary and harmful.”
 Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? If this is the worst case scenario of what Homeopathy can “do” to you – I’m all for it. Wonder what the best case scenario is? I will get there soon.
The above quote comes from a book I decided to read for my book report. I chose it because I liked the subtitle: “An introduction for Students and Patients.” I am a student of homeopathy, and even though I have been introduced to the basics of the holistic art called Homeopathy, I still have lots of questions about sometimes very basic, simple things. So I thought this book could help me to find answers to many of them. The subtitle also states “for patients”, which I read – for anyone even slightly interested or just intrigued by homeopathy. Which would describe some of my family and friends, people who often ask me: “so what is this homeopathy thing?” And as much as I do know what it is (or I think I do), I often search for the right words to describe it. When I first saw this book I thought it would be a good read: only 100 pages, short chapters, written by a modern homeopath. Yes. I did like this part a lot: the book has been written by someone still living! As much as I love and adore all the books I’m required to read as a student, I often find myself “lost in translation”. Or just lost. They are all written by the Fathers of Homeopathy starting with one and only Herr Hahnemann, followed by Kent, Roberts and such. Great dudes, and really, really amazing homeopaths. But they lived long time ago, and their language sometimes is quite archaic to me. I often have to “decode” what I’m reading, meaning translate many words from the Old English to English. And then some of them (mostly the medical terms) need to be translated into Polish (my native tongue) so I could understand  “what the author meant”. But moving back to Mr. Dooley’s book: yes, I was right – the book is great. A very quick read (it took me just a couple of hours, including breaks), I didn’t need Webster’s Dictionary; not even once. AND – many of my own personal questions, uncertainty and such was addressed and answered.
The book is exactly what the title states: it is an introduction written in a very simple and easy to understand way by a person who is a homeopath, but also has a medical degree. Mr. Dooley on quite a few occasions mentions conventional medicine, but doesn’t necessarily disregard it. He presents facts, noting that yes, there are times that a conventional medicine should be used.
“The need for conventional medicine or surgery is not a failure. The heart of all forms of healthcare is the welfare of the patient.”
But he also doesn’t omit to mention the over-use, over-prescribing and over-medicating, which unfortunately is quite common in allopathic medicine.
“It is my observation that conventional physicians know that they prescribe medicines which many patients do not truly need.”
I like the style in which the book is written. It is a good source of information from a reliable source (homeopath and a person with a medical degree). The author is not afraid of his opinions, but presents all of them in a very gentle way, without any type of pressure. There are several examples of his real life cases, which makes the information that much easier to comprehend.
The organization of the book is quite systematic too. Basic principles of homeopathy are being explained. Chapter 1 focuses on the “beyond flat earth medicine” concept. I quite liked the way the author compares the conventional medicine 250 years ago to people’s belief back in the past of Earth being a flat surface. And then we have Hahnemann, the pioneer of a New Thought, the Copernicus of healing arts telling us that the Earth is not flat, but it’s quite spherical. Brilliant. Just through this little story, the reader can understand right away the difference between conventional and homeopathic approach to cure a person. Well, that’s the thing – homeopathy treats the whole individual, the person, while allopathic medicine treats the disease.
Moving forward, in following chapters we learn the “homeopathic vocabulary”: The Law of Similars, The Minimum Dose, Proving, Materia Medica and such terms are being mentioned and described, so from now on any reader knows the basics without being overwhelmed with new information and any “big words”.
The following chapters talk about remedies, how they are made, what they are made of etc. It also explains in a very easy to understand way the process of potentization. I, for sure found it very interesting (okay, helpful).
Mr. Dooley offers his extensive knowledge, comparing homeopathy not only to conventional medicine, but also to other alternative or holistic forms of medicine, like naturopathy, oriental medicine and such. By the way, he does not like Homeopathy being called “alternative”.
“It is a misnomer to refer to homeopathy as an alternative therapy. It only appears alternative in that the conventional system is overused…Homeopathy is not an optional outlook, but instead a more comprehensive one.”
One thing I found quite interesting was the explanation of labeling requirements. Homeopathic remedies are approved by FDA, and as such must follow FDA regulations and guidelines: the remedies must have an expiration date printed on each vial (even though they really don’t expire), also, as any over-counter medicine they must clearly state the complaint they are for (e.g. “headache”). And this often creates confusion for many; sometimes it is a reason why “the remedy didn’t work”. I’m definitely glad that this information was included in the book, as I hope many people will understand why it’s important to do a better research before just buying Gelsemium sempervirens for “stage fright”; who knows, Argentum nitricum maybe what they really need. J
To conclude: I am glad I stumbled upon “Homeopathy | Beyond Flat Earth Medicine”. This is going to be one of the books I will be recommending to people. This is also going to be a book I’m going to read again.
So what is the best case scenario?
“At best, homeopathy represents a new branch of science that, when better understood, will open new vistas throughout the biological sciences as it does in healthcare.”
See, I knew you would like it as much as I do. Why?
“Homeopathy is simple, really.”


          how simple can simple be, read this book, you will see why!

No comments:

Post a Comment