Larry Malerba introduces homeopathy

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You. Hi, I'm Dr. Larry Malerba, and welcome to All Things Homeopathy. This is the first in a series of informational videos where I'll be talking about homeopathy what it is, how it works, what it's capable of achieving and why it meets with so much resistance.

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So let's get started. Homeopathy is a 200 year old system of medical therapeutics based upon the law of similars. It is a holistic art and science that takes into account body, mind and spirit and is aimed at healing the whole person.

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It is a form of energy medicine that addresses energetic imbalances in the life force, imbalances that, if allowed to persist, can manifest as acute or chronic physical, emotional and mental illness.

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There's a great deal of unfounded skepticism regarding homeopathy, probably because it is so different from the type of medicine that most Westerners subscribe to. Having attended conventional medical school myself, I can assure you that homeopathy is just as scientific and effective as mainstream medicine.

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However, homeopathy disagrees with regular medicine on a number of important points, including the origins and causes of illness and the most effective approaches to treatment and healing. I'll be talking more about these differences of perspective in a future episode, but for now, let's return to the beginning.

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Dr. Samuel Hahneman, the found of homeopathy, was a German physician who uncovered a peculiar phenomenon. While he was translating a medical textbook from English to German, he was struck by the strong similarity between the symptoms.

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That a toxic dose of Peruvian bark was known to be able to cause the symptoms of malaria. Hahnman thought this was rather odd given that the bark was also used to treat malaria. It turns out that Peruvian bark contains quinine.

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Nowadays, synthetic versions of quinine are still used by modern medicine to treat malaria. So Hahneman decided to experiment upon himself. He ingested the bark until he developed fever, chills and sweats similar to the symptom pattern that one sees in cases of malaria.

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And thus began homeopathy and Hahneman's quest to treat illness. Using the principle of similars, the good doctor went on to study many additional substances, documenting in great detail the symptoms that they could cause.

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He then used those symptoms as his therapeutic guide, giving small doses of carefully chosen substances to patients who exhibited similar symptom patterns. The resulting therapeutic success of his new homeopathic method was a revelation to Hahneman, just as it has been to the practitioners who have used his method for the past 200 years.

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Having used homeopathy in my own medical practice for more than 25 years, I can attest to its effectiveness in treating the whole range of illness from acute conditions like fevers, flu, coughs, viral illnesses, back injuries, sprains strains, to chronic conditions such as migraines, arthritis, female health problems, asthma, anxiety, depression, phobias and more.

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Homeopathy stands at the cutting edge of holistic healing. It has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to heal on a deep level medical problems that Western medicine can only manage. Symptomatically one.

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Homeopathy is remarkably safe and rarely generates side effects. Its medicines are inexpensive, and it can resolve chronic problems in a way that is inconceivable to most. If you'd like to learn more about this amazing system of healing, I invite you to join me for the next episode of All Things Homeopathy.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Larry Malerba, and this is All Things Homeopathy. In the last episode, we discussed one of the two main pillars of homeopathy the principle of similars. Today I will be talking about the second pillar the minimum dose.

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When Dr. Hahneman began to investigate potential homeopathic medicines, he was naturally concerned about their safety. So he reduced their dosages in order to minimize the possibility of toxicity. Much to his surprise, while the lower doses made his medicine safer, it did not diminish their homeopathic effects.

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For example, it was Hahneman who first used the Ipeca plant as a medicinal substance. Until recently, syrup of Ipecac was still used by mainstream medicine in cases of accidental poisoning. Its ability to induce nausea and vomiting came in handy when there was an urgent need to empty the contents of the stomach.

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But Hahneman used Ipecac for the opposite reason. While Western medicine used Ipecac to cause nausea and vomiting. Hahnemann used it to treat the very same symptoms. He found that by giving very small doses, he was able to avoid Ipecac's unpleasant effects while maintaining its homeopathic power.

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As Hahnemann had discovered, the paradoxical effect of homeopathic Ipecac, also known as Ipecacuaha, is completely dependent upon the dosage used. Hahnemann, in fact, lowered the dosages to such an extreme that his contemporaries began to doubt his methods.

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They believed the doses were far too small to be able to produce either toxic or therapeutic effects. Although his detractors based their skepticism on conjecture, Hahnemann's personal experiences repeatedly confirmed his original hypothesis.

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Very small doses of substances capable of causing symptoms similar to an illness had the paradoxical ability to heal that illness. Thus, we arrive at the two foundational pillars of homeopathy. The most effective medicine is the similar medicine administered in the minimum dose necessary to achieve its purpose.

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To this day, uninformed skeptics rail against homeopathy, claiming that homeopathic medicines are nothing more than placebos. From my own experience, I can tell you that no system of placebo medicine could possibly achieve the results that my patients and I have witnessed in my many years of practice.

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I'll be discussing this controversy and the deliberate misinformation campaigns waged by closed skeptics against homeopathy in a future episode. But let's return now to the idea of the minimum dose. Dr.

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Hahnemann called his method of preparing medicines potentization. It consisted of a repetitive process of dilution and section. Section simply means vigorous. For example, in order to make a homeopathic preparation of mercury, the homeopathic pharmacist takes one part mercury and dilutes it in nine or 99 parts solvent, depending upon the potency scale being used.

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The resulting solution is then shaken vigorously. One part of that solution is then further diluted in another nine or 99 parts solvent it. The resulting solution is succused again. This process is repeated until the desired potency is reached.

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In order to create higher potencies, this process of serial dilution and section is performed many times, sometimes hundreds of times. The extreme dilution of a homeopathic preparation of mercury renders it harmless.

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Although there is no possibility of toxicity, the final potentized homeopathic product mysteriously retained its ability to treat illnesses that display symptoms similar to the symptoms that can be caused by crude, undiluted mercury.

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In addition to preparing his medicines, Dr. Hahnemann had to develop a method by which to study them. There are those who correctly credit him with having invented the very first scientific protocols to study the effects of medicinal substances.

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Hahnemann called them provings. A proving involved giving repeated doses of a homeopathic dilution to volunteer test subjects who were not told what they were receiving. The test subjects recorded the details of their responses to the medicine and the information was collated and studied by Hahnemann.

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In this way, a symptomatic profile of each remedy was established. With subsequent clinical use of these medicines, their profiles were further rounded out and developed collectively. The body of information regarding the various remedies in the homeopathic pharmacy is referred to as the Materia Medica.

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Hahnemann was a medical giant, a pioneer who put into practice principles that were only discussed in theory by his historical predecessors, among whom were Hippocrates and Paraceltus. He had established beyond a shadow of a doubt that an illness could be successfully treated with very small, and therefore very safe doses of medicines capable of of mimicking the symptoms of that illness.

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I hope that I've shed some light on the often misunderstood art and science of homeopathic medicine. It's not an easy topic to understand, so I hope that you will join me again for the next episode of all things Homeopathy.