Homeopathy has two qualities that make its use challenging. The first one involves economics: homeopathic remedies can be very cheap to use since the doses are so small. You would think this would make homeopathic treatment very popular. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical companies have an economic interest in people using a LOT of medicine, not a little. Hahnemann–the 18th century doctor who discovered homeopathy–was literally run out of town by the pharmacists where he lived. His patients were getting better on such a small amount of medicine that he was ruining their business.

The other quality of homeopathy that makes it more difficult to use is that treatment needs to be individualized to work well. This means even though you may be lucky enough to come across a remedy that helps you, it often takes a trained homeopath to find the right one, especially when we’re talking about chronic issues.

And lastly, although it sometimes comes across as yet another conspiracy theory, it seems to be the case that the American Medical Association of the early 1900s did its best to squelch homeopathy in this country.*

But here we are in 2013! Optimistic about this wonderful form of natural healing continuing to spread again, as people re-discover its gentle power.
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*Read Harris Coulter’s “Divided Legacy: the conflict between homoeopathy and the American Medical Association” for more on this.