Memories on homeopathy

From Avantika S., Mississauga

My oldest memory of homeopathy is of my grandfather prescribing sweet, sugary pills to someone who came to meet him at home. I was about 3 or 4 years old and was very fascinated as this was a new side of my grandfather, which I knew nothing about. He let me taste some unmedicated sweet pills, and I was thrilled as it tasted like candy. Since then I have been quite fascinated by homeopathic medicine.

I moved away from homeopathy completely when my father took up a job overseas and there were no homeopathic doctors. I came back to homeopathic after about 20 years, when I contracted a very severe bacterial infection in my respiratory system. The infection was cured by antibiotics, but I had a lot of phlegm and breathing problems, which were not getting better.

A colleague of my husband asked us to consult his father-in-law, who was a homeopathic doctor, and had been on the panel of doctors listed with the Prime Minister’s Office. The medicines (remedies) he prescribed were very effective in reversing my symptoms. This revived my awareness about the branch of medicine called homeopathy. I was also interested to learn that the Prime Minister’s Office also kept a list of doctors of this field, which meant that this was a recognized occupation in my country.

The other interesting thing I learnt from this experience was that homeopathic medicines are not only sweet, sugary pills. The doctor had prescribed me pills and liquid remedies which resembled allopathic medicines, not only in their appearance but also in their prices. He also advised me to buy medicines made in Germany from a homeopathic pharmacy, instead of mixing local remedies in his own office. This further made me realize that homeopathy is a scientific branch of healing, rather than home remedies passed on through oral tradition.

Some years later, after recurrent bouts of rhinitis and bronchitis, from which I had suffered since childhood, and my two children also seemed to be having a similar constitution, I again consulted another homeopathic doctor. My purpose was to improve our immunity against seasonal infections, which always aggravated our allergic symptoms. MDs and GPs would always prescribe steroid based medicines, which would be beneficial in the short term but the symptoms would come back soon after stopping them. The homeopathic remedies worked again and we have been off steroids for many years.

In 2012, before moving to Canada, our homeopathic doctor prescribed some remedies for my children which I have used every time they start to feel unwell. This has worked well till now, though I did have to consult our family doctor for allopathic medicines once or twice.

Over the past 10 years, with my study of Buddhism, I have come to realize that compassion and listening carefully are very important qualities of a healer. Besides, it is important to strengthen the life force of a person in order to heal him or her. It is also very important to cure the cause of an illness along with curing the illness itself. I understand that homeopathy is the branch of medicine which addresses these factors.

This made me contemplate studying homeopathic medicine a few years ago, but the place I lived in had no provision for that. While researching my career options in Canada, I also looked up colleges for homeopathic medicine and was happy to find some within commuting distance from where I live.

Homeopathic medicine has worked well for me where the scope of allopathic medicine ended. It has also helped me in reducing our dependence on allopathic medicines as such. I believe that allopathic medicines are very effective and life-saving in acute conditions. However, it is my strong belief that a follow up using homeopathic medicine, correct nutrition and an active lifestyle would be a complete and holistic treatment of a medical condition. Dieticians and physiotherapists already work in conjunction with physicians. In an ideal world, practitioners of homeopathy would also be an integral part of that team for healing patients. It would be fortunate if I could contribute towards this. 

Image courtesy by  Sattva (freedigitalphotos.net)