BLOG: Homeopathy Glossary

Homeopathy Glossary

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Acute: A status which is usually brief in duration and self-limiting. This means that it either runs its course or the patient dies. Examples: colds, flu, fractures, infections, poison ivy, vomiting, fever, etc. In some cases, acute issues, if left untreated, can turn into chronic diseases.

Acute Remedy: A remedy for particular use in acute conditions or situations. Many so-called acute remedies are also useful for chronic or non-acute conditions. Examples of remedies for an acute issue are Arnica for bruises and Ledum for insect stings.

Allopathy: Traditional medicine practiced by Medical Doctors and Doctors of Osteopathy where disease are treated using medicines with effects that are different from the symptoms of the disease being treated and which have no relationship to the disease symptoms. Allopathy is based on the principle of contraria contrariis, or the Law of Opposites, as opposed to homeopathy, which is based on similia similibus curentur, or 'like cures like.'

Avagadro's Number is the reciprocal of a mole or 6.022140857×10²³ mol⁻¹. The number of molecules contained in 1 mole of a substance. Potencies greater than 12c or 24x no longer contain any molecules of the original substance.

Chronic Condition: Usually more slowly developing conditions and may last indefinitely. Examples of chronic conditions include heart disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus

Chronic Remedy: A homeopathic remedy especially indicated and useful in chronic disease conditions. Chronic conditions should be assessed by a trained homeopath and the layperson should not attempt to address so no examples of remedies will be provided here.

Constitution: The overall mental, emotional and physical makeup of the person, including temperament, appearance and behavior, corresponding a major homeopathic remedy types.

Constitutional Remedy: A basic remedy to the health of an individual during his entire lifetime. The constitutional remedy for a person is determined by a homeopath who uncovers certain fundamentals about the person and then repertorizes that symptomatology or examines that typology in order to uncover the patient's nature or constitution, and the corresponding constitutional remedy.

Genus Epidemicus: The combined symptoms of a large group of people afflicted with a disease or epidemic. This combined symptom list is then used to find the remedy best suited to treating those persons so afflicted without having to devote the time necessary to repertorize each and every person. It is sort of an 'epidemic simillimum.'

Materia Medica: "materials of medicine" in Latin A reference work listing remedies and the associated therapeutic actions.

Nosode: The potentized homeopathic remedy prepared from diseased tissue or the product of a disease.

Potency: The power or strength which a homeopathic remedy possesses. This is standardized for most remedy manufacturers and represented as a number attached to the remedy name, either before or after, e.g., 6X, 30C, 200C, 1M, 10M, 50M, LM1, etc. The decimal scale is represented by an X. An example of a remedy in the decimal scale would be Arnica 6x. The centesimal scale is represented by a C. An example of a remedy in the centesimal scale would be Arnica 30c. The millesimal scale is represented by M. An example of a remedy in the 50 millesimal scale(LM) would be Arnica LM1. The more a substance is diluted, the higher the potency. The higher the potency, the deeper it works. Laypersons should not use potencies over 1M unless they have some training in how to use them or under the guidance of a homeopath.

Potentization: The process of preparing a homeopathic remedy by repeated dilution with succussion (shaking). How remedies are traditionally manufactured at Helios and video on how remedies are mass produced at Boiron

Proving: The process of determining the medicinal/curative properties of a substance. This process involves the administration of substances either in crude form or in potency to healthy human subjects in order to observe and record symptoms. A test of the action of a drug upon the healthy body, and a record of the unusual sensations/symptoms produced and/or alterations from the normal health experienced by the one taking the drug. (NOTE: if a remedy is repeated too often and/or in too high of a potency, a person can experience a proving. This can be fixed quickly by antidoting the remedy with coffee, mint, camphor, or eucalyptus or a remedy that is a specific antidote to the remedy for which there has been a proving.)

Repertory: A book/computer program where information is categorized so that it may be found easily or logically. The homeopathic repertory is an index/library of symptoms derived from the materia medica and clinical/toxicological data. It is like an index to a book: instead of laboriously flipping through a book page by page to find information, one can look up the specific symptom in the index.

similia similibus curantur: From the Latin, 'likes are cured by likes." The homeopathic formula expressing the law of similars (the doctrine that any drug which is capable of producing morbid symptoms in the healthy will remove similar symptoms occurring as an expression of disease).

Simillimum: ('the most similar'): The remedy that most closely corresponds to the totality of symptoms. It is the most similar remedy corresponding to the case, the one best truly covering the true totality of symptoms. (You never take a remedy for one symptom but instead the totality of symptoms - physical, mental, and emotional.)

Source: Yasgur's Homeopathic Dictionary

Other Homeopathic Glossaries The following links are NOT affiliate links and I have no affiliation with them - you can find a homeopath here:

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