Homeopathy

Homeopathy or homoeopathy—from the Greek hómoios (similar) and páthos (suffering)—is a system of Alternative medicine based on the idea that substances known to cause particular combinations of symptoms in healthy people can also, in low and specially prepared doses, help to cure people whose disease has similar symptoms.

The underlying concept of homeopathy is "like cures like" and is based on "the principle of similars", which asserts that substances known to cause particular symptoms can also, in low and specially prepared doses, help to cure diseases that cause similar symptoms[1], thus its derived name from the Greek hómoios (similar) and páthos (suffering). Remedies are prepared by diluting drugs and other compounds into extremely small doses, and then they are vigorously shaken ("succussed") in water or ethanol and dispensed in pills, Globules or liquid form. Homeopaths believe that this dilution and succussion process is what gives the remedies their potency. Some principles of homeopathy have been utilized in various forms in various medical systems for thousands of years in many diverse cultures[3], but they were first methodically set out by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), who observed that a medicine sometimes evoked symptoms similar to those of the illness for which it was prescribed.