Homeopathy

Homeopathy is an alternative system of medicine that was developed in the early 19th century by Doctor Samuel Hahnemann. It is different from conventional medicine in several ways.

The law of similars

Everyone knows that cutting up an onion makes your eyes and nose run - in other words, it produces the symptoms of having a cold. Similarly, if you eat the poisonous plant bella­donna, it gives you a hot, dry, flushed skin and hallucinations -both of which can occur in scarlet fever. It was observations like these that gave Dr Hahnemann the central idea of home­opathy: if onions gave a healthy person the symptoms of a cold, perhaps they could cure a person who was actually suffering from a cold. And perhaps substances like belladonna, which are normally poisonous, could be used to cure diseases with similar symptoms, like scarlet fever.

The single medicine

If you go to a conventional doctor with a headache, a sore throat and an upset stomach, you might come away with three different medicines. A homeopath, on the other hand, will conduct quite a long interview to find out all of your symptoms - mental and emotional as well as physical - and then prescribe a single remedy to deal with them all. The doctor might also recommend changes in diet and lifestyle as part of the treatment.

The minimum dose

A homeopathic remedy takes a lot of preparation. A tiny amount of the ingredients is diluted in water and alcohol (per­haps in the proportion 1:100), and the mixture is violently shaken. This mixture is then diluted again, and again shaken, and this can happen as many as 30 times before the medicine is ready. So the dose is extremely small - sometimes so small that there are no molecules left of the original ingredients! This process not only removes any danger from the use of poisonous ingredients, but is also believed, paradoxically, to increase the power of the medicine.

Is it effective?

Homeopathy is known to work well for a number of diseases, and can be used alongside conventional medical treatment. Children seem to respond well, and they like the medicines, which taste like sweets. Animals have also been treated successfully.

Small But Deadly: Aids.

What causes Aids? Most scientists agree that the virus, which attacks the body's immune system, causes Aids making the suf­ferer vulnerable to other diseases. It can be passed on by sexual contact, the use of shared needles for injecting drugs, and by blood transfusions using contaminated blood. It can also be passed on by pregnant women or their unborn children.

Symptoms. A person can be infected for many years with no symptoms at all, but in around 95 % of cases Aids develops eventually. Since Aids sufferers have no defense against dis­eases in general, the symptoms can vary widely. They may in­clude fever, weight-loss, and infections of the mouth and, as the disease progresses, tuberculosis or leukemia.

How widespread is it? Aids is a relatively recent disease, but one which has spread rapidly around the world, particularly in Africa and in large cities in many countries. Estimates of the actual numbers involved vary widely.

Prevention. Avoid injecting drugs, particularly with shared needle, and stick to one sexual partner. The use of condoms is known to reduce the risk of infection.

Cure. There is as yet no cure for Aids, which kills 99 % of sufferers. Scientists have produced and are producing a number of drugs, which slow down the progress of the disease, and there' is a huge amount of research into finding out more about the disease. However, no effective vaccine has yet been developed.