Homeopathy has been in use for over 200 years. It was first devised in the late 18th century by a talented young German doctor and scientist called Samuel Hanhnemann. He spoke out against the brutal use of purging, emetics, blood-letting and blistering commonly employed by the physicians of his time.  Way ahead of his contemporaries  he  articulated the need for adequate nutrition;  sunlight;  ventilation;  clean bedding;  clean clothes;  personal hygiene;  clean eating utensils’ and the humane treatment of the imprisoned and insane. Alll things we nowadays take for granted. 

Hahnemann recognised that many of the medicines used at that time, such as mercury and arsenic were toxic and harmful to the patient, so he devised an alternative system of medicine that not only used substances in extremely diluted, safe doses, but that were shown to stimulate a person’s healing  response.

 

He was vilified and ridiculed for daring to speak out against the established medical system, but despite his critics homeopathy was shown to be a consistently successful system of healing and grew in popularity.

Nowadays, homeopathy is practised the world over, and is particularly popular in India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Chile, and France.  It is estimated that around 30 million people in Europe benefit from homeopathy. 

 

In the UK Homeopathy has been available on the NHS since its inception in 1948. There are 5 homeopathic hospitals, in London, Tunbridge Wells, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow.  They are economical to run, costing the NHS under £10 million a year compared to the £100 billion total annual NHS budget for 2008.

 

Interest in homeopathy is growing – a Mintel report (July 2007) reported that the sale of homeopathic treatments had seen a 24 per cent growth since 2002.