Homoeopathy Treats The Patient, Not The Disease

The Materia Medica of Homoeopathy is nothing but the proving of the medicine on healthy bodies, i.e the symptoms which a medicine produces in healthy body when taken in physiological doses. Therefore, in Homoeopathy the name of the disease is not at all necessary to select the right medicine. Homoeopathy treats the patient not the disease, unlike other systems of medicine where diseases are treated. In fact, the so called any one disease manifests so many various symptoms that no one medicine can be prescribed for it.

For ages, we have been accustomed to treat diseases by names. We have also prescribed medicines according to name of diseases but have mentioned different symptoms of different medicines in the same disease. The nomenclatures of diseases are according to some prominent part of the effected body or some prominent symptoms.

For example, if our lungs are affected and congested, we call it Pneumonia; if there is chill and fever we call it Malaria. If there is pain in heart we call it Angina, and so on. But it should be clear that even in one disease, for example in Pneumonia some patients are restless with high fever and great thirst, but others have no thirst and no restlessness would like to lie down silently. Some will not be able to lie on the left side, while others will feel uncomfortable by lying on the right side. In Malaria too there are so many different symptoms varying from patient to patient. Homoeopathy depends much on these different symptoms. A patient craves for cold water during fever, the other is thirst less, another feels better by moving about and still another is worse by slightest motion.

Therefore, to select the right Homoeopathic remedy, we have to note the location of the disease, i.e. the part effected, the sensations of the patient and aggravation and amelioration of the troubles.

To select the right remedy, therefore, we should carefully note all the symptoms in a patient. We should note what he says as well as what his relatives nursing him, say. We should then find which medicine in the Materia Medica produces all these symptoms, or at least a majority of important symptoms. If we succeed by careful comparison in finding out a similar medicine, the minutest doses of the same will cure the patient.