Did You Know Homeopathic Medicines Too Have Side Effects!

By Sneha A

Thursday, February 11, 2016, 17:09 [IST]

Homeopathy is a lot different from the conventional allopathic medicines and has been based on three basic laws that are the law of similar, the law of infinitesimals and the law of succussion.

We have often heard homeopathy to be considered as an extremely safe treatment and to a certain extent it is; however, there are some side effects of homeopathic medicines too.

One of the biggest problems with these alternative medicines is that they simply go against the very basic concept of chemistry, which is, “the more the solution is concentrated, the more effective it will be”.

But in case of homeopathy law of infinitesimals, “the potency of the potion is at its maximum when dissolved to an extent that not even a single molecule of the medicinal herbal extract dissolved in water actually remains intact”.

Hence, this raises a lot of questions on the functionality of this treatment and also the adverse effects of these homeopathic medicines.

The following are some of the things to be considered before you plan to opt for homeopathic therapy and finally if you do make sure to go to a professionally qualified homeopath.

1. Homeopathy may not treat immediate serious conditions:

Homeopathic medicines may work on certain ailments, but then some serious conditions need surgical interventions or may require an immediate means of relief.

In such cases, relying on homeopathic treatment may turn out to be a life-threatening decision.

2. It can't cure nutritional deficiencies:

Homeopathic medication is again not such a good idea in case of some nutritional deficiency.

Cases where patients are suffering from problems like anaemia, or deficiency of iron, or other such mineral deficiencies can only be solved by making appropriate dietary changes and taking supplements.

3. Accuracy of prescription needs complete history of patient:

The law of similar in homeopathy, at times, may result in aggravating a physical condition or creating new ones.

Also, accuracy of prescription also depends on the complete history of the patient.

4. Side effects of overdose:

One more side effect of homeopathic medicine is ‘proving'. If a person continues to take the prescribed medicine more than the indicated time duration, he/she may suffer from symptoms arising due to the overdose of the dissolved substances.

5. Can cause stomach infections due to overdose:

Even though normally homeopathy is considered safe, yet overdose of the medicines here too can cause serious problems like stomach infections, nose bleeding, diarrhoea, etc.

6. Homeopathic aggravation:

‘Homeopathic aggravation' is the term coined by practitioners when a patient suffers from worsening of the symptoms even on receiving the correct homeopathic medicines.

However, this initial increase in the symptoms is said to be a part of the healing process.

7. Effective only in a few set of people:

Homeopathic medicines have not been found effective for many people. They might not have caused any harmful side effects, but then again delay in the correct diagnosis and treatment of certain health conditions, because of waiting for the homeopathic medicines to work, may cause a lot of problems for a patient.

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Story first published: Thursday, February 11, 2016, 17:09 [IST]

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