"The physician's high and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is called."  Samuel Hahnemann

Homeopathy is a traditional and safe system of medicine that stimulates the body’s inherent forces of recovery. All symptoms of a disease - physical, mental and emotional - contribute to the entire picture.

Developed by Samuel Hahnemann over 200 years ago, homeopathic treatment is based on the Law of Similars, whereby the sum of the symptoms is treated according to the principle of similarity (like cures like). The appropriate homeopathic medicinal product, know as the Similimum, is often a much reduced dose of the substance which in larger quantities would create the symptoms in a healthy person. This stimulates the body’s defence against such symptoms and mobilises the organism's self-healing capacity.

Typically, homeopathic medicinal products are based on source materials of vegetable, animal, human and mineral origin. From these source materials, a suitable pharmaceutical agent or a dilution is made, which for vegetable and animal materials, is known as a ‘mother tincture’. The mother tincture is serially diluted and ‘succussed’ (shaken vigorously and impacted), thus enhancing the medicine’s curative properties. From solid substances, a ‘trituration’ is made – the pharmaceutical agent is grinded and diluted with lactose. The trituration is then serially diluted up to a certain level of dilution, after which it is also serially diluted and succussed. This process of serial dilution is known as potentisation. In homeopathy, different potencies (dilutions) of the same agent are indicated for different symptoms. The more dilute the agent, the higher the potency.

Homeopathy has a long-standing tradition in Europe. Three out of four Europeans know about homeopathy and 29% of Europe’s population¹ use it for their own healthcare. Between 25% and 40% of European healthcare practitioners prescribe it occasionally, 6-8% do so on a regular basis. Some 130 000 doctors work with homeopathy in the EU and there are approximately 30 000 specialised homeopathic medical doctors in Europe.

 ¹ EU Commission report evaluating implementation of Homeopathy Directives 92/73 EEC and 92/74/EEC, 1997.