Fertility Naturopath Perth: Homeopathy and Naturopathy Explained

Homeopathy is a specific form of natural treatment. On the other hand, naturopathy may encompass a number of different styles of health management. One of these may be homeopathy; but a naturopath may also use dietary and lifestyle modification, vitamins and minerals and herbal medicine, amongst other therapies. Naturopaths, if you like, are the “general practitioners” of natural medicine.

At this Perth naturopathic clinic we use the traditional and modern knowledge of both disciplines to aid our fertility clients. We use the same approach for all conditions, as this is a general practice, treating all age groups and all problems. With more than 27 years experience in practice, we can assure you that you are in capable hands.

Homeopathy requires more study and experience to practice effectively at the deeper level than what is covered in a naturopathic course. Most use homeopathy for symptomatic and supportive treatment only, unless they have a separate qualification. We are fully trained in both homeopathy and naturopathy and have the right to call ourselves both naturopaths and homeopaths.

We believe that among the treatment options available to us homeopathy is the deepest acting. In our experience this therapy achieves the best results and is the most holistic. The indicated homeopathic medicine works towards balancing the person on all levels: mental, emotional and physical; and in this way it activates the healing forces of the body.

Only the body itself can cure its own complaints, and homeopathy serves to point the way. It provides “information” to the body, which allows it to begin its own process of restoring harmony and balance on all levels of the mind and body. The “constitutional remedy” is the one remedy that encompasses all aspects of your being and begins the process of healing at the deepest level. It needs to be individually prescribed by a skilled and experienced homeopath.

Most other natural therapies, especially as practised by many naturopaths today, treat symptoms only. Hence the “shopping bag” full of expensive supplements, one for each of your complaints, which many naturopaths provide, especially those employed by pharmacies and health food stores to move “products”. That is why we prefer to use herbal medicine and vitamin therapy sparingly. However, the basic, more traditional naturopathic wisdom is an essential adjunct to homeopathic treatment.

We refer to diet and lifestyle. No medicine, no matter how holistic, can make up for poor eating habits and inadequate lifestyle choices. So the traditional naturopathic approach is ideally placed to assist the individual with advice and counselling about the things that maintain the body and mind’s natural state of health.

We are great believers in rest and recreation: exercise, relationships and social activities (dancing is one of the best!), having a pet, regular holidays, meditation (in any form) and a sense of spiritual purpose. This last does not refer to anything religious, but simply describes a feeling of belonging and attaching a meaning to one’s life. It is the elusive source of “happiness” and is probably the most fundamental aspect of physical and mental health.

We also incorporate with this the knowledge from modern research on the effects of dietary components and lifestyle choices. However, we prefer that our patients get their vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in the most natural and balanced form possible: that is, from their food.

We may send you to your local health food store for certain “super-foods” to incorporate in your normal diet, but fresh vegetables, fruits and other whole foods are the essential base components.

Diet and lifestyle are the best way of establishing and maintaining vital health, and especially in achieving a fertile state in both the male and the female. At least, it is the foundation that needs to be there as the basis for health.

However, in many cases of poor health and especially in infertility, diet and lifestyle by itself is not enough. Then specific medicines must be used, and for the reasons outlined above our choice is homeopathy.

Homeopathy is a system of medicine. There are over 3,000 homeopathic medicines and all work in the same way: through the homeopathic principle. That is, “like cures like”. A substance that is capable of causing a pattern of symptoms in a healthy individual is capable of curing similar symptoms in a sick individual, when given in an appropriate dose.

That dose is small: just enough to stimulate a healing response by the body. However, it is energised by the process of dilution and succussion (vigorous shaking) that homeopaths believe imprint the “message” of the original substance onto the water molecules that are used as the diluting agent.

In acute complaints it is enough for the homeopath to assess the symptoms. For example, take the example of a cold, which could be helped by any number of homeopathic remedies, depending on symptoms.

A cold that starts with sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes, with a cough and scratchy throat has symptoms similar to what we experience when cutting up an onion. Therefore the onion prepared in homeopathic form may be prescribed by a homeopath for that cold.

That is fine for acute conditions, which are self-limiting anyway. In chronic conditions, which do not get better in time, the homeopath needs to understand the whole person. An extensive case history is taken. All aspects of the person are taken into account: mental, emotional and physical, and not just those aspects that are relevant to the chief complaint that the patient comes with.

Our understanding is that a person becomes sick on the chronic level because the body as a whole is not able to maintain its dynamic balance of health. In choosing the “constitutional remedy” that mirrors all aspects of the person’s health –in other words the remedy that can cause (in its material dose) and heal (in its homeopathic dose) that pattern of symptoms – provides the information to the body’s self-regulating mechanism to begin the process of healing.

Whatever the philosophy, it works. Although we started out using herbs and vitamins as well as homeopathic remedies, we soon found we got much better and lasting results with homeopathic treatment. It requires more skill and understanding of the person than other approaches.

Perhaps we have a special aptitude for it, but at least 27 years of focus on this therapy has meant that we are very happy with our prescribing skills and our results.

This has been a very short summary of the principles of homeopathy. Please visit our page www.cottnat.com.au/homeopathy-explained on our other website for a much fuller explanation.

Homeopathy and Naturopathy Explained