Homeopathic treatments

Homeopathy is a therapeutic modality that treats disease by stimulating the animal's own healing mechanisms. This is achieved by means of medicines specifically manufactured for homeopathic use, prescribed according to the sick animal's unique pattern of signs and symptoms.

The exact mechanism of action of homeopathic medicines, in terms of current physiology, has not been established; however it is generally postulated that homeopathic medicines act by means of a combination of actions on enzymes and regulatory genes.

Animals have an inherent ability to heal themselves. Their genes (genome) contain all of the information required to reconstruct all of the normal structures (tissues, organs) and functions (e.g. metabolic pathways) of the organism. When an animal falls ill, the organism initiates a regeneration process to repair any damage caused by the disease. Very ill animals in general and chronically ill animals in particular have impaired repairing mechanisms.

Every animal is unique because it has a unique genetic make up and a unique environmental history. Therefore, it responds to disease and injuries in a unique way. On the surface two animals afflicted with a disease, say epilepsy, have the same clinical signs, namely convulsions. However if we investigate carefully we will notice differences in the way the convulsions occur. One may have convulsions occurring predominantly at night, the other early in the morning. Similarly, a cat with asthma may hide when having an attack while another may become cuddly and stick around people. We can get to very high levels of resolution by noticing the unique location and colour of lesions, response to weather and to the social environment. With this analysis, a unique picture of the ill animal emerges. The unique characteristics of the disease as it appears in a particular animal are an expression of a unique pattern of blocked genes and enzymes induced by the disease itself.

It follows that in order for the animal to fight the disease, his inactive genes and enzymes need to be reactivated. Whereas a sick animal has a pattern of inactive genes and enzymes that is different from any other animal that has a similar disease, the treatment must be designed specifically for the individual patient.

Medicines can inhibit function at high dose and stimulate function at low dose (or high dilutions). In a homeopathic drug trial (known as proving), a medicine is given in high and repeated doses until it causes signs and symptoms (associated to gene and enzyme inhibition). The signs and symptoms and pattern of gene and enzyme inhibition are unique to the medicine. If the same medicine is given at a high dilution (as they are manufactured for homeopathic use) to an animal presenting a pattern of signs and symptoms similar to the pattern induced by the medicine in the homeopathic drug trial, the signs and symptoms of the sick animal are reverted (genes and enzymes are reactivated). This is called Homeopathy, or 'cure with similars.'

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