The name homeopathy derives from the Greek „homoios pathein“, which means „similar suffering”. This idea led to the fundamental therapeutic principle “similia similibus curentur” – “let like be cured by like”. This so-called law of similars was defined by the German physician Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in 1796. He observed from experiments on himself that a disease can be treated by very low doses of a drug which would cause the same symptoms if given to a healthy person. Hahnemann discovered the interaction of symptoms of malaria and cinchona bark – its effect on malaria was already known. According to the symptoms healthy individuals produced on a drug, he developed a substantial list of homeopathic remedies. Nowadays more than two thousand homeopathic remedies are known. They derive from plants, minerals or animalic products.

In order to get the designated effect, Hahnemann developed the method of potentiation. The original substance is serially diluted and triturated (intensely grinded with mortar and pestle) together with a non-pharmaceutical carrier substance, usually alcohol or lactose. E.g.: potency C30 means that the original substance was diluted 30 times by the factor 100 and was triturated or succussed (shaken vigorously) 30 times. The resulting high potency does not contain any pharmacologically active molecule of the original substance, but only its potency or energy. The phenomenon of homeopathy is that these potencies can generate the most intensive reactions.

Homeopathy activates the individual’s self-healing effect, the regulation within the organism. Spirit, mind and organism interact and become more powerful.