Introduction: Medicine's Radical.

 

Samuel Hahnemann is arguably the most disputed but also the most inspiring person in medical history. At a time when medicine was crude, invasive, even dangerous, Hahnemann established a fundamentally new medical concept that emphasized gentleness, individualized treatment and the innate healing powers of the body. He later gave this idea a name: Homeopathy, a therapy still practiced by many people all over the world.

In the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries, traditional medicine involved such procedures as bloodletting, purging and the administration of toxic agents like mercury. Such treatments would undoubtedly often leave patients weaker than before rather than cured. Medical practices were often based on tradition and had few scientific or systematic roots. Clinical trials did not exist and therefore doctors often based their treatment more on habit and ancient teachings than on anything else. It was within this background that Hahnemann came forth with an alternative, more logical approach to medicine.

Hahnemann developed his principle that "like cures like" (similia similibus curentur) which suggested that a substance that would produce symptoms in healthy person would have the effect of curing similar symptoms in the sick when administered in extremely small doses. This was a new way of approaching the treatment; based on symptoms and the individual rather than just the disease itself.

He also stated that each individual case was unique and that even two people suffering from the same disease were likely to have different symptoms. Therefore he treated not only the disease but the person and took physical, emotional and environmental factors into account. Furthermore, he believed that smaller doses of medicines are more effective and safer than larger amounts.

Hahnemann promoted the use of close observation and experiment and thus he began provings in which he tested drugs on himself and other healthy individuals, gaining knowledge about what would be a cure for disease-an early form of the scientific study that we now refer to as a clinical trial.

But perhaps the most revolutionary change that he made to medicine was the humanization of it. Treating patients as human beings and not merely as the sum of their symptoms and of ailments, Hahnemann laid the ground for what has become modern day, patient centered care. Although his ideas still generate controversy, their impact is undeniable and his approach to medicine continues to influence not only medicine itself but so much of our modern day living.

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