Allopathy Vs Homeopathy In the world of medicine, different modes of treatment are available to sufferers to bring positive health. They all approach in different ways with different principles to attain the goal of ‘CURE’. In the race, Allopathy system of medicine stands first with its efficient acute management and Homeopathy stands first in treating chronic complaints without any adverse effects. Each one has its own efficacy, advantages, disadvantages and limitations. This is to show how these two systems differ in the treatment of disease / patient and medicines derivation / selection / applications. As a main point of deviation, Allopathy doesn’t have any fixed law or relationship between drug and disease. As it evolves as the best for the period with advancement of science and series of lab analysis it doesn’t give importance to any principles and opts for most suitable method of the time whereas Homeopathy has been developed as a rational science, based on definite principle - law of similars (let likes be treated with likes). Disease / patient Allopathy concentrates on disease, its diagnosis and causes whereas Homeopathy concentrates on patients and their feelings, i.e. on the biological whole (mind and body) to individualise the patient.  The Allopath tries to label the disease at their first outlook - their task will become very easy once they diagnose the complaint, whereas in Homeopathy, the Homeopath further needs to individualise the patient to anticipate cure. The Homeopath uses diagnosis only in the prognosis point of view. In Allopathy, once the disease is diagnosed with a specific disease name, they find a specific drug and its treatment is common to everyone irrespective of their symptom presentation whereas, in Homeopathy, treatment may differ from person to person depending upon the symptom presentation of the patient. Allopathy treats diseases with common symptoms of the diseases whereas Homeopathy treats patient by giving importance to patient symptoms, i.e., uncommon, rare, peculiar symptoms of the patients. For example – In jaundice, some may come with vomiting and fever, some may come with just yellow urine and tiredness, some may come with body itching, etc. Here, the Homeopath’s view and drug selection varies depending upon the patient’s symptoms. Allopathy usually identifies bacteria, fungus or virus as material cause for the diseases whereas Homeopathy declares dynamic derangement of vital force / immune mechanism as the cause. For example, if 10 members happened to attend a party and had food / water / ice creams in the same place and only 3-4 of them suffered food allergy or flu-like symptoms, then bacteria or virus alone cannot be blamed as the causative factor, i.e., It is further because of low resistance of the sufferers, i.e. deranged or weak vital force. In Allopathy, treatment depends on pathological findings / lab reports / causative factors whereas Homeopathy concentrates on strengthening the immune mechanism / vital force to expel/prevent the disease. In Homeopathy, diagnosis with lab investigations and causative factor (bacteria or virus) won’t help much for medicine selection since medicines are not going to act against disease or kill bacteria or virus directly. Here, treatment with individualisation makes resistance/immune mechanism to climb up giving no chance for recurrence/re-infection of the same bacteria or virus. Further, in Allopathy, if they cannot find any abnormality with lab investigations/findings their hands are tied; but in Homeopathy the patients can still benefit since Homeopathy treats symptoms and aims at strengthening the immune mechanism to expel the disease. But no one can deny the importance of diagnosis, laboratory investigations for the assessment of prognosis and to monitor betterment. Allopathy usually stops treatment once the symptoms disappear or if they have found normal lab reports but in Homeopathy it will continue till the patient attains comfort level and well-being sensation. Here one need to be aware that cure and comfort feeling (well-being sensation) can be felt only by the patient and cannot be examined or diagnosed by a doctor or seen in lab findings. As Homeopathy gives importance to patient symptoms, their feelings and emotions, with start up of Homeopathic treatment itself, one can start feeling comfort. For example, if one happened to take allopathic anti-pyretic drugs for fever, they may have profuse sweating and reduction in temperature but they may feel profound weakness/tiredness, i.e., there won’t be comfort feeling even after the fever subsides. But anyone can attain the feeling of well-being while taking Homeopathy treatment even when there is fever. It is because of the start up of the process of cure by the natural defence mechanism. Allopathy treats patients in parts (concentrates only on diseased part) whereas Homeopathy treats patient from the point of view of a biological whole i.e., for their entire physical complaints, feelings and emotions. As Allopathy treats patients in parts, there may be many doctors working on one person to bring/maintain good health whereas in Homeopathy, one Homeopath usually gives importance to all the complaints of the patient. Allopathy usually suppresses the symptoms/complaints – for example in the case of back pain, they provide painkillers to suppress pain without addressing the reason for the pain. One should be aware that pain is an alarm of the body to take care of the parts. Likewise, in case of cough, they will provide cough syrups to suppress the cough. One should be aware that suppressing the cough may lead to retention of phlegm in the chest which lead to recurrent infection/constant phlegm in the chest. Even though response may be instant with cough syrups/painkillers, they won’t be useful in the long run. Homeopathy is a non-suppressive way of treatment without any complications later. It addresses the problem to the core with the aim of cure. Allopathy suppresses the body’s natural healing mechanisms but Homeopathy favours or utilises the body efforts/natural healing powers. For example, fever needs to be treated as friend and not as disease (likewise, cough). It is the first alarm to point the entry of disease. Further, Allopathy works as a defence mechanism which creates circumstances that are not favourable for virus or bacteria to thrive. If you are going to switch off the fever (natural alarm/healing mechanism) without taking steps against the disease, then you are paving the way for the disease force to progress, i.e., while suppressing a disease, patient may feel better at first, but sooner they will experience the disease in worse manner. Allopathy can provide instant relief (not cure) with their instant remedies whereas Homeopathy aims for cure always. Even though there may be some delay in the process of Homeopathic treatment in attaining comfort level, when one analyses the goal – cure, Homeopathy always leads the race. For example – if one takes pain killers for headache and gets instant relief with Allopathy, it is just for that day. Later, he may suffer often from the same set of symptoms – every time he needs to go for pain killers –one cannot expect cure. In Homeopathy, if one opts for Homeopathy treatment for headache, it will address the problem to the core and cure the case. Further, it will abort the tendency of recurrent headache. By analysing the end result, one can realise the value of instant and proper approach. One should be aware that if one happens to avail of/start treatment as soon as the complaint starts, betterment/cure can also be attained at the earliest. Allopathy aims more in ‘management’ for chronic cases so the patient may sometime need to depend on treatment/drugs for their lifetime (for example, using supplement of thyroid hormones/thyroxine for hypothyroidism, pain killers for back pain, etc.) whereas in Homeopathy, the Homeopath treats the core of the disease with the aim of complete cure. But one should be aware that complete cure is possible only when patients opt for treatment in the early stages. When they come after complications or structural deformity, it cannot be cured but only be maintained. Allopathy treats patients with external mode of treatment too (i.e., with ointments / external applications) whereas Homeopathy gives importance only to internal treatment since in Homeopathic point of view, external treatment will usually be a suppressive one. For example – pimples may remain dormant as long as you use creams to treat them. Once you discontinue the creams, the pimples will return in more numbers. From this one can understand that suppressive treatment not only suppresses the complaint but also internally allows the disease to grow. Homeopathy and Allopathy differ in medicine derivation, selection and application also. One can understand these two systems only when they can differentiate these. In Allopathy, medicines are initially proved in animals/lab analysis and finally brought for clinical trials. In Homeopathy, medicines are proved in healthy human beings. In Allopathy, any chemical substances can be used as drug substances whereas Homeopathy accepts those substances as medicines only when they are capable of producing a similar set of symptoms in healthy human beings. Allopathic medicines are mostly prescribed in crude form and in large doses whereas in Homeopathy, medicines are very much refined and given in minimal and minute doses. This inestimable minute dose or lack of research in science to spot medicinal substance in Homeopathic dilution often brings criticism to Homeopathy as placebo medicine. When one happens to take Allopathic medicines for a prolonged period, adverse reactions are very common, whereas in Homeopathy, since medicines are very much refined and given in minute doses, mostly there won’t be any side-effects at all. Further, one needs to be aware that complications with Allopathy drugs are mostly because of using unnatural chemical drugs. Allopathy treats diseases in all possible ways at all times. Here specific medicines or specific mode of treatment will be provided for specific diseases. But in Homeopathy, Homeopaths need to match the symptoms between patient symptoms and disease symptom to arrive at the right remedy “similimum” to cure the patient at the earliest. So, in Homeopathy, selection of medicines often varies depending upon the patients presenting complaints, i.e., in Homeopathy, if 10 jaundice patients come for treatment, they may get prescribed different medicines according to their symptom presentation. In Allopathy, different diseases are treated by different sets of medicines (and sometimes by different doctors too) – they often interact (as mostly patient won’t reveal all the treatments to the doctor of current treatment – even if they do so, sometimes interactions may be inevitable). Interactions not only come as an obstacle in the process of cure but also complicate the disease further and make the disease ‘incurable’. In Homeopathy, the Homeopath usually tries to analyse all the complaints (of body and mind) to individualise the complaint to choose the right drug. So there won’t be any interactions or adverse reactions. Allopathic medicines usually act directly on the respective cells / tissues / bacteria / viruses / fungus or worms to bring positive health. In Homeopathy, medicines usually give energy (or support) to our immune mechanism (natural healing mechanism of the body) to strengthen it to expel the disease on its own. Here one should comprehend that the Homeopath won’t provide any remedy to kill bacteria / virus / fungus or worms, but they will get expelled by our body’s own healing powers (on getting strength through prescribed medicines). So, recurrence of complaints will be less in Homeopathy, compared to other systems of medicines, since our body will have increased resistance after homeopathic treatment. Allopathic medicines often treat the effects of the disease (for example, kidney stone, gall stone, warts or any tumour) and just give importance for its removal, whereas Homeopathy treats patient as a biological whole, to expel them naturally, to root out the tendencies and to combat recurrence. One needs to be aware that surgery has its own advantages – especially in serious conditions, irrevocable structural changes and in congenital malformations. In Allopathy, removal of affected tissues / tumours / stones / warts is also considered as cure. But Homeopathy considers it as pausing of disease and not as removal of cause or disease itself. So, surely one can expect recurrence or it might bounce back with higher intensity, for example, in cases of renal stones, lipoma, etc. Removal of stones or affected tissue cannot be taken as elimination of the whole disease since it is only the effects of the disease and not the disease itself. So, the stone-forming tendency will be there in the body and recurrences are common and in tumour or warts cases; the disease will move or proceed to other places/parts soon. Homoeopathy, unlike other systems of medicines, does not concentrate just on the affected parts – it actually cares for total health, i.e., for all symptoms of the patient. In Allopathy, since medicines are used in large doses and in a continuous manner (for chronic complaints), often it causes dependency on medicines whereas in Homeopathy it is not like that since medicines are prescribed in small doses and infrequently. In Allopathy, in course of time with treatment, drug resistance (drugs may become ineffective) may develop. But in Homeopathy, it is very uncommon since ‘similimum’ medicine is selected matching all the symptoms of the patient that will just trigger our immune mechanism to act against the disease. One should realise that living comfortably is as important as saving a life or otherwise the situation would get worse. So one should realise that Allopathy and Homeopathy are equally important and there should not be any conflicts between doctors of those systems - instead they should be complementary to each other for the betterment of suffering humanity / patients. Patients should also be aware that they should pursue positive health in the right way with the best mode of treatment available. Can Homeopathy and Allopathy be availed of together? Does Homeopathy and Allopathy interact and cause complications? As the World Health Organization wishes, every human being in this planet regardless of race, gender or status, should be within the reach of all systems of medicines and allowed to choose according to his interest with awareness of all the benefits and side-effects. As everyone knows, each and every system of medicine has at the least some good things that benefit patients. The sufferer needs to utilise them. Yet that dream remains out of reach for a vast number of the suffering humanity. It’s high time to fix this problem. This article can help to inform, inspire and ignite. Everything in this world is open to dispute as man is a reasoning animal. Pharmaceutical companies, medical journals and doctors associations often ignite a war between Allopathy and Homeopathy. In spite of all criticism and comments, Homeopathy has stood for more than two centuries and showed its stability. Its popularity comes with its efficient cure and nil side-effects. Those who create ill-will are all interested in their betterment and not in the patient’s well-being. Finally, the losers are the sufferers, the patients, i.e., with fear to try another system of medicine, they simply suffer. All medicines (whatever the system) cannot satisfy all patients - some will provide cure, some will provide just relief for the time being, some may provide miraculous betterment but side-effects may be horrible, some may provide lesser improvement in spite of proper approach and treatment, etc. Likewise, sometimes, despite the best efforts of researchers, doctors, patient cooperation, some disease seem to be more complex and remain difficult to treat. What one should keep in mind is that in difficult times, team work always works. Likewise, Homeopathy and Allopathy, should not remain like water and oil to repel each other but be like petrol and oil to fuel the curing process to ease the condition of the suffering humanity without any conflicts. For acute management, one would have started emergency care with Allopathy. One would have started taking treatment with Homeopathy for his chronic complaints and he might face an emergency sometimes. At that time, he can opt for Allopathy to save his life and for comfort. For example, in case of dehydration, one can opt for emergency care with IV drips and in case of severe migraine, one may go for painkillers temporarily and come to Homeopathy for total cure. Anyhow, one should be aware that depending on painkillers and steroids bring habit of dependency most of the time. Everyone has the right to expect/claim 100 per cent comfort or cure, i.e., if Allopathy provides only 60 per cent improvement, one can claim the balance with another system of medicine like Homeopathy or Ayurveda. Likewise, if one feels Homeopathy provides only 70 per cent improvement, he can opt for Allopathy or other systems of medicine for the residual complaints or life-threatening complaints. Here one’s aim should be only on total comfort and to rule out complications and side-effects. Cure and a feeling of comfort (well-being sensation) can be felt only by the patient and cannot be examined or diagnosed by a doctor or lab findings. Most of the time, Allopathy ignores patients’ feelings and just relies on lab reports. If a lab report could not detect any abnormality, it is helpless. In those cases, Homeopathy can surely help since it gives importance to patient symptoms than to disease symptoms. Patient feelings should always be respected. Also many a time, in chronic complaints, the patient may be compelled to depend on medicines and made to live with its side-effects also. Here again, it is worth giving a try with alternative system of medicines to get betterment without side-effects or at the least reduce side-effects. Other than natural diseases, our treatment approaches can also sometimes create many artificial diseases with (multiple) drugs. Nowadays ‘drug disease’ is one of the major complications in treatment – it not only complicates the disease but also makes the patient sicker and sometimes converts the disease into ‘incurable’ one. For example, if one takes pain-killers for headache or body pain, it may cause ulceration of the stomach which in turn would not allow one to go for painkillers again for any pain relief. Likewise, if one takes treatment for sleeplessness or fits or allergy, dullness or lack of concentration will come as dividend. Further, some patients may be oversensitive to some drugs - in all these cases, it is better to go for other systems of medicine. For chronic and difficult cases, other systems of medicines can be continued while one opts for Homeopathic medicines (with half-an-hour gap between two medications) - since Homeopathic medicines act on the sensory nerve-endings of the tongue and most of the other systems of medicine act through the blood there won’t be any interaction or side-effects. Likewise, during pregnancy, if there arises any complaint, people usually hesitate to take any medicines since it may contaminate the blood and thus the womb – but it is not so with Homeopathy. So, during pregnancy also, Homeopathy medicines can be taken without any adverse reactions or effect on the womb. Also, in many conditions, one cannot take immediate diversion from the path of existing treatment plan - for example, in insulin dependent diabetes, after prolonged course of thyroxine for thyroid dysfunctions, after prolonged course of anti-hypertensive and cardiac drugs, after prolonged course of steroids for autoimmune disorders, etc. In these regular treatments also, complications and side-effects or adverse reactions may sometimes be inevitable - for example, diabetic neuropathy (burning feet) in diabetes, hot flushing in the treatment of thyroid dysfunction, bloating of face in steroidal treatment, etc. Here adding Homeopathy treatment in addition to the existing plan of treatment can help patients to reduce the dose, sufferings and complications. Further, in some cases, withdrawal of dependent drugs can cause serious side-effects. So, in these cases, dependent drugs steroids/painkillers should not be stopped abruptly and tapering of doses should be done slowly with proper treatment and care. For example, in Allopathy, for asthma or allergic patients, they won’t claim cure but go just for maintenance. But in such cases, Homeopathy treatment can reduce the bouts and intensity of attacks. Also, in course of time, there are chances to get cured completely. It is not out of place to inform that Homeopathy is effective even on childhood asthma. Likewise, in uncontrolled or erratic diabetes or hypertension, adding Homeopathic treatment can bring readings to tolerable levels. Homeopathy is not against surgery, if that is the case. But it can be avoided in many cases like piles, uterine masses, breast tumours, pleurisy, gallstones, kidney stones, etc., if it is properly diagnosed and treated before complications arise. So, suffering humanity should be aware that it is worth giving it a try with other systems of medicine also. Finally, treatment is not a religion to follow. It has been evolved in different parts of the world with the advancement of science for the betterment of the suffering humanity – so the best treatment should be provided to the patient with main motto ‘Comfort’. Homeopathy medicines can be taken simultaneously with other systems of medicines. In chronic complaints, taking Homeopathy medicines can improve immunity to prevent recurrent illnesses to maintain good health. Homeopathy treatment can also improve overall health (physical and mental health) by treating general symptoms - appetite, thirst, sweat, urine, stool, sleep, menses, etc. In case of drug dependency (in insulin-dependent cases, thyroid dysfunctions, steroidal treatment, inhalers for asthma, etc.) Homeopathy can help in reducing the doses and frequency of medicine administration. As Homeopathy uses minute medicine doses, they cannot interact with other medicines or cause side-effects. for new hope Dr. S. Chidambaranathan, BHMS, MD (Homeo) Laxmi Homeo Clinic 24 E. New Mahalipatti Road Madurai, TN 625 001 India Tel:  +91-452-233-8833 | +91-984-319-1011 (Mob) Fax: +91-452-233-0196 E-mail:  drcheena@yahoo.com www.drcheena.com / www.drcheena.in (Disclaimer - The contents of this column are for informational purpose only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional healthcare advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of healthcare professional for any health problem or medical condition.