Although you see “homeopathic cold remedies” and the like being sold alongside Triaminic, Mucinex, Sudafed, Nyquil and other over-the-counter drugs, they are something quite different.

The nature of drugs is to force specific actions (and reactions) in the body so that bothersome symptoms will be lessened or squelched all together. Their active ingredients are molecules.

The nature of homeopathics is to stimulate the body’s innate healing mechanisms. Their active ingredient is information – specifically, information about how to correct the current pathology and restore the normal state of homeostasis that we call “health.”

If a healthy person were to “overdose” on a homeopathic for an ailment they don’t have, nothing would happen. If they did have the condition for which the remedy is indicated, their body would respond, acting on the information it’s been given.

Sometimes when taking homeopathics, symptoms may actually intensify at first. This is known as a healing crisis. It may be a bother, but it’s not a bad thing. For what we call “symptoms” are merely signals that the body is trying to heal. Homeopathic-driven intensification of symptoms, then, is a sign that the body is working as it should. (That said, we do our best to prescribe dosages that will help most without triggering such a crisis.)

By the same token, we can now understand how suppressing symptoms with pharmaceutical drugs creates an additional physical burden. By nature, they work against the body instead of with it, trying to force particular actions. Instead of helping the body function normally, they become just another drag on health, like any other toxin. By design, they interfere with the body’s normal biological processes.

Homeopathy, by design, supports those processes. It does not treat disease. Its remedies guide and stimulate the body to recover from insults and injuries that resulted from the root causes a good homeopath will be able to identify by considering your complete health history – from environmental toxic exposure to mercury poisoning and other dental foci.

It is not about molecules. It’s not about treating symptoms. It’s about giving the compromised body a chance to recover, restore and thrive.