ses the distance between healer and patient. A gap that some argue mainstream medicine not only created but continues to widen with it's tendency towards coldness and indifference to it's patients.Homeopathic is effective for a wide range of ailments such as colds, flu, arthritis, allergies, and sprains to name just a few of the maladies for which there are homeopathic treatments for. But even homeopathy's most devoted supporters can not explain why it works, only that it does work. Critics of the homeopathic methods argue that the fundamental ideas behind homeopathy defy the laws of chemistry and physics and that it's theory makes no sense in the scientific world. (Langman, 1997). They also claim that homeopathic 'cures' are due to the so-called placebo effect; that the patients and professionals of homeopathy believe so strongly in their treatment that their belief system is actually the cure, not the homeopathic method used. (Langman, 1997). Homeopathy's newfound success also dismays many physicians, scientists and consumer advocates who regard the homeopathic formulas as ineffective, at best, and dangerous, at worst. They're especially concerned that by attempting to cure their ills with the homeopathic method, patients will not seek assistance from established treatments for very serious, perhaps life threatening ailments.Whether the treatment is mainstream or alternative medicine, as is the homeopathic method, there will always be critics as well of converts. Regardless of the criticism, as alternative medicine becomes more prevalent in western society there is a need to further educate nurses and other healthcare providers as to the advantages and possible disadvantages of homeopathy.Homeopathy is an alternative system of medicine that was founded in the early nineteenth century by a German physician, Dr. Hahnemann. It had its greatest popularity in the late nineteenth century in the United States. During that time as man...
