Homeopathy - Homeopaths
Napa Valley, San Francisco North Bay, Ca. USA

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine, postulated in the late 18th century by

German physician and first Homeopath Samuel Hahnemann. Homeopathy is a vitalist therapy, claiming to act by treating imbalances in a hypothetical vital force. Substances, which in large quantities would cause symptoms similar to the disease, are administered in heavily diluted formulations, with shaking at each stage of the dilution. This process of serial dilution, called potentization, is claimed to remove any negative side-effects of the treatment, but to retain some therapeutic powers. Although at many of the higher dilutions no molecules of the original substance are likely to remain, homeopaths contend that the shaking causes some memory of the diluted substance to remain, and that this imprint has medical effects on the body.