The World Homeopathy Day is observed every year on April 10 in memory of Dr Hahnemann, the Founder of Homoeopathy who was born on this day. Dr Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was a physician born in Germany, who was a great researcher, linguist and applauded scientist.
Homeopathy is a form of medicine that works on the principle of triggering the body’s own healing responses. It was founded more than 200 years ago, and its popularity shows no signs of vanishing. Homoeopathy was discovered by the German physician Dr Samuel Hahnemann, who himself was a doctor practising western medicine. This year in 2020, it will be the 265th birthday of Hahnemann.
What is Homeopathy?
A homoeopathy is an alternative form of medicine, which believes that ‘Like cures like.’ According to Homeopathy, a disease can be cured by a material that can induce symptoms similar to the sickness itself by using highly-diluted doses of natural ingredients. These materials are believed to trigger the body’s healing system. Lesser the dose of the homoeopathic ingredients, the larger the potency of the medicines. Some of the homoeopathic substances are diluted to such a large extent that no traces or molecules of the original substances remain.
Western medicine dismisses homoeopathy as a mere placebo whose two most important principles are at ornery with the laws of physics. But the faith patients have in homoeopathy hasn’t seen any change.. Plenty of documented cases exist where people have been seemingly cured of their health conditions with homoeopathy.
Homoeopathy is also one of the most preferred alternative systems of healing in India, coming quite to the indigenous medicine Ayurveda. It’s also among the Indian government’s AYUSH for alternative medicine. India also has the biggest homoeopathic drug manufacturers and traders in the country.
Why is World Homeopathy Day Celebrated?
World Homeopathy Day is celebrated not only to commemorate the birth of Dr Hahnemann. It’s also a day to understand the challenges and future strategies to develop homoeopathy even further.
It aims to create awareness about the different systems of medicine and to improve ease of access and success rates. World Homeopathy Day seeks to bring the community together to establish, reinvent and modernize the system of medicine so that more people can reap its benefits.
What does it mean for India?
Homoeopathy is one of the most popular medical systems in India, in fact, a close second among the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) services. There are growing numbers of users, practitioners, educational institutes, as well as public health clinics, compared to the AYUSH systems in India. Academic homoeopathy institutes comprise 35.8% of AYUSH colleges, while homoeopathy practitioners are 37% of the AYUSH in total. Our country has the biggest drug manufacture and traders’ sector in Homoeopathy.
World Homoeopathy Day (WHD) gives us an opportunity to review the path trodden so far, take stock of the challenges facing us, and formulate future strategies for the development of Homoeopathy. There is a need to focus on the quality of education, enhancing the success rate of an average practitioner. There is also a need to ensure the production and availability of high-quality homoeopathic drugs in the market. This is not possible unless the homoeopathic community innovates, modernizes, reinvents, forges ahead jointly, with a variety of initiatives and research projects. Therefore the theme is ‘Linking research with education and clinical practice: Advancing scientific collaborations’.
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