When we are healthy and fit, our body functions like a well-oiled machine. We wake up feeling refreshed and fully recharged, go about our day seamlessly and hit our daily targets personally and professionally. Our meals are essential ‘fuel’ for our body as they are broken down into their molecular form and utilized to give us energy and ensure the smooth functioning of our internal organs. If we consider our body to be a machine, a lot of its functions can be better explained. However, we also need to keep in mind that we are more than just machines, and while everyone’s bodily functions are essentially the same, how our bodies react to situations differently.
From the ability to heal and regenerate one’s body to the ability to think and make rational decisions, every living being is intelligent in its own way. While the most obvious form of intelligence we perceive is the ability to think, act, and experience emotions, another important ability our bodies have compared to most other organisms is the ability to heal. This is what sets us apart from machines.
The immune system
Each one of us is blessed with an immune system that works to keep our body healthy and safe. This system protects us from infections through several defense mechanisms. As vertebrates, we have a layered immune system. The first layer is the “innate immune system” that provides an immediate and non-specific response to an attack. Have you experienced tearing when something irritates your eyes? This is part of the innate immune system response. Innate immune systems are present in all plants and animals.
However, vertebrates also possess a second layer of protection called the “adaptive immune system”. This system adapts to pathogens, often referred to as antigens, that invade our body and effectively eliminates it. Pathogens are biological agents that cause diseases. So our adaptive immune system produces antibodies through our white blood cells, or lymphocytes, that attack these antigens and render them inactive.
Understanding autoimmune diseases
While the above is true for a healthy body, some people suffer from a hyperactive immune system. When your immune responses turn around and attack your healthy cells and tissues instead, it leads to an aberrant immune response called “autoimmune diseases”. Conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Graves’ disease, and Type 1 Diabetes are some of the autoimmune diseases.
While there are different ways to treat an autoimmune condition with the help of modern medicine, most of them consist of using immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory medicines, and steroids. However, autoimmune conditions require long term disease management and cannot be solely dependent on medicines. These conditions cannot be cured completely but they can be greatly controlled in most cases.
Homeopathy for the management of autoimmune conditions
Unlike traditional medicines, homeopathy treatments and medicines are focused on the body’s self-healing ability. The medicines prescribed by your homeopathy doctor will be individualized and will be the minimum dosage needed for your body. This treatment urges your body to cure itself with the help of medicines that provide a stimulus to the natural vital responses. Let’s dive into more details:
Self-healing
As discussed previously, our body’s intelligence includes a self-healing ability. While conventional medicine focuses on suppressing the autoimmune responses, homeopathy looks into igniting the body’s self-healing capabilities. Every living organism has an automatic healing response, and homeopathic remedy simply gives your body a stimulus that amplifies the healing process.
Personalized medicines
Homeopathy believes that medicines should be personalized. Not every person responds the same way to every medicine. While the symptoms may be similar, no two people suffering from the same autoimmune condition will have the same manifestation of the disease. Hence, qualified homeopathy doctors prescribe medicines that are suited for each individual, which may be different from what others with the same condition are prescribed.
The minimum dosage of medicine
Homeopathy also strictly follows the rule of using a minimum amount of medicine to treat a condition. A homeopathy doctor usually prescribes one medicine at a time that helps trigger your body’s intrinsic healing ability. Your condition is managed and monitored during this period to understand how your body is reacting to it.
Autoimmune conditions are never fully treatable. However, with the right treatment, you can suppress the repercussions of it throughout your life, almost to the effect that the symptoms and difficulties may never reappear. With homeopathy, your body will heal and improve the vitality of your immune system.
The important thing to remember here is that homeopathy treats the person as a whole and not individual symptoms. Hence, it’s important to follow a healthy lifestyle along with proper medication to actively manage your autoimmune condition without the symptoms re-emerging. Reach out to our expert homeopathy doctor at The Hundred Wellness Centre to start your individualized treatment at the earliest.
