Going to the roots

HOMEOPATHY, a therapeutic method that was developed by German physician Samuel Christian Hahnemann at the end of the 18th century, is said to work by stimulating the body’s ability to heal itself by giving very small doses of highly diluted substances.While the US National Institutes of Health webpage on homeopathy states that most analyses have concluded that there is little evidence to support homeopathy as an effective treatment for any specific condition, it recognises that some studies have reported positive findings.In homeopathy, practitioners rarely treat a disease alone in isolation, or on its own.Hence, they do not look at hypertension as an isolated health problem, says Dr Suriyakhatun Osman, who is a medical doctor and also a senior lecturer in homeopathy at the Cyberjaya University College of Medical Science.“We believe that it is usually a symptom of an underlying disease or condition, like stress, artherosclerosis or liver and kidney disease.“So, depending on the type of underlying disease that is present in a patient, we will manage each patient individually,” she says.Hypertension is diagnosed only by checking the blood pressure, says Dr Suriyakhatun.“Although I do it as a routine examination, some homeopaths may not do so, and it is the patient who comes in with a diagnosis from a conventional doctor and asks for treatment of hypertension from the homeopath,” she adds.The role of homeopathy is to evaluate the person and find out what else could be done to help him or her normalise blood pressure.“There are specific remedies that are known to help people with hypertension, and we may prescribe from this group of remedies, which still needs to be individualised,” she explains.However, as the remedy for each patient is different (for example, a remedy for hypertension caused by stress and shock is not the same as one that is due to arterial disease), it is difficult for her to describe a common treatment or management approach."We will evaluate the patient to find out what is their physical and emotional state, and tailor our treatment accordingly,” she says.

Courtesy:Robin Lindley
Source:The Star Online