Common Knowledge:05.Are homeopathy and herbal medicine the same?
No. Homeopathy can be considered a type of herbal medicine, but it is different from the common practice of taking herbs as supplements.
The first homeopathic pharmacopoeia, The Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, was published in 1897. Homeopathy employs very dilute remedies to trigger a healing process; in fact, one of the principals of homeopathy is that the more dilute the remedy, the higher its potency. It is based on a basic principal of "like curing like" (the Law of Similars), whereas allopathy (another term for conventional Western medicine) is often thought of as the basic principal of using drugs which cause the opposite reaction to the symptom being healed (e.g. aspirin bringing down a fever). The Law of Similars also provided the theoretical basis for the efficacy of immunization.
An example of a homeopathic preparation is Arnica montana 30 X. The "30 X" refers to 30 successive dilutions and successions, and any remedy diluted more than 24 X will have no chemical trace of the original material remaining in the remedy.
Another basis of homeopathy is that the illness is specific to each individual, and when a homeopathic practitioner determines the best treatment, they examine the patient's total symptomology and try to uncover a person's physical, emotional and mental state. In comparison, herbal supplements (commonly called botanicals or herbal medicines) are usually straight or concentrated (not usually diluted) herbal preparations that are taken to either supplement the diet and/or for a distinct therapeutic effect. Examples of herbal medicines are standardized extracts of Ginkgo, Echinacea, and the majority of botanicals to be found on this web site.
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