Chapter 2:
Homeopaths treat people, not diagnoses.
continued

What In The World Is Homeopathy?
You may have a flu that comes on right after exposure to a cold, dry wind. Suddenly, you develop a high fever. You notice, to your surprise, that one cheek is pale and the other red. You sneeze violently, your nose runs like a faucet, and you have a nagging, dry, croupy cough. You feel uncharacteristically restless. You have a strong fear that you might get worse, even die, because your symptoms have come on so suddenly and violently. Your mouth is bone dry and you can’t drink enough water. You feel chilled to the core. You need the homeopathic remedy Aconitum napellus, which will rapidly restore your health.

Suppose your neighbor gets a flu which comes on gradually, over a few days. Just before she became sick, she was very nervous about giving a speech in front of five hundred people. She feels great exhaustion and can hardly keep her eyes open, or even move. She experiences icy chills up and down her spine. Her mouth feels like cotton, but she’s not thirsty. Her body aches all over, like she’s been carrying a fifty pound backpack. Her arms and legs feel terribly heavy. Her limbs tremble. She feels dizzy, drowsy, droopy and dull. Although your neighbor’s diagnosis would also be influenza, she needs a different homeopathic medicine. Gelsemium sempervirens will not only cure her flu, but may help her stage fright as well.

The following three cases of patients with hay fever show how each individual set of symptoms, even with the same diagnosis, can lead a homeopath to prescribe very different homeopathic medicines.