The development of modern medicine is a recent fact in the history of man. Since man became an organized community, natural medicine was the way to treat diseases. Although antibiotics and vaccines have brought great advances, there are many disorders that can be treated as effectively or better, with natural medicine and homeopathy than with the drugs we get in the pharmacy and generally don't have any side effects.

The return to nature
Natural medicine treats ailments and illnesses from a different perspective to that of traditional medicine, using techniques and remedies that have been applied by different cultures before the medicine traditional doctors practice nowadays. Natural medicine treatments use plants, herbs and natural remedies
There are different types of natural medicine: naturopathy for example uses plants to cure or prevent diseases, traditional Chinese medicine has its own system, that may include acupuncture and other natural treatments and homeopathy, one of the most popular branches of natural medicine, treats illnesses with very small doses of medicinal plant extracts.

Homeopathy
Homeopathy is one of the branches of natural medicine with more tradition. The term homeopathy comes from the Greek "homeo" that means “similar to” and "pathos" meaning “illness”. Homeopathy is a natural and alternative medicinal treatment.

Homeopathy was discovered at the end of the 1700's by the doctor and chemist Samuel Hahnemann. At that time there were no drugs as we know them today. There were very few drugs and the regular treatments consisted of bleeding a patient or administering mercury or sulfur. Hahneman wanted to find a less aggressive way to treat ailments.

The basic principle of homeopathy is that an illness can be treated with plants which theoretically would make the patient worse. In this way, for example, you would treat vomiting with a plant which induces nausea.

Very small doses
Homeopathy uses extremely small doses since it is believed that when you extract a substance and dilute it, it still retains it properties and so there is no need for higher doses. The idea behind these doses is to try to improve or stimulate the natural defense mechanisms of the body, both to solve a problem and to prevent it.

To prepare the doses, the natural substances used in homeopathy are dissolved following a series of steps. According to this science, even the doses that are very diluted still retain their healing properties.

Another characteristic of homeopathy is that each treatment is customized for each patient. A field in which homeopathy is very effective is in the treatment of chronic diseases.

Homeopathic treatments are regulated by the FDA as all other drugs are.