Homoeopathic remedies do not have side effects

Most people assume, homoeopathic remedies do not have side effects. That holds true for single homeopathic remedies but not for multi-ingredient medicines (loosely called mixtures, combinations, compounds and also Homoeopathy by Numbers).

Multi-ingredient medicines do not meet the standards set down in any recognized Homoeopathic Pharmacopoea and could potentially be harmful. Good homoeopaths, therefore, avoid prescribing multi-ingredient medicines.

Homeopathic remedies are slow to act

This is another widespread misconception.

In cases of recent origin, homoeopathy provides relief in a shorter period than any other mode of treatment. However, the bulk of the cases coming to a homoeopath are not of recent origin. Patients go to a homoeopath after suffering for years and trying every doctor and specialist they are referred to. Taking medicines over years takes its toll, weakening the immune system and making the disease deep-rooted. The homoeopath bases his prescription on the symptom-picture of the patient. Every symptom has a value, some being more important than others. The symptoms belonging to the patient and his diseased condition are more important than the symptoms produced as after-effects of previous medication. In a majority of such cases, it is often difficult to distinguish between the original symptoms of the patients and the after-effects of previous medication.

In such complicated cases, if homoeopathy takes a few months to effect a cure or to provide a long lasting relief, it is certainly not due to the presumed slowness of homoeopathy but due to the very complex nature of the cases coming to a homoeopath.

Taking more medicines speeds up the pace of recovery

Absolutely wrong. In fact, it is not the number of the medicines we take but the reaction of the body that helps put us back on the road to recovery. The curative reaction of the body is produced in response to the signals a homoeopathic medicine sends forth to the immune system sensors. When we take more than one medicine at the same time, each one issues out its own signals within the sphere of its therapeutic range. The sheer enormity of these signals confuses our defense system. Which of the two pilots will make a comfortable landing: the one who is signaled from one direction or the one who is signaled from three or four directions? When our defence system receives several signals emanating from different medicines, it fails to show a proper reaction, like that of the confused pilot receiving signals from different directions, and the recovery is usually slower than the one coming under a single homoeopathic remedy.  Hence the homoeopathic adage: less is more.

High-priced medicines are more effective than the low-priced ones

Another general assumption among patients is that medicine has to be expensive in order to be effective. That, too, is absolutely incorrect. Effectiveness of a medicine depends not on its cost but on its right or wrong selection and administration. An inexpensive single homoeopathic remedy chosen and prescribed in proper form and dosage works better than ten highly expensive quasi-homoeopathic medicines prescribed with ulterior motives.