Authored by Dr Harsh Sharma, Edited and Peer Reviewed by Dr. Pooja Sharma
Published September 15, 2014, Last updated October 21, 2016
Homeopathy is a boon in today’s world where the burgeoning costs of medical treatment are making things more and more difficult for the general population. Of all the major forms of medical treatment, be it allopathy, homeopathy, ayurveda or any other traditional forms of medicines indigenous to a country, homeopathy is the one that is most economical for the end user or the patient. The inflationary times that we live in have caused the prices of everything to spiral skywards and medical costs are not an exception. The rising costs of treatment in today’s materialistic world, which has not left the medical fraternity untouched, can make even approaching a hospital or even a doctor unaffordable at times for any ordinary human being. The high fees of any doctor, the endless cycle of investigations and their prohibitive costs, medicines that are prescribed needlessly and that cost a bomb, the exorbitant charges for any admission in a hospital are enough to make a person sweat even at the slightest mention of a disease. No wonder, people generally and the poor specifically, prefer to self-medicate or approach quacks or just keep suffering knowing fully well that they cannot afford to submit themselves to the care of a doctor or a hospital. The fact remains that the giant pharmaceutical companies, the hospitals, the laboratories, the doctors and the chemists are getting rich at the cost of the poor. Health care has been reduced to just a lucrative business where nothing except profits matter. Just check the balance sheet of any big pharma company and you will see profits to the tune of billions of dollars. Medicines that are patented become a source of huge profiteering for the company, though the idea to allow patents was just to encourage research for the benefit of mankind. In the present scenario, patents have become tickets to multi billion dollar profits. A lot of unethical practices where doctors are enticed to prescribe the patented and expensive medicines instead of cheaper alternatives have crept in. Ultimately it is the poor patient who ends up paying for the bribes being offered to the doctors.
Homeopathic medicines are much more economical
Although the homeopathic medicines are prepared from different sources like plants, flowers, minerals and animal sources, the method of preparation is similar. While potentising a medicine, a drop of the basic medicine is mixed with 99 drops of alcohol and succussed according to the homeopathic principle of potentisation. A drop of the medicine thus prepared is then mixed with 99 drops of alcohol and again succussed. A drop of the medicine thus prepared is further mixed with 99 drops of alcohol and again succussed. This process is repeated till the desired potency, be it the 30th potency or the 200th is made. Thus, only a little bit of the source substance is required to make an endless supply of the homeopathic medicine. The major ingredient that goes into the medicine is that of pure medicine grade alcohol which is not that expensive. A very big advantage of this method is that the cost of the medicine remains well within control and the benefit accrues to the end user or the patient.
At the same time, since the homeopathic treatment is mostly delivered through individual doctors, the infrastructure required is minimal. A doctor can operate from home or a small clinic as opposed to big hospitals which require acres and acres of expensive land, huge buildings that take years to build and cost hundreds of crores. Ultimately, the cost of this infrastructure too has to be recovered from the end user-the patient. That is why the homeopathic system of medicine is very economical to the patient.
