HONORING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF EARTH DAY
Over my years working in environmental studies, the focus has been on the “highest and best use” of resources. California Assembly Bill 939 (1989)1 established a hierarchy for re-utilizing resources. First to REDUCE: extend the life of raw materials by using less. Second to REUSE: reuse what you can in the same form, and save energy and other resources that go into reclamation and remanufacture. Third to RECYCLE: reclaim and remanufacture materials. Finally, the least desirable choice, to DISPOSE: abandon something in the landfill or waste water.
Now, as a homeopath, I practice the highest and best use in helping people achieve wellness. Homeopathy is truly a green system of wellness. Homeopathy uses the smallest amount of remedy possible to create a rapid, gentle relief of symptoms without deleterious side effects. By using the smallest amount of a substance, homeopathy treads lightly on the earth, not depleting the environment in the procurement or manufacture of medicinal substances. You can see this at work in this video of a team of scientists collecting a specimen for homeopathic remedies in Borneo.2 Only one or two rare orchids are collected for manufacture of 1000s of doses of remedies.
Homeopathic remedies are not tested on animals. Remedy effects are measured by “provings,” which involve healthy people taking a single remedy frequently until they start to come down with symptoms, just as Hahnemann did. The overall effect the remedy has on the provers shows us the unique symptom image of that remedy. The symptoms the provers experience are documented, and this documentation builds the homeopathic Materia Medica, the catalog of remedies used by homeopathic practitioners. Based on the information collected in the Materia Medica, the homeopathic practitioner is able to know how homeopathic remedies act in the body. The practitioner is then able to find the remedy whose action or symptom image most closely matches the symptoms experienced by the patient in his or her state of illness. The remedy whose symptom image most closely matches the state of illness suffered by the patient will return the patient to a state of health.3
Homeopathic remedies are meant to interact with our innate capacity to heal. They are taken in minute doses, usually in quantities that are undetectable by chemical labs. In conventional medicine, mass doses of material substances are ingested and the excess is stored in our bodies or flushed out through our liver and kidneys. Not only is the body taxed by eliminating the remaining drug residue, but this residue results in drug-tainted waste water entering our waterways.4. Another way conventional drugs enter the environment is by improper disposal of unused pharmaceuticals.5. Remember to always dispose of unused pharmaceuticals properly by taking them to a Green Pharmaceutical collection center. Do not put them in the trash or down the drain.
If you are interested in participating in sustainable health care, try homeopathy. Please contact me for a complimentary wellness assessment.
Sources:
1 California Recycling Laws, Californians Against Waste
2 Remedia, “Searching for Medicine in Borneo” (video)
3 Oreilly, Organon of the Medical Art by Samuel Hahnemann
4 ScienceDaily (March 8, 2007), “Controlling Water Pollution by Isolating Urine” & (March 25, 2010) “Bathing and Showering: Under-Appreciated Sources of Water Pollution”
5 CalRecycle, House Hold Hazardous Waste, Pharmaceutical Drug Waste
Other Sources:
Teleosis Institute, Health Professionals in Service of the Global Environment
Hahneman Laboratories, Inc.
© March 29, 2010 Myra Nissen.
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