Homeopathic remedies are remarkably free from side-effects.  They are among the safest remedies known to any healing science.  They are effective.  They are prepared from natural sources (plants mostly, minerals, animals, and insects). Minute doses are used for the body to stimulate its own natural defenses -- very unlike large doses of drugs. 
 
Remedies are potentiated to work with the body.  In reality only a person can heal them self.  Homeopathic remedies can help a person heal by working with the person and with their natural healing systems not forcing it.
 
Drugs are a force and can only suppress symptoms.  If a body is forced to change and has no say in the matter then there is no possibility of it learning to deal with the condition itself and keep it under control.  It can not heal.  A person will have to keep taking a drug for continued suppression of symptoms. When the body finds a new way to communicate the symptoms of its dis-ease, then more or different drugs are needed to be prescribed in order to control what is now diagnosed as a different condition (but, not).
 
This is not to say drugs and doctors shouldn't be used in emergencies.  They should!  Sometimes a quick forced intervention is preferable to save a life or limb.  But then what?  How do we actually heal, and not just be dependent on a drug to stay alive?  One-third of all hospitalizations are due to illnesses caused by the medicines that were prescribed to suppress the symptoms in the first place.  Drugs eventually build up in us and become toxic and dangerous even when they are helping.
 
The specific reason symptoms appeared in the first place is never considered once a drug is used successfully as a controlling force.  This is a mistake.  If a drug is successful in suppressing the body’s communication of its dis-ease, then eventually the body will find a new way to express those symptoms in another organ with a seemingly different illness.  Without finding why a person developed the dis-ease condition in the first place and changing those life style problems then the dis-ease rises again slightly different looking, but stronger.
 
There is another problem with using strong substances such as drugs to manage our bodies symptoms.   This other condition has been ignored, and is rarely discussed.  From our observations, people that use drugs for their health issues on a continuous basis have been stunted emotionally and/or physically in their growth. The drugs suppress not just the symptoms of their dis-ease, but life processes in other areas are suppressed.  We’ve seen this pattern in people taking anti-depressants, hypertensives, antibiotics, Ritalin, steroids, asthma medications, decongestants, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and significant quantities of sugar.   This is no small matter. 
 
A Case Study
 
A young woman of twenty-five came in with the complaint of simple facial acne.  And since we treat the whole person, not the dis-ease, we took her entire history.  We soon found that she had been on antibiotics since her early teens and was still using them.   She had all the fears and emotions of a  very young teenager.  She was still living at home.  She couldn’t go to the store without someone going with her.  She was afraid of the dark, had no career, and had the dress and mannerisms of a teenager.  She initially came in with her mother.  We came to the conclusion she was emotionally stunted due to the continuous use of antibiotics to suppress her facial acne.
 
We considered the acne itself a very minor thing compared to her inability to continue her emotional maturity.  We carefully explained to her what we saw and how her antibiotics had probably interfered with her body chemically. We recommended a remedy that would stimulate her glands, and was known to heal physically and emotionally stunted growth.  She (on her own) decided to quit using the antibiotics.  We also recommended acidophilus as a nutritional supplement to help replace the flora of her intestinal tract the antibiotics had killed.
 
This young woman returned for a follow-up in one month by herself and informed us that she had taken an eight mile run to her sister’s house by herself, moved out of the house, and joined the police academy.  This was an amazing change for this young woman.  And, her acne was much improved and soon disappeared. 
 
Homeopathic remedies could never have stunted this woman’s emotional growth like the chemical antibiotic did.  But, they certainly can heal. 
 
(Most chronic conditions are not this easy to discern and heal, so if you seek out a professional homeopath, give him/her time and patience to help you go through your own process of healing.  It usually takes much longer for adults.) 
 
Another Example Of Chemical Suppression
 
Another example of how continuous use of drugs suppress life processes is when some smokers don’t catch colds or flu. Colds, flu and common ailments are actually helping us to grow, mature, and detoxify ourselves, and if we forcefully stop them, we prevent ourselves from having some necessary changes take place in our lives.  Smoking is a strong toxic chemical.  When a person’s body is dealing with a more life threatening situation (i.e. smoking), then the person can’t afford to express symptoms in the less threatening condition (i.e. cold or flu) until that more threatening one (smoking) is resolved. 
When a person quits smoking, they usually get sick, expressing years worth of colds within a few months. When the person does not quit smoking, they risk cancer, or some other chronic illness instead of the colds. 
 
Now, most people still do get sick while smoking.  They get sick because they are not as sensitive to the chemicals of the tobacco product, or their bodies are extremely overwhelmed by the toxic force of the cold or flu.  People are all different.  But, the point is, strong chemicals may cause suppression of normal life processes in susceptible individuals.