Hahneman was the doctor who first conceived the idea of homeopathy, the science of curing like with like, so using, say, a remedy from onion to stop hay fever if the sufferer has streaming nose and eyes in the spring. He also worked out that the best way of using remedies was to take the least amount of the medicine to get a cure, and to prepare that medicine in a very specific way.

He was the leader in a group of doctors who started to look at the effect on a whole person of taking just one substance as medicine, rather than a mix of almost witches brew that was being sold back then. Hahneman realised that it was the individual who was ill that needed help, not the disease that person had. He also advised on life style change, explaining to his patients that they were almost bound to have a constant cold if they lived in a damp cellar. He was a very advanced man for his time.

Hippocrates said "It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has", and homeopathy is a system of medicine that uses this philosophy.

Homeopathic remedies are made, as they always have been, from naturally occurring substances from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms and have been tried and tested in practice for over 200 years. Only a very minute amount of the active ingredient is used in a specially prepared form from the pharmacy, which you usually suck.

Remedies rarely cause side effects and you cannot become addicted to them. You can mix homeopathy safely with conventional medicine. In fact, some people use homeopathy to help them come off their medication.