Homeopathic Treatments
Homeopathic treatments are another branch of alternative medicine that takes a different approach from vitamins or minerals. The idea behind homeopathic treatments is to “treat like with like”. What this means is to treat an illness with small doses of agents that would normally cause that illness in a healthy person. So to treat acne, you would take small doses of ingredients that would actually cause acne under normal circumstances.
If this sounds strange to you, you’re not alone. Homeopathy has a lot of critics in the medical field, and is largely unsupported by the laws of chemistry and physics. However, its popularity is on the rise in western countries. Due to the risky nature of some ingredients, homeopathic treatments may also be regulated by the FDA, which gives them an image of legitimacy despite the common lack of evidence (in contrast, vitamins are not FDA-regulated).
Treatments that claim to be homeopathic do not always rely on homeopathic ingredients. For instance, the Nature’s Cure line of acne treatments claims to be a homeopathic medication, but their products generally include other ingredients such as antioxidants that combat acne without ever causing it. In many homeopathic treatments, the ingredients based on homeopathic principles are often so small in dosage and so diluted that many medical professionals claim they are unable to produce any effect at all. A user may notice results due entirely to the non-homeopathic ingredients used in the formula.
Homeopathic tablets are taken differently from traditional vitamin tablets. Rather than swallowing the tablets with water, it is recommended to chew them first and let the tablet dissolve in the mouth. Like with liquid vitamins, the ingredients are more readily absorbed into the blood stream in liquid form.
While homeopathy attracts a lot of skepticism, some of these treatments can in fact work. However, whether they give results due to homeopathic ingredients or not is often debatable.
