In my practice, I use precise, gentle muscle movements to relieve pain and other conditions by having a kind of whispered conversation with your body and nervous system to restore their natural pain-free balance. The point is to co-opt your central nervous system to make some changes that address the root cause of your distress, and heal you of your pain.

My approach to pain management is like the system of medicine we call homeopathy, a discipline whose underlying principles are, first, less is more, and, second, like cures like. The difference between our conventional medicine, called allopathic, and homeopathic medicine can be summed up in this quote from the Medicinal Chemistry journal: “Allopathic medicines attempt to alleviate the symptoms of disease by attacking/affecting the natural defenses of (the) body whereas homeopathy embraces (the) body’s natural response system either by encouraging the symptoms of healing or attacking the root cause of the illness.”

Homeopathy is very different from the approach to pain relief that you receive typically when you consult your doctor. There, in addition to countless low- and high-tech tests, you are likely to be given one or more pain relief medications, to be referred to physical therapy, or to be recommended to have surgery. Some more enlightened doctors may consider your diet and other lifestyle factors, and some may refer you to me.

This column is an introduction to homeopathy, and a beginning comparison to allopathy.

Conventional pain meds

I’m suggesting some effective alternatives to conventional pain medications. Let me say first, however, that if you have a headache or other pain, and if it works for you, I’m not opposed to your taking an aspirin or whatever you usually use to get rid of it.

You need to be aware, however, that the mechanism of those familiar pain relief meds is not to cooperate with your body’s healing process, but rather to suppress its natural processing of pain, to short-circuit your pain mechanism and to hope that something else will kick in to take away the cause of the pain.

For example, let’s say you get kicked in the shin or get an earache or other pain. The onset of the distress causes your cells to release chemicals called prostaglandins. Certain nerve endings in your body are sensitive to prostaglandins and send messages to your brain about the location and intensity of the problem.

Following the initial pain, it’s possible that you will take a pain reliever like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or acetominophen (Tylenol). The effect of ibuprofen and acetominophen is to prevent your cells from releasing prostaglandins. Thus, your brain gets no messages about your condition and has, therefore, no reason to give you the experience of pain. In more serious situations, like surgery, you may receive stronger pain meds whose job is to prevent your neurons from communicating with one another.

What is homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a natural approach to the practice of medicine that makes full use of the law of similars: Like cures like. That is, a homeopathic remedy is developed by observing what symptoms are caused by a toxic dose of a particular substance. The homeopathic remedy is a specially prepared highly diluted version of that same substance. The principle is that while a toxic dose of a substance may cause certain symptoms, a nano-dose of the same substance actually engages your own immune and other healing responses to effect relief from those symptoms. The remedies may be minerals, plants, animals and chemicals, as well as viruses and bacteria.

How small is nano?

Technically, the prefix nano means a decimal point followed by nine zeros and a one. That is, a nanometer is 0.0000000001 meters. In the homeopathic context, nano just means really, really tiny.

There is a rule of thumb in chemistry that if you dilute something 1 to 100 and repeat this 12 times, then not a single molecule of the original substance will remain. For homeopathy, research has shown this not to be true.

The American Chemical Society did a study in which it diluted certain minerals as much as 200 times with an astounding result. Regardless of how many times they were diluted, three types of spectrographic analysis still found traces of the original minerals in the water. There is a credible scientific explanation of how this happens.

Less is more.

Less is more suggests that the more diluted the remedy, the more effective it becomes.

Most medications are useless unless they get into the inmost parts of your system. The homeopathic fragments are so small that they easily pass through the blood-brain barrier into the deep recesses of your brain. They are so small that they can get into your cells undetected. Once in, however, your system thinks it’s been invaded, which it has, and invokes a major immunological response to effect healing for you.

One benefit of homeopathic agents is that there are no side effects, no collateral damage. If you happen to choose the wrong remedy, there will be no benefit, but also, there will be no downside. You can’t overdose on a homeopathic medicine as you can with conventional medicines.

What science says

The press and skeptics claim that there is no scientific evidence that homeopathy works. As it happens, this is not true. The personal experience of my family and friends, not to mention the British royal family and many others, attest repeatedly to the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies of many types.

Regarding research: Positive results for homeopathy have been demonstrated in more than 300 double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. These have been published in well-respected, peer-reviewed medical journals like those of the American Cancer Society and American College of Chest Physicians, The Lancet, the British Medical Journal, The Journal of Pediatrics, and many more.

So why is homeopathy second-best?

What we call homeopathic medicine was discovered and developed by an 18th-century German physician, Samuel Hahnemann. By the mid-19th century, homeopathy had gained considerable traction, and by 1900, there were 22 homeopathic medical schools in America, including Boston University.

This was seriously threatening to the American Medical Association. It changed its statement of ethics so that any doctor who had the slightest connection with homeopathy would lose membership in the AMA. At that time, this meant losing one’s license to practice medicine.

Another serious blow came to homeopathy in 1920, when the AMA successfully commanded Ohio State University to cease activity in its homeopathic medical school or lose the standing of its allopathic school. Ohio State caved in, and others followed suit.

Homeopathy eventually regrouped to form its own association. There are now almost a dozen colleges and universities that offer homeopathic certificates and bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees; you’ve never heard of most of these. In addition, there are a few naturopathic schools that offer homeopathic training, as well.

Until the last few years, our Food and Drug Administration, while not encouraging of homeopathic medications, has not been hostile toward them. In 1970, the FDA declared that most homeopathic medications were so safe as to be over-the-counter drugs. Recently, however, as a result of pressure from Big Pharma, the FDA is reviewing its stance toward homeopathic medications. Nothing has yet been released.

Finally

In presenting a case for homeopathy, I am not at all disparaging conventional allopathic medicine. I am, for example, grateful when new patients bring reports from their doctors telling what, if anything, is biologically, neurologically and mechanically wrong with them, and what has been done about it medically. This helps me decide whether or not I am likely to be able to help their conditions, as well as what treatments I should use.

And I’m not suggesting that you bypass your regular allopathic doctor in favor of homeopathy; I see a very good one. What I do suggest is that you consider and learn about multiple avenues for your healing. Choose what seems best for a particular situation.

Now that you know a little more about homeopathy, it seems fitting to revisit the likening of my practice to homeopathy. That is, homeopathy effects healing apparently without actually doing anything.

One of the first patients I treated came with hip pain of three years’ duration. After one treatment, she said: “I felt as though he did nothing, but suddenly, I realized I had no hip pain, and hadn’t had pain for three days.”

Less is very often more.

Bob Keller maintains a holistic pain management practice in Newburyport. His book, “Making Sense of Medicine: Medical Matters Made Simple,” is available locally or online. He can be reached at 978-465-5111 or bob@myokineast.com.