Losing extra pounds is never easy. You can spend a month on a diet only to gain more weight within 2 weeks than you had managed to lose. You can exhaust yourself in the gym until you drop, but any cold or sprained ankle means you have to take a break that once again brings back all of the weight you lost. Fat-burning wonder-pills do more harm than good. Your motivation drops when you find yourself losing yet another battle. In such seemingly hopeless situations, desperate people often turn to alternative medicine.
Pros and Cons
Homeopathy is an alternative medical practice whose basic principle can be expressed as “like cures like”. It uses highly diluted (i.e. low-concentration) remedies that are mineral-based or herbal (natural). Many people choose it for weight loss for a number of easy-to-understand reasons:
- all of the remedies are 100% natural;
- they target the cause of the excess weight;
- there are no age or status restrictions: the elderly, children, pregnant and nursing mothers can all lose weight with homeopathy;
- the concentration of the active ingredient is minimal, which means that taking the remedy is completely harmless;
- the risk of side effects is zero;
- it has a gentle effect on the body;
- it can be combined with other medications;
- each patient receives an individual approach.
Despite the abundance of advantages, you need to understand that there is also a flip side to the coin.
- Pseudoscience
When opting to use homeopathy for weight loss, one takes full responsibility for any and all potential consequences of such an action. The World Health Organization stands in open opposition to this alternative medicine practice, calling it pseudoscience. Their main argument is the lack of any evidence base (scientific studies that would confirm the validity and effectiveness of using these remedies). So if there are any undesirable consequences or if you simply do not achieve the desired results, you will have no one to blame.
- Classical vs non-classical
Very few people know that homeopathy can be either classical or non-classical. The issue here is that people who encounter this medical practice for the first time will find it hard to differentiate between the two approaches. All the above-described advantages only apply to classical homeopathy, while other schools and branches can be dangerous and cause serious harm to one’s health. So you should first study this issue. And if you have decided to lose weight, then do it with traditional homeopaths. Their main distinctions are: they only prescribe one remedy at a time, they do not use tests or machines for diagnosis, and they exclusively rely on the patient’s statements and external examination.
- Consulting a homeopath
Self-prescribing homeopathic remedies can lead to mistakes: you can buy something, go through the treatment and not see any results. Only a homeopath can determine which remedy will allow you to get rid of extra weight quickly and easily. The downside is that the services of a homeopath can be quite expensive.
There are other disadvantages to weight loss with homeopathy. For example, it is incompatible with other methods such as manual methods (anti-cellulite or lymphatic drainage massage), physiotherapy methods (microcurrents), and acupuncture. Also, bear in mind that if the cause of your excess weight lies in a serious disease, it is unlikely that you will be able to achieve the desired results. Also, fighting extra weight even with the help of homeopathy is doomed to fail without additional recommendations (healthy diet, exercising).
Constitutional Types
When using homeopathy to lose weight, you need to be ready for various surprises. After all, this is non-traditional medicine and it employs rather unconventional methods. In particular, to find an effective remedy, the specialist first has to determine your constitutional type.
- Oxygen type
People who do not have problems with extra weight. Despite having a good appetite and not restricting themselves in any way, they always have a slim figure. Sometimes they suffer from excessive leanness and cannot gain the required amount of weight to look healthy. This is due to the accelerated metabolism caused by a high oxygen saturation of the blood. Homeopathy helps to slow it down.
- Hepatic type
People with a tendency towards corpulence. Despite a moderate appetite, they have one weakness that leads to problems with excess weight: a love of sweets. It is caused by congenital liver deficiency and a slightly slowed-down metabolism. Therefore, when prescribing weight loss remedies, homeopaths strongly advise them to stick to a strict diet (excluding fatty, spicy and smoked products), regularly do detox and engage in sports.
- Carbon type
People who suffer from obesity as a result of two main factors. The first is a very slow metabolism. The second is overeating due to an excessive appetite. According to homeopathy, they are contraindicated for diets and fasting because breaking down fat leads to the intoxication of the body, which is already quite toxic in their case. So first they go through the necessary course of medications to speed up their metabolism and only then bring in exercise and healthy diet regimens for weight loss.
Peculiarities of Using Remedies
- Allergies
Despite the fact that homeopathic pills have a minimal concentration of the active ingredient and a natural composition, they can trigger an allergic reaction. In this regard, the use of any remedy should be strictly controlled and compliant with the dosing recommendations.
- Course of treatment
Dosage and the duration of the homeopathic weight loss course are determined by a specialist who takes into account multiple individual factors. These include age, gender, heredity, the amount of excess weight, lifestyle, harmful habits, and the patient’s constitutional type. You should prepare yourself for the fact that there will be no quick results. On average, this takes about one and a half years.
- Where to buy?
Another question that often arises is where to get these remedies. They are hard to find in regular pharmacies. This is not surprising, given the WHO’s opinion on homeopathy as a pseudoscience. In 2017, the Commission for Combating the Falsification of Scientific Research issued a memorandum aimed at excluding this type of medicine from the Russian healthcare system. It contains urgent recommendations for pharmaceutical companies not to produce or sell homeopathic remedies. After the release of this document, their availability in traditional pharmacies has been greatly reduced.
- How much does it cost?
A consultation with a homeopath will cost 3,000-5,000 rubles. Some of the remedies are cheap and some are expensive:
Fucus Plus and Curdlipid are the most commonly used weight loss remedies in the budget category. However, the reviews for them are mixed.
List of Remedies
The following homeopathic remedies are most frequently prescribed for weight loss:
- Antimonium Crudum (antimony trisulfide) helps the body adjust to a new eating regimen.
- Fucus Plus (Fucus vesiculosus, brown seaweed) promotes weight loss against the background of diabetes or hypothyroidism, and helps to reduce body weight even in cases of obesity.
- Cimicifuga (black cohosh) is used to fight excess weight caused by hormonal disruption.
- Ignatia (Ignatia amara, Philippine Ignatius bush) gets rid of compulsive overeating.
- Curdlipid (lamb’s tail fat) normalizes lipid metabolism and improves liver function, and is often prescribed after childbirth.
- Lycopodium (Lycopodium clavatum) treats digestive system issues.
- Calcarea Carbonica (calcium carbonate) reduces appetite.
