The myth around homeopathy’s mithi goli
If you are in India, chances are you would have seen someone in your family or relatives consume small sugar pellets, popularly known as ‘mithi goli’ in the north and east part of India. If that’s the case, that how you’d have come to associate homeopathy with only ‘mithi goli’. And you aren’t alone. When I talk to my patients, they are surprised to know that a homeopathic medicine can also be given through a skin cream.
The different methods of administering homeopathic medicine
While ‘mithi goli’ remains the most popular homeopathic medicine, there are other ways of administering a homeopathic medicine:
- Orally
- Olfaction (sniffing)
- Skin application
In exceptional cases homeopathic medicines can also be dispensed via rectum and ear as well
When to expect the other methods of administration
In most cases your homeopathic doctor will give you small sugar pellets to be placed under the tongue, so don’t worry in case they give you ointments, gels, drops, creams and tablets.
When it is impossible to dispense medicine through oral route, other methods of administration like skin, olfaction etc are employed.
Many people are not comfortable with taking sweet pills as well so other methods of dispensing the medicine is used. Sometimes the patients is unconscious and dispensing medicine by mouth is just impossible. In such cases medicine is dispensed via skin or olfactory route.
Are these other methods as effective as the ‘mithi goli’?
In one word Yes.
Homeopathy believes in minimum dose and that can be maintained by administering the medicine by skin as well topically. The products contain homeopathic medicines that help with general repair and regeneration of the skin cells thus helping to avoid many hair and skin problems caused by multiple factors like pollution, bad lifestyle, skin allergies, food allergies, eczema, thyroid issues, etc.
Additional fun fact:
You would be surprised to know that initially the father of homeopathy, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, was against the application of the medicine on the skin in the form of topical ointments, but with further studies and looking at the difficulty of giving medicines orally in certain cases, Dr. Hahnemann thought of using the medicines externally as well after dispensing them in suitable vehicles like gels, ointments, soap, creams, etc so that the patient can be helped with the curative and preventive powers of homeopathy.
Conclusion:
Now that you’ve read this article, the next time someone says they are using homeopathic skin cream, I hope you won’t roll your eyes with disbelief.