How are Homeopathic Remedies Made?

You may be familiar with herbal tinctures sold in health food stores and upscale markets. Those are made from whole plants, roots or seeds macerated/steeped in alcohol or glycerin to extract their active ingredients. Homeopathic remedies are made taking this process a couple of steps further. To produce a homeopathic remedy one drop of the mother tincture or active ingredient is diluted multiple times to obtain different potentiates.

Remedy Potency:

In homeopathy the strength or potency of a remedy appears on the label directly after it's name. Unlike conventional medicines, which typically report drug potency in milligrams, homeopathic potency is indicated by a number followed by the Roman numeral X, C, M  or LM. The potency of a medicine, such as 6X or 30C, tells you how many times and by what ratio the base substance has been diluted. The potency of the remedy gets higher with each dilution. While counter-intuitive, the less active ingredient a remedy contains the more potent it is. In homeopathy, less is truly more.

Example: 6X and 30C

An X indicates that the active ingredient has been diluted on a scale of 1:10. The numeral indicates how many times it was diluted and then succussed (vigorous agitation) 6X means that the active substance was diluted to a 1/10 concentration six times.

C indicates that the medicine has been diluted on a scale of 1:100. Again, the numeral tells you how many times the medicine was diluted and succussed. 30C means that the active ingredient was diluted to a 1/100 concentration thirty times.

An M potency indicates that the active ingredient was diluted to a 1/1000 concentration and an LM potency was diluted to a concentration of 1/50,000.

Dilution and Succussion:

Dilution and succussion are what make homeopathic remedies gentle and effective. The purpose of diluting the base substance is to eliminate any negative effects it may cause in its crude form.  At the 12C potency, a remedy has been diluted beyond Avgadro's number, meaning that it no longer contains any molecules of its original substance. This is what makes homeopathic remedies so safe.

Every substance found in nature is made up of particles held together by vibration. All organisms vibrate at their own resonant frequency. Succussion (agitation) imprints a substance's resonant frequency and each succussion amplifies the vibration pattern. It is this energetic imprint that stimulates the healing response when the remedy is taken.