The Practice Of Homeopathy
I want to tell you how we became interested in homeopathic medicine which you may believe in, or may not, but here's how we became interested in it.
We had our herb shop, Cameron Park Botanicals, and tried our darndest to stay outside the medicinal use of herbs basically due to the FDA restraints at that time. One of the restraints was if we had an herbal elixir like Echinacea we were not allowed to have the medicine on a shelf with any book or article on how to use for medical purposes. Contrast that today with most pharmacies where the herbal supplements are front and center, displayed in the most prominent location in the pharmacy. The cost of the herbal extracts also was minimal to us and the customer, which meant lots of time talking for a gross profit of $2 or $3.00 per bottle. If our time was worth minimum wage, our advice was more expensive than the profit we made on the extract.
However the big problem was we had many customers wanting us to carry herbal medicines as well as homeopathic remedies. Of course, as we all know, the customer wins so off we went on our medicinal herb and homeopathic remedies.
At that time it was generally unknown but in North Carolina before one could present oneself as a homeopathic practictioner he/she had to have a medical degree. In other words the Homeopath was a licensed M.D. who chose advance training in homeopathic medicine. Generally this training occurred in Europe, often in Germany, the birthplace of homeopathic medicine.
One of the ways we introduced homeopathy to our customers was to invite Dr. George Guess from Asheville, N.C. to lecture on homeopathic principles and educate our customers to the science behind the use of homeopathic remedies.
Dr. Guess did a very fine lecture and was a good resource for us over time when we had questions to ask However at that time the practice of homeopathy was frowned upon by the N.C. Medical Board and Dr. Guess found himself constantly in trouble, incurring large legal bills defending himself and his practice of homeopathy. Eventually he became tired of spending his time fending off the Board and chose to relocate to a friendlier environment. He moved his home and practice to Charlottesville, Va.
There was quite an uproar he left behind in N.C. Many patients, former and present, were disgusted they were not allowed to see their Dr. who had helped them with their ailments unless they went to Virginia. The legislature was petitioned by many concerned citizens who felt N.C. residents were being denied their choice of treatments due to the practices of the N.C. Medical Board. The results of that disgust was a law that became known as the "George Guess Law".
In a nutshell the Legislature told the N.C. Medical Board to lighten up or there would be laws passed to insure N.C. citizens had choice. North Carolina went from one of the most restrictive states to possibly the most liberal in allowing choice in medical treatments by the consumer.
For more on what is homeopathy please go to this homeopathic article on our web site blog. You can comment on this email and the article on our blog at bottom of article in the blog post space.
So now you know more of the story as to how alternative treatments became permissive in the state of North Carolina.
