Hahnemann postulated that in giving a sick person a medicine known to produce symptoms similar to what he was suffering, he was substituting a temporary drug disease for the natural disease. This drug disease, he maintained, was more powerful than the natural disease and would drive it out.
From our perspective in the late twentieth century, we reason that the homeopathic medicine strengthens the immune system – enabling it to better fight the disease. But the homeopathic medicine is not limited to strengthening just the immune system. All systems (nervous, endocrine, respiratory, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, etc.) are strengthened and balanced. These different systems then work to restore the person to health. It is important to realize that often the entire organism is improved by the homeopathic medicine. Many of the beneficial effects are, therefore, mental and emotional as well as physical.