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Mothering › Health Articles › How to Dose With Homeopathic Remedies? Dry vs. Liquid Doses

How to Dose With Homeopathic Remedies? Dry vs. Liquid Doses

By Amy L. Lansky, PhD

(For more information about homeopathy, visit www.impossiblecure.com)

Without a doubt, finding the correct remedy is the most important part of the homeopathic treatment process. However, the correct dosing method is also important, and can sometimes make the difference between success and failure in treatment. Unfortunately, however, when it comes to dosing, no two homeopaths think alike. Every homeopathic teacher I have studied with and every homeopathic practitioner I have been treated by has had different ideas about dosing.

The question of dosing is a complex matter. In this short article, I’ll begin to outline some of the basic parameters. If you want to learn more right now, I suggest you read Chapter Six of Impossible Cure, as well as check out the annotated archive of my past radio shows (see www.impossiblecure.com/radio.php and look for the shows about dosing).


The first question that must be addressed is what potency to give. The answer will depend on various factors — the nature of the problem, the sensitivity of the patient, the age and vitality of the patient, and the frequency of dosing desired. Lower potencies, for example 6c or 12c, might be used for older patients with lower vitality and chronic physical problems, who might also need to take the remedy more frequently because of other allopathic medicines they may be taking. Very high potencies, for example 1M (which is the same as 1000c), might be given to a young and generally healthy child suffering from an acute problem like an ear ache. In general, lower potencies can be given more frequently and higher potencies are given less often. In addition, treatment of acute problems often requires more frequent dosing than chronic problems.


This question is much more complex. Usually it is best to work with a homeopath to determine dosing frequency.  However two rules almost always apply:

  • Only redose if you have had improvement, but that improvement has started to fade and you see a relapse. In other words, dose only as needed.

  • When in doubt, do not redose.  Wait until you are sure that you have relapsed and need another dose.

Dry vs. Water Doses

The second question is how the remedy should be delivered. In general, this is a question about whether dry pills are given or whether the remedy is administered in water. (Please note that homeopathic pills may take many forms — usually flat tablets or little balls or pillules of varying sizes. However, the actual form or size of these pills makes no difference in dosing.) In general, water-based remedy solutions are created by simply diluting a dry pill in a certain amount of water, with perhaps a tiny amount of alcohol added as a preservative. In my experience, dry dosing is fine for most patients, but there are some cases where water dosing is warranted and helpful. These include situations when, for whatever reason, the remedy must be given on a more frequent basis, or when the patient is highly sensitive and each application of the dose needs to be fine-tuned.

But what is the real difference between dry and water dosing?

Near the end of his life, the developer of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, discovered that repeated doses of the same potency could cause problems, especially if the doses were given fairly close to one another (for example, more than once a day, or even more than once a week or once a month). To solve this problem, Hahnemann developed the water-based method of dosing, which allows the potency of a remedy to be slightly modified and increased with each dose. In particular, when the remedy solution (created by dissolving a pill in water) is vigorously shaken, this serves to very slightly increase the potency of the remedy. When a patient uses water dosing, they are required to shake the remedy bottle vigorously before administering a dose. By doing so, they slightly modify the potency from the last time the remedy was given, thereby mitigating any ill effects from redosing with the exact same potency.

The use of water dosing also allows modification of the dose in other ways. For example, a teaspoon of the remedy can be further diluted in more water (creating a so-called dilution glass), which can serve to slightly temper the intensity of the dose. This may be done repeatedly, with more and more dilution glasses, for patients who are extremely sensitive. Water dosing also allows for further modifications of dose by varying the amount given (e.g., a tablespoon vs. 1/2 teaspoon) or varying the amount of shakes that are given to the remedy solution.

In general, for most patients, such fine tuning is simply not necessary. A single dry pill suffices and even repetitive doses of a dry potency does not aggravate or cause problems. For others, however, the subtle differences that are allowed by water dosing can be extremely helpful.

About Amy Lansky

Amy L. Lansky, PhD was a Silicon Valley computer scientist when her life was transformed by the miraculous homeopathic cure of her son’s autism. In April 2003 she published Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy, one of the best-selling introductory books on homeopathy worldwide (www.impossiblecure.com). Amy speaks and writes internationally about homeopathy, hosts a monthly radio show on Autism One Radio (autismone.org), and was an executive board member of the National Center for Homeopathy from 2004-2011. Her second book, on meditation and developing one's innate ability to evolve and transform the world, was published in September 2011 -- Active Consciousness: Awakening the Power Within (www.activeconsciousness.com).


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