Disease is commonly understood as an impairment in the normal functioning of a body part. Homeopathy, on the other hand, goes beyond just the physical. It believes in the vital force that supports and connects the person’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual being. When there is a disturbance in the vital force, before a disease is diagnosed, the person as a whole becomes sick first. And, in order to initiate a successful healing, we have to treat the man in the disease rather than the disease in the man (Sankaran). Homeopathy always looks at the person as a whole. Several people exposed to the same stressful situation react in completely different ways. Hence, people diagnosed with same kind of illness, each will be prescribed different remedies. 
There are over 4,000 homeopathic remedies in the book of Materia Medica. They were tested in healthy individuals and recorded in accurate detail what it can produce in terms of symptoms and in terms of feelings. When a patient is seen by a homeopath, his individual state of mind and symptoms are assessed and an appropriate remedy is chosen from among the 4,000 remedies in Materia Medica. The homeopathic remedy is given in an ultra diluted doses called potencies. When the remedy is given, the person’s vitality is stimulated and healing is produced at a wholistic level which means he is healed as a whole, as well as the diseased pathology in his body.