Potency - the production of homoeopathic remedies
Hahnemann observed, after giving a drug according the law of similarity, that a high dose will create a very severe aggravation of the symptoms. It is obvious, if you have diarrhoea and you give the patient a drug that produces diarrhoea (in a healthy person) in a high dose it will make the situation much worse.
Therefore Hahnemann tried to diminish the concentration of the drug. He created a standardized process of dilution and shaking. Hahnemann took one part of the drug and diluted it with 100 parts of a solvent (mixture of water and alcohol). He diluted it and the shook it several times. This first potency he called C 1. From this C1 potency he took again one part and diluted and shook it again with 100 parts of the solvent. This is the C 2. Exactly in the same way the further potencies are made up to C30 or C200 and much higher.
In Europe also the potencies in relation 1:10 are used (D-Potencies, or X-Potencies). In his last period of life Hahnemann created the LM- or Q - Potencies in relation of 1: 50.000. That means one part of the drug is diluted and shook, in a more sophisticated way, with 50.000 parts of a solvent.
These higher potencies don't contain any substance of the drug, they contain the pure information of the remedy. Hahnemann observed, that these high potencies don't diminish their power of healing. On the contrary, their healing power is much more increased. Today we don't have the possibilities in modern physics to prove such potencies, but in future, if the methods of physics become more subtle, there will be the proof of electromagnetic changes in such potencies.
These Q- or LM-potencies are the best if you have to combine normal medicines with homoeopathic drugs. For the treatment of chronic diseases the use of high potencies is recommended.