From upscale department stores to the local megamart, there’s no shortage of creams, gels and lotions promising to lift, calm, smooth and brighten. For something to stand out in such a sea of jars and bottles is a rare happening. For it to actually live up to the hype is another. Based in Philadelphia, Dr. Marshall H. Sager is betting that his line of products, recently available to the public, can do just that.
HomeoTherapeutics is the brainchild of Pottstown-bred friends Sager and Chester Piotrowski. A physician and chemist respectively, they combined their knowledge of Western medicine, Eastern philosophy and science to create the first-ever line of homeopathic body-care products.
After working for 25 years in a traditional family practice setting, Sager began moving toward homeopathy after struggling with the rigid rules of his medical education.
“As a doctor, I found I was treating problems people had,” says Sager. “And I would try to make a diagnosis and treat that problem. Sometimes I got it, but sometimes it wouldn’t work with people who had the same symptoms. Why didn’t everyone react the same? I realized I’d left out a part—the patient. That was the secret.”
Sager found the personal connection he was looking for in acupuncture. He went back to school and soon set up a Bala Cynwyd practice, adding homeopathy to his repertoire. “You can’t just treat the problems, you have to treat people who have problems,” he says.
For the uninitiated, homeopathy is the practice of encouraging the body’s own healing processes as a cure. Developed by German-born physician Samuel Hahnemann (after whom the Philadelphia hospital is named), the practice seeks to “trick” the body into defending itself.
Hahnemann saw that when certain ingredients were given to a healthy person in large doses, the patient would develop symptoms. He correctly surmised that giving the same ingredients in smaller doses to people who already had those symptoms would cause the opposite effect, telling the body to fight those symptoms.
So when Sager’s aging patients complained of wrinkles, sagging and blotches, he looked for a homeopathic fix. When he realized there were no products on the market he could stand behind, he and Piotrowski set to work.
Aside from being made with natural ingredients and no animal byproducts, Sager says his line is different in the way it works from the inside out. “A cosmetic for wrinkles would only affect that top layer of skin, like a Band-Aid would,” he says.
Sager maintains his creams and gels are absorbed into the skin and affect the body as a whole. They work with your skin—not against it—to achieve the firmer, clearer glow of youth.
The Sager Arsenal
Dr. Sager’s Essential Arnica Eye Firming Gel
Claim: Firms, smoothes and de-puffs the troublesome skin around the eye.
Active ingredients: Arnica, chamomile and hydrocotyle asiatica.
Dr. Sager’s Ultimate Facial Firming Gel
Claim: Firms and tightens the face and neck.
Active ingredients: Aloe and hydrocotyle asiatica.
Dr. Sager’s Advance Collagen Cream
Claim: Evens skin tone, reduces acne, and moisturizes the face and neck.
Active ingredients: Hydrocotyle asiatica, chamomile and aloe.
Dr. Sager’s Original OUCHY! Boo-Boo Gel
Claim: Soothes and eliminates bruising to freshly injured areas.
Active ingredients: Arnica, calendula, hypericum, aloe, echinacea and belladonna.
For more information, visit doctorsager.com.
