Twelve cell salts were recognized and categorized by a German biochemist William H. Schuessler in 1873.  He found that there are certain essential minerals that the body requires, in proper balance, in all of its cells.  An imbalance or a lack of any of these minerals may lead to disease in the tissues so lacking. Providing the missing minerals to the tissues corrects that imbalance, and so eliminates the illness.  This seemingly simple system of cure has great practical application in health.  Using only a small number of harmless combinations (or "salts") of these minerals, it is possible to treat a great variety of everyday minor ailments. It is significant that such cell-salt treatment is replenishing something the body lacks and wants, as opposed to merely suppressing illness with drugs and other chemicals.  Drugs do not provide missing cell nutrients, but drugs do add harmful chemicals to the body which ultimately compound the problem.  The Schuessler cell salts may be seen as special raw materials for the body, which you need more of if you run out of what you normally have.