HOMOEOPATHY: A GENTLE COMPLEMENTARY SYSTEM OF MEDICINE
Guest Article – Dr. Sunil Anand
Dr. Sunil Anand, Hon. Lecturer, D. S. Homoeopathy
Medical College, Pune and a former Lecturer at the C. M. P. Homoeopathy Medical College, Mumbai, practises in Pune
and Mumbai.
What Are The Principles Of Homoeopathy?
The founder of homoeopathy was Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755 – 1843). Through numerous
experiments conducted over several years, he established that any medicine
will cure a particular disease if it is capable of producing symptoms of the same disease in a healthy
individual.
For instance, quinine, which is a derivative of the plant Cinchona, has the ability to
produce chills, sweating
and rigors if taken by healthy individuals. The same drug is also used in the treatment of malaria, the symptoms of
which are the same as above — namely chills, sweat and rigors. “Like cures like” is the foundation of the
basic principle of homoeopathy. It is due to this principle
that homoeopathy derives its name from the Latin words ‘Homoeo’ (similar) and ‘pathos’ (suffering).
What Are The Sources Of Homoeopathic Remedies?
To make a broad classification, homoeopathic remedies comprise of the 3 natural kingdoms.
The Vegetable kingdom, which includes plants and
flowers.
The Animal kingdom, which includes the venom of poisonous snakes and milk from some
mammals. It is worth noting that during the extraction of any animal
substance in homoeopathy, no animals are endangered or put to cruel laboratory testing.
The Mineral kingdom, which includes metals, chemicals and essential salts.
The homoeopath uses various techniques and recent advances to understand remedies that
already exist, but
are not used to their full potential due to a lack of
in-depth understanding of them. Each and every substance, by its
own inherent properties and characteristics, comes alive to
an observant homoeopath.
What Is Classical Homoeopathy Or Constitutional Prescribing?
A holistic view to a case in which the characteristic
emotional behaviour as well as the important physical symptoms are given equal weightage, can be termed as constitutional
prescribing or classical homoeopathy. The source of the substance used also offers vital
clues to a person for
whom it is indicated. For instance, one of the homoeopathic
remedies is Coffea cruda, prepared from roasted coffee beans.
Caffeine, a constituent of coffee, is known to increase the
alertness of mind and to stimulate creative thoughts and ideas. A
young girl of 4 years was brought to me for recurrent throat infections. While the mother was relating her
complaints
to me, I passed the child a few toys to play with. She
chose a game that involved fitting blocks of different shapes
into their respective compartments. What followed was very interesting. To begin with, she felt a need to time her
speed in arranging all the blocks. And she wanted to increase
her speed every time. Once she got bored with this, she took
the same blocks and started making attractive patterns with them. She would dismantle themand create a new pattern
every time. These two features are important characteristics of the remedy Coffea— firstly, the ability to be quick
in actions and secondly, a creative bent of mind and ideas.
This was noted in a casual manner just during play. What further confirmed the remedy was the reported excitement in the
little girl, whenever she was told that there would be
an interesting outing the following day. This would result
in increased activity of her mind, leading to
sleeplessness. Don’t we know of this ability of coffee? Have we not used it
at some time or the other to keep ourselves awake? It surely
explains why coffee is such a popularly consumed beverage among
the advertising profession in which one is required to come
up with new ideas at a rapid pace. The child responded dramatically to this
remedy and her throat infections
were cured permanently.
What Are The Recent Advances In Homoeopathy?
A lot of revolutionary ideas and techniques are being
used by homoeopaths in order to make prescribing more scientific
and accurate. A deeper understanding of substances according
to their placement in the periodic table is one such idea.
Due to this, the various elements are being understood by homoeopaths in a new light. Let us take the example of
the metals. Copper is a metal that is used for a range of
illnesses. One of its important aspects is to produce spasms. Toxicological cases of copper poisoning have confirmed
the ability of the substance to produce spasms of different
types. The theme of all the metals seems to be one of high performance and competition. This is understood by a
valuable utility of metals in the manufacture of various industrial components. Copper in the periodic table is
placed along with the metals iron, nickel, chromium and zinc.
All these metals seem to have a common aspect of attack and defence, as part of their basic temperament, and a
neverending reserve to excel and come up on top as victor. This can make them appear very dominating with an attitude of
intimidating others. These were the precise features I
saw in a 5-year-old boy who had asthma and eczema and was seen
by me at a seminar for homoeopaths in Munich. He had
scratch marks all over his face, like ‘battle’ scars,
received during fights with friends and his siblings in order to assert
his dominance. It was noticed that he quickly got fed up of
the various toys that were offered to him. Instead, he chose
to jump from a chair, above the cord of the mike that was attached to me and he wanted to go higher with every
jump. He also knew that the audience was viewing him through a TV monitor and he seemed to relish that
they were
noticing and applauding his determined and successful
performance. Moreover, to clinch the prescription, his mother
described the spasmodic way in which he would start coughing continuously, once his asthmatic attacks would begin.
These are all features of the remedy Cuprum metallicum
prepared from the metal Copper. The mother was in touch with me from Germany and her child recovered completely within a
short time. His aggressiveness too came down
considerably.
What Is The Efficiency In The Treatment Of Cases With Deeper Pathology Or Metabolic Disorders?
One of the group of remedies used very effectively by homoeopaths is the ophidia group,
prepared from snake venom. One of these is Naja, prepared from the venom of
the Indian cobra. On studying toxicological cases of cobra
bite victims, what is observed is a coldness of the body with gradually increasing drowsiness. The victims eject
saliva periodically. The swallowing reflex gets diminished,
they lose control of their sphincters due to which they pass urine
or faecal matter involuntarily and finally die unless there
is timely help in the form of an anti-snake venom.
A 3-year-old child with convulsions, mental retardation,
and with a rare metabolic disorder called Citrullinemia was referred to me at the college outpatients department. He
presented with just the above picture, but of course
without a history of snakebite. In this illness, there is excess
ammonia, which proves to be highly toxic to the nervous system.
As protein foods produce further ammonia in the body, the
child had been advised a strict protein-restricted diet. His
health was deteriorating. As part of the detailed history, it
was revealed that the mother, during her pregnancy with this child, had felt very let down by her
husband when she discovered that he was having an extra-marital
relationship. She had felt like terminating her life and that of the
foetus that she was carrying. But then there was a conflict
within her. She had to stay alive for the sake of her older
child. When the child was born and his disease diagnosed, she had
felt intense guilt about having those destructive thoughts
during her pregnancy. She seemed to believe that her bad state
of mind and her unhealthy attitude towards her pregnancy
had resulted in her child having such a deep pathology.
Though she was very bitter towards her husband, she yet chose
to perform all her duties in a noble manner like a dutiful
wife. It is worth noting the relevance of the pregnant mother’s predominant state in the selection of the child’s
remedy. All these features were confirmed in a proving exercise conducted among a group of homoeopaths and students who
took the remedy Naja themselves. Besides various
physical symptoms, they shared the common feelings of guilt and a high sense of responsibility towards their duty. Based
on all this information, the child was given the remedy.
Gradually, his drowsiness got less, he became more conscious,
started regaining his lost sphincter control and started taking
a few steps by himself. The child is yet under observation and
has begun to tolerate protein foods in his diet without any
toxic effect and all his anticonvulsant medications have been stopped. As
there has been significant brain damage
already, the final outcome of the case is obviously limited. But
it conclusively points to the definite role of homoeopathy
in the management of metabolic disorders with deep pathology.
How Can You Aid Your Homoeopath?
Homoeopathy is a system that bases its prescription on symptoms. You can help your
homoeopath by providing him/her sufficient, accurate and valuable data in the form
of good symptom reporting. The entire family, including the
children, should be educated to express their symptoms and
feelings, describing the same in full detail.
For instance, telling your homoeopath that your child
has high fever is not sufficient. But in addition, telling
the doctor that, along with the fever, the child is also talking
more than usual, wants to be caressed by either parent, has a
total absence of thirst and an increased frequency of
urination can provide the true picture of the disease. This will
certainly help the homoeopath in finding the right remedy for your
child.
