Tuesday, March 13, 2012

11. Homeopathy : A Science and an Art


One may find me listing Homeopathy as a hobby a little odd. But that is what it is for me, because I enjoy reading and learning and practicing it so much. What would you say if I told you that each remedy is like a complete human being with likes, dislikes, fears and idiosyncrasies? I remember when I was in my teens I had read Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs and it was a great past-time for me trying to find out if a person had the characteristics suggested by his sun sign. Now I am having similar pleasure trying to identify the remedy most akin to the person – when you hit the exact match it is called a similium’. The ‘similium’ being most like that person will be the remedy for most of his problems – mental and physical. In fact if you knew peoples’ similiums you are likely to know them even better than you would if you knew their sun signs! So better to visit the homeopath than the astrologer! Or maybe it could be a side business for the homeopath!
Everybody will have at least one person amongst his family or acquaintances who would be an Arsenicum. I have chosen this one to illustrate as they are so typical. They would be sharp of mind and tongue, fastidious to a fault he/she will not mince words if you have been sloppy. If you have seen the serial The Big Bang Theory, the character Sheldon would definitely be an Arsenicum. They are physically insecure (I knew a grown man who couldn’t cross the road without assistance) and morbidly afraid of illness, which makes them obsessive about personal hygiene. Given to great anxiety they will be suspicious by nature. On the positive side they are conscientious, dependable and intelligent.
 
It has been my experience that whenever you have a chronic kind of an ailment the similium is the remedy for you. Here I will clarify that ailments are classified as acute or chronic depending on its origin. If the ailment is an infection or of immediate origin it is an acute on the other hand if it is genetic or has been there for some time it is called a chronic disease. For instance I have been having some eye issues which the doc said was a muscular problem so I looked up some remedy which was specific to that problem, but it had very limited effect. I felt just a shade better after taking it for a week. It struck me that the muscular problem would be of chronic nature so I looked up my similium in the ‘materia medica’ and was delighted to see that it did affect eye muscles. It never fails to amaze me how the smallest of symptoms have been recorded for each remedy.

Memory of Water Theory : Homeopathic remedies are derived from stuff existing in nature like minerals, flowers, leaves, roots and even poisons which if one took in its crude form will produce symptoms akin to the ones being suffered by the patient (after all everything, including humans are made from the same stardust). When that same substance is diluted it becomes its own cure – ‘every problem holds its own solution’ – one expects that of Nature, right! So homeopathy is natural and does not damage the body or have ‘side effects’. It makes the body work as it should, which, due to some external or internal reasons, has got a little derailed, so to say. It is a big joke with a cousin of mine to say “if you can explain how it works then I will take the remedy” because the homeopathic remedy is diluted to an extent where nothing of the original substance remains. For the benefit of cynics and Doubting Thomases, like my cousin, a lot of research is also taking place and the homeopaths are coming up with some theories like ‘the Memory of Water’ etc, but I only tell him that ‘just because you don’t see it does not mean it doesn’t exist’, after all people like him, at one time, wouldn’t believe the earth was not flat. Talking of the Memory of Water, the recycled dirty water that our municipalities make us drink doesn’t bode well for our bodies. On the other hand the curative properties ascribed to the Ganges water which passes through the mineral laden rocks and the herbs of the Himalayas can also be explained by it (my view). 

Holistic Method : What I like about Homeopathy is that it treats the person as a whole, which is also the right way because a disease may manifest in a certain part of the body but the cause may be elsewhere, for instance one may have skin rash but it may be because of stomach problems so suppressing the rash will not cure the disease. Moreover every remedy is particular to a person and not to a disease; therefore, if your neighbour was given a remedy for say viral fever, it may or may not work for you. However, if you get the right remedy the relief is instantaneous. It is very important that one observes and recounts the symptoms in detail to the homeopath so that your exact remedy can be identified. We are so used to popping pills off the counter for most of our day to day ailments that we have lost touch with our own bodies. When I ask people to describe their pain or feelings they find it odd and tedious. A headache can be for a thousand reasons and can be of as many types, but the popular method of treating it will be one. 

Getting Started :  If you want to start finding your own remedies you will need two books – a homeopathic repertory and a materia medica. Homeopathy books are normally available with the bigger Homeopathy pharmacies. Kent’s repertory, one of the oldest, is still one of the most popular. Among the materia medicas I have liked the Lotus Materia Medica by Robin Murphy (2nd edition). A  repertory alphabetically enumerates all the known symptoms and the corresponding remedies as detailed by the Materia Medica. The materia medica, on the other hand, gives a detailed description of how each remedy affects the different parts of the body.

Case Taking : First of all one should take down all the symptoms of the patient. This is perhaps the most important thing to learn. As mentioned earlier homeopathy treats the patient and not the disease so the homeopath is interested in what makes the patient different to all other patients suffering a similar disease. A person suffering viral fever will have fever and body ache but the homeopath will be interested in knowing whether the patient is restless, whether he has great thirst or lack thereof, whether he feels better at a certain time and worse at another, if he likes warmth or not and so on and so forth. These uncommon symptoms will help him in what is called individualisation.
How to use a Repertory : Once all the symptoms are taken down the homeopath looks up the repertory for each of the symptoms and the remedy that shows up the maximum number of times is more often than not the one. But, as I mentioned in the caption, this is what makes homeopathy a science and also an art – for even though repertorising looks like a mechanical process, (softwares are used nowadays) it takes an insightful and intuitive homeopath to individualise and select the right remedy at the first go. Many patients lose faith in homeopathy saying it is slow – but here’s the good news – homeopathy is not slow, just change your homeopath! Sometimes the stigma of slowness is earned because it is dealing with a chronic disease, which a patient has acquired over a period of time so will be cured, gradually, layer by layer. Other systems may not even have an answer for it.  

Homeopathy aims to help the body’s immune system to help itself; therefore, it will make you as healthy as the lifestyle you maintain permits you to be. If you have chronic acidity homeopathy will cure you but only so long as you maintain a healthy diet. If you have arthritis you will have to exercise and have a proper diet and so on.

Potency : Remedies are prepared in two basic scales of dilution called potency, decimal and centesimal. In decimal scale, the medicine is diluted in a ratio of 1:9 in every successive preparation (potency) ie. 1X, 2X, 3X etc. in centesimal scale the medicine is diluted in a ratio of 1:99, in every preparation eg. 1C, 2C, 3C etc. The  medicines are vigorously shaken after each dilution in a certain way (succused).

Fact File :  
  •     Homeopathy was discovered and developed by a German allopathic physician, Dr Samuel Hahneman, between 1792 and 1842. He experimented with the Cinchona bark on himself which was thought to cure malaria and was surprised to find malaria like symptoms develop in him. He tested other substances, with known therapeutic values, similarly, on friends and family members and discovered that it was a general law that a medicine cures the symptoms in a diseased person which it can produce in healthy individuals. He called it ‘similia similibus curantur’ or ‘like cures like’.
  •    Homeopathy is the only system of medicine which has been able to successfully use all forms of matter and energy for therapeutic purposes. Even harmful substances like snake poison, arsenic and other deadly poisons, diseased tissue etc are used to prepare homeopathic remedies.
  •    Homeopathy remedies are diluted to such an extent that not a single molecule of the original substance remains in it, and more the dilution more the potency of the remedy.

Article by Sumita