Homoeopathy is the medicine of vital stimulation of mind, which directs all aspects of life in the organism. Disease, as viewed by homoeopathy, is a dynamic expression of the disturbances of the harmony and rhythm of the vital force. The defence mechanism acting on all three levels of the organism (mental, emotional, physical), is the tool of the vital force acting in the context of the disease. Without the vital force the whole body becomes inanimate and sick.
Homoeopathy’ is derived from the Greek words homoeos (like or similar) and pathos (disease or suffering), which means’ likes cure likes’. The effectiveness of homoeopathy drugs is well-established in almost all the ailments, including those which are a challenge to the modem medicine, such as rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, diabetes mellitus, etc.
The homoeopathic system of holistic healing was founded by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician. While translating a book on the medicinal properties of drugs, he read about the properties of the healing powers of the bark of the cinchona tree. Due to its bitter taste, cinchona was said to cure malaria. This set him thinking, and he decided to test the medicine on himself, after reading a footnote which stated that cinchona poisoning leads to malaria-like symptoms. He experienced the symptoms of malaria, by repeatedly taking the cinchona medicine. He found that those medicines which cause disease-like symptoms in healthy individuals are capable of curing the diseased individuals.
There is a holistic as well as individualistic approach to medicine through homoeopathy. This is a key differentiator which makes homoeopathy unique from other systems of medicine. Even though it may sound strange, homoeopathy does not treat disease per se. A homoeopath does not concentrate his therapy on a particular disease like arthritis or bronchitis or cancer. In other words, he does not limit his treatment to painful joints, inflamed bronchi or a malignant growth. Rather, the person who happens to be suffering from arthritis or bronchitis or cancer is treated on mental, emotional and physical levels .
Homoeopathy regards each patient’ as a unique individual. For example, six persons with hepatitis might get a different homoeopathic remedy, each one aimed at the individual’s totality of symptoms rather than at his liver alone. The physician’s interest is not only to alleviate the patients’ present symptoms but also their long-term well-being.
Homoeopathy is the medicine of vital stimulation of mind, which directs all aspects of life in the organism. Disease, as viewed by homoeopathy, is a dynamic expression of the disturbances of the harmony and rhythm of the vital force. The defence mechanism acting on all three levels of the organism (mental, emotional, physical), is the tool of the vital force acting in the context of the disease. Without the vital force the whole body becomes inanimate and sick.
Prevention, care and maintenance are best done by behaviour modification, dietary regulation where permissible and a regular exercise regimen. Homoeopathy is one of the scientific systems of medicine based on the principle, ‘SimiliaSimilibusCurantur’, meaning’ likes cure likes’. Homoeopathy is an effective system of healing which assists the natural tendency of the body to heal itself. Homoeopathy takes a different approach from conventional medicine in diagnosing, classifying and treating medical problems.
Homoeopathy is considered to be a holistic medicine. The holistic approach to medicine takes a wider view of illness, a wider view of the causes of disease and the ways in which people express their illness individually. It claims to provoke healing responses to diseases by administering specially prepared substances that mimic the symptoms of those diseases in healthy people. It recognises that all symptoms of ill health are expressions of disharmony within the whole person, and that it is the patient who needs treatment and not the disease.
Homoeopathy is holistic because it treats the whole person, and its remedies assist people to regain health by stimulating their natural healing forces. Homoeopaths treat physical, emotional, mental and even the spiritual aspects of each patient, since homoeopathy believes that all the above are intimately connected and need to be in harmony for the patient to be healthy.
Indians are increasingly recognising the benefits of a holistic approach to care, where the practitioner views them as a whole, rather than a clinical condition or a set of symptoms and takes the time to listen. From a holistic perspective, the patient is considered as unique, requiring individual assessment and treatment. As an integrated entity, including the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social and any other aspects of the total person. Individuals are seen as living systems that are self-healing, self-renewing, homeostatic and adaptive. Health is not merely the absence of disease/illness, but the ability of a system, e.g. cell, organism, family, society to respond adaptively to a wide range of environmental challenges. Disease is considered as a result of an off-balance state of the whole individual (mind and body) rather than a local disturbance.
Homoeopathy looks beyond the labels of disease to cure their causes rather than merely their symptoms and it stimulates the body’s own natural healing powers to bring health, vitality and well-being. It does not treat superficially by just driving away the symptoms but heals the patient from within. It uses medicines that cover the disturbance of the whole person rather than giving different medicines for different afflicted parts of the body. Patients often report improvement in overall energy, mood, quality of sleep, and digestion, and the disappearance of other symptoms apparently unrelated to the condition being treated with homoeopathy.
Homoeopathic doctors relate individual patterns of responding to environmental influences, infectious agents and potential stressors to specific homoeopathic medicines that can remedy these susceptibility patterns. Homoeopathic prescription is an art and requires that the characteristics of the chosen medicine should be as similar as possible to the characteristics of the illness in the patient. The more detailed the understanding of the symptom nuances of the patient, the more accurate the prescription. Thus, homoeopathy is highly individualised and based upon a holistic assessment. As well as the patient’s actual complaint and conventional diagnosis, the following factors may play an important part in medicine selection, especially in chronic disease: the patient’s constitution, emotional and mental make-up, the way the patient responds to physical, emotional and mental influences/stress in his/her life, the patient’s personality, temperament, genetic predispositions and any strong family history of particular diseases.
Homoeopathic medicines are aimed at improving the level of health by stimulating the self-regulatory mechanism. Improving the level of health implies reducing any disease process as well as the susceptibility to illness and disease. That means that it is not limited to certain diseases but is universally applicable to all kinds of diseases. It can often be used as a first option in certain medical conditions, keeping more costly and potentially toxic treatment as a second option. In addition, it can offer therapeutic options where conventional treatments have failed or where conventional treatments do not exist for the problem, where they are contraindicated or not tolerated. In many disorders homoeopathy should be a first choice treatment instead of a last resort.
In many cases of chronic disease homoeopathic treatment can achieve results which would be considered impossible with conventional treatment. The therapeutic possibilities, however, depend on how much irreversible damage has, or has not, occurred, and on the extent to which the organism is able to recover. If the distortion is too great, the damage too severe, the disease highly infectious or life-threatening, the condition becomes more suitable for the stronger methods of conventional, allopathic medicine. Limitations are specific surgical indications, deficiency diseases and very serious diseases in which gross anatomical changes have evolved. However, in incurable stages of a disease, homoeopathic treatment may relieve a patient to a large extent.
In injuries and accidents, homoeopathic treatment can be of immense value. Homoeopathy can even help if surgery is necessary. Homoeopathic medicines can be given both pre-operatively and post-operatively to speed up healing and to counteract any effects of anxiety, shock and anaesthetics. In general, patients treated with homoeopathy make a much more rapid post-operative recovery than patients who have not had this treatment.
Homoeopathic treatment is an effective method of healing – in both acute and chronic conditions, as claimed by millions of patients and thousands of homoeopathic doctors. It may even offer long lasting to permanent cure, treating the disease from its roots, for most of the ailments. The body of clinical evidence for the effectiveness of homoeopathy continues to accumulate. Several research studies have shown overall that three quarters of the chronically ill patients reported that they felt ‘moderately better’ or ‘much better’. A number of rigorous clinical trials have shown homoeopathy superior to placebo; others have shown it to have effects similar to conventional treatments.
Homoeopathy is an effective alternative to antibiotics in infectious diseases, producing no toxic side effects and bringing about rapid recovery. Viral infections are also very well treated with homoeopathy. In addition, homoeopathy is effective for a variety of complaints occurring in children, including behavioural problems. Other medical conditions successfully treated are: skin diseases such as acne, boils, eczema, psoriasis, warts; musculoskeletal pain, arthritis, osteoarthritis, sciatica, bursitis and fibromyalgia; allergies, frequent infections; tension headache and migraine; heartburn, gastritis, constipation, intestinal conditions, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease; frequent colds, sinusitis, tonsillitis, cough, asthma and respiratory infections; emotional conditions such as depression, anxiety, insomnia; menstrual disorders, premenstrual syndrome, infertility, hot flushes; morning sickness, labour induction, labour pain, lactation problems, breast inflammation (mastitis); coronary dysfunctions, liver disorders, Ménière’s disease. There are many other conditions besides those listed where homoeopathy is found to be effective.
Homoeopathy is safe. Unlike other medication, homoeopathic medicines are non-toxic and harmless and do not have any adverse side effects. Patients unable to use conventional prescription drugs due to side effects can often safely use homoeopathic medicines. Homoeopathic medicines are natural, prepared from minute amounts of herbs, minerals and animal products. They are suitable for pregnant women, infants and children without worrying about the dosage.
Many childhood ailments could be very effectively and quickly treated with homoeopathy without producing any side effects whatsoever. Unlike antibiotics and other such medicines, homoeopathic pills do not hamper digestion, or lower the body’s resistance. Neither do they cause any allergies nor cause any damage, even if taken over a long period. There is no toxicity, no addiction, no dependency, no withdrawal. Millions of people use it to help themselves, their families and their pets without any dangerous physical repercussions.
Around 1800, Hahnemann a German medical doctor, dismayed with the medieval medical practices of his contemporaries, set out to revolutionise medical science. He began developing the homoeopathic method after coming upon the idea that ‘likes cure likes’ While translating a book on the medicinal properties of drugs, he read about the properties of the healing powers of the bark of the cinchona tree. Due to its bitter taste, cinchona was said to cure malaria. This set him thinking, and he decided to test the medicine on himself, after reading a footnote which stated that cinchona poisoning leads to malaria-like symptoms. He experienced the symptoms of malaria, by repeatedly taking the cinchona medicine. He found that those medicines which cause disease-like symptoms in healthy individuals are capable of curing the diseased individuals.
For Hahnemann the whole of the body and spirit was the focus of therapy, not just the localised disease. Hahnemann spent extended periods of time with his patients, asking them questions that dealt not only with their particular symptoms or illness, but also with the details of their daily lives. Gentle approach of homoeopathy was a reaction to the violent forms of ‘heroic medicine’ common at the time which included techniques such as bleeding as a form of treatment.
During a lifetime of hard work and dedication, Hahnemann wrote several books and constructed the mainstay of what was to become homoeopathic medicines. His books and teachings still form the foundation and the main substance ofhomoeopathy today. Starting from sound chemical practice, he built a complete system of natural laws and an extensive pharmacopoeia of homoeopathic medicines. When Hahnemann began working as a physician, chemist and linguist in the late 1700’s, it was a time when the most common medical treatments were harsh, such as purging, blistering, bleeding, and the use of sulphur and mercury. Hence, he was determined to develop a less-threatening approach to medicine. His principle of ‘SimiliaSimilibusCurantur’ has a prior history in medicine from Hippocrates in Ancient Greece.
Hahnemann’s view that ‘likes cure likes’ was that symptoms are part of the body’s response to an infection, for e.g cough may help to eliminate mucus – and medication may be given to support this self-healing response.
Hahnemann tested single, pure substances on himself and in more dilute forms, on healthy volunteers. He kept meticulous records of his experiments and participants’ responses, and he combined these observations with the information from clinical practice, the known uses of herbs and other medicinal substances, and toxicology, eventually treating the sick and developing homoeopathic clinical practice.
Hahnemann added two additional elements to homoeopathy:
A concept that became ‘potentiation’, which holds that systematically diluting a substance, with vigorous shaking at each step of dilution, makes the remedy more, not less, effective by extracting the vital essence of the substance. If the dilution comes to the point where the substance’s molecules are gone, homoeopathy holds that the effects they exerted on the surrounding water molecules may still be therapeutic.
Homoeopathy treatment is selected based upon the total picture of an individual and his symptoms and not solely upon symptoms of a disease. Homoeopaths evaluate not only a person’s physical symptoms but his emotional and mental state, lifestyle, nutrition and other aspects. In homoeopathy, different people with the same health problem may receive different homoeopathic remedies.
The World Health Organisation noted in 1994 that homoeopathy had been integrated into the national health care systems of numerous countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Mexico.
Homoeopathy was brought to India, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the ruler of Punjab, summoned Dr. John Martin Honigberger in 1839 to treat him for paralysis of vocal cords and oedema. After being completely cured, he made Dr.Honigberger officer-in-command of a hospital. Later, Dr.Honigberger established his practice in Kolkatta. This royal patronage helped homoeopathy to have its roots in India. Several missionaries and amateurs in Indian civil and military service practised homoeopathy extensively, and spread this system in West Bengal and South India.
Soon after independence, the Government of India developed the homoeopathic system of medicine by setting up the Homoeopathic Enquiry Committee in 1948, the Planning Commission in 1951, and the Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia Committee in 1962. On the recommendations of these committees, homoeopathy has been accepted by the government as one of the national systems of medicine. During the Second Five Year Plan, funds were released for its development. Some states encouraged education of homoeopathy and employment of homoeopaths in health services, and regulated the practice by enacting States Acts and Rules.
The Indian government established the Indian Systems of Medicine, and homoeopathy was assigned a key role in the delivery of primary health care. The National Health Policy passed by the government envisaged its integration in the overall health care delivery system, especially in the preventive and promotive aspects of health care in the context of the national target of achieving ‘Health for All by AD 2000’ .
By the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of homoeopathy dispensaries mushroomed in major cities in India. In 1973, on the recommendations of the various committees set up by the government, a Central Act was passed to recognise homoeopathy as one of the national systems of medicine in India.
Homoeopathy is rapidly growing in India. It has become a household name due to the safety of its pills and gentleness of it’s cure. A general study indicates that about 15 per cent of the Indian population solely depends on homoeopathy for its health care needs.
Homoeopathy is being practised in India for close to 150 years now. It has blended well into the roots and traditions of the country and has been recognised as one of the national systems of education of medicine and provides the much needed gentle cure and health care to a large number of people. It’s strength lies in its evident effectiveness as it takes a holistic approach towards the sick individual through promotion of inner balance at mental, emotional, spiritual and physical levels.
Over 12,000 medical doctors and licensed health care homoeopaths administer treatment in the UK, France and Germany. The latest amendments to the directive passed by the European Union in 2001 make it mandatory for all member states to implement a special registration procedure for homoeopathic remedies.
Homoeopathy in US
Homoeopathy was introduced in the United States in 1825, and rapidly gained popularity, partly due to the fact that the excesses of conventional medicine were especially extreme there, and partly due to the efforts of Constantine Hering. Homoeopathy reached its peak of popularity in America between 1865 and 1885, and thereafter, declined due to a combination of the recognition by the establishment of the dangers of large doses of drugs and bleeding, and dissent between different schools of homoeopathy.
Another person who (like Hahnemann) was responsible for the development and popularisation of homoeopathy was the American physician, James Tyler Kent (1849-1921). His most important contribution was his repertory which is still widely used today. Kent’s approach to homoeopathy was decidedly authoritarian emphasising the metaphysical and clinical aspects of Hahnemann’s teachings.
In the 1930’s, the popularity of homoeopathy began to wane, especially in Europe and the United States, partly due to advances in biology and conventional medicines, and partly due to the Flexner Report in 1910 which led to the closure of most of the medical schools teaching alternative medicine in North America. Another reason was a decline in coherence in the homoeopathic community.
Homoeopathy experienced a renaissance in the 1970’s, largely due to the efforts of George Vithoulkas in Europe and the United States, that continues to this day. In India, homoeopathy had remained relatively strong throughout the twentieth century due to it’s isolation from the above factors.
In Germany, more than six thousand physicians specialise in homoeopathy. In 1978, homoeopathy, along with anthroposophically extended medicine and herbatism, were recognised as ‘special forms of therapy’, meaning that their medications are free from the usual requirement of proving efficacy.
In Austria, homoeopathy has been recognised as part of the medical system since 1983.
The UK
In United Kingdom, as in most countries, homoeopathic medicines can be sold over the counters. UK has five homoeopathic hospitals where treatment, funded by the National Health Service, is available, and there are numerous regional clinics. Homoeopathy is not practised by the majority of the medical professionals but there is public support, especially in Scotland and also from the English royal family. In fact, homoeopathy is called ‘The Royal Medicine’ because Britain’s royal family has been using it since the 1830’s.
The fundamental idea of homoeopathy is the Similarity (or Similia) Principle: ‘Similia similibus curentur’ (‘Let like be cured by like’), stated by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) in 1796. This implies that substances capable of causing disorder in healthy subjects are used as medicines to treat similar patterns of disorder experienced by ill people. Hippocrates wrote of curing ‘like with like’ more than 2,000 years ago but it was formally systematized by Hahnemann. He viewed health as a dynamic process tending to maintain a state of optimum equilibrium. Homoeopathic medicines are aimed to direct and stimulate the body’s self-regulatory mechanisms.
Every science has certain fundamental principles which guide the whole system. Homoeopathy as a science of medical treatment has a philosophy of its own and its therapeutics is based on certain fundamental principles. These are:
Law of Similia
Law of Simplex
Law of Minimum
Doctrine of Drug Proving
Theory of Chronic Disease
Theory of Vital Force
Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation
Homoeopathy is a system of medicine founded on a definite law ‘Similia Similibus Curantur’ which means ‘like cures like’, This is the main axiom on which true Homoeopathy is based. The word Homoeopathy is a Greek derivation where ‘homeos’ means ‘similar and pathos means ‘suffering’. So Homoeopathy may be defined as the therapeutic method of symptom-similarity. The recognition of this law was there even before Hahnemann. Paracelus, Hippocrates, and ancient ayurvedic texts have on occasions mentioned this law. But it was Hahnemann who recognized the universality of this law and lifted it from oblivion to make it the basis of a complete system of medicine.
Homoeopathy is an art of healing by matching the symptoms and personality of sick persons with the symptoms and personality of thoroughly proved drug. The perfect match making is called ‘Similimum’.
Administration of a single and only one remedy at a time. Hahnemann states that only one single, simple medicinal substance is to be administered in a given case of time. This is due to the following reasons:
The homoeopathic remedies were proved singly, and the Materia Medica was built up on the observed effects of drugs given singly, either in planned provings or in accidental provings.
Only one remedy can be the most similar at any given time to the condition of any given patient.
Moreover, if more than one remedy is used the doctor will never know which element was curative and our source of future guidance is obscured.
If more than one drug is given in one prescription the possibility of synergistic action cannot be ruled out, but it cannot be argued that the effect will be the sum total of the effects of the separate drugs. The ingredient drugs may even result in interactions that may have adverse effects in the body. A mixture of more than one remedy in a single dose would constitute a new remedy which would require to be proved as such for a proper estimate of its probable effects.
The suitableness of a medicine for any given case does not depend on its accurate homoeopathic selection alone, but likewise on the proper size of dose too. Under this principle medicine is given to the patients in very minute doses. The minute dose means that quantity of a medicine which is though smallest in quantity produces the least possible excitation of the vital force and yet sufficient to effect the necessary change in it. The quantity is minimum, yet appropriate, for a gentle remedial effect. This concept of minimum dose, lead to the discovery of a practical process called potentisation. Administration of the minimum dose has the following advantages:
The specific dynamic action which produces the uncommon, characteristic, distinguished symptoms of the drug, is produced by the minimum quantity of drug.
Small doses do not allow the drug to do any organic damage nor there is any risk of drug addiction and drug effects.
The concept of minimum dose can be verified by Arndt-Schultz law that small doses stimulate, medium doses paralyze and large doses kill. In other words, the action of small and very large doses of the same substance on living matter is opposite.
Health is a matter of perfect equilibrium, perfect balance, trifling circumstances may sway it, and so may it be balanced by the least possible in medication.
Homoeopathy is an art of healing by matching the symptoms and personality of sick persons with the symptoms and personality of thoroughly proved drug. Drug proving is a systematic investigation of pathogenic (disease-producing ) power of medicine on healthy human being of different ages, both sexes and of various constitutions under careful controlled conditions; this makes the system fool proof and safe. Only those medicines are used in Homoeopathy whose medicinal properties are known to us.
The drug must be proved on human beings because:
The symptoms of the drug and the disease will be mixed together.
Moreover, the action of the drug on the sick person is different from normal person.
During the early age of homoeopathic practice Hahnemann observed that in spite of best homoeopathic treatment some cases would return with a recurrence of symptoms at intervals. This failure led him to investigate thoroughly a large number of chronic cases and after 12 years of observations he reached the conclusion that the chronic diseases are caused by chronic miasms. The miasms are Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis.
Psora is the real fundamental cause and producer of innumerable forms of disease. It is the mother of all diseases and at least 7/8th of all the chronic maladies spring from it while the remaining eighth spring from Syphilis and Sycosis. Cure is only possible by proper anti-miasmatic treatment.
Theory of Vital Force
It is Homoeopathy which stresses the existence and operation of the vital force in a living organism. The human organism is a union of body, mind, and spirit. This spirit which is responsible for different manifestations of life was termed by Dr. Hahnemann as ‘Vital Force’. According to Hahnemann “The material organism without the vital force is capable of no sensation, no function, no self preservation; it derives all sensations, and performs all functions of life solely by means of the immaterial being (the vital force) which animates the material organism in health and disease?
In the healthy condition, it is the vital force which maintains normal functions and sensations of the organism. But when the vital force is primarily and dynamically deranged by morbific influence, it causes abnormal sensations and functions which are manifested outwardly through the material body as abnormal signs and symptoms, the totality of which constitutes the disease.
Again if a cure is to be established it is the vital force that must arouse itself or be abided to arise for the recovery. If the vital force is too exhausted then no medicinal aid will help.
Homoeopathic dynamisation is a process by which the medicinal properties which are latent in natural substances while in their crude state, become awakened and developed into activity to an incredible degree. Through this process medicines are brought to a minimum dose, but their action is deeper, longer, wide spread and safe. So even the snake venom has got no toxic effect on the human body after this process.
Drugs are potentised by two methods:
Tritration – in case of insoluble substances.
Succussion – in case of soluble substances.
To reduce the medicinal substance which helps to avoid unwanted medicinal aggravations and side effects.
Homoeopathy believes that vital force is dynamic in nature and that is affected by disease, can only be cured by the dynamic power of serviceable medicine, not by its material quantity.
By this process the most virulent and deadly poisons are not only rendered harmless, but are transformed into beneficial healing remedies.
Substances which are medicinally inert in their crude natural state are thus rendered active and effective for healing the sick.
The medicinal qualities of other drugs which are more or less active in their natural state are enhanced and their sphere of action is broadened by this process.
The action of potentised medicines is deeper, longer and more wide-spread.
Homoeopathic remedies can be helpful in complex or even serious conditions, although self-prescribing is not appropriate in such cases. To correctly select the remedy and monitor the healing process, an experienced physician, who is trained in homoeopathy, should be involved, for the following reasons:-
Medical knowledge is needed to assess complex or serious conditions. Professional diagnostic tests may be necessary as well.
Using a remedy that covers isolated symptoms superficially, but does not fit the person on deeper levels, may change or suppress the symptoms, yet not be deeply curative.
Even with a correctly-chosen remedy, a temporary aggravation of symptoms may occur as part of the healing process.
Training and experience are required to distinguish a helpful aggravation from an intensification of symptoms that occurs because a remedy has not acted and the illness is progressing.
An inexperienced or impatient person might be tempted to repeat the remedy unnecessarily, or change to other remedies at times when waiting is appropriate.
If an illness or condition is chronic or deep-seated, it is best to consult an experienced homoeopathic practitioner, for a ‘constitutional’ remedy that fits the characteristic symptoms of the case, and considers the person’s physical condition and individual nature in a more comprehensive way. In a typical first visit, a homoeopath interviews a patient in detail – to take a careful history and elicit information about many aspects of the person’s state of health – before choosing a remedy.
The homoeopathic diagnostic method centres around what is called a case-taking of the patient’s background, family conditions, hereditary body conditions, work situation, social situation, plus all the symptoms perceived by the patients and, preferably, also by persons close to the patient. By ‘symptom’ homoeopathic practice refers to anything perceived as not usual.
A homoeopath studies the individuals characteristics such as his temperament, personality, emotional and physical responses, when prescribing a remedy. So, a homoeopath may treat different persons exhibiting the same symptom differently. For example, two persons exhibiting flu-like symptoms may get two different medications from the homoeopath, based on the appraisal of the mind-body constitution.
A homoeopath would not prescribe one remedy for a person’s headache, another for his stomach, and another for his depression. He tries to find a single remedy that creates the totality of symptoms that the person experiences. Homoeopathy is time-consuming for the practitioner and the patient, but is very effective in cure.
When the patient is seated, the practitioner explains briefly the principles of homoeopathy so that the patient knows what to expect. Then he notes down his address, phone number, age, occupation, followed by the reason for his visit. The person is allowed to talk without interruptions about the nature of his illness. In homoeopathy, listening and observation is crucial.
Through case-taking, the homoeopath gets to know many aspects of the patient, like restlessness, anxiety, skin colouring, eye contact, shyness, ease of communication. These observable symptoms are objective and valuable. He gathers information objectively and with compassion and patience. After listening to the complaints, the homoeopath continues to ask general open questions about any additional symptoms until the interview is over.
For each symptom described, he will address the following:
When did you first have these symptoms? How old were you?
Have the symptoms changed over the years? How?
How often do these symptoms recur?
How long do these symptoms last?
Do you feel any sensations?
Does anything make it feel better?
Do you have any other symptoms accompanying your ailment?
A homoeopath must focus on etiology where the person’s family history is included – all illnesses and predisposition, such as cancer, tuberculosis, HIV, emotional imbalances, diabetes, organ problems, and so on. He will also probe into the patient’s past.
The following sample questions cover physical disharmonies, an important aspect of case-taking.
Appetite: Is it good or bad, explaining why?
Thirst: Do you feel very thirsty? How often do you drink, and how many glasses?
Food: What foods do you like or dislike? Any aversions? Does anything disagree?
Digestion: Do you have good bowel movements? Do you have any gas problem?
Urine: Any odour, unusual frequency? Do you wake up often at night to urinate? Unusual colour or blood?
Perspiration: Head or foot sweats? Sweaty palms? Unusual odour or excessiveness? Night sweats?
Skin: Dry, oily, acne, eczema, freckles, itches?
Energy: Is it normal, high or low? At what time of the day do you particularly feel so?
Sleep: Do you sleep well? If not, why? Is your sleep interrupted easily? Hard to go to sleep? Restless? The position you first take upon going to sleep? Do you feel refreshed on waking?
Dreams: Recurring or remembered? Feelings upon waking? Do you remember the dream?
Menses: Any headache, cramps, pains, nausea, irritability, cravings, unusual tendencies or related symptom’s?
Sex: Desires high or low? Fantasies? Masturbation? Frequency of sexual release?
Body temperature: Usually more chilly or warm?
Seasons: Any preference? Why? Do you feel better or worse in a particular season?
Allergies: To what? What effects or symptoms?
Exercise: Do you like doing or not? How do you feel later? Others: Anything else that you wish to add to your physical condition?
These simple questions make the patient feel safe enough to be honest and open about his emotions. With these preliminary questions, the homoeopath proceeds to question the patient about his mental make-up. The mental area is considered to be the most important aspect of case-taking in homoeopathy, because the practitioner gets an insight into the patient’s psyche.
Questions relating to emotion and emotional tendencies are frequently difficult for both parties. But they need to be asked to fully understand the specific reactions of the patient. While emotions relate to feelings and energy, mental disturbances describe thought processes. They are given greater attention than physical symptoms. When emotions (energy in motion) are blocked, that says a great deal about the patient’s behaviour.
There are specific questions addressed to the patient to get a clear picture of his core emotions. Each mental aspect or emotion is unique and important. They may be tedious at times, but should not be ignored.
How do you express your anger? Is it frequent? At whom is it expressed? How long do you remain angry? Any specific cases? Do you yell, scream, throw things or get violent?
Do you worry? About what specifically? Do you often worry? About the future, others, your health, money? Where in the body is it felt?
Do you like to be alone or with people? Is solitude important?
Do you like to be consoled or left alone? How do you feel while being consoled?
Are you sympathetic? Do you take up causes? How do you feel about animals.
Do you find it difficult to concentrate? Do you experience any apathy? Confusion? Trouble with works or mistakes in speaking? Are you forgetful? Are you able to focus?
What are you critical about? In what manner? Are you judgemental about self! About other? How do you express it? Do you give in to sarcasm?
Do you ever feel depressed? How long does it last? What causes it? How is it shown? Any related physical symptoms? Any suicidal tendencies? Any intent or past attempts?
How do you respond to a stimulus? Frequency? What is the common cause for it?
Have you had any fears in your childhood? Do you still have them? Any other fear?
Grief Are you grieving over the loss of a loved one or a pet?
How long has it lasted? Does any reference to it kindle feelings of grief? How recent has it been?
What is the cause for it? Are you, by nature, impatient? How frequently do you become impatient in a day? Give examples.
Cause and frequency? How long does it last? Is it related to food or allergy? Does loss of sleep make you irritable?
What triggers it and how frequently? Envy? Are you always suspicious by nature? Distrustful?
About what? For how long?
High or low? Changing moods frequently or do you have stable moods? Any known causes?
Are you fixated upon orderliness? Describe your office or your house and how orderly you like them to be. How organised or careless? Do you save things? Do you misplace them?
Do you always like to blame others or find ways to justify your actions? Do you ever blame yourself? How is it expressed or felt? Do you scream or become violent?
Can you relax? Do you have the tendency to be always moving and be active? Do you have restless hands and feet?
To what specifically? Are you sensitive to noises, odours, lights, emotions of others?
Do you often cry? At what and how easily? Do you cry in privacy or even in the presence of others? While telling your symptoms do you cry? Do tears well up in your eyes when you are very angry?
Do you try to avoid conflicts or do you like to air your grievance and settle the matter? Are you aggressive or submissive?
A practitioner will never ask leading questions, but try to make the patient talk as much as possible. During follow-up visits, patients report how they are responding to the remedy, which helps the practitioner make decisions about further treatment.
By looking at the whole person, certain symptoms become more prominent, along with the lifelong tendencies. After completing the case-taking, symptoms are analysed, reviewed and repertorised. Finally, the Materia Medica is researched to determine which remedy is most suitable for the patient.
is encyclopedia of materials which may be used to prepare homoeopathic medicines. It lists the materials along with details of the provings which establish the symptoms and conditions for which they are claimed to be suitable. They thus constitute a homoeopathic prescribing reference guide and are often used along with the Homoeopathic repertory.
Samuel Hahnemann started the practise of homoeopathy while translating the botanical Materia Medica of the Scottish physician William Cullen from English into German in 1790. Twenty pages in that work are devoted to Peruvian chinchona bark which is used to prepare the medicine quinine. This substance produces fever-like symptoms while being used to cure intermittent fever or ague and this led Hahnemann to conceive the principle of similars: that like may cure like. He went on to develop the materia medica along these homoeopathic lines and others then continued this work to produce great volumes of potential ingredients.
Although there are various homoeopathic Materia Medica, written by different authors and covering different specialities, the term Homoeopathic Materia Medica is often used to reference the total sum of homoeopathic preparations and prescribing options. Hahnemann developed the first Homoeopathic Materia Medica by a system of homoeopathic provings, where a substance was ingested by the “prover” and the symptoms that the “prover” developed were recorded in great detail. Materia Medica may also include accidental poisoning and some information from clinical treatment.
Certified and evaluated in order to arrange such symptoms hierarchically. Analysis and classification give an idea about the case in respect of its nature and the types of symptoms and, therefore, evaluation can be done by different methods.
The order of importance of symptoms is:
a. Mental : will (emotion), understanding, intellect , memory
b. Physical : time, temperature, weather, position, motion, external stimuli, eating, drinking, sleep, clothing and bathing.
c. Particulars : Particular Organ.
All the three evaluation methods are to help the physician, and not to confuse him. After the case is well taken, evaluation of symptoms, according to the case, would not be difficult. The case may have different dimensions, which may prove useful to find out the similimum.
Totality is not the sum total of symptoms, but it is a logical combination of the symptoms which characterise the person as well as individualise the problem. Thus, all the symptoms which are classified and evaluated do not form a working totality of the case.
From the classification and evaluation, the hierarchy of symptoms is known, but which, among them, should be useful for getting a correspondence are yet to be finalised. Thus, a physician is required to understand all the symptoms and select a few of which can logically represent the whole picture. This logical arrangement must follow a definite principle. If the case has got more generals and a few particulars with rare modalities, it would follow a different arrangement than a case which has vague modalities and striking concomitants, or a pathological general.
Totality should be erected according to the facts collected in the case. There is no hard and fast rule to erect totality in any fixed way. The case alone decides the method to be followed.
After the totality has been erected, the case becomes clear to the physician. He should look for one of the following points in the case:
a. Generals: mentals, physicals
b. Particulars: location, sensation, modalities, concomitants
c. Pathological generals
Once the repertory is selected, a major part of the analysis and synthesis of the case is done. The next step is to rearrange the totality according to the repertory selected. Rearrangement of the totality in terms of repertory selected is called Repertorial Totality. Thus, a well-arranged totality is worked out.
What follows next is to convert the symptoms into rubrics which requires an acquaintance with the repertory. The symptoms obtained from the patient may not be found in the repertory in the same form. So the physician must know the construction and arrangement of each repertory. Rubrics should be arranged according to hierarchy, reason and page number.
Repertorial result should be referred to the Materia Medica. Further, the group has to be referred to the picture of the patient and with the help of the Materia Medica, it should be differentiated.
Repertory thus narrows down the group of medicines and with the help of source books, a final remedy can be found out. The remedy so selected must finally pass through certain criteria such as susceptibility, sensibility, suppression (if any), the level of similarity, functional and structural changes, vitality and miasm, to arrive at the right potency and the schedule of the doses.
Another cornerstone of homoeopathy is the potentiation of medicines. Potentiation is a process that involves a series of precise dilutions and succussions (a vigorous shaking action). A substance has to undergo this process to be useful as a homoeopathic remedy.
“Homoeopathic potentiation is a mathematico-mechanical process for the reduction, according to scale, of crude, inert or poisonous medical substances to a state of physical solubility, physiological assimilability and therapeutic activity and harmlessness, for use as homoeopathic healing remedies” (Stuart Close, The Genius of Homoeopathy).
The primary object of potentiation is to reduce all substances designed for therapeutic use to “a state of approximately perfect solution or complete ionisation, which is fully accomplished only by infinite dilution” (Arrhenius). The greater the dilution, the higher is the degree of ionisation, until, at infinite dilution, ionisation is complete and therapeutic activity conditionally greatest.
“To Hahnemann alone is due, imperishable honour and renown for discovering, first the existence of a universal law of cure, and, second, that the specific properties of drugs could be developed, transmitted and utilised by potentiation,” writes Morgan.
Some of the basic substances tried by Hahnemann were quite toxic, and caused some unpleasant, possibly even dangerous, poisoning effects. Obviously, apart from making testing dangerous, it would hardly seem expedient to add to the sufferings of sick
people by giving them toxic substances, especially since that was exactly what Hahnemann was blaming other practitioners for. So Hahnemann started diluting his substances, using a special procedure of vigorous shaking which he called ‘succussion’. For instance, he put a drop of raw substance into a vial, added 100 drops of dilution medium (water or alcohol), succussed it, then repeated the process several times. After n steps. the dilution, or potency, he called nCo
Potentiation is very important, because the repeated process of dilution and succussion brings about an energetic change that gives the substance a deeper curative effect. Repeated dilution removes all chances of chemical toxicity, allowing the homoeopathic use of many substances that would otherwise not be safe to take as a medicine.
Potentiation is also known as dynamisation. While liquids are diluted as they are with water or alcohol, insoluble solids are diluted by grinding them with lactose, a process known as trituration. Homoeopathic practitioners believe that the vigorous agitation following each dilution transfers some of the essential properties of the substance to the water, which fits in with the concept of the disease as a substance in the vital force of the patient.
The dilution factor at each stage is traditionally 1: 10 (D or x potencies) or 1:100 (C potencies). Hahnemann advocated the use of 30C dilutions for most purposes, that is, dilution by a factor of 1003°-106°. Critics point out that, since Avogadro’s number is only 6.022 x 1023 particles, the chance that even one molecule of the original would be present in a 15C solution is small, and the chance of one molecule of the original present in a 30C solution is infinitesimal.
Higher dilutions are generally considered stronger and deep acting. This is in contrast to pharmacology and biochemistry, which hold that the effects of a substance are always due to its physical or biochemical activity in the patient’s body, and, therefore, that generally the more of an active ingredient is present in a drug, the more effect (whether positive, negative, or both) it will have. The choice of potency will depend on a number of factors. These include how deep-seated the disease appears to be, whether the disease is primarily physical or more mental/emotional, the patient’s sensitivity based on the practitioner’s intuitive assessment or previous reactions to remedies; and the desired dosing regimen based on patient compliance considerations (for example, low potency repeated vs high potency repeated seldom).
It is widely accepted that the simplest part of homoeopathy to address scientifically is potentised medicines. Basically, preparations over 12C consist of shaken medium, and even lower potencies contain so little substance that it can hardly have any chemical effect. Homoeopathic proponents hold that the medium somehow conveys the effect of the original substance. There is no known mechanism within modern physics that can explain how this could happen, and no scientific disciplines within physics or chemistry have ever shown any effects that might hint at water (or alcohol) having any memory of substances no longer present.
Ix potency of the medicine signifies I part of mother preparation diluted with 9 parts of alcohol/milk sugar.
2x potency is Ix of medicine diluted with 9 parts of sugar of milk / alcohol.
I C potency is mother tincture diluted with 99 parts.
Low potency: lx, 3x, 6x (3C), l2x (6C) Medium potency: l2x, 30x, 30c
High potency: 200, 1 M, 10M, 50M, CM, etc.
The potency of a remedy such as 6x or 30c says how many times and by what ratio the base substance has been diluted. The purpose of potency is to dilute the remedy until it can do no harm, and to potentise (or invigorate) the base substance with energy such that the qualities are preserved while the substance itself is diluted out. Tincture is where it begins. In most remedies, the tincture is made by steeping the powdered base substance in alcohol. Insolubles, like mercury, are made by thoroughly mixing the substance in powdered lactose.
Yes, they can be given safely to even the youngest infant.
Homoeopathic remedies are prepared by grinding the active ingredient, and mixing it with alcohol and water, then allowing it to soften and steep. The mixture is then filtered to produce what is called a tincture, made more potent by dilution, which increases the healing power while decreasing the concentration.
There are many different potency ranges. The first tincture has a potency of I x. To make a 2x potency, one part of the base is mixed with nine parts alcohol, and shaken ten times. To make a 3x potency, one part of 2x potency is mixed with nine parts alcohol and shaken again. This process is continued until the desired dilution is acquired. In addition to alcohol, other mixing agents include water, glycerine and lactose.
Homoeopathic medicines come in C potencies and as X potencies.
Homoeopathic remedies are prepared by grinding the active ingredient, and mixing it with alcohol and water, then allowing it to soften and steep. The mixture is then filtered to produce what is called a tincture, made more potent by dilution, which increases the healing power while decreasing the concentration.
Homoeopathic medicines have no side effects. They are prepared by serial dilutions and contain no material substance in them. Hence, no side effects. Side effects, such as tissue destruction, do not occur under homoeopathy.
Further homoeopathic medicines are not employed against one particular area or organ of the body. The homoeopathic remedy is chosen because it matches as closely as possible with the totality of symptoms of the patient