Homeopathy lecture
What Is Homeopathy ?
Homeopathy was discovered by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755- 1843).
He was a Medical Doctor, Chemist and Natural Scientist.
This Is How He Discovered It:
He wanted to find out how China bark affects a body and therefore tried it himself. At this time it was used already to treat “Remittent Fever”, the old name for Malaria. After he took it, he developed intermittent fever himself.
From this he theorised that an agent can cause the same symptoms in a healthy person that it can cure in the sick.
This is what is known today as the simile principle: Similia similibus currentur.
Similar is cured by similar.
In order to examine unhealthier substances like e.g. Arsenic, he then started diluting and triturating the substances and in the course of his experiments noticed, that through the triturating process he had reactions that were much more intense than if he only took a diluted form of the original.
At this point a long life of experimenting started for him, his two wives and 9 children.
He started trying out any substance he could think of, noting down the symptoms he and his family and later- on his student doctors developed and this became the basis of all Materia Medica up to today.
The next step was to match up the symptoms he had found in his trials with real sickness symptoms he found in his patients and then started to treat them with the corresponding remedies that had the most similar symptoms.
This research has been carried on by many generations of Homeopaths all over the world up to today, and will probably never come to an end, as there is so much to learn and discover on this planet.
Today we use remedies that are made of plants, minerals, animal substances and metals.
Potencies: Potentising = diluting and triturating
Decimal:
D 1 = 1/10 => 1 Drop of the substance + 9 drops of alcohol (respectively 1gran substance + 9 gran of lactose) => D 2 repeat the same from this => D3
Centesimal:
C 1 = 1/ 100 -> 1 Drop of this + 99 of alcohol + trituration => C 2
Q potency:
LM 1 or Q 1 = 1/50000 => LM2 or Q2
The threshold beyond which you cannot scientifically expect to find any molecule of the original substance anymore is D 23, C12 and Q 4.
The trituration is usually in lactose up to a D 3, C 3 and Q 3, after that in alcohol and in the end the dilutions is poured on little granules or globules of lactose again.
What Is Disease?
Hahnemann’s definition is that by its nature a disease is an annoyance or a detuning or a disgruntlement of the life force, which he called Dynamis (a.k.a. Qi, Prana etc.)
The development of illness can be influenced by various factors:
1. External: water, wind, sun, radiation, physical traumas …
2. Internal: emotional stress, excessive work, grief, fear, fright, shock, excess of joy, worries about health, relatives, money …
3. Poisoning, vaccinations, allopathic medication
4. Malnutrition, bad living condition, lack of hygiene…
5. Heredity transmission, left by the great epidemics of mankind such as tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhoea …
What Is Health?
Definition by Prof. Georgios Vithoulkas:
Health is freedom on all three planes of human manifestation: Mental, emotional and physical.
Physical Health:
Is the freedom of illness and pain and absolute physical wellbeing.
Emotional Health:
Is the freedom of vehement obsessions, which manifests as a state of dynamic inner peace and happy serenity. This means a state in which all emotions are possible to occur, however in an adequate intensity and without getting out of control or becoming fixed.
Mental Health:
Is the freedom of false goals, especially egomania, greed, false ambitions and a positive orientation towards true values and resulting from this a state of creative activity for the wellbeing of the self, the fellow humans and the natural environment and in a larger view for the entire planet.
The Criterion To Evaluate This Is Creativity:
To know how sick a person is, ask how much he or she is restricted in unfolding and manifesting his or her creative potential.
The Development Of A Disease And The Course Of Healing It Homoeopathically:
1. Everybody is born with a hereditary constitution, and some are very healthy, whilst others are born with a very sick disposition.
2. There are different damaging influences that can affect a constitution as already mentioned above. They can create or suppress symptoms, symptoms suppressed in one spot will move to another or another plane.
FOR EXAMPLE:
1. A person develops a skin eruption. -> is treated with cortisone ointment -> skin eruption disappears, then develops hay fever, is treated again -> develops asthma, is treated for that -> suddenly becomes depressed.
2. Somebody physically healthy, emotionally stable, no treatments, suddenly suffers a head injury -> becomes severely depressed ever after, no treatment really helps, slowly becomes demented.
Each person has their unique development of illnes; no two persons are alike, although certain patters can be observed.
Never two people have the same symptoms, even if they have the same allopathic disease.
How Does A Cure Proceed?
Homeopaths have been very closely observing this and have found what is called Hering’s law (named after Constantine Hering, MD):
The direction of a cure is:
1. From above downwards.
2. From within outwards.
3. From a more important organ to a less important one.
4. In the reverse order of their coming.
In acute diseases this can be observed to happen naturally, in chronic diseases it is not seen without any true curative treatment.
In homeopathic treatment you expect to get a “primary aggravation”.
This happens, when a higher-grade symptom improves, the body moves the disease in accordance with Hering’s law outward, downward and to a less severely affected or important organ.
A primary aggravation is temporary and it can only be called so when at the same time there is a marked improvement in the overall state of the person.
Remedy Pictures (Materia Medica) And How To Find The Right Remedy For A Person:
Remedy pictures where first developed by giving them to healthy persons who then noted down all the symptoms they developed. Later they where completed with symptoms that had been cured in patients with this remedy. This is an ongoing process and might never become completed.
All these symptoms a listed in a book that is like an encyclopaedia of symptoms called a repertory.
In order to prescribe the correct similimum, the homeopath will ask for symptoms from all planes: i.e. sleep, desires and aversions for foods and drinks, physical diseases, all kinds of emotions, mental symptoms such as compulsions, forgetfulness, delirium, sleepwalking, delusions, hallucinations and reactions to stresses, influences by the moon, time of day, weather, sides, temperature etc.. Then this all will be searched for in the repertory and the wanted result is a remedy that covers all the specific symptoms of this patient. This will then be double checked by looking at the materia medica to come to a final differential diagnosis.
The Next Step:
Potency and frequency: In chronic diseases there are basically two ways of prescribing:
1. Give a high C-Potency and repeat infrequently or
2. Give a LM or Q-Potency and repeat frequently and there is yet some other ways of dosing
However:
THE TREATMENT OF A CHRONIC DISEASE BELONGS IN THE HANDS OF A TRAINED HOMEOPATH AND IS NOT FOR LAY PERSONS.
In acute diseases a trained homeopath might also use higher potencies; however some things can easily be dealt with by laypersons and a C30 potency, which may then need more frequent repetition.
PLEASE NOTE: The following are known that they can reduce or stop or antidote the effect of the remedy:
1. Coffee
2. Mint
3. Camphor
4. Dental treatment
5. Surgery
6. Strong essential or ethereal oils
7. Allopathic medication
8. Vaccinations
9. Acupuncture
10. Chamomile.
Homeopathic Remedies For Acute Problems That Can Be Used Safely by Lay Persons
Generally use a C 30, Granules; suck 3-5 of them under your tongue, can be repeated 2-3 times a day.
Only use as long as you feel an improvement!
If you do not notice any amelioration stop after max. 3 days!
If you start feeling worse in any respect (mentally, emotionally or physically) you are likely to start a proving. This is not harmful; stop taking the medication and all proving symptoms will disappear within a short time.
Do not take any homeopathic remedy over a longer period of time (unless it is your confirmed simile) as you will eventually end up in a proving, even if you might not be aware of it and attribute the signs to something else.
In any case of doubt, always go to see a doctor. Do not try to treat any disease that you would normally see a doctor for without a doctor.
You will not profit from neglecting serious illnesses!
Some Remedies For Trauma And Injury:
Arnica:
- Used for blunt trauma with haemorrhages into the body tissues
- Closed fractures, open fractures with large haematomas
- Sprains, contusions or after surgical trauma when there is bruising
- Contusion or concussion of the head
- Chronic conditions resulting from trauma such as arthritis, neurological damage or even depression.
- Useful after labour
- Pains have bruised quality “as if beaten”
- Everything feels too hard: Pillow, chair …
- Fear of being touched
- Does not want to go to see the doctor
Symphytum:
- For better healing of fractures
- Only give after fractures have been set, as it works very quickly
- For non-union fractures, delayed healing of fractures
- For painful fractures even when they are already healed
Hypericum:
- Injuries such as lacerations, puncture wounds and contusion of nerves, also old injuries of nerves
- Injuries of spine with sharp shooting pains
- Injuries of tissues rich with nerves: fingertips, tongue, teeth, eyes, genitalia, crushed bones
- Injuries to coccyx due to falls, blows, labour and delivery with pains extending up the spine
- Pain after dental procedures
- Phantom pains
- Convulsions due to injury of brain or spine
- Pains shooting along the nerves upwards
Calendula:
- Tears, contused wounds, abrasions
- Helps prevent infections of wounds, reduces bleeding and pain of wounds
- Helps healing infected wounds
- Excess granulation tissue
- Rupture of muscle
Ruta:
- Injuries to connective tissues, tendons and periosteum
- Sprains, twisting of joints, torn tendons, resulting in stiffness and bruised pain
- Pains, fibrosis and nodular growth from overexertion, e.g. tennis elbow
- Pains > lying down, warm applications, < damp, cold and exertion.
- Overexertion of eyes, e.g. after needlepoint work or reading small print
Ledum:
- Bites and stings by animals (cats, dogs, insects, spiders) and puncture wounds (stepped on a nail) which: are cold to touch (even when swollen and inflamed)
- > Cold applications, ice
- < Warmth
Staphisagria:
- Wounds and injuries with sharp instruments: e.g. cut with knife, after surgery…
- All kinds of ailments after surgery: e.g. pains that remain long after, painfulness of scars, excessive growth of scar tissue
- Can cure constipation after surgery
Apis:
- Hot, red, thick swellings (look like a balloon that is about to burst): e.g. after bee stings, allergic reactions, insect bites with massive oedema
- < Heat, sun
- > Cold applications, fresh air
Cantharis:
- Severe burns
- Severe sunburns
- Extreme burning pains
- Cystitis with extreme burning pains, will scream from pain when urinating
Other Remedies For Travel And Special Situations:
Chamomilla:
- Painful dentition in children
- Children are angry, irritable, may even kick or strike at parents, inconsolable, capricious, demands something then throws it away
- > When carried around
- Aversion being touched
- Oversensitive to pain
- Crying in sleep
Nux Vomica:
- First aid in hang over when irritable, shunning light and noise, with nausea and vomiting
- Very irritable and impatient
- Easily angered
- Sensitive to noise, light and jar
- Digestive problems with nausea and vomiting
- Headache + nausea + irritability
- Ailments from excess of:
o too much coffee
o too much work
o too much sex
o too much alcohol
o too much stimulants
Ipecacuanha:
- Constant nausea, unrelieved by vomiting
- Nausea and vomiting during cough
- Asthma with vomiting
- Sometimes for seasickness
Cocculus:
- Motion sickness
- Sea sickness
- Severe vertigo so the entire world seems to spin
- Great vertigo on watching moving object or when watching objects while riding in a train or a car
- Nausea at the mere thought of food
Tabacum:
- Severe nausea with or without vomiting
- Deathly nausea, incapacitating,
- Nausea during pregnancy (only when severe) or chemotherapy
- Sometimes in motion or seasickness
- With paleness and coldness
Arsenicum Album:
- Food poisoning
- Vomiting and deadly nausea
- Diarrhoea often with acrid, offensive and watery stools
- Great restlessness, anxiety, coldness
- < Cold food, cold drink, fruit
- > Warm applications
- Thirst for small sips frequently
- Cold extremities, Raynaud’s syndrome
- Burning pains, acrid discharges
- Colitis of any kind
Veratrum Album:
- Projectile vomiting
- Excessive vomiting and diarrhoea
- One of the main medicines for Cholera
- Coldness, < cold
- Extreme weakness and collapse states
- Severe dysmenorrhoea with coldness, vomiting, diarrhoea, weakness and prostration
- Profuse cold sweat, especially on the forehead
- Chills and perspiration with the stools
Gambogia:
- Vomiting and diarrhoea especially in elderly people and children
- Severe diarrhoea with sudden gushing of stool
- Yellow and greenish stools, sometimes with blood
- Rumbling in abdomen before stool
- Severe prostration from diarrhoea
- Chilly with cold sensation in the teeth
- < Cold
- Disgusted by food, smell of food, sight of food, thought of food
- Dreams of dancing
Bryonia:
- When you suspect an acute appendicitis (about 70% of all appendicitis require Bryonia) on your way to the A+E !!!!!!!!!
- Patient lies on the right side because > pressure
- < Jar, motion, touching the bed he lies on, deep breath, 9 a.m.
- > Pressure, cold applications,
- Great thirst for large quantities
Opium:
- Snoring heavily
- Sleep apnoea (respiration arrested during sleep)
- Very sleepy in the daytime, falling asleep all the time
- Narcolepsy
- Threatening sudden infant death in children who previously were noticed to have arrested respiration, especially if the mother was given morphine or other opioid painkillers during pregnancy or childbirth.
Belladonna:
- High fever + great heat + a very red head + cold hands and feet
- Shinning eyes with wide pupils
- Hallucinating and delirious during fever
- Convulsions during fever
- Grinding of teeth at night, speaks in sleep
- Desire for lemon or lemonade
- Disease has quick and intense onset, rarely lasts long (not for chronic fever)
Calcarea Carbonica:
- Cramps in the thighs at night in bed on stretching legs + perspiration on back of the head and neck at night in sleep
- Desires soft boiled eggs and sweets
- Often overweight and poor physical stamina
- Weak connective tissues, painful swelling of breasts before menses
- Can get very anxious, can have various phobias, can have panic attacks
Ignatia Amara:
- Acute states of grief e.g. when a loved one dies or a relationship ends
- Ailments from grief also all kinds of physical diseases after grief
- Feels very sad and has great difficulty speaking about it
- Constriction or “lump” in the throat
- Emotional cramp cannot weep in spite of severe grief
- Frequent deep sighing
- Aversion to consolation
- Can react very hysterical
- Aversion: Fruits
- Fear of birds
- Desires and ameliorated by travelling
- Very easily offended
- Better in high potency: C 1M or C10 M
Aconitum Napellus:
- First aid for acute shock when life was threatened or somebody else’s death was witnessed (car accident, earthquake, bomb attacks…)
- Tremendous fear of death
- Feeling that death is imminent
- Can develop panic attacks from this, also multiple fears and phobias
- Can suffer from this for a whole lifetime even when the constitution is another remedy
- Great restlessness
- Aggravation from wind, especially cold dry wind
- Great thirst usually for cold drinks
- Should use a C 10 M for this, will almost always need a high potency.