HOMOEOPATHY INTRODUCTION

Saturday, April 9, 2011

HOMOEOPATHY WAS INTRODUCED BY the famous German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann. It is a medical science that treats the ailments by medicines which have been tested on healthy persons and then validated. The question arises: Why on healthy persons? The answer will be clear after reading this introduction. This makes the homoeopathic system foolproof and safe. Dr. Hahnemann emphasized the futility of omnibus experiments or researches which tried to provide cures on the basis of the overall disease rather than focussing on individual symptoms. This is because human beings react differently from animals and also differently from each other. This phenomenon applies to both medicines and diseases. For examples , morphia makes dogs vomit and renders them drowsy, whereas it excites cats; aconite kills sheep but does not affect horses and goats; antimony proves lethal to human beings and most animals except to hogs and elephants. The same logic can be extended to human beings. Therefore, each patient will have to be treated individually on the basis of his or her symptoms. The basis of homoepathy is a basic natural principle. In Latin this principle is stated as similia similibus curentur ("Let likes be treated by likes") - first propounded by Hippocrates. That is to say, that to cure any disease a drug must be found which is capable of producing similar symptoms when tested on healthy humans. Or in other worlds, a drug can only cure that which it can produce. The common person understands it as 'poison kills poison'. This principle is describied in the Hindu texts as vishasya vishmaushadham. Everyone knows that iron cuts iron and heat symptoms can be cured by heat treatment. According to science we cannot create anything; we can simply change the form. The things which exist today are because something was already there. A drug, in its proving, can evoke in each case only what was already there, latent in the prover - even as disease brings out only weak points and therefore does not affect two patients in exactly the same way. It requires many provers, of different types and different defective resistances, to bring out the complete picture of a drug pathogenesis. It follows from this principle that the symptoms that are created in a healthy human body by taking a homoeopathic medicine will be cured by the same medicine if they are present during an ailment. For example, when a healthy person uses cannabis he/she suffers from hallucinations; one minute seems like an hour; nearby objects appear to be miles away; if the person laughs, he/she will go on doing so; if he/she starts to talk, will continue to talk; on passing urine there is cutting feeling and urine comes in drops; and the head starts aching. According to the homoeopathic principle, if in any ailment, these symptoms are present these will be cured by the homoepathic medicine Cannabis Indica which is prepared from cannabis. Thus in homoeopathy an ailment is treated according to its symptoms; the name of the ailment does not matter. To find out the symptoms of a medicine these are tested on healthy persons. This is known as drug proving. Most of the substances that are used on the table as seasonings in foods will in the course of a generation or two be very useful medicines, because parents poison themselves with these substances as tea, coffee, pepper and tobacco (though tobacco cannot be said to be on the table, yet it might as well be if it is used at all), and these poisonous effects in the parents cause in the children a predisposition to diseases, which are similar to the diseases produced by these substances, Kent Dr M.L.Tyler describes the action-reaction as follows:- Every agent that acts on vitality (i.e. every medicine) more or less deranges the vital force and causes, for a longer or shorter period, certain alterations in the health of the individual. This is termed primary action. Although this primary action is a conjoint product of the medicinal and vital powers, it is principally due to the former. To this primary action our vital force endeavours to apply energetic opposition; and this automatic, life-preserving reaction goes by the name of secondary action, or counteraction. During the primary action of artificial morbific agents (medicines) on our healthy bodies, the vital force, as well be seen by the following examples, seems to behave in a passive, or receptive manner, as if compelled to receive impressions from without, acting on it and perverting its health. Then it appears to rally and to develop (a) an exactly opposite condition, if such is possible, the countereffect, proportionate to its own energy and to the intensity of the primary action. Or (b) where there is no condition exactly the opposite of the primary action, the vital force appears to "indifferentiate" itself, and,putting forth its superior strength, it extinguishes the morbid changes, thereby restoring normal health. This is the after-effect, or curative effect. Examples of (a) are familiar to everyboidy. A hand bathed in hot water is at first much warmer than the other; but, taken out and dried well, it will, after a while, grow colder than the other hand (after-effect or secondary action). A person heated by violent excercise (primary action) is afterwards affected by chilliness and shivering (secondary action). To one heated the previous day by drinking a lot of win (primary action), today every breath of air feels too cold (secondary action). Excessive vivacity after strong coffee (primary action) entails sluggishness and drowsiness for a long time afterwards (reaction- secondary action) if they are not removed for a short time by taking fresh supplies of coffee (palliative). After the profound, stupefied sleep caused by opium (primary actkion), the following night will be all the more sleepless (reaction- secondary action). After the constipation produced by opium (primary action) diarrhoea ensures (secondary action); and after purgation with medicines that irritate the bowels, constipation for several days ensues (secondary action). In a like manner it always happens, after the primary action of a medicine which, in large doses, produces a great change in the health of a healthy person, that its exact opposite, provided there is such a thing, is produced in the secondary action by our vital force. As following the action of minute homoeopathic doses in health, obvious secondary effects are perceived very little. For though such minute doses, closely observed, will be found to produce a perceptible primary effect, yet the living organism sets up only such countereffect as is absolutely required to re-established normal conditions. It must always be remembered that homoeopathy is essentially an individualalistic treatment. It therefore never makes use of nor seeks specifics for disease. So it must not be thought that any remedy mentioned here will cover all the cases. Thus we can draw the following conclusions:   1. Homoeopathy is based on basic natural principles 2. Medicines can create ailments 3. In order to find out full symptoms of a medicine it is tested on healthy persons. 4. For treating an ailment we have to administer a medicine which has the symptoms that are present in the ailmentThe mental and physical symptoms created in a healthy person by administering a medicine are catalogued in the homoeopathic Material Medica. HOW TO PREPARE HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINES AND FROM WHAT Homoeopathic medicines are prepared from plants (roots, bark, stem. Buds, leaves, juices, gums, oils, etc., or whole plants), live substances (secretion of healthy organisms, poisons, etc.), body impurities, chemicals, synthetics, minerals, etc. These medicines are available as mother tinctures, triturations or potencies. The following media are used to prepare or to adminster the medicines. These media do not have any medicinal quality of their own.These can be dry or in liquid form: 1. Sugar of milk - to prepare the trituration or to add medicine to 2. Pharmaceutical grade cane sugar - for preparing globules or tablets 3. Distilled water - to prepare and to adminster medicines 4. Alcohol - to prepare mother tinctures or potencies 5. Glycerin - to preserve or to administer the medicines. 6. Vaseline - to prepare ointments 7. Solvent ether - to test medicines 8. Syrup simplex - to prepare syrups, etc. Mother Tincture Mother tinctures are generally prepared from plants which are soluble in alcohol. The alcohol percentage can be up to 90. Mother tincture is written as 'Q'. Trituration Substances that are not soluble in alcohol are ground with sugar of milk and triturations are prepared. Potency Mother tinctures and triturations contain the medicine in crude form. These are added to alcohol and are given successive strokes way or are ground with sugar of milk in a mortar with a pestle to potentise them. For potentisation the mother tincture and alcohol, sugar of milk or distilled water can be in the ratio of 1 to 9 or 1 to 99. Medicines prepared from 1:9 are given the potentise name in'X' along with the number, for examples; 3x. This is decimal scale. If the medicine is prepared as 1:99(centesimal scale)we do not write anything alon with the number: for examples, Nux vomica 30. HOW TO SELECT THE HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINE We have already mentioned that homoeopathy rests on a basic principle of nature. Allopathy or other Western systems do not pay any attention to the symptoms of the patient. The medicine is prescribed on the basis of the name of the ailment, whatever the symptoms. Everyone know that different patients suffering from the same ailment may show different symptoms. Different patients suffering from common cold may manifest the following different symptoms: a) Sudden cold; flowing nose; sneezing; aggravation of symptoms in a warm room; fear; restlessness; thirst; fever. b) Continuous sneezing because of cold; aggravation inside a warm room; too much watery, corroding flow; headache; cough; hoarseness. Eye swollen and watering, not corroding; amelioration in open and cool place. c) Corroding flow from the nose; burning in eyes and nose; desire for sipping water at short intervals; restlessness and fear; weakness; sleeplessness because of headach; all symptoms are ameliorated by providing warmth. d) Flowing cold; constant flow of burning water from eyes; face hot, but the patient is cold and feels cold; aggravation of all the symptoms in the evenings and in warm room. e) Chill runs up and down the spine; tension and heaviness in head and on face; sneezing and post-nasal catarrh; feels sleepy; fever, which breaks without sweating and comes back; cold feeling accompained by intense urination which lightens the head. The above five patients are exhibiting different symptoms while suffering from common cold. They cannot be given the same medicine; their remedies will be as follows:   (a) Aconite; (b) Allium cepa; (c) Arsenic alb; (d) Euphrasia;(e) Gelsemium. If these five patients were go to an allopath they would have been given one and the same medicine. The allopth is not concerned with the increasing or decreasing of the flow, or with the type of the flow. He is simply concerned with cold which has one medicine. This medicine will not cure the cold but will suppress it. After some time, this suppressed cold can give rise to other more serious ailments. The reason for giving a different medicine to every patient is that at the time of drug proving, different medicines produced different symptoms which shows that the homoeopathic medicine is selected on the basis of similia similibus curentur. TREATMENT OF THE PATIENT NOT OF THE DISEASE The reason behind every ailment is imbalance in the vital force. The equilibrium of the vital force maintains the body in a healthy state, this facilitates the flow of feelings and sensibilities. If for any reason this system of free communication is obstructed or derailed, the body becomes sick. This interruption of the line of communication is termed as shock; from an injury, from the death of a near relative or loved one, from drowning, from sudden cold, etc. A person is shocked. Shock lies at the root of all ailments. Some people may maintain that illnesses have multifarious causes. It is correct that there may be numerous activating and contributing reasons to an ailment, but if they cannot cause a shock to the dynamic system, they cannot produce an illness. It has been seen in some experiments that after administering anaesthesia a patient is not effected by even deadly poisons like potassium cyanide or prussic acid, though we all know tht these can cause instantaneous death if adminstered to a healthy person even minimally. This shows that a deadly poison does not effect the anaesthetized person because in such a state the dynamic communication system itself does not work. So the question of its obstruction does not arise, hence the balance of the vital force is not disturbed and the person (dynamic plane or inner man) is not affected by the poison. The same thing happens when a person is in come. A human body lives as long as the vital force continues to function in it. This vital force is manifested in the mind, the dynamic system, etc. Which are ethereal and not physical. As soon as the physical body is rendered devoid of the vital force, existence ends and the situation is defined as death. Now the equestion is : Why homoeopathy? Crude or upotentised drugs reduce our natural body defence system and lay the field open to ailments. A remedy, basically, performs the tasks of balancing the vital forces in the body so that the line of communication is maintained. As long as the vital force is undisturbed, the body remains healthy. If developments like gangrene kill the tissues, the vital force in that region is destroyed and the medicine will have no effect on that part but the homoepathic medicines can re-establish the balance of vital force and throw out the dead tissues; and health is restored. Every big or small accident produces some shock. It is necessary to observe the general rules of treating a shock (viz. To keep the victim war, to use the hot water bottle, to cover with woolens, etc). Homoeopathic medicine Arnica 200, a few doses given at short intervals, helps the victim to recover in a short time. Arnica is one of the basic medicine for shock. If the victim becomes unconscious from a shock, Arnica helps him or her in regaining consciousness. Pain resulting from physical or mental injury is cured by Arnica. Inflammations at the time of dentition or pain, sprain, fracture, etc, respond well to Arnica,. DOSAGE AND FREQUENCY OF MEDICINE The medicine intake should repeated in proportion the acuteness of the illness: in an emergency,every 10 to 15 minutes,otherwise from two to four times a day is normally a safe principle. One has to remember that when the medicine starts showing its effect, the frequency should be reduced. Unnecessary repetition can produce the symptoms of the medicine in the patient. In long-lasting ailments like influenza, typhoid or pneumonia one should keep on giving medicines three or four times a day for some time. The medicines work better on an empty stomach. Potentised medicines should be put in freshly cleaned mouth and allowed to dissolve. These medicines are available in tablets or in globules of different sizes. Generally globules No. 20 or 20 are used. In case of children two or three and in case of adults five to six globules make a dose. Tablets are generally of one grain in measure. In case of children one or two tablets and in case of adults five to six tablets are sufficient. In case of infants a few drops of a tablet dissolved in water will do. Fifty millesimal (fifty thousandth potency) are labelled as 0/1, 0/2,0/3 and so on or LM-1, LM-2,LM-3 etc.. Generally they are prepared in distilled water. One teaspoon three or four times a day should be taken. We have not discussed this process in detail because it is not very common, but is very effective in chronic cases. Mother tincture (denoted by '0') is administered in doses of from 1 or 2 to 10 to 15 drops, in water.The vials or bottles containing medicine should be kept in some cool place, away from sunlight. They should be kept away from stron smells. You must buy medicines from some dependable place as these have to be in correct potency, etc. A wrong potency may not work and the ailment may become aggravated. You should not take anythking up to half an hour before or after taking the medicine. Intake of onions, coffee, pickles, etc., is prohibited along with some medicines. Your doctor should inform you about this. If you fell an intense desire to eat something, take it. If something does not agree with you, shun it. Simple, bland and vegetarian diet helps during illness.