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Jose Miguel
Mullen, MD, MD (H), MFHom. |
| HOMEOPATHIC
NEWSLETTER |
number thirteen
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THE DECLINE OF HOMEOPATHY |
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In its historical sense, the word decline means the concatenation of people and
circumstances that drive a society into extinction, like in Edward Gibbon "The
decline and fall of the Roman Empire". In astronomy, on the other hand, decline
means the descent of a celestial body into its perigee. I believe that the
decline experienced by Homeopathy in the past 150 years corresponds to the
astronomical sense of the word.
Allopathy and Homeopathy, so far, have always been in opposite ends since the
birth of Homeopathy over 200 years ago. When one of them is in the apogee the
other is in the perigee. Which is a pity, for I honestly believe that both
complement each other, and pretty neatly at that.
It would be wonderful if sometime soon we could achieve the synthesis of both
Both therapeutic modalities are in demand because each has its own unique
appeal.
Homeopathy offers balance, harmony and inner peace, plus health as a bonus. It
can also cure a host of diseases, acute and chronic, with virtually no side
effects or toxicity. And balance and harmony, the buttresses of Homeopathic
cure, are also the best means of becoming protected from falling ill in the
future.
All this attracts a certain segment of the population.
On the other hand, Allopathy offers the possibility of repairing abnormalities
one is born with and also those brought about by accidents or by some
infections, such as congenital malformations, fractures, acute appendicitis and
the like. Allopathy is very useful here, and can cure, although without
altering in one iota the patient's underlying overall imbalance.
But Allopathy's main attraction, what turns it irresistible, is that it
promises to cure by means of destroying or annulling everything that threatens
patients' wellbeing and their lives. It also promises to avoid falling sick by
means of vaccinations. Both promises are often meretricious.
Vaccines may offer some degree of protection, granted, but at the cost of over
stimulating and thus throwing out of balance the patient's delicate immune
system. The long-term consequences of this over stimulation-and of the ultimate
efficacy of vaccinations also, for that matter-are matters still under study.
As to cure by means of destroying or sterilizing or neutralizing or blocking,
its modus operandi, Allopathy frequently falls short of the mark. Its crown
achievement, the antibiotics, has given rise to a crop of microorganisms
resistant to them. As to many other drugs, some measure of well-being is
usually achieved, but at the cost of a host of side effects and toxicities and
at an astronomical financial cost.
But Allopathy can be very successful also in some instances, don't get me
wrong. I myself have almost literally pulled patients out of the grave when I
was an Allopath. Allopathy has its undeniable uses. Insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus, to mention an example, so resistant to Homeopathic treatment, can be
brought into control, though not cured, by injections of insulin.
So here, like everywhere else, success is based on evaluating each patient and
then using the therapeutic modality/ies that may bring about a maximum of
benefit together with a minimum or risk. Although this comment is not germane
to what I'm discussing here.
What I am concerned about in this paragraph is what makes Allopathy, with all
its limitations, so viscerally irresistible.
What is it that has made Allopathy, despite of its very considerable and
serious limitations, a Pied Piper of Hamelin for millions upon millions of
patients along centuries of History.
For a very long time Human Beings have been at the mercy of circumstances.
Inexplicable maladies, deaths of beloved ones, sufferings and the like. This
state of affairs has made people feel vulnerable. Allopathy offers the means of
destroying or neutralizing the things we have always feared, that we have
always feel are at the mercy of. And this is a very heady call. I well
remember, decades ago, the howl of triumph and relief when learning that
antibiotics afforded us the means of destroying the dreaded bacteria.
Allopathy offers us the means of overpowering something that would otherwise
paralyze us with fear (although without diminishing our fear or
our feeling of vulnerability in the least). All of a sudden, and thanks to
Allopathy, Nature becomes our slave, there for us to do with it whatever we
wish, and our body ceases to be a time bomb ready to explode at any moment.
All one has to do is to go to the Doctor, take some magic pill and bingo!
from quivering creatures at the mercy of circumstances patients are
magically metamorphosed into omnipotent masters of the Universe. Herein is
where I believe lies the hidden irresistible fascination of Allopathy.
And Homeopathy will exist as long as there are people who aim at balance,
harmony and love, plus health as an added bonus.
Both yearnings are extremely strong. Homeopathy and Allopathy are like twins
that are unable to see eye to eye. One of them driven by fear, the other by the
quest of plenitude. The irony here is that both are served by dedicated people
intent in assisting those who suffer. How much nicer would it be if this
nonsensical conflict could be brought to a prompt end!
So when Homeopathy is up Allopathy is down, and vice versa.
These shifts happen according to demand, and demand here is determined by
zeitgeist, that is, the collective mood or trend at any given moment in time. I
consider zeitgeist to be a much more powerful shaper of events than the people
in the news. If Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance, had been born in, say, Costa
Rica toward the end of the 20th Century, instead of in 1769 Corsica, he would
have likely ended his life in obscurity, as a patient in some mental
institution or as an inmate in some prison.
Zeitgeist, then, creates the stage that is then occupied by the movers and
shakers. If there is no stage, therefore, there are no movers and shakers. And
if the stage is constructed to fulfill certain hopes and aspirations, as it is,
then woe to the performer who goes there with a different agenda, or who fails
to fulfill those hopes and aspirations.
It is interesting to ponder on how our remote forefathers reacted to the whims
of Nature.Some thrived to accept and identify with its hidden forces, and
harmonize with them. Others reacted with abject fear, while nursing the hope of
eventually controlling those forces.
Those attempting to identify and harmonize with Nature eventually evolved into
the peoples who populate Asia, Africa and Native America. Those who favored
control and annihilation became inhabitants of Europe and its area of
influence.
As far as I know, there were only two cultures that became civilized enough to
design forms of assistance according with their philosophy of integration and
harmony, China and India. Here is where Wholistic Medicine was born, as
Acupuncture in China and as Ayurveda in India. Both forms, which tend toward
balance and harmony as their ultimate goal, were extremely useful and rapidly
became very popular.
Meantime, in Europe, the Medicine of control and enslavement of Nature
eventually became Allopathy. Fast forward now to the 18th Century.
By the 18th Century, Allopathy reigned unchallenged in Europe and was
continuing growing along its principles. What it had to offer was a mixed lot.
It had some very remarkable drugs, like opium and its derivates, china,
digitalis and ipecacuanha.
Surgery was quite advanced, although it was severely restrained by the
staggering incidence of infections and deaths that it brought about in its
wake. In those days, it was strenuously recommended to make one's last will and
testament before entering a Hospital for Surgery.
As for the rest, Allopathy was a collection of atrocities and absurdities
designed with the purpose to purify the patient by means of eliminating noxious
humors. Atrocities such as overly enthusiastic bloodletting, setons, mummy
powder, vesicants like the Spanish fly, cupping, so called "heroic" laxatives,
poisons such as antimony, mercury, arsenic, cyanide, strychnine, jalap and
croton, and many other similar niceties that perhaps helped to eliminate
noxious humors, but with them would also frequently eliminate the bearers of
those humors. Our first President, General George Washington, was one of its
illustrious victims. He was bled white by his Doctor, a man by the name of
James Craik.
It was a nice and idyllic situation for Allopaths. Patients had nowhere to go
but to them, with the exception perhaps of crackpots like Paracelsus, that
anyway were very few and far between.
And then in 1755 this idyllic monopoly was shattered.
A baby was born in Meissen, Saxony. His name was Samuel Hahnemann. Dr.
Hahnemann was going to create, in a life of intensive study and work, the first
form of Wholistic Medicine in Europe.
He called it Homeopathy. It was a completely novel approach to diagnosis and
treatment. He discovered and worked it out all by himself. What remained for us
followers to do was only to develop it further here and there-and to rejoice
with the results. Not an iota has needed to be changed.
Homeopathy was born fully developed from the head of this remarkable man, like
Pallas Athena was born fully armed from the head of her father Zeus.
As expected, both Dr. Hahnemann and his brainchild were as welcome by the
Allopathic monopoly as a skunk would be in a garden party.
Nothing succeeds like success, however. Homeopathy was so effective and so
gentle, while Allopathy was so brutal and so limited that soon patients-some
very powerful and influential-were leaving Allopathy and adopting Homeopathy in
droves.
This demand brought to the fore some extraordinary Homeopaths, like
Bninghausen, Hering, Farrington, Kent, Nash, Allen, Knerr and many others
This new state of affairs hurt Allopaths a lot where it hurts the most, that
is, in their practice, in their purses and in the source of their power and
influence. Here is where I consider their hatred and resentment began, a rancor
that they were going to lovingly care for and nurture for centuries to come.
And so Homeopathy grew while Allopaths impotently watched and despaired.
Little did they know that something of momentous importance was brewing under
their noses. Slowly Scientific Medicine was taking shape and coalescing into
its two arms, Bacteriology and Biochemistry.
Fear and vulnerability, of which there was still plenty of out there shaping
the collective mood, provided quality fodder to nourish the newborn Scientific
Medicine into full maturity. Despite of its novel approach and its many
successes bringing so many patients into health and harmony, Homeopathy had
hardly dented this collective need to control and destroy.
We are now somewhere in mid 19th Century. Homeopathy is starting to decline
towards its perigee as Allopathy begins its ascent towards apogee on the wings
of Scientific Medicine. The prevalence of the latter was to last some 150
years.
Much has been said and written about the influence that things like the Flexner
report, the row between high and low potency Homeopaths, the rancor of
Allopaths, the creation of the American Medical Association and the like had in
regards to the decline of Homeopathy.
I believe that the influence of these facts and events has been insignificant.
What really mattered here was the collective mood of fear and vulnerability.
Had the collective mood been one of balance and search for harmony, all of the
above would have weighed as much as a flea on an elephant's hide.
The stage, then, built by collective fear and vulnerability and the hopes of
control and destruction aroused by Scientific Medicine, was set and awaiting to
be occupied in mid-19th Century.
Its performers were a crop of the most brilliant Allopathic Researchers the
world has ever seen. People like Pasteur, Metchnikoff, Koch, Yersin, Roux,
Almroth Wright, Löeffler, and others equally revered scientists. Trendsetters
that catapulted Allopathy beyond the wildest hopes and dreams of its
supporters.
From that stage streamed wave after wave of antibiotics, vaccines and chemical
compounds capable of interfering with body molecules and thus of altering
metabolic processes.
Many of those magnificent discoveries could have been vastly bettered by
Homeopathy but who cared? Fearful and vulnerable people only looked at
Homeopathy askance anyway, and they were all fired up and exhilarated. This was
their heyday, they were like kids in a candy shop.
It took more than 100 years for the fearful and vulnerable to start sobering
up.
Adverse effects, many serious and even catastrophic, started to emerge, as did
accidents brought about by the administration of vaccines. Strain after strain
of bacteria resistant to most antibiotics started to appear, making Surgery
almost as dangerous as it was in the 19th Century, when people were advised to
make their last will and testament before being admitted to a Hospital.
Therapeutic results of many "miracle drugs" started to fall short of
expectations. Viruses, virtually untouched by Allopathic treatments, continued
to play their habitual havoc.
The fearful and the vulnerable again started to become as confused as they were
in the early days of Homeopathy, before the advent of Scientific Medicine.
In due time, communication and information started to be virtually
instantaneous and at the reach of everybody thanks to the Internet, so
knowledge about the possibilities and limitations-and the very real dangers-of
Allopathic treatments rapidly became public domain.
Not only that. A new awareness began to dawn. People started to become
conscious of the fact that we are the stewards of the environment and not its
masters, that we are part of Nature and that consequently we must integrate
with it and care for it, not to exploit it irresponsibly.
As a result, people are beginning to take seriously problems such as global
warming, and are starting to take steps to bring it to a halt.
What's more, things that hitherto didn't concern us much now resonate in a
totally different manner.
Most of us are starting to experience disgust when seeing photos of white
hunters in Africa with a broad grin in their faces after having wantonly shot
an elephant. We are also beginning to feel horror at acts of genocide that
didn't bother us much before. We are also beginning to feel hurt at the
meaningless killing of thousands upon thousands of buffalo just for the
enjoyment of some cruel hunters, and to feel genuine heartache at seeing so
many of our fellow Humans staring at us from photos or movies, starving and
suffering. We have even started to fill petitions to the Navy asking to please
shut off their sonars when in whale territory, in order to protect the hearing
of those cetaceans!
Our collective mood, from one of fear and vulnerability is slowly becoming one
of balance and harmony through love, compassion and solidarity. A new
awareness, a new responsibility are starting to take shape.
And it is this change in zeitgeist what is bringing Homeopathy out of the
shadows of its perigee as Allopathy is inevitably starting to decline.
Let us hope, though, that we have learnt out lesson.
Let us end this puerile squabble between Allopathy and Homeopathy.
Let us realize, once and for all, that we are not fervid sectarians here, but
professionals engaged in the business of assisting those who suffer and that,
as such, we must pick, either from Homeopathy or from Allopathy or from both,
the form of treatment most capable of proffering each of our patients the
maximum benefit and the minimum risk.
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THE LAW OF SIMILARS |
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Allopathy aims at destroying the disease a patient may be bearing. For that
purpose, it uses treatments that follow the principle of "contrary cures
contrary". Unfortunately, the Allopathic contrary-cures-contrary "cure" is
totally unable to control the overall and progressive imbalance from which all
disease arise. Being imbalance progressive, like everything else in nature, it
is only a matter of time before another imbalance-induced disease will strike
the Allopathically "cured" patient. Such an increase in imbalance is often
enhanced by the side effects and toxicity of the treatment/s used to treat the
patient's original disease.
Homeopathy, on the other hand, aims at bringing the Whole patient into balance.
Such an approach eliminates the patient's imbalance. Let me recall here again
that imbalance is the source of every disease any patient may be suffering.
With imbalance out of the picture, then, there is nothing to maintain any
current disease or to trigger the appearance of other diseases in the future.
Homeopathy achieves its aim through using the patient's Vital Force, by
applying the principle of action and reaction and by following the Law of
Similars.
In some of his writings, including his monumental Organon, Dr. Hahnemann
describes, and extensively illustrates with many examples, the puzzling effect
of new diseases in patients already ill from another sickness. In all
instances, the new disease makes the first one disappear, at least for the
duration of the new disease, but only if and when the new disease is stronger
than the original one. Only when the new stronger disease ends will the
original one re-appear, and not always at that.
From here on, what I am going to write about is the stuff of geniality but
then, Dr. Hahnemann was a revolutionary researcher, far ahead of his times-and
also of our times too in many respects, alas!
First, and on the basis of his many observations of new and stronger diseases
interfering with current ones, Dr. Hahnemann wondered what would it happen if
he could replace at will a patient's disease by a new and stronger one.
A new disease that should be strong enough as to displace the one currently
ailing the patient and yet mild enough as to not disturbing the patient. A
disease manageable enough as to be easy to eliminate. All very nice, neat,
interesting and clear-cut.
But where was Dr. Hahnemann to find diseases following all these
specifications? Nowhere in Nature, of course. All the new stronger new diseases
he had studied were wild and unpredictable, and often very serious. Which meant
that he had to create them.
He had to produce artificial diseases strong enough as to displace the diseases
currently afflicting his patients, mild enough as to not to upset those
patients and manageable enough to be easily made to disappear.
A heck of a tall order, all the more with the precarious means he had at hand
at the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th. A time when all
forms of known and accepted Medicine were mostly but a cluster of atrocities. A
time when, furthermore, he had nowhere to turn for a precedent, for there was
no one who had done work along these lines before.
But the idea was so very seductive and the word "impossible" was never present
in Dr. Hahnemann's dictionary. The problem now was how to bell the cat.
He had to start from scratch.
So Dr. Hahnemann's turned on his immense intelligence, his prodigious
creativity, his enormous capacity for work and his titanic willpower. It is
said that he had enough sleep with one night out of every two. The rest of the
time he would spend in observation, as well as in work and more work-the
proverbial 95 % of perspiration.
So he started to figure out how to create his artificial diseases. A quest of
this kind looks totally daft even today, used as we are to the splendid results
we consistently obtain when applying the results of his research.
Eventually, and after an immense amount of work, he found that his Homeopathic
remedies could create the kind of artificial diseases he was looking for. His
research work showed that Homeopathic remedies could produce mild artificial
diseases, but only if remedies are administered to patients suffering
diseases/imbalances similar to those produced by Homeopathic remedies. And that
Homeopathic remedies could be manufactured starting from substances one can
find anywhere, minerals, plants, animal extracts, manufactures and what not.
So now he had to produce Homeopathic remedies out of all that raw stuff, so he
invented succussion, that is, diluting or triturating and then shaking those
substances.
Then came the necessity to test the new remedies he was producing, so he
invented the Provings, that is, the administration of each new Homeopathic
remedy daily to healthy male and female Human volunteers until they would
experience changes.
The changes elicited in volunteers by the administration of each new remedy
became the symptoms of the artificial imbalances/diseases he was looking for.
So he carefully compiled those changes and called them the profile of each
remedy.
Afterwards he invented a new way of obtaining patients' Histories and Physical
Examinations, so that the Profile of each patient could be made evident.
Finally came the supreme test. The matching between the profile of each patient
and the profile of a remedy/artificial disease.
And here he found, after considerable work and much trial and error, that the
closer the profile of the patient is to the profile of the Homeopathic
remedy/artificial disease, the more successful becomes the therapeutic results.
I suppose this sequence of events is what gave rise to the axiom "Like cures
like", that happens to be a bit confusing, at least for me.
Because what I reckon happens here is that Like (that is, the remedy that
becomes the stronger and similar artificial disease once inside the patient)
does indeed cure Like (that is, the natural disease-or imbalance-ailing the
patient). Although it doesn't cure the patient!
What happens here is that the stronger and similar artificial
disease/homeopathic remedy pushes aside the natural disease and takes its
place. Meaning that essentially the Homeopathically treated patient has traded
one (natural) disease for another (artificial) one.
An artificial disease that is mild, controllable and amenable to be pulverized
by the Vital Force, granted, but that it is still a disease, nevertheless.
When the patient's original natural disease is so displaced, and is thus
deprived of the Vital Force necessary for its everyday sustenance and
maintenance, it simply withers or vanishes away. All this as the patient
scarcely becomes aware that he or she has now become the host of a new and
essentially harmless artificial disease.
What takes place next is the final chapter of this marvelous saga, so well
known and invariably so hugely gratifying to all of us Homeopathic
Practitioners.
The Vital Force-that was so impotent when dealing with the patient's original
natural disease-rapidly eliminates the artificial disease because of the Law of
Action and Reaction, and invades and vitalizes the Whole patient. When this
happens, the patient becomes Homeopathically cured, that is, fully soaked or
saturated or imbedded with his or her Vital Force and thus hale, and balanced,
and harmonized, and one with Nature and with the Whole Universe.
Consistently.
Predictably.
Neatly.
And with no residual side effects, toxicity, allergy-inducing reactions, and
with no damaging effects in embryos or fetuses, to boot.
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The remedies for indignation
STAPHYSAGRIA
(Stavesacre)
Staph |
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There are two remedies I would like to discuss in regards to indignation,
Staphysagria and Colocynthis.
Today I shall briefly describe Staphysagria.
Staph has been defined as the perfect gentleman. I would like to add the word
Victorian to that definition. Staph, then, would be the perfect Victorian
gentleman-and lady too, for that matter.
Victorian gentlemen and ladies were known for avoiding getting hot under the
collar when drawn into a discussion, no matter how acrimonious the discussion
could happen to be. Under these circumstances, Staph may continue arguing up to
a point and then red flags start to appear. This is when Staph begins to
stutter and to mumble and to become red or pale in the face and totally unable
to continue talking. Which makes Staph the looser.
And then, Staph's pride is such that the loss of face associated with the
defeat triggers a very nasty revolution that, like everything else, Staph will
swallow.
You see, Staph is very proud and also extremely conscious about what others may
think of him or her. Such a mix is not a problem in everyday life or in a
winner situation, but it can be devastating when loosing, all the more if the
defeat happens in public.
It is here that Staph becomes utterly upset.
Not upset in the same sense than Natrum muriaticum may become under similar
circumstances. Natrum muriaticum, when in a loosing situation, also swallows
his or her feelings, but develops sadness, resentment and an everlasting hatred
towards its victor. Staph mainly develops anger and an overwhelming sense of
indignation instead. This is because Natrum muriaticum feels the defeat in his
or her heart, while Staph feels it in his or her hypertrophied pride and sense
of honor.
Being Staph an introvert, and thus incapable of letting out his or her
feelings, he or she will project this ugly medley of negative emotions toward
him or herself with the devastating force of a tsunami. And this tends to
happen again and again, after every discussion.
In turn, loosing so frequently, and having to undergo and digest the unbearable
consequences of successive defeats, Staph ends up secluding him or herself into
a corner and stop interacting with others for fear of starting yet another
dispute that he or she will again loose.
All of Staph's pathology surges from repressed and self-directed anger and
indignation, and from the subsequent mortification, humiliation, shame and
chagrin.
Pathology can also emerge as the consequence of disappointed love, which may
help explain Staph's secret sexual obsession-also quite Victorian. This
obsession, together with his or her inability to reach out, ask for help and
express his or her feelings, makes Staph an inveterate self abuser.
Typical pathologies of this remedy are manifested in many areas.
Let's start with the headaches, one of the main symptoms of this remedy. The
most characteristic headaches happen above the root of the nose, and feel like
a round lead ball that presses, is very heavy and doesn't move, no matter how
hard the patient may shake his or her head; although patients may also suffer
from any other kind of headaches. Some may be stupefying and improve
considerably or go away when yawning.
The mind can become quite dull after an episode of suppressed indignation
Teeth tend to be very weak, and prone to early decay and severe pain. Temporary
teeth in children may blacken and crumble.
When there is ocular pathology, pains radiate from the eye to the teeth.
There is a very characteristic stitching pain in the throat that radiates to
the ear when swallowing.
There can be pain in the urethra when not urinating. Pain disappears when the
patient voids. Suppressed indignation may produce irritation of the bladder
with frequent urge to urinate for several days after the incident that
triggered the indignation.
Males may suffer from spermatorrhea, prostatic pollutions, impotence and sexual
neurasthenia. Women have very sensitive genitalia.
There are all kinds of eruptions in the skin, which may be extremely sensitive
to the touch. When scratching alleviates itching in one point, itching may
appears somewhere else.
Staph can also be useful in many other manifestations of pathology, provided
that the patient's profile correspond to that of the remedy as described above.
Staph children tend to be very angry, capricious and impatient, as Chamomilla
children are, but Chamomilla children love to be rocked and their perspiration
is characteristically hot, rubrics that Staph children do not share.
Staph also has some very interesting collateral uses.
This remedy is very useful in the treatment of chronic sties, and of cutting
wounds and after abdominal surgery. It is also excellent for the treatment of
cystitis of newly married women.
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HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT OF HERPES ZOSTER OR SHINGLES |
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Our spines are composed by several bones called the vertebrę.
Vertebrę are piled one on top of the other in our backs, all the way from our
heads to our tailbones. Vertebrę have a hole in the center. The aligned holes
of all vertebrę make a duct that is occupied by the spinal cord.
In between vertebrę, the spinal cord sends out nerves right and left through ad
hoc openings located in between the sides of adjacent vertebrę. These nerves
take commands to the muscles and bring back sensations from every part of our
bodies.
After a child becomes cured of chicken fox or varicella, same thing-or
vaccinated against it-there is a general agreement that the varicella viruses
find a niche where the nerves leave the cord and remain dormant there until a
fall in defenses or something similar activates them.
It is then that the viruses invade the totality of the nerve. The subsequent
disease is called herpes zoster or shingles.
Herpes zoster is far from being a pleasant disease. The patient's overall
malaise is severe, and is aggravated by the sensation of unbearable itching or
burning in the trajectory of the affected nerve. Extremely sensitive little
blisters appear in the skin overlying the affected nerve, adding to the
patient's misery. The crusts that appear after the blisters go away often get
infected. If the afflicted nerve is the one that goes to the eye, the pain is
so horrible that it has driven many a patient to suicide. And after the patient
recovers, something that happens very often because herpes zoster is very
seldom deadly, a terrible pain may remain in the nerve for weeks and sometimes
months.
Allopathy has precious little to offer to these patients.
Homeopathy has several remedies, which I shall briefly describe below, that can
be very useful.
Being herpes zoster an acute disease, remedies must be administered often.
Pellets should be dissolved in water and the patient should take a sip and
gently swish it for some minutes before swallowing several times a day, up to
five days in a row. If the treatment needs to be repeated, then at least one
day must be left without treatment before re-starting the administration of the
Homeopathic remedy.
There are two remedies, Calendula officinalis and Hypericum perfoliatum that
have to be used in a different manner. Here the mother tincture of both
remedies has to be mixed with equal amounts of tepid water. A clean piece of
cloth has to be soaked with the solution and gently placed over the affected
area. It should be left there for several minutes and then removed with equal
gentleness.
Here, as everywhere else in Homeopathy, it is advisable to administer the
patient's constitutional remedy, that is, the remedy for the whole patient,
together with or before the remedy for the herpes zoster. The administration of
remedies in this fashion may greatly increase de efficacy of the treatment.
Aconitum napellus (200 CK to 10 M) in the earliest stages.
Arsenicum album 200 CK The patient is chilly. There is burning pain improved by
heat. The patient is extremely anxious and restless.
Cantharis 30 CH has rash that burns, migraine, burning in stomach and vomiting.
The patient feels better walking in open air
Carboneum oxygenatum 30 CH the patient is abnormally sleepy and his or her
hands are icy.
Clematis erecta 200 CH the patient is worse at night, can't be alone but is
worse in company, there are enlarged lymph nodes in inguinal areas and the
patient is worse when washing with cold water.
Iris versicolor 200 CK herpes zoster on right side, more useful if with burning
and irritating secretion
Mezereum 200 CK the patient is very sensitive to cold air, there is burning
pain, herpes zoster ulcerates and forms thick brown scabs underneath which much
purulent matter exudes. Ulcers have an areola, bleed easily and are painful at
night. Useful in post-herpes neuralgias that are painful and very itchy,
especially in scalp, and in old neuralgia post-herpes.
Natrum carbonicum 30 CH if the patient is hypersensitive to noise and music. Patients
are prone to melancholy and contemplate suicide. Patients are worse by heat and
sunlight and better by eating. Patients have aversion to milk. Patients recycle
fears
Ranunculus bulbosus 200 CK the patient is sensitive to cold air and touch.
Severe nerve pains worse by the slightest touch or movement. Bluish rash and
post-herpes neuralgia in left chest. Very useful in supraorbital herpes zoster
with bluish-dark blisters and intolerable burning. There is unbearable burning
and itching in intercostal neuralgia. Patients are worse by changes in the
weather.
Rhus toxicodendrum 12 CH may cure tendency to herpes zoster. Main remedy for
herpes zoster that comes as the consequence of being exposed to cold.
Variolinum 200 CK tongue with dirty, intense yellow coating and intolerable
lumbo-sacral and paravertebral muscles pain. Post-herpes neuralgias (30 CH- 200
CK)
Hypericum perfoliatum/Calendula officinalis mother tincture of both, mixed with
equal volumes of tepid water. LOCAL applications in painful areas. Soak a clean
piece of cloth and gently apply, remove after several minutes equally gently
(Information obtained from the writings of Drs. Vijnovsky,
Candegabe, Farrington, Nash, Allen, Hahnemann and Patak, and from the
Repertories of Kent, Murata, Knerr and Complete 4.5. Also from Harris L.
Coulter's "Divided Legacy", from Will and Ariel Durant's "A story of
civilization", from Arnold Toynbee's A study of History, from my book
"Understanding Homeopathy and Integrative Medicine" and from my own
experience).
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© 2008
Edited by Jose Miguel Mullen, MD, MD (H), MFHom.,
Homeopathic Physician.
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