Homeopathy: Treating Cause, Not Symptoms

Research Grounds Hypotheses

The word "homeopathy" comes from the Greek words homeo and pathos, meaning "similar" and "suffering", respectively. From the time that Dr. Hahnemann coined the word 200 years ago, homeopathy has been maligned and vilified, and homeopaths have been charged as liars and frauds. All this occurred in spite of 200 years of therapeutic successes. What is it about homeopathy that arouses these passions? What are the doctrines and therapies that, even today, defy comprehension? What secrets of nature did Dr. Hahnemann tamper with?

Dr. Hahnemann was a careful investigator. His years of study of the ancient texts reaped a generous reward. He found his answer in the writings of Hippocrates: Through the like, disease is produced, and through the application of the like, it is cured.

Over the next 5 years, with the help of medical students and friends, Dr. Hahnemann tested his remedies and developed the principles that remain intact today. In 1810, when he published his Organon of Medicine he presented to the world a new and audacious notion of healing called homeopathy.

Homeopathy is based on the existence of an innate healing energy that promotes and protects our health. This energy initiates our defense mechanisms in response to adverse conditions and then controls and guides the natural healing process. Because of this energy, the body has the ability to heal itself. Dr. Hahnemann called this energy the "vital force". This vital force is the agent of cure.

What homeopathy does is to treat the individual according to his or her own discomforts by pushing the organism in the same direction the vital force is trying to go. Conventional medicines tend not to be healing, curative agents. In fact, many modern medicines can actually retard healing and alter the nature of the disease to make it more difficult to treat. What the body needs are the favorable conditions to affirm its restorative powers that through negligence or indifference created an environment for disease to flourish. Homeopathic remedies assist the attenuated vital force to promote any self-healing.

Modern Medicines Do Fail

Three to five percent (depending on what study one reads) of all hospital admissions are the result of some adverse drug reaction (ADR) or an iatrogenic (physician-induced) disease. From more than 30 million annual admissions, more than 1 million are caused by some physician-prescribed medication.

Treating Cause -- Not Symptom

No person, ever, has died from a homeopathic remedy, but many have been cured. Where the weakened organ needs assistance, it is the homeopathic remedy that initiates recovery. Paracelsus said: "The remedy restores the health, thus the illness departs."

Homeopathy does not actually concern itself with a germ or a bacterium or the names of diseases because homeopathy does not treat a disease. Disease is, after all, a combination of disordered functions that overcome an individual when the internal energy is disturbed and the vital force is compromised. What homeopathy does is to treat the individual according to his or her discomfort. For example, homeopaths treated cholera successfully, long before it was known that the actual cause was a bacterium. During the 19th century, there were seven severe epidemics in America, the most serious in 1832. The death rates in the regular hospitals were five times those of the homeopathic hospitals. The same results were found overseas. In London, in 1854, following an outbreak of cholera, Parliament authorized a commission to see which treatments were more effective. What they found was that whereas the regular hospitals had a death rate of 59 percent, the homeopathic hospitals had a rate of only 16 percent.

What homeopathy treated was not cholera but headache, malaise, diarrhea, anorexia, icy coldness of the body, convulsions, staring eyes, sunken face, and so on. These symptoms pointed to a homeopathic remedy, which was most often camphora or Veratrum album. These are remedies that often give healthy people headaches, diarrhea, and other symptoms typical of cholera when ingested during homeopathic "provings", the so-called Hahnemann clinical trials. These provings were designed to ascertain the symptoms caused by the remedies so those symptoms could be sought in the patient's history and assure that the correct remedy was chosen.

Even earlier, in 1812, while in Paris, Dr. Hahnemann treated scarlet fever using only belladonna. With no knowledge of streptococci, he treated only the red hot skin and the feverish, yet thirstless, state. Realizing that belladonna caused the same symptoms, it was, following his theory, the obvious remedy.

To Dr. Hahnemann, it was quite clear that to find the appropriate remedy, one must get the total picture of the patient. To find the cure, find the remedy; to find the remedy, find the symptoms. All symptoms, even the most trivial, are important, and sometimes it is the most trivial that become the most important. This is because the body can exhibit disease and sickness in an infinite number of ways, each representing an effort to heal. These symptoms are a direct effect of the cause, sometimes appearing as a non-beneficial side effect and sometimes beneficial, as in fever. For example, Hippocrates wrote: "Fever is a beneficial phenomenon and it is not to be suppressed; instead, it is intensified by the application of hot water and hot baths."

In today's health arena, it is the symptoms that are treated as the disease, but in homeopathy, they only accompany the disease. The dermatologist will treat skin eruptions and dermatitis with steroids without pausing to consider that such eruptions are, in fact, guideposts to treating and curing a condition that is still submerged. Our skin cannot speak, but it tells us, nonetheless, that there is an internal problem waiting to be solved.

No matter what part of the body is affected, it is ultimately the patient who must provide the critical clues. The homeopath might ask the most arcane questions to get a picture that the ordinary physician would ignore. He might ask, are you thirsty or not? Do you prefer cold or hot drinks? Do you desire company, or would you rather be left alone? Does noise or music bother you? Depending on the answers, different remedies are required.

For generalized muscular pain, the frequent choice of physicians is either Tylenol 3 (McNeil, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania) (with 30 mg of codeine) or Darvocet-N 100 (Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, Indiana). In homeopathy, before any remedy is suggested, one must first ask, "Are you better still or moving about," for if the pain is less when still, the remedy might be bryonia, and if the pain is less on motion, the remedy might be Rhus toxicodendron.

Treatment cannot be a one-size-fits-all rationale because different things are going on in the body. Because our eyes cannot penetrate the skin, we cannot know why people respond differently, but it is the difference in response that leads to the remedy.

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Homeopathy recognizes several categories of symptoms. The common symptom gives the patient the most discomfort at the moment. It is whatever distress brought that person to see a physician, whether it be actual physical pain or emotional stress. The general symptom relates to the general sense of well-being. Does the patient feel weak, exhausted, sleepless, emotionally drained? The homeopath asks, "how do you feel?" and then listens closely to the response. It is here that the mental symptoms are the most important.

There are particular symptoms that reveal what happens to the patient that is different at a given place or time. "Does the condition exist only at a particular time of day? Is it only when you sleep on the right side? How do you react to thunderstorms?"

Finally, there are modalities. Here the questions are: "What makes your condition better or worse? Are you better with cold drinks or hot drinks? Are you better with the windows open or closed? Are you better or worse eating, drinking, walking, standing, sitting?"

Dr. Hahnemann believed that of all symptoms, the mental symptoms were the most critical. He looked for the hatreds, the fantasies, the fears, the dreams, the patterns of sociability or withdrawal, of domination or timidity, of irritability or patience, of arrogance or compassion, of serenity or internal anguish. The homeopath looks for the ability to concentrate, for signs of forgetfulness, delusions, dissatisfaction, sadness, apathy, depression, and suicide. He or she must then find a remedy that parallels the physical and mental signs.

Homeopathy does not label individuals by a disease. Because each individual patient is matched by a set of physical and emotional patterns to a remedy, the patients are termed "pulsatilla" or "chamomilla" patients after the remedies they seem to need.

Homeopathy: Answers to Some Basic Questions

Homeopathy is system of therapy which gently stimulates healing. In homeopathy, everyone is seen as a complete and whole person. Symptoms are recognized as that person 's best effort at healing. The pattern of these symptoms is what determines the homeopathic remedy needed to stimulate healing.

Homeopathic treatment reaches all spheres of the person, including the mental, emotional, and physical levels of being. We define health and "dis-ease" as any limitation of freedom in a person's life. Any symptom, whether mental, emotional, or physical, which limits a person from being freely creative in his or her life, is viewed as significant in homeopathy.

What is a Homeopathic Remedy and How Does It Work?
About 200 years ago, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, was working to discover how medicines work. At that time, Chinchona bark was used to treat malaria. Although he did not have malaria, Hahnemann decided to take some Chinchona bark himself. H e found that while he was taking it he got malaria-like symptoms. When he stopped taking it, the symptoms went away. He then found that if he diluted the bark to remove any toxic effects and "energized" of "potentized" it by shaking, it would still caus e temporary symptoms if he took it for awhile.
Further testing showed that these very dilute doses would stimulate healing in a person with the same pattern of symptoms. This principle held true for every remedy Hahnemann tested. After testing the remedy in healthy people to discover its symptom pat tern, he was able to stimulate healing in an ill person with these same symptoms. He called this discovery the "Law of Similars." There now are nearly 2,000 remedies derived from mineral, plant, and animal sources.
The remedies act to stimulate the natural healing processes within the person. They do not merely suppress or control symptoms. There is no "drug" effect: therefore, there are no real side effects. The remedies are powerful but nontoxic and cannot caus e any actual damage. No one knows exactly how a homeopathic remedy works, only that it does work. Of course, no one knows exactly how an aspirin works, either.

How is a Remedy Selected?
Each person is carefully assessed according to his/her unique pattern of symptoms at the mental, emotional, and physical levels. This totality of symptoms gives an overall "picture" of the "disease" in the person. A remedy is selected which best matches the overall pattern or totality of the symptoms. For a chronic illness, the initial evaluation may take 1 1/2 hours. If the remedy "picture" is not clear, the homeopath may need further study or even another visit to find the best remedy.

What Can be Expected to Happen After the Remedy is Given?
The remedy is usually given as a single dose dissolved under the tongue. Because it stimulates the "vital force" of the body towards healing, the changes are usually gentle and subtle. When the healing forces are stimulated, about 40% of people will not ice a temporary increase in some symptoms. This is a sign of strong healing action. Another good sign of the healing process is a temporary return of some old symptoms.

How Long Does Treatment Take?
The length and speed of the healing process depends on many factors, including heredity, severity and length of illness, current and previous medications, level of ongoing life stresses, etc. In general, the treatment is usually at least a few months and can last up to a few years.
Follow-up is critical. For chronic illnesses, follow-up intervals vary from four to six weeks early on to several months later on. Acute illnesses may require follow-up even every few hours until healing is well established.

What is the Patient's Role in Homeopathy?
Homeopathy demands a great deal from the patient. Each illness is unique to the individual. Diagnostic labels (such as diabetes, colitis, etc.) have little use in recommending a remedy. The patient must be aware of and relate to the homeopath all sens actions and feelings, even those which may seem peculiar or unimportant, at all three levels (mental, emotional, and physical) in order to help arrive at the one best remedy for that particular time.
Homeopathy demands patience, perseverance, and commitment. It is not a quick-fix therapy, although it may result in dramatic improvements. The progress of healing in chronic illness can be slow with ups and downs. The long-term results are usually very gratifying, with an elevation in a person's over-all level of health and well-being.

What Are the Chances of Being Helped and What Are the Risks?
As in any therapy, there can be no guarantees. Homeopathy can potentially help any problem at any level (mental, emotional, or physical) except for physical mechanical obstructions and irreversibly damaged tissues. Experience has shown that more than 80 % of people can be helped by homeopathy.
Because healing can be slow and gentle, another "risk" is giving up too soon. A small percentage of people must wait up to six months to see positive results. There are also people whose vitality is so low that the remedy may not be able to stimulat e complete healing. However, even these people can usually benefit from treatment.

What Can Interfere With Treatment?
Treatment may be interfered with or be unsuccessful if a person stays in an environment which is very stressful or "toxic". This may include certain substances known to cause severe reactions to the system, such as chemicals or even certain foods. Ongoi ng emotionally stressful situations may also interfere. Many homeopathic remedies are available in health food stores. These are intended for use in acute illnesses and will work very well if given correctly. Some words of caution: Because these remedies powerfully affect the "defense mechanism" of the body , they should be used only sparingly and after considerable study as to their proper use. Overuse can make it almost impossible to stimulate healing in a chronic disorder. "Acute" remedies shouldn't be taken when a person is under homeopathic care for a chronic disorder unless recommended by the homeopath since some remedies complement each other and some don't work well together.