Homoeopathy is a system of medicine introduced by a german physician Dr Samuel Hahnemann. He was an allopathic doctor who has left the practice because of side effects and temporary relief of symptoms of allopathy. For his bread and butter, he started translating the medical books to different languages. While he was translating Cullen's materia medica he came across a herbal medicine called cinchona. It was written that cinchona can cure malaria and it can also produce symptoms similar to malaria on healthy individuals. This point clicked Hahnemann's brain and he prepared an extract of cinchona bark and taken himself. To his surprise, he developed some symptoms of malaria like chills and achings. He started doing the same experiment on different individuals and the result was the same.Introduction
By this experiment, Hahnemann
came to know that any drug which can produce a set of symptoms on a healthy
human being can be used to cure similar symptoms in a diseased person. He gave
cinchona to various malaria patients and the result was wonderful and a system
called homoeopathy originated. The word home means similar, pathy means
suffering. The basic principle of homoeopathy is 'similia similibus curantur'
means like cures cure. Hahnemann prepared some other drugs using alcohol as a
vehicle and started experimenting on different age groups and noted down the
symptoms produced in them. He proved nearly 30 drugs and the symptoms produced
were noted down systematically. The symptoms collected by drug proving were
categorised in the order in a book form named materia medica pura.
Hahnemann noticed that
by diluting the crude drug substances in spirit a dynamic power is developed
and is responsible for producing the symptoms on healthy people. Hahnemann
started giving treatment to so many diseased persons with the medicines
prepared by him on applying the principle similia similibus curantur and got
wonderful cures and homoeopathy started spreading all over the world.
He gave medicines to
some patients and noticed that symptoms are coming back again. So he understood
that the cause for the disease should be treated. After doing experiments and
observations he came to know that diseases are caused by some dynamic forces
and he named them as miasms.[psora , syphilis, sycosis] He noticed that to cure
a person completely these miasms should be eradicated using a similar dynamic
force. This idea lead to anti miasmatic drugs which are drugs having disease
producing power similar to miasms. He developed anti miasmatic drugs and
experimented on diseased persons and got wonderful cures.
Development of
homoeopathy
The principles of
homoeopathy was written in book form and he named it organon of medicine. Lateron
he started publishing these works and six editions of organon were published. Right
from the beginning of homoeopathy, so many doctors of other system started
working against homoeopathy. But those who were against homoeopathy later came
to know the truth behind homoeopathy and started practising the same. Physicians
like Dr J T Kent, Dr Hering, Dr Boenonghausen etc followed Dr Hahnemann's
mission and developed the system. They all started preparing many other drugs based
on guidelines given by Hahnemann. Physicians came to know that by diluting the
drug substance in the spirit in a systematic way the medicinal power is
increasing even though the quantity of drug decreases. Since diseases are due
to dynamic causes the medicine also should be dynamic. By a process called
potentisation, the same drug in different levels of potencies were made. They
found that by increasing the potency the penetrating power of medicine is
increased so that it acts on a higher level than the usual material form of
drugs used in other systems. This unique nature of homoeopathic medicine is the
reason for the wonderful cures of even the mental diseases.
General principles
Homoeopathy treats the
diseased individual as a whole rather than treating diseased parts or organs. The
physical, mental, emotional, social spheres of a person is considered for a
permanent cure. This system believes that the diseases are caused due to the
derangement of vital force which is an invisible power in every individual. In
a healthy state, the vital force maintains the equilibrium of mind body and
soul. During this man will have normal sensations and functions.When the vital
force gets affected there will be external manifestations in the form of signs
and symptoms. The imbalance in the body functions makes a shelter for foreign
organisms(bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa etc..) and allow them to
proliferate and produce so-called diseases. Homoeopathy believes that the real
disease comes before the bacteria & viruses, hence the root cause of the
disease has to be treated for a permanent cure. The antibacterial and antiviral
agents only remove the secondary causes mentioned above.
Diseases are produced by
noxious morbific agents called Miasms which are dynamic influences which affect
the vital force. There are mainly three miasms PSORA, SYPHILIS and SYCOSIS.
These three causes are accepted by other schools of medicine but called by
different names. Psora causes functional disturbances, syphilis causes
structural changes in the form of destructions and sycosis causes changes in
the form of overgrowth. These three miasms can act individually or in combined
form to produce different disease conditions.
Preparation of medicine
in homoeopathy
In homoeopathy medicines
are prepared from different sources like minerals, plants, animals, toxins,
diseased parts etc. Medicines are prepared from these substances by a special
process called potentisation. Here the soluble substances are potentised by
diluting(mixing with spirit with a downward stroke) with spirit and insoluble
substances by grinding(trituration) with sugar of milk. The crude drug substance
is first mixed with a calculated quantity of spirit and water and kept for a few
days. From this mixture, the extract is taken and is called mother
tincture(denoted as Q). From this mother, tincture dilutions are prepared by
potentisation. Potentisation is a mathematical process by which the quantity of
original drug substance reduces but medicinal power increases. Depending upon
the ratio of the quantity of drug substance and vehicle(spirit or sugar of
milk)there are different scales for this process. Each scale has got different
potencies which indicate the power of medicine. Example in decimal scale the
drug substance vehicle ratio is1/10 and the available potencies are 3x,6x.12x etc.
In centesimal scale the ratio is 1/100 and the available potencies are 30c,200c
etc,in LM potency the ratio is 1/50000 and the available potencies are
0/1,0/2,0/3 etc.Potency is written after the name of every medicine
Same medicine is
available in different potencies. Suitable potency is selected according to so
many factors like severity, depth of disease, condition of the patient, nature
of disease, type of symptoms, age of the patient, etc.
Subjects studied in
homoeopathy:-
History of medicine
History & development
of homoeopathy
Pioneers of homoeopathy
Organon of medicine
Homoeopathic philosophy
Materia medica
Homoeopathic Pharmacy
& pharmacognosy
Homoeopathic repertory
Homoeopathic case taking
Homoeopathic
therapeutics
General medical
subjects:
(Anatomy,physiology,pathology,microbiology,parasitology,toxicology,forensic
medicine,social and preventive medicine,surgery
,ENT ,gynaecology and obstetrics, opthalmology, dentistry, orthopedics,
surgery,general medicine,pediatrics,dermatology ,psychiatry,etc)
Homoeopathic case taking
and prescription.
Cure by a homoeopathic
medicine is rapid, gentle and permanent if correct remedy in suitable dose is
given. Just giving one drug for one disease (specific drugs)may not give good
result. To come to a correct remedial diagnosis we should have the
symptomatology of the person. It is the total symptoms of a person which
includes mental generals, physical generals, particular symptoms etc.
All signs and symptoms
(mental&physical)of the person is taken in detail. Knowledge about past
illness, family history of diseases, food and bowel habits, notable causes, relation
to climatic changes and constitution etc are noted down in a systematic order.
Mental symptoms:
Example: fear, anxiety, depression,
anger,jealousy,etc..
Physical symptoms:
Example: Body makeup,
appetite, thirst, desires, aversions, bowels, urination, sleep, taste, nature
of smell, discharges any abnormal sensations like pain, burning, climatic
changes, thermal relations, etc...
Peculiar uncommon
symptoms:
This is the speciality
of the homoeopathic system of medicine. For the selection of a suitable remedy,
these symptoms are very important. common symptoms which are seen almost in all
patients are least important. This is
the reason for giving different medicines to different individuals suffering
from the same disease. Example: Five people suffering from typhoid may get five
different remedies because of changes of individual symptoms.
Particular/local
signs&symptoms:
This include signs
&symptoms related to body parts &organs.
Example: Part affected, any
swelling, discolouration etc.
Systemic examination:-
Different systems are
examined in a systematic order. (Respiratory system, digestive system, nervous
system, cardio vascular system, etc....)
Vital
signs
Pulse, blood pressure, temperature,
respiratory rate etc are checked here.
General physical
examination:
Here body parts are
examined from head to foot to find out any changes.
provisional disease
diagnosis; Here probable diseases are
diagnosed. In homoeopathy, disease diagnosis is not that much important for the
selection of a remedy, but needed for
general management and to know the prognosis.
Investigations: This
includes lab investigations and other methods to find out any other major
illnesses.
Final disease diagnosis:
After doing all
investigations the disease is diagnosed.
Remedial diagnosis:
This is the most important
part as far as homoeopathy is concerned. For this, the selected symptoms are
arranged in a systematic order based on importance. Symptoms are analysed to
find out the importance of each symptom for the selection of a remedy. Remedies
are selected based on similarity.
Suitable remedies are
diagnosed by a process called repertorization. Here books called repertories
are used. Repertory is the index of symptoms of materia medica(books which
contain the symptoms of drugs). Nowadays computer software is used for
repertorization. By this process, we will get the remedies covering maximum
important symptom of the patient.
Among this group of
remedies, the most suitable remedy is selected by referring various books and
considering the life space investigation of the patient. The selected medicine
is given in suitable potency & dose.
ANTI MIASMATIC
TREATMENT:
The root cause of the disease
is miasms which should be eradicated using suitable anti miasmatic drugs. Every
drug can eradicate the miasm if there is symptom similarity. There are anti
psoric drugs, anti syphilitic drugs and antipsychotic drugs. After diagnosing
the miasm suitable anti miasmatic drug has to be given to complete the cure.