How do remedies work?
Im writing this for patients and practitioners to get a grasp of the use of remedies. Actually, its more to outline my observations from nearly 40 years of practice because if I am honest, I have no idea how the remedies work. I do however have observed certain actions collectively, and individually related to certain remedies and these notes and thoughts are what I present here.
Firstly, in order to cure, a drug is required. The definition of a drug is a substance that will effect a change in the living economy. Coffee and tea by definition are drugs. Also, words, music and emotions can effect a change.
Hower, for the sake of this discussion we will remain with the use of remedies that have been prepared according to the directions of Hahnemann, because these drugs have been tested and the symptoms they produce have been recorded.
We will take a patients case according to the directions in aphorism 6:
The unprejudiced observer well aware of the futility of transcendental speculations which can receive no confirmation from experience be his powers of penetration ever so great, takes note of nothing in every individual disease, except the changes in the health of the body and of the mind (morbid phenomena, accidents, symptoms) which can be perceived externally by means of the senses; that is to say, he notices only the deviations from the former healthy state of the now diseased individual, which are felt by the patient himself, remarked by those around him and observed by the physician. All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its whole extent, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable portrait of the disease.
So we build a personalised symptom picture of the DISEASED individual regardless of the common symptoms known to the named disease, because each patient expresses the infection or disease process individually. Once we have this, we are instructed in aphorism 153 to:
In this search for a homoeopathic specific remedy, that is to say, in this comparison of the collective symptoms of the natural disease with the list of symptoms of known medicines, in order to find among these an artificial morbific agent corresponding by similarity to the disease to be cured, the more striking, singular, uncommon and peculiar (characteristic) signs and symptoms of the case of disease are chiefly and most solely to be kept in view; for it is more particularly these that very similar ones in the list of symptoms of the selected medicine must correspond to, in order to constitute it the most suitable for effecting the cure. The more general and undefined symptoms: loss of appetite, headache, debility, restless sleep, discomfort, and so forth, demand but little attention when of that vague and indefinite character, if they cannot be more accurately described, as symptoms of such a general nature are observed in almost every disease and from almost every drug.
We need to find the remedy that matches the characteristic nature of the disease, that means the general and particular EXPRESSION of this patients display of symptoms whilst affected. This can be found in ‘peculiar’ symptoms, that is ‘pertaining to’, which are marked in the patient and also CHARACTERISTIC of just one or two remedies. Look at the fever symptoms of Belladonna and if the patient exhibits the glassy eyes and nature of the fever, then that will be the remedy.
So what happens after administration of the remedy? It is my observation that we have now given a drug that has stronger and particular symptoms of the disease (albeit artificial from the remedy) so that the overwhelmed immune system can now focus on and deal with.
Disease is a process. Sometimes as the disease responds via the immune system, the shift of the disease expression also occurs, and another remedy will be indicated, this usually as the whole nature of the disease moves. The remedy is not to be changed unless it has moved away from the primary drug action.
We sometimes do not know what the cause is, or what is the centre of the process is, and when this happens it is imperative we do not chase symptoms, but rather focus closely on the primary and charateristic symptoms of the disease.
As it is the body that cures, we need to be careful about introducing too many remedies along the way. A process has been started and we need to let the process work at its own required pace and power, and only interject when it appears to falter or change direction into a worsening state…….. that is why Hahnemann insists we let the dose work out and even expire before repeating. Then we are sure.
Some remedies have alternating actions, and sometimes a 2nd dose of the same remedy will correct the first dose. Sometimes it will aggravate the situation. I tend to wait after the first dose unless I know the remedy well and know it will correct an aggravation.
Every remedy produces PRIMARY symptoms, and these must not be mistaken for changed patient symptoms. Better to check the remedy symptom index and see if the ‘new’ symptom picture is in the remedy………usually it is, so wait!
We are not symptom removers, we are physicians chasing the cure.
I often get cases where too many remedies have destroyed the picture. At some stage I may give a dose of Sepia 200c and let the economy settle for 2-4 weeks and take the case again.
Do not be in a hurry to keep prescribing. Wait. Ask an experienced homoeopath who can observe externally and see what is required.
Always allow time for the body to fix itself.
The I.H.M. is addressing the first issue via its teaching course. The second issue had proved harder to overcome, but long discussions with a dedicated Pharmacist here in Seville Spain, and many hours of working through the making of the remedies according to Hahnemanns protocol, has produced the manufacture of the LM potencies from source to finished product in the correct way.
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Vera Resnick IHM DHom Med (Lic)
A homoeopathic perspective regarding Ringworm.
This case presented was my own. Ive published previously but is worth retelling with added insight regarding the disease and susceptibility and the curative response.
A homoeopath following Hahnemanns directives treats “the disease”.The disease per se, is the collection of the production of the symptoms in a process, and also the fuller picture of the reaction to the infection via the individual exhibition of symptoms.
At the outset, let me state that I treated many cases of ringworm successfully. The TPB has these remedies under the Ringworm rubric. Sepia, Natrum carb, Natrum Mur, Clematis and Mag carb. For the majority of cases, I have found Sepia the remedy of choice.
One morning I awoke and took a shower, and felt a slight itch behind my right leg above the knee, and was met with the sight of several ring worm present. It must have been a quick onset as this was the first time I noticed. Also my left elbow was discoloured as in the video and had a scabbed area. If I pushed the expanded growth, I was deluged with a liquid pus.
After repertorising, I took Sepia LM 0/1 for 5 days one dose a day.
The Ringworm continued to grow and spread.
My pharmacist colleague suggested a cream to kill the infection and he said “it has never failed” in his experience. Well, fail it did.
My elbow continued to grow and discharge copious amounts of blood and pus.
Several remedies later, I realised nothing was working.
I decided to read through old journals seeking wisdom from the masters of old. Eventually I read Compton Burnett and his treatment for Ringworm.
“For years, in common with many others, I have been constantly in the habit of treating and curing ringworm by internal remedies with relative success. For all that I have thus far never had anything approaching to a clear notion of its true nature, and some of the cases would persist in not getting well ; and this lack of a definite idea of its nature, and also the uncertainty of its cure, is I believe fully shared by those who have thus habitually considered and treated ringworm constitution ally . It is due, let us say, to psora, but we have no clear conception of what psora is .
This intrigued me, and I continued to read more as his intellectually honesty was refreshing.
Psora needs to be split up into its component parts, no easy task ; it roots in the vague, its trunk and boughs run away into anywhere. The psora of the homceopaths seems somehow true, but it has no proper beginning, no definite course, and ends in pathological chaos. Perhaps we study it in Hahnemann, and in the best writers on the subject, and after doing our best to master it, we rise from our_studies with no clear idea, and we finalJy decide to abandon psora as an intangible myth, and then we proceed with our clinical work ; but, before long, we stumble…
Compton Burnetts observations:
“…..-A whole family of children of different ages had had ringworm for a full year, and the mother told me on bringing them that she had already spent over £ 6·00 on medical fees for its cure, but in vain. All known remedies had been applied by the local doctors in two neighbourhoods, and several skin specialists had worked hard at their poor heads, but to no avail. Their heads were shaved and their scalps were well scoured night and morning but still the ringworm persisted. Finally, a distant cottage had been hired, and the afflicted ones were there isolated, and the services of a noted ringworm curer of the non qualified variety had been secured; but these also failing, they were put under my care. I have had no great cause to complain of the homoeopathic treatment of ringworm with our antipsorics-indeed,quite thecontrary-but it is a bit tedious at times.
Now their mother had been cured by me of incipient tuberculosis with the virus, and it occurred to me that ringworm might be a manifestation of the tubercular kind, and so I forthwith put the whole lot under the virus, administered in the usual way, internally in dynamic dose; this I did all the more readily, as they all had numerous superficial palpable glands. And the result? In a very few weeks they were all well of ringworm and of the glands, and have thriven splendidly ever since. Something like a dozen bad ring worm cases have come to me since then, and they were all quickly cured by the virus, and in each case the general state has been greatly improved. No doubt some bacteriologists will cultivate, some fine day, the germs of the ringworm; and astound the world with their subcu taneous injections. It is well that medical men should approach each subject from a different standpoint, as they serve to correct one another.
Since then I have systematically subjected almost all my ringworm cases to the influence of Bacillinum in high potency and infrequently administered.”
I have studied PSORA for many years. It is indeed an intangible, yet the concept of a disease strand from a single source makes perfect sense. I am of the unproven opinion that PSORA in its original infectious stage from its beginning, can be a multitude of disease progressions, all linked but with its own identity, for example, (skin diseases and Tuberculosis), and as the ‘expression’ of the disease has multiple manifestations, perhaps not obviously linked to its cause, it is indeed likely, possible and with hindsight that Ringworm is one such disorder.
When I was 7 years old, a teacher in my school in Singapore was diagnosed with TB, and I along with my classmates had Chest X-Rays. I had one a year as they saw a slight shadow on a lung, but in the absence of other symptoms, after 5 years they gave up on the X-Rays and declared me free of the disease.
I sat and reflected on my health history. I could indeed trace a pattern of tubercular symptoms over the years. Sepia as a remedy has worked well for me in infrequent disorders, and it was no surprise that its symptoms matched the appearance of the ringworm.
However it did not work in this case. The elbow symptoms suggested a deep infection of the disorder.
Several weeks had now passed by.
As nothing was working for my condition, I decided to look at the proving of Bacillinum and Tuberculinum.
Differentials in the remedies-these are my findings along with others.
There are currently about 26 variants of Tuberculinum. They have mild variances of effect, yet the original Burnett Bacillinum is quite a different remedy altogether. I have used both and had success with them based on the symptoms below.
Bacillinum is a remedy affected by heat. Tuberculinum is affected by the cold.
The area of affection of Bacillinum is the lower lungs. Humid asthma. Wheezing and rattling. Patients getting a cold or cough, usually without any structural changes, the affection goes straight to the lungs.
Tuberculinum is the throat. Tonsilitis Rhinitis. etc.
Bacillinum has an affinity to fungal affections, especially Ringworm. The circular eruption has a venous plethora and sometimes can look bluish red from the blood. Bacillinum can cure deep fungal infections over a period of time.
Tuberculinum has affinity to the bends of joints, red and flushed looking. There is affinity to recurring cystitis.
Tuberculinum is very stubborn. Temper tantrums.
Bacillinum is irritable.
Both remedies are fearless and both remedies have fear of dogs.
T Bend of joints red flushed
B bat wing discoloration around nose.
lower respiratory
T Cystitis recurrent
B only respiratory and skin
T not to give in heart problems. ALWAYS check for heart issues
Especially in children
B ok in heart disease
both catch cold easily, like fresh open air, both get allergies
to dust and pollen
B vaccination causation
T suppressed skin sx
I made the choice to take Bacillinum 200c.
After one day, I had a profuse nose bleed and discharged a large plug from my nostril. Several nose bleeds over the following few days.
After 2 weeks, i repeated the dose and the nose bleeds started again for 2 days. I noticed by the 3rd weeks the skin eruptions had started to fade. The elbow eruption started to reduce in size but the discharge was still present.
In the event it took only 4 weeks with two doses of the medicine to clear the skin of Ringworm and about 8 months for the deeper infection to clear. The elbow is discoloured a purple colour but has full elasticity and normal size.
I have treated 2 cases of Ringworm since and gave Bacillinum with a successful outcome.
My theory? Ringworm only affects person with tubercular diathesis.
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