Like Cures Like Homeopathy
Like Cures Like: Homeopathy
Marjorie Williams, a 53-year-old woman suffering with rheumatoid arthritis, decided to take a friend's advice and visit a homeopath. At first, the thought of being treated by someone she considered so far out of the mainstream frightened her, but as her flare-ups became more frequent and severe, she grew desperate. Her friend, who suffered from allergies, had been quite pleased with the results of his treatment, and so she decided to give it a chance.
Marjorie's appointment with the homeopath surprised her—it was much longer than she had anticipated and it focused not so much on the physical aspect of her condition but upon the way the pain and swelling in her fingers and hips affected her mood. For more than an hour, she described her symptoms in depth, indicating when they tended to occur, how long they lasted, what mood they evoked in her, what made them feel better or worse. She also found herself discussing her personality and in particular her busy schedule filled with volunteer activities. She noticed that the homeopath did not ask very many questions, but instead seemed to watch her posture and gestures very carefully as he took notes on what she said. It came as a pleasant surprise that she did not have to submit x-rays or have other expensive diagnostic tests.
At the end of the interview, the homeopath told Marjorie of the factors that stood out in her particular case of arthritis: the symptoms began as Marjorie entered menopause, she had had heavy periods, and her need to help others was strong. Although Marjorie could not understand how these facts related to her symptoms, she trusted the homeopath's judgment. He prescribed a remedy called Pulsatilla, an herb of the family Ranunculaceae and also known as windflower, or meadow anemone. He told her that homeopaths had used the remedy since the late nineteenth century to treat arthritis and other conditions. Pulsatilla is particularly effective on people—like Marjorie—who are open, gentle, and compassionate.
After a few weeks of taking the remedy, Marjorie noticed that her flare-ups were becoming less frequent and severe. Much to her happy surprise, a dry cough that plagued her on and off for some time, but which she had forgotten to mention, also seemed to be alleviated. Although her arthritis has not been "cured," Marjorie feels better than she has in several years and is pleased to notice a sharp decline in her consumption of aspirin and other pain relievers. She knows, too, that she would return to the homeopath should other intransigent health problems arise.
Understanding Homeopathy
In the early nineteenth century, a German scientist named Samuel Hahnemann developed a revolutionary theory of health and medicine. Derived from the Greek work homoios (meaning "similar") and pathos (meaning "suffering"), homeopathy remains a striking alternative to the way that modern medicine looks at health and disease, particularly chronic conditions such as arthritis. Inside every human, Hahnemann believed, was a "vital force," a life power, that animates and rules the body, keeping it in balance and health. Disease occurs when a disturbance of this vital force takes place. Homeopathy considers symptoms of disease to be the external evidence of the vital force's internal attempts to bring the body back to a state of balance. An aching hip or knee, for instance, might represent the body's effort to release accumulated toxins and waste products from the muscles.
Furthermore, Samuel Hahnemann was a deeply spiritual man who believed that a physician's role should be to help a patient's own body heal itself, that true healing could not take place by simply administering drugs that would, in essence, override the body's natural processes. To a homeopath, a "disease" consists of the symptoms produced by the body in its own efforts to heal itself. To help the body achieve that goal—to strengthen its vital force against an illness—a homeopath administers remedies designed to match these symptoms, not to alleviate them as Western medicine attempts to do. This principle is known as Hahnemann's Law of Similars, or "like cures like." By making symptoms worse, a remedy attempts to strengthen the body's own power to heal itself. In fact, according to homeopathic theory, any therapy that attempts to suppress the free flow of symptoms—including the use of painkillers—will actually prolong the underlying disturbance since it prevents the body from being able to heal itself.
Another theory of homeopathic medicine is known as the Law of Infinitesimals. First developed by Hahnemann in order to reduce the side effects of often potentially toxic chemicals, this theory states that the smaller the dose of medicine, the greater its potency and its effect on the body's vital force. Homeopathic remedies are extracts derived by soaking plant, animal, mineral, or other biological material in alcohol or water to form what homeopaths call the "mother tincture." This tincture is again diluted with alcohol in ratios of one part tincture to 10 or 100 parts of alcohol or water shaken vigorously, then diluted again.
This process of shaking and diluting, repeated several times, is known as "succussion." Many researchers believe that through succussion the vital energy of a substance is transferred to the tincture. Therefore, the more times the solution is passed through succussion, the more potent the remedy, even though there appears to be no trace of the original herb or mineral left. Finally, the resulting solution is added to tablets, usually made of sucrose and lactose.
As you know from reading about Marjorie Williams's experience, homepaths write prescriptions only after they carefully evaluate a patient's particular set of symptoms and physical and emotional make-up. Indeed, a session with a homeopath may be a unique experience for those of us accustomed to Western medicine's approach to diagnosis and treatment. Generally speaking, a homeopath will spend much more time talking to a patient about symptoms and lifestyle factors, and look more carefully at her demeanor, personality, and coloring, than would a mainstream physician.
According to homeopathic tenets, mental and emotional disturbances are more serious than physical illnesses, primarily because they can themselves cause physical disease. High stress levels and the emotions they provoke (such as anger, anxiety, and irritability) may cause or exacerbate the pain of arthritis. A homeopath will spend a great deal of time talking to you about stress and your ability to cope with it before she prescribes a remedy.
In fact, the way a homeopath treats chronic conditions like arthritis pain depends entirely on an individual's particular pattern of symptoms: not everyone with inflammation of the finger joints, for instance, experiences the same kind of pain at the same time or in exactly the same place, or for the same reasons. While a conventional, mainstream physician would probably offer roughly the same treatment to almost everyone (usually a combination of painkillers, exercise, or surgery), a homeopath recognizes several different symptom patterns and has corresponding remedies for each one. The homeopath then matches the patient's symptoms with the pattern of symptoms produced by a remedy. The more closely the remedy matches the total pattern of the patient, the more effective the remedy will be.
Furthermore, the symptoms that first bring someone to the doctor (called common symptoms in homeopathy) are rarely the most important symptoms when it comes to selecting a remedy. Instead, homeopaths give general symptoms, which include the patient's state of mind and mood, more weight in determining a treatment. Other symptoms, called particular symptoms, are those that pertain to any given organ or structure of the body (muscle pain, for instance). They, too, are less important than the general symptoms. Most important of all are what homeopaths call strange, rare, and peculiar; as their name implies, they are symptoms that are completely unique to the individual describing them. A man who says that his knees feel as if they are locked in place and a woman who feels as if her fingers are on fire are examples of two people with strange, rare, and peculiar symptoms. Even if each of them also has been diagnosed with arthritis, they would probably be given different remedies by a homeopath.
One more important aspect of homeopathy is the Law of Cure, which postulates that symptoms disappear in the reverse order of appearance. In other words, the last symptoms to appear will be the first to disappear with treatment. If someone has had many health problems in his life, he may find that symptoms of past problems reappear as homeopathic treatment continues. Someone who comes to a homeopath with arthritis, for instance, may find that she briefly develops symptoms of bronchitis, a previous illness. Marjorie found that her cough, due to an unknown underlying problem, briefly emerged but then disappeared. Slowly but surely, working backward in time, the homeopathic remedy or remedies will restore strength to the vital force and balance to the internal environment.
Arthritis and Homeopathy
Treatment is dependent on symptoms, and any of the several hundred homeopathic remedies described in Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, upon which modern homeopathy is based, might be prescribed for a person with arthritis—either osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, a homeopath would work with someone to resolve the underlying physical and emotional problems that contribute to the pain—problems that are uniquely personal and impossible to categorize or elucidate. That said, there are some general recommendations for homeopathic remedies that might apply to you:
Arsenicum album (arsenic trioxide, white oxide of arsenic). In its crude form, arsenic is a deadly poison: when applied topically, it can literally corrode skin tissue; when ingested, it damages blood vessels and ultimately leads to organ damage throughout the body. However, in the right form and amount, arsenic is known to be a treatment for several different illnesses—and has been known as such since physicians in ancient Greece and Rome started using it. Samuel Hahnemann introduced arsenic to homeopathy in 1828, and it has been used as a remedy ever since.
Homeopaths generally prescribe arsenicum album to those people whose symptoms tend to be worse at night than in the morning, improve with heat and warm drinks, and include anxiety and fear.
Aurum metallicum (metallic gold). Similar to the gold compounds used to treat arthritis in mainstream medicine, aurum metallicum is a remedy for a variety of disturbances. Homeopathic gold comes in a fine brown powder which is prepared by a process called trituration. Trituration, which involves grinding down the powder and diluting it with milk sugars, is necessary because gold is not soluble in water or alcohol.
Typically, homeopaths prescribe aurum metallicum to arthritis patients who complain that the pain in their fingers or limbs feels worse from sunset to sunrise, is least problematic in the morning, and gets better during the day.
Bryonia alba (wild bryony, wild hops). Bryonia, which is derived from a climbing vine known as Cucurbitaceae, is one of the most effective homeopathic remedies for rheumatic conditions. It acts especially on fibrous tissues, including ligaments and tendons, as well as nerves. The illnesses usually associated with bryonia are more likely to occur in warm, damp climates.
A homeopath is most likely to suggest bryonia to an individual who seems sluggish and dull of mind, whose symptoms improve with exposure to cool, fresh air and worsen with movement and touch. Rest and a diet consisting mostly of cold foods may also be recommended.
Calcarea carbonica (Calcarea ostrearum, oystershell). Derived from the pure white portion of oyster shells, this homeopathic remedy has as its primary component the mineral calcium. The fifth most abundant element in the body, calcium is essential to the body's formation and repair of bone tissue. Calcarea carbonica, therefore, is especially useful for those people suffering from osteoarthritis.
A person for whom this remedy would be most helpful would have symptoms that improved in a dry, warm climate and worsened in the cold and with any type of exertion. Generally speaking, the calcarea patient tends to have pale skin and a plump figure, among other qualities.
Pulsatilla (windflower, meadow anemone). This remedy derives from the perennial herb known as Pulsatilla nigricans; it is prepared from the whole fresh plant when it is in flower. In addition to its use as a remedy for arthritis, it is also known to help in eye disease, uterine disorders, and menstrual cramping.
For those with arthritis symptoms, a homeopath is most likely to prescribe pulsatilla to someone who, like Marjorie, is warm and compassionate, complains about the heat, and (if female) has associated menstrual problems. Symptoms tend to worsen with heat and rich food, and improve with open air and cold applications.
Rhus toxicodendron (poison ivy). Derived from a plant with which campers, hikers, and adventurous children are all too familiar, this homeopathic remedy was first used by a French physician in 1798. It affects the skin, mucous membranes, and, of special importance to those with arthritis, fibrous tissue including joints, tendons, and sheaths.
People who do best with Rhus tox., as it is known, tend to be anxious and despondent and have symptoms that improve with warmth and warm, dry weather. Other common traits of Rhus tox. include frequent rashes, dryness of the mouth and throat, and a dry cough.
It is important to keep in mind that along with these remedies are a host of others that a homeopath may prescribe for your particular symptoms and underlying conditions. As is true for most other forms of holistic medicine, homeopathy is completely individualistic in its diagnostic and prescriptive methods. That means that the success you experience with this type of medicine depends largely upon the homeopath you choose. It will be his powers of observation and judgment that determine the remedies to be prescribed, and it will be he who will monitor your condition over the course of several months. For this reason, we recommend that you receive a referral—from a friend or from one of the associations listed in Natural Resources, page 168—before visiting a practitioner.
So far, you've read about eight different holistic medical disciplines that may be appropriate to help alleviate your arthritic problems. No doubt you have many questions, especially if this is your first exposure to information about one or all of these alternatives. In the next chapter, we address some of the most common concerns and issues raised by people new to natural medicine. Even if you're familiar with the tenets we've described, you may learn something useful about how you can successfully apply them to your own case of arthritis.
