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Better Health Update #65 - Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist

Homeopathic Medicine

Homeopathy stands as one of the primary features of the natural healing programs designed at Pacific Health Center clinics. It is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and effective methods of non-drug healing available today. However, this historic approach raises many questions due to its radical differences from Western conventional medicine. In this Update, we will examine the history, mechanisms, and application of homeopathic medicine.

DEFINITION AND HISTORY

"Homeopathy" comes from two Greek words - "homeos" meaning "resembling" or "same" and "pathos" meaning "suffering" or "disease". It's basic principle, expressed in Latin, is similia similibus curantur - "let similars be cured by similars" or just "like cures like".

HAHNEMANN AND HOMEOPATHY

Though Hippocrates referred to the concept of homeopathy in the third century B.C., the modern developer of homeopathy was Christian Frederich Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who lived from 1755 to 1843. To say that Hahnemann was anything less than one of the greatest geniuses of his time would be a gross understatement. At the age of 12 he was an instructor in the rudiments of the Greek language. By age 20 he had mastered French, English, Italian, Latin and Greek, while he later became proficient in Arabic, Syrian, Chaldaic and Hebrew. His 1786 treatise on arsenic poisoning is still considered authoritative today. Hahnemann was the author of one of the most respected chemistry texts of his day, not to mention collecting compiling, revising and editing the existing pharmacology of that era. Besides all these accomplishments, Dr. Hahnemann was the personal physician to the members of the German royalty. The point is: this guy was no "quack"!

Perhaps because of his great knowledge, Hahnemann became very disillusioned with the medical practice of his day. Thus, at the ripe old age of 27 he "retired" from medical practice, spending the next 14 years in research and writing. No doubt part of his disgust with conventional medicine resulted from his inability to provide effective medical care for his own family - a powerful motivation indeed. His commitment to discover God's healing truths was expressed in this statement:

I am setting out to discover if God has not indeed given some natural law whereby the diseases of man can be cured.

Experiments with cinchona bark (quinine) led Hahnemann to the discovery that the same substance in a small amount would cure the symptoms it produced in a large amount. Cinchona was known to be effective for malaria, yet when a large amount was consumed, it produced intermittent fevers - a malaria symptom. He concluded that the effects of a proposed remedy could be determined by studying the effects of a large amount of the remedy on healthy people. This came to be known as a homeopathic proving.

HOMEOPATHY'S TWO BASIC PRINCIPLES

Hahnemann discovered the two foundational principles that distinguish homeopathy - serial dilution and potentizing. These two inseparable principles make homeopathy work. Hahnemann found that remedies became more effective when subjected to a series of 1:10 dilutions. For example, one drop of the crude substance would be combined with nine drops of water to make a 1:10 dilution, known in homeopathy as a 1X or 1D potency (d for decimal). Then taking one drop of this new solution and combining with another nine drops of water would give a 1:100 dilution, a 2X (or 2D). Continuing this process gives you a 1:1000 (3X), 1:10000 (4X), 1:100,000 (5X), 1:1,000,000 (6X) and so on. Homeopathic remedies are also made in other potencies besides X: C (1:100), M (1:1000), MM (1:1,000,000) and others.
Serial dilution alone, though, does not make a homeopathic remedy - it is must be potentized. After each serial dilution the mixture is "potentized" by succussing (shaking against a fixed object-Hahnemann used a Bible on a table) it 50 to 100 times. Succussion is really the key to homeopathy - more on that later.

SUCCESSES AND PERSECUTION

In 1849 Cincinnati newspapers published stories regarding two German homeopathic physicians' treatment of cholera. Out of 1116 patients, only 35 died, while 33-50% of the cholera patients under conventional allopathic medical treatment died. In the 1879 yellow fever epidemic New Orleans homeopaths lost just 5.6% of 1945 cases, while the regular M.D.'s were losing 16%.

In 1844 the American Institute of Homeopathy was formed to foster the growth of homeopathic medicine. Sensing the threat to their monopoly, in 1846 the American Medical Association was formed, more or less for the specific purpose of suppressing homeopathic medicine.

By 1900, 20% of the medical doctors in the United States were homeopaths! There were 22 homeopathic medical schools and over 100 homeopathic hospitals. Success was short-lived, however, as the AMA became more aggressive in its efforts to stamp out this competing practice. The AMA expelled all homeopathic doctors from its approved societies. The AMA Code of Ethics forbade its members to consult with homeopathic doctors. Fewer and fewer students enrolled in homeopathic medical schools under these conditions, resulting ultimately in all the schools either closing or switching to allopathic medicine. Though homeopathic medicine almost became extinct in America, it continued in Europe, parts of Latin America and India. For example, pharmacies in France are required to fill both homeopathic and allopathic prescriptions. The royal family of Great Britain has used homeopathic doctors for the past four generations. Queen Elizabeth's personal physician is a homeopath, and she carries an assortment of homeopathic remedies with her wherever she travels.

Other famous patrons of homeopathy include John D. Rockefeller, William James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Samuel Morse, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mahatma Ghandi, and Mark Twain, who said:

. . . (For) the introduction of Homeopathy, which forced the old school doctor to stir around and learn something of a rational nature about his business, you may honestly feel grateful that homeopathy survived the attempts of the allopaths to destroy it. (Harpers Magazine, Feb. 1890)

HOW HOMEOPATHY WORKS

Conventional allopathic doctors have scoffed at the impossibility of homeopathy working, because they think it's about chemistry. Homeopathy has nothing to do with chemistry and everything to do with physics. The chemical amount of the substance present is irrelevant (above a 24X dilution, no molecules of the original substance remain according to Avogadro's Number). Quantum physics teaches us that energy is the common denominator of everything. Everything is vibrating in energy patterns-so-called "solids" just vibrate slower.
Homeopathic remedies are nothing but energy imprints. The action of serial dilution and succussion creates a "memory" of the original substance in the liquid crystalline structure of the water/alcohol base. A Nuclear Magnetic Resonance study showed that 23 different homeopathic remedies and potencies had distinctive readings of submolecular activity, as compared to placebos.

The concept of resonance helps us understand how homeopathy works. Resonance is defined in physics as the interaction of two bodies vibrating at about the same speed. Disease conditions are characterized by a particular frequency. A homeopathic remedy for a given disease has the same frequency, resonates with the disease, and thus neutralizes it. The two identical frequencies cancel each other out.

For example a homeopathic dilution of a harmful organism like salmonella will cancel out actual salmonella organisms in the body through this principle of resonance. It's somewhat like a soprano hitting just the right high note and shattering a crystal glass across the room.

HOMEOPATHY RESEARCH FINDINGS

The scientific world was rocked in 1988 when a French allergist, published in the British scientific journal, Nature, proved that homeopathy worked. Basically the experiment involved combining a known allergen with white blood cells and seeing if the basophile white blood cells would react. Dr. Jacques Benveniste found that no matter how much he diluted the solution, the basophiles still reacted. After initially refusing to publish the research, after one year of repeated confirmations the editors of Nature reluctantly agreed to publish his work - so much for scientific objectivity!

How about other studies validating homeopathy? One study in a highly respected journal showed that homeopathic arsenic caused rats to eliminate arsenic they had previously been fed. This validates the working of the Detox Combination homeopathics used at Pacific Health Center, by the way. (J.C. Cazin et al., "A Study of the Effect of Decimal and Centesimal Dilution of Arsenic on Retention and Mobilization of Arsenic in the Rat," Human Toxicology, July 1987.) German veterinarians discovered that homeopathic Chelidonium lowered cholesterol in rabbits on a high cholesterol diet. (V. Baumans, et. al., "Doses Chelidonium 3X Lower Serum Cholesterol?", British Homeopathic Journal, 76, (January 1987):14-15). In India the Cancer Research Center found that among mice implanted with fibrosarcoma, 52% survived more than a year with homeopathic remedies, while the untreated mice died within 10-15 days. (H. Choudhury, "Cure of Cancer in Experimental mice with Certain Biochemic Salts," British Homeopathic Journal, 69 (1980):168-170).

ENTER ELECTRODERMAL TESTING

Persecution from the AMA wasn't the only reason homeopathy almost died out. It was also a very awkward system for a doctor to use. There are thousands of possible remedies by the time you include all the possible dilutions. Classical homeopathic prescribing, as still taught at naturopathic colleges, involves taking a lengthy interview with the patient getting a detailed description of the symptoms and their manifestation. For example, the classical homeopath might ask whether the symptoms are worse in the morning or evening, whether the pain is better with heat or cold, etc.

Then the homeopath would study the homeopathic materia medica to try to locate a homeopathic remedy whose "indications" match that symptom picture. This is a very time consuming method, potentially requiring a lifetime to gain true proficiency. Even with modern computer software to speed up the interview and selection process, it's a method that just doesn't fit well in the time constraints of most health practitioners.
The resurgence of homeopathy in the past 20 years has been in large part due to the development of computerized Electrodermal Testing instruments, such as we use at Pacific Health Center clinics. We don't have to do detail symptom history - all we have to do is check the remedy with the instrument. The change, or lack of it, in the electrical skin resistance readings give an immediate "yes" or "no" as to whether the remedy has a correcting effect on the body.

With the recording of thousands of remedies in the computer, we don't even have to have an actual vial of the homeopathic. We just bring it up on the screen. If it tests well, we can test different potencies and dilution levels to find out exactly what to use. On top of that, the instrument can then imprint that particular frequency into a blank water/alcohol solution to make the remedy.

In a couple of minutes we can scan through lists of toxins, allergens, and other substances and find out specifically what the body is reacting to. At the same time we're determining the homeopathic remedy needed. All of the awkward problems of using homeopathy have pretty much been solved by Electrodermal Testing. Technology and homeopathy have met and married.

This is not to say that all homeopaths embrace this "new way" of determining homeopathic remedies. Many practitioners and schools cling to the old ways. It's a little like the missionary that spent three weeks paddling his canoe to get to his station. Missionary Aviation Fellowship offered to fly him there in three hours instead. He replied, "No, this is what God has called me to do." Now that's great if your calling is to paddle a canoe, but if your calling is the preach to the lost in the most effective way, you take the plane ride. So it is with homeopathic practice - we no longer have to do it the hard way!

Homeopathy reaches to the heart of health problems - energy imbalance. It's not a chemical supplement, as vitamins and mineral are, but an energy supplement. Homeopathics are natural, inexpensive, and without harmful side effects. The bottom line is: homeopathy works!

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment. Rather, this material is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems. Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.