I cannot prove that all the specific information in the following is right, and you may not be able to disprove all of it either. - T. K.
Worldwide, over 200 million people use homeopathy on a regular basis. Homeopathy is included in the national health systems of India, Switzerland and other countries. In India there are over 200,000 registered homeopathic doctors. In Europe, nearly 30 percent of the people in EU use homeopathic medicines in their day-to-day healthcare. Homeopathy is practised in 40 out of 42 European countries. Most homeopaths are medical doctors. (Source: Homeopathic Research Institute (HRI): Homeopathy use around the world).
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Without sound proof of a thing, we refrain from making silly claims. But research is possible, as HRI is into in some of its pages.
Leaving HRI for a while, feel free to read into this text cum grano sale (with a grain of salt), with the necessary and fit reservations. That is up to you: some nimble reservations on your part are presupposed (see link on top of the page).
For using a homeopathy text well, try to find the worst and most striking symptoms or anomalities you have, and then see what descriptions of remedies can offer, if anything.
You may want to "try and see" to what degree the remedy Ignatia amara might ease homesickness. Then give it a try for some months, maybe longer. And then, before you get eager to help many, there are some more things you need to know in the art of handling these delicate sugar pills . . . The sketches below tell of that.
Weigh Remedy Symptoms Too
To use the information, learn to consider and weigh the remedy symptoms too.
- Give the most weight to the target folks, that is, the people the remedy is thought to suit best - and thus is aimed at. – For example, let each fit point (item) here be given 6 points.
- Give perhaps half the weight to the good qualties of a remedy. They might seem absent in those the remedy suits, for example. Thus, give some weight to good qualities to go for - they are listed for some remedies. – 3 points each.
- Give almost as much weight to the particual mind symptoms under the heading "Wish adieu to". – 2 or 3 points, as the case may be.
- The physical symptoms and complaints come next and may be given one third of the weight of the fit target items (No. 1). 1-2 points each, depending on how impressive they are, and how rare they are too.
If you count the number of symptoms that seem to correspond to your case and then add weight according to these suggestions, then you may not fail much in the art of homeopathic prescribing.
The Question of Dosages
For self-help and care for your own family, refrain from higher homeopathic potencies (above D500 or c400) so long as you are a novice. It may pay for a beginner to start gently with lower potencies. They are D12 and D30 (c12 and c30). D6 and C6 are potencies too, but maybe a little too weak for some.
There are different ways of prescribing remedies and potencies. If you are a non-professional and a beginner in the art, I suggest a general scheme like the following for the self-tester on your own and far from any established "know-all" in the art:
- c12 or D12: Try 6 sugar pills (= 2-3 tablets) three times a day for at least 6 weeks. Space them out as best you can.
- c30 or D30: 10-12 sugary pills twice a day should work OK, or maybe you can do with once a day, with less severe symptoms - I don't know. Suck them carefully morning and evening to allow the largely secretive influence they may carry, 5-6 minutes in your mouth each time. That is vital for success, imo. Avoid hot food and liquid at that time - They should be given the conditions said to be needed to do their work.
- c100 or D200: About 12 pills every third or fourth day for c100, (two times a week).
As for D200, try each 5th day (quite ideally). If you have troubles with that, a severely faltering dosage - once a week - may be better than not at all, but I would not bet on that.
- M: Once every 4 weeks or once every month, and up to two or three months for once attempt at cure. Empty the whole glass for one dose. Suck well, slowly. Use ten minutes for it.
Special aid: Always try to back up the "heavy CM" with such as c100 (or if not had,
get c30 or D30) of the very same remedy. Thus: start a round - or "cure attempt" if that
feels better - by imbibing the CM stuff, and follow up by sucking c100 or D200, or c30 or
D30 for many weeks after it - more than four, it is suggested, and not less than three, if
you can get to it.
Feel free to try out this quite traditional way of dispensing remedies. It should be harmless by and large, and homeopathic potencies over and above D30 (slightly less than that, really), contain nothing of the original substances.
There are many more sides to prescribing, though.
- For acute bodily troubles: administer D30 potencies twice daily could be fit.
- For mental and/or social troubles, try D12 for 8 weeks first, take a pause of two weeks, and repeat either the same remedies and same potencies, or the same remedies and the next potencies - i.e., from D12 to D30 for 8 more weeks, then a rest, and so on. Or switch to a new remedy at D12 potency first, and then "climb upwards on the potency ladder" similarly, one rung at the time.
- Many chronic mental illnesses may require expert diagnosis and prescriptions at betterment (temporary or long-lasting or lasting).
- For long-lasting, possibly "deep-set" bodily diseases: try somewhat higher potencies, but start at D30 for about 8 weeks first. Then take a pause of 12-15 days as it suits you, and follow up by the same remedies given in higher potencies - i.e, from D30 to D100, from D100 to D200, and so on, stepwise. You may find it hard to get some of the potencies at your local pharmacy. If so, you may try to go from D100 to D1000 in one leap. But beware, some aggravations may set in temporarily then, says homeopaths.
Consider the foregoing as a helping hand - a set of rules of the thumb in the art of homeopathic prescribing.
How Many Remedies Go Together at Once?
It is a good question.
- Many prefer only one single, well-chosen remedy at the time (for a round of, say, 7-8 weeks (+ a 2 weeks' pause).
- Others say: Find the most matching remedy and support it with one or a couple of other likable remedies to go along with it. Many homeopaths prefer that "solo remedy" approach. I too, since perfect "one-remedy matches" to all sorts of symptom patterns may be awfully hard to find, if they exist.
- There are also remedies that consist of several remedies mixed, for example against specific diseases. These remedies may work just as well as solo remedies, if not much better. Edward Bach devised such a remedy, for example - his Rescue Remedy.
The vital point in mixing remedies is that they suit one another, all of them, and then you may "be lucky".
How long?
In order to give a homeopathic remedy a fair trial, it needs time - in non-acute cases at least six-seven week, and possibly longer - say, three or four months.
If you keep a health diary and do not find any changes after 8 weeks, feel free to switch to another remedy that is said to match your symptoms. If you experience temporary relief, the potency should be raised, one step at a time (every 8 weeks or so).
If this stepping up does not take you all the way from the symptoms you wanted to get rid of, the time might be fit to see a professional. If not, try another remedy. In that case you start from near bottom of the potencies again and work your way up as long as it takes. I suggest 10 MM as the maximum potency for non-professonal prescribing.
It is repeatedly claimed in homeopathy that certain influences may lessen the effects of homeopathic remedies. Accordingly, keep them away from sunlight and keep, and store in a cool place with the cap on. Besides, avoid hot drink and hot food along with sucking them. Sucking them about a quarter before or after hot meals or drinks might work well.
If the attempt at cure with homopathic remedies seems successful, in that symptoms disappear, do not throw away necessary medicines, in case your symptoms reappear later. If symptoms reappear after, say, five months or more, seek other remedies or other therapies, for example acupuncture/acupressure, as you wish.
If you give it a try, bear in mind that homeopathy is a healing art where results depend on selection of (1) seemingly fit remedies that are handled OK; (2) graded potencies that somehow "impress" the organism enough to still some troubles, and (3) fit dosages.
What diseases can homeopathy theoretically reach? It is a tough question. In the light of how the remedies are made, in potencies above D5 or something like that, they do not contain enough substance to work changes. They do not contain "energies" either. They are, rather information carriers of a sort, and to the degree they work, they effect the body-mind through so-called psychosomatic channels."
Medical doctors estimate that at least 50 percent of all common, physical diseases are more or less psychosomatic, there is room for the thought that an average of at least 50 percent of common bodily ailments may be effected, and perhaps up to 85 percent of mental troubles. You may want to know what physical ailments are psychosomatically tinged. According to one survey some have stress as their root, impairing the immune system in some, and contributing to coronary heart disease in some. Anxiety is also possible, and higher blood pressure, lower back pain, ulcers, tenseness, and release of extra sugar from the liver. Besides stress may cause cognitive impairment and depression, apathy, anger, and aggression. [Hi 505]
"Almost all physical illness have mental factors that determine their onset, presentation, maintenance, susceptibility to treatment, and resolution. Addressing such factors is the remit of the applied field of behavioral medicine." To remedy stress is one important factor. You should try to rest more during an attempt at cure, for example an hour more each day. Some are also helped by better coping skills, skills that lessen stress.
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease. It is recommended reading. [◦Top of the iceberg]. I suggest there are several troubles that homeopathy might work against, among these, to the degree the remedies really influence the mind and that mind sets co-forms troubles also. Verifications are needed, though.
One should never interfere with very severe problems and troubles by such self-help or family help efforts, but leave them to medical expertise, for safety reasons. What is good, however, is to deal with troubles when they are minimal, so that they do not grow alarming. That may be a decent approach.
At the same time, engage in health-related behaviours and check your moral of living. To the degree less that desired moral is behind given troubles, social, mental-emotional, and bodyily (through such as stress), there is the tall field of improvement.
The vocabulary and abbreviations and signs that are used to make the Kinnes Materia Medica easier to study are explained:
Sources used and referred to:
- Unmarked
Unmarked text is taken from William Boericke's part of William and Oscar Boericke: Homeopathic Materia Medica. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Boericke and Runyon, 1927.
Boericke is a main reference, so where descriptions leave out references, Boericke may well be the main source.
- (B)
in the text refers to Bach. It stands for Edward Bach's descriptions of flower essences and other essences in his book, The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies, its enlarged edition from 1936.
The flower essences that are incorporated in the survey, are those essences that Dr. Bach found and described. They are marked well off from other remedies in the surveys that follow.
Among the other books that seek to enlarge on Bach's descriptions, or give examples of how to use them, this book by Dr Phillip Chancellor may serve: Handbook on the Bach Flower Remedies (Rockford: Daniel, 1971). There are many other and newer books on the Bach remedies around too.
- (C)
refers to John Henry Clarke, MD: A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. 3 vols. London: The Homeopathic Publishing Company. London, 1900 (vol 1) and 1902 (vols 2 and 3). -- Clarke's Dictionary contains more and less nuanced information than Boericke's text.
- (/)
rDescriptions not found in Bach, Boericke or Clarke are by Tormod Kinnes far and wide.
- Latin Names Most Often
Most of the preparations or concoctions referred to, have Latin names (in italics), as is the custom - and are listed according to their Latin names. Common names are added, and not put in italics.
Added to the names are several markers. First, a "rising sun" in the headline serves to mark Bach flower essences and similar "delicacies". Moreover, such products have violet names and an added boldface B in the headline, and Dr Bach's remedies among the socalled essences are put in italics. Gem preparations - there are 34 of them listed - are marked by a separate colour and the letter G.
- Potentised, Potency
In homeopathy the word 'potency' is a measure of how diluted and shaken a substance is: The basic process is: Some substance is diluted with alcohol or water and then vigorously shaken by eg. ten hard strikes against an elastic body. Next, to one part of this shaken fluid is added ten parts distilled water, and the mixture is shaken once again. The shake-and-dilute process is called "succussion". Six rounds of succusion gives a D6 potency. 'D' shows the proportion 1:10 is used throughout the thinning series.
It is generally thought that D6-potencies are not physically effective, as they contain so little substance (1/1 000 000) of what went into the process to begin with). Nor is there evidence that "potentised" substances are energy-charged by being emptied out physically.
Suffice to say that the key terms 'potency' and 'potentised' refer to how homeopathic preparations are made in a traditional ways. Some shake their remedies by hand, but most often machines do that tiresome work.
- Homeopathy
-also written homoeopathy, holds that irregularies, functional disturbances, and even diseases and sickness to be caused by disturbances in the vital energy system somehow. Since homeopathic preparations and concoctions of potencies above D6 and c6 have no physiological and energy effect in an organism, the possible paths of influence must be "psychosomatic channels" in the organism. And, as a matter of fact, psychosomatics is highly effective: placebo effects are of this sort, and may work just as well as anti-depressants in most cases, according to well-known studies.
Homeopaths further claim that disturbances in the deep mind level find some set ways of expressing themselves in mental and physical irregularities in time, and that matters, is not to curb syptoms by manipulating them chemically, but to help the organism to restore its deeper health. If that goes as intended, many irregularites disappear by and by, is the teaching.
One or more homeopathic preparations (often in the form of pills) that studies (called provings etc.) hold match the symptoms of specific diseases and the like, should be able to lift and balance the body-mind and its psychosomatic balances. As a result irregularities and imbalances of the organism are reduced and made to disappear for a short while, or a long while, or even permanently. That is part of the general idea.
If the homeopath finds no preparation descriptions that match the troubles, irregularities and "knots" of the client, he can do nothing by homeopathy. And even when he comes up with seemingly well adapted preparations - as evidenced by preparation descriptions found in big books called Materia Medicas, he may not succeed if the potency is out of tune (especially too low) to meet main requirements that the problems of the client pose.
- Bach's essences
The British doctor Edward Bach came up with a series of 38 socalled essences. Most of them are from flowers that are put in a bowl of water on on a sunny day and left in the sun for some hours. That is one of Dr Bach's methods of potentision. The other is to boil plant parts in water.
- Rae simulants
The British inventor Malcolm Rae (1913-79) designed a series of innovative instruments and software for them. Magneto-Geometric Applications in London still fabricate his radionic instruments (hardware) and special cards to go with them (software).
Rae's claim is that his instruments produce exact replicas of homeopathic preparations, and Bach flower remedies too, among other interesting things.
- Layout Keys
On the pages devoted to potentised preparations a simple scheme organises the presentation: First, the aim of the preparation (concoction) is stated briefly. Second, something to go for is indicated. This might correspond to Dr Bach's positive side to the essences, to their uplifting influence. Third, mental and physical imbalances are listed on their own background, and so-called modalities (peculiarities) come next.
Numbers that are put after irregularities, indicate the degree of potentation assistance expected by this author. For example, under Anemone hepatica is "Psychologically cold 6". The number 6 indicates the author's good faith. A lower number, shows less faith, basically, but there is more to this: One has to view the whole picture, the whole range of irregularities presented, and see how many seem to match overall. To get such a general idea (overall picture) is more important than ranked, isolated symptoms, says homeopathic theory at large. So there is no guarantee.
This text is accompanied by a collection of articles that go into theoretical sides to these matters: [ Article Collection].
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