In the biggest organized expression of dissent since democratic reforms were instituted by the government, the protesters were challenging the project because it has resulted in environmental degradation, forced relocations and the confiscation of 7800 acres of land. Demanding a closure of operations, they set up camps in the area and were disrupting work with lines of armed linked protesters that impeded the movement of trucks.

On the day that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was to visit the area, the government ordered a heavy-handed response. Initial reports of water cannons, tear gas and fire bombs being used on the protesters proved to not be fully accurate. Months later, independent investigations confirmed that the riot police had used white phosphorus, which is an effective smoke screen and a lethal chemical agent that causes deep tissue burns, as well as causing death if inhaled or ingested.
Introduced by the British during the First World War, it was subsequently used by British colonial forces in the Middle East and Allied forces during the Second World War. Since then, white phosphorus has been deployed during conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Chechnya, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan and Yemen. Although not explicitly banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention, in the eyes of experts it is a very controversial weapon, especially when used on civilians.

Apparently, monks involved in demonstration bore the brunt of the chemical attacks. Scores were hospitalized and treated for severe burns. Unfortunately, much of the treatment proved ineffective, including many skin grafts that did not take.

Learning about this in Yangon, the homeopathic physician Dr. Kyu Kyu Lwin immediately set out to volunteer her services. Enlisting the help of local activists and Buddhist clergy, she made the 750 kilometers, 9 hours journey and began treating as many of the injured she could find.

Dr. Kyu Kyu Lwin developed an effective protocol that mainly relied on the prescription of the homeopathic remedy Cantharis, commonly known as ‘Spanish Fly’, as both an internal and topical medicine. With the success of her treatment, many monks have been brought to her for homeopathic care. While she has made repeated visits to the area to work with the monks locally, some monks have also traveled to her clinic Yangon. Hospital facilities are now being made available for her to continue her work.

Cantharis is made from an emerald green blister beetle, this remedy is an old standby introduced by Hahnemann that is best known for its use in cystitis and burning in the urinary tract. In fact, it has an affinity for internal and external membranes throughout the body where this is rapid, violent inflammation and burning sensations are present.

The mental state is extremely agitated and often there is a paradoxical increase in sexual desire even while suffering from an acute cystitis. As one of the 19th century masters put it, “the patient is uneasy, restless, distressed and dissatisfied, with an excessive desire for sexual congress.”

Cantharis has a strong action on the skin, very useful for inflammations or eruptions that produces blisters filled with liquid or even blood. As such, it is one of our most important remedies that can be used topically as well as taken internally for burns, especially serious ones leading to blistering, infection and gangrene.

There are many other remedies that can be useful for burns, some of the most important of which include Arsenicum, Causticum, Urtica Urens, Apis, Carbolic Acid and Calendula. Each one has its own indications for the type of burn as well as accompanying symptoms. For instance, Arsenicum is used for serious burns where, counter intuitively, warm compresses feel better than cold ones, and the person feels anxious and restless. Urtica Urens, which is stinging nettles, is for more minor burns, especially for scalds from hot water. Causticum is useful for scars and other long-term issues that persist after a burn. Calendula (Marigold) in homeopathic dilution is very effective when applied topically in superficial burns to promote healing and prevent infection. Some remedies, like Cantharis, are taken both internally and applied topically, while others are for either exclusively for internal or external use.

The homeopathic materia medica is replete with ‘vulnerary’ medicines; that is, medicines that treat injuries or wounds. Burns are just one of many kinds of physical traumas, such as closed head injuries, broken bones, bruising, lacerations and puncture wounds, very responsive to homeopathic treatment.

1. Kyaw Phyo Tha, “Copper Mine Protesters Burned Out in Police Raid”, November 29, 2011, The Irrawaddy

I recently visited the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar for three weeks. Probably still better known by its old name of ‘Burma’, this Texas sized nation of about 50 million people (no one really knows for sure, but that is what the World Bank estimates…) is made up of numerous ethnic groups, a number of which have been in armed conflict with the government for decades. A military junta seized power in 1962, overthrowing a democratically elected government and has – until several years ago – pursued isolationist, politically repressive and economically unsuccessful policies that turned this bounteous realm once known as the ‘Golden Land’ into a failed state just a little short of North Korea.

Compared to my first visit thirty years ago when the consequences of decades of heavy handed oppression and mismanagement by the junta were all too apparent, today there are many signs of a revitalizing economy and the sprouting of liberalization. In the urban areas, decay and downtrodden faces have been replaced by bustling activity, extensive construction – and way too many cars. Tourism, too, has tripled in the last year alone, providing a much-needed infusion of foreign capital.
The same junta is still in charge, but its leader now is comparatively more progressive and this tendency is being encouraged by a policy of engagement by foreign governments, the most visible consequence being visits of President Obama and then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in 2012. Giving both hope and further momentum to the forces of democratization, both Obama and Clinton met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition party ‘National League for Democracy’ and Nobel Peace Prize Winner who was released from house arrest in 2010, which she was placed under after winning elections in 1990 that would have made her head of government had not the Junta intervened. The daughter of the man who led the nation into independence in the late 1940′s – and was then soon assassinated, she is without a doubt the defacto leader and inspirational figure of the nation.

Her picture adorns walls in public places as well as private homes, is on calendars and T-shirts, as well as in wallets. Even the smallest village seems to have a NLD office. While Myanmar a long time and important piece of the British Empire, English – at least, good English – is in remarkably short supply in Myanmar (another consequence of military rule, I’m told), but mentioning her name coupled with ‘Obama’ and ‘Clinton’ is a surefire way to bond with just about any Burmese. It is also a way to distinguish yourself from the hoards of French tourists who seem to outnumber all the other visitors from abroad combined.

My time in Myanmar was spent in the heartland of the country, which is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Burmese (or’Bama’). I spent time in the major cities of Yangon (once known as Rangoon) and Mandalay, as well as towns and villages surrounding Mandalay. I also had the good fortune to have had an introduction to a homeopath in Yangon, with whom I had already established an email correspondence. With typical Burmese graciousness, he picked me up at the airport and spent a good part of a week showing me around, inviting me to his home where we discussed both homeopathy and the state of his country.

Dr. Hla Min Sein is the son of a formerly prominent homeopath, U Sein Maung, who, according to his son, was persecuted by the military government for practicing homeopathy shortly after it seized power in the early 1960′s. A homeopathic school and professional association, both of which were directed by U Sein Maung were disbanded, homeopaths of Indian origin returned to India, and homeopathy was for all practical purposes extinguished as a treatment modality. After being released from prison, U Sein Maung maintained a low profile, removing to a remote village where even now, well into his 80′s, he still runs a free clinic. Taking advantage of a relatively less repressive atmosphere, Dr. Hla Min Sein along with his wife, Daw Kyu Kyu Lwin , both trained by his father, have established homeopathic practice and are actively engaged in attempting to restore the homeopathic profession in Myanmar.

While language barriers were a major obstacle during my trip, I was able to learn something of the way Hla Min Sein and his wife practice as well as the challenges they face both as practitioners and advocates of homeopathy. Without access to homeopathic pharmacies in Myanmar or abroad, they rely on couriers to spirit remedies from abroad. Without access to the broader international homeopathic community and homeopathic literature, they must solely rely on their own training, clinical experience and a few basic reference materials. Despite these difficulties, they are extremely dedicated, enthusiastic practitioners.

They both treat many patients with severe pathologies such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. At the time of my visit, Dr. Daw Kyu Kyu Lin was also engaged in the treatment of a great number of monks who had been injured by government forces during a protest. (See the accompanying article.)

Through Dr. Hla Min Sein, I was introduced to another student of his father’s who practices homeopathy in the town of Sagaing, near Mandalay. Dr. Myint Oo has a small clinic, really nothing more than a hallway attached to a storeroom stocked from floor to ceiling with many forms of homeopathic and herbal remedies. Language was even more of an impediment between us than in Yangon, but from what I could glean, he was able to escape the government clamp down because he had certification as an herbal practitioner and prescribed homeopathic remedies under that guise. His practice seemed quite eclectic – he used single homeopathic potencies and ‘complex remedies’, which are combinations of a number of remedies used to treat a specific pathology, as well as herbal tinctures. His clinic seemed fairly quiet and I could not discern what kind of clientele he served.

On the other hand, Dr. Myint Oo’s 20-year-old son, a recent college graduate who works with his father, is intent on training as a homeopath either in India or elsewhere abroad. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a good part of 3 days on the back of his motorcycle as he guided me to many spectacular sites in and around Mandalay.

Hopefully, with the efforts of people such as Drs. Hla Min Sein and Kyu Kyu Lwin, as well as a more open society and access to the internet, homeopathy will once again begin to flourish in Myanmar. Certainly, it is my intent to play a small role in facilitating this process.

Reflecting the difference in their constitutional nature, each boy was brought in for quite different reasons. Samuel easily developed respiratory ailments that turned into a bronchitis or asthmatic wheezing. Jordan’s issues were only paritially physical as they had strong emotional and behavioral components.

The boy’s parents were dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle even though it meant their father had to commute quite a distance to work. The family was active socially as well as musically in their small, tight knit rural community and the boys were homeschooled. As much as possible, they were conscientious about their diets and wished to steer clear of pharmaceutical drugs or other allopathic interventions. So, homeopathy was seemingly a good fit.

Similar to their contrasting natures, the boys were polar opposites in terms of the challenge each one presented in treating them homeopathically. Right from the start, Samuel was a textbook profile of the homeopathic remedy Phosphorus.

Phosphorus patients, especially the children, often have a certain feel to them. It is a type of glow – like the phosphorescence of the mineral itself. One can often recognize a sparkle in their eyes.

For the most part, they tend to be quite outgoing, easy to make friends and natural socializers. These are the kids in the classroom that everyone wants to be friends with. Caring by nature, they have an innate sensitivity to the way others feel.

If anything, they sometimes can be overly sympathetic, really experiencing the feelings of others and finding it hard to draw clear boundaries between what others experience and what they themselves feel. This can make them prone to anxiety because they become overwhelmed by all the stimuli that they cannot filter out. It is for this reason they are sometimes called a human barometer.

On a physical level, phosphorus patients tend to have respiratory weakness. They are susceptible to colds, bronchitis and asthma. It was a major remedy to treat tuberculosis and is considered part of the tubercular miasm – that is, a remedy for persons with an inherited ‘taint’ of tuberculosis.

The phosphorus ‘diathesis’ (meaning the susceptibility to particular diseases displayed by various types of persons or remedies) also includes disturbances of the circulatory system. Analogous to their lack of emotional boundaries, phosphorus patients tend to bleed easily, developing bruises and nosebleeds seemingly for no reason.

Rounding out the picture, the classic phosphorus physique is tall and thin, with long eyelashes (another sign of the tubercular miasm) and light hair. They love salty tastes and fish, along with fruits and bubbly, cold drinks. Above all, they display a special affection for chocolate.

Although Samuel didn’t display all the above signs (no one – or almost no one – has 100% of the attributes of any particular remedy), he was an excellent fit and did quite well being treated for acute illnesses and long-term respiratory weakness with periodic doses of Phosphorus.

Things weren’t quite so simple when it came to treating Jordan. Life was very difficult for him in general, especially when interfacing with the outside world. While he was an excellent musician, athlete and chess player, Jordan was also extremely demanding on himself and never could appreciate his talents.

Although no formal diagnosis had been made due to the fact that he hadn’t been mainstreamed into conventional schooling, his difficulties with social interactions, volatile moods that could vacillate between extreme anger, lethargy, withdrawal and fearfulness clearly pointed toward an autistic spectrum or Aspergers-like disorder.

The combination of pervasive fears and violent reactivity pointed me toward a homeopathic remedy in the Solanacea or nightshade family of plants. The Solanaceaes includes a number of important homeopathic medicines such as Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade), Hyoscamus (Henbane), Tabacum (Tobacco), Capsicum (Cayenne) and Stramonium (Thornapple), amongst others.

Each of these has its own specific indications, but what they have in common is a sense of suddenness and violence. It could be in terms of acute illnesses like spiking a high fever or other aggressive pathologies, or in the mental emotional plain where the world is perceived as a dangerous place that demands high vigilance and fierce reactivity to protect oneself.

Jordan’s specific combination of fears of the dark, of dogs and of being alone, pointed me toward a prescription of Stramonium. It was over a number of years a tremendously helpful remedy. Although still subject cycling behaviors and moods, the valleys were not as deep and extreme. Numerous acute situations were rectified by a dose of the remedy.

It is important to note that the action of the remedy probably would have been even more profound – and Jordan’s life would have been a much easier one – had he cooperated in following specific dietary restrictions. Like many – probably most – people with this type of disorder, he was quite sensitive to a number of foods, especially glutinous grains. They acted like neurotoxins in his system.

When it was possible to keep him away from them, he was much calmer and outgoing. But even at his age, the ferocity with which he opposed such restrictions, not only indicated how addicted he was to the opium-like reactions they caused in his nervous system, but also made it all but impossible to eliminate these foods from his diet.

PART II

Over those first 4 to 5 years, there was relative stability in the treatment of both boys. Samuel, who was now for the most part quite well, would be brought in now and again for an acute respiratory ailments. Jordan was seen on a more consistent basis to manage his emotional and behavioral challenges.

But, as is sometimes the case in homeopathy, this status quo began to dissolve, first with one brother and then the other. It began with Samuel, who, at around the age of ten, began to put on weight. He also began to complain of being tired and his mother described how this once amiable child was becoming stubborn and testy.

Of course, it could simply be written off as the onset of adolescence but there seemed to be more to it than that. Samuel became more timid, developing into something of a homebody who wished to avoid social engagement and attention. He no longer would answer the telephone, let alone perform solo on stage as he had done for years. His sleep became disturbed and he craved carbohydrates, which added to both his lethargy and his weight.

From a homeopathic perspective, Samuel’s ‘picture’ or constitution was changing. There were no longer significant respiratory issues, but they had been replaced by other problems. Prescribing his former remedy was no longer of any benefit; a new prescription was necessary to match his evolving presentation.

Initially, I decided on the remedy Calcarea carbonica, a mineral salt derived from a layer of the shell of an oyster. A very commonly prescribed remedy, it is often used for timid children who are averse to any attention and who have a tendency to be lethargic and put on weight. Unfortunately, after some months, there was little indication that the remedy had any positive action.

In the meantime, about a year after his brother started shifting, Jordan developed an extraordinarily debilitating fatigue, quite beyond the normal lethargy to which he was prone. The slightest exertion made him short of breath. To compound the problem, his energy would return at night and he couldn’t get to sleep. This would add to the exhaustion the next morning.

In contrast to his brother, Jordan’s difficulties seemed less a gradual change than an acute onset of illness. Initial suspects were mononucleosis or low thyroid function, but in the end it turned out to be Lyme’s disease. He choose to begin antibiotic treatment, which seemed to increase his appetite but left him feeling, as he put it, ‘quite horrible.’

Around this same time, Samuel developed the unusual symptom of one eyebrow beginning to turn white. It was yet another indication that his constitutional picture was changing as well as a clue toward what that next remedy might be.

The concept of a ‘constitution’, which goes back to Hippocrates and the Greeks, is generally understood as an underlying state characterized by the individual physical and mental make-up of an individual. While there is a degree of difference in the way that various practitioners interpret it, for the most part, homeopaths take it to be something a person is born with and, as such, does not change easily – or at all.

But, in clinical practice, we do see individuals who are apparently of a particular ‘constitutional type’ and have done well on a corresponding remedy then needing to change remedies as their picture changes.

This fact can be interpreted in a number of ways. One interpretation is that first diagnosis was either superficial or only partially accurate, and a deeper more precise constitutional picture was present from the outset. Another perspective is that people do in fact change, that the ‘constitution’ is not an immutable character of an individual but is a snap shot at any given time of the aggregate of their physical and mental signs and symptoms.

A third notion is that while the constitution may not readily change, it is sometimes the case that deep inherited tendencies or weaknesses that have remained latent in an individual will manifest in the course homeopathic treatment. This inherited disposition, known homeopathically as a ‘miasm’, can rise to the surface via signs and symptoms as more superficial imbalances and disease are addressed.

PART III

In homeopathy, a ‘second prescription’ means a subsequent remedy prescribed after the initial one acted in a positive manner. It is not always the case that a second prescription is called for, but when the first remedy no longer provides adequate benefit, one is obliged to move on.

This can occur for a number of reasons including an acute illness as in the case of Jordan or a shift in constitution as in the case of Samuel. Either way, the strategy is to re-evaluate the patient, taking into account both newly arisen signs and symptoms as well as those original signs and symptoms that are still present. (In homeopathy, a ‘sign’ is a characteristic of an individual that is not pathological. This could be, for instance, a craving or aversion for a particular type of food or a preference to sleep on one side or the other.) Together, they form a new picture that, hopefully, indicates a new remedy.

After the first attempt at prescribing another remedy for Samuel proved unsuccessful, I was forced to re-evaluate his case yet again. What stood out were a general lethargy, a newly acquired shyness and the development of this peculiar symptom of the eyebrow hair turning white. Although it wasn’t as obvious, it turned out that the loss of color extended to areas of the forehead as well, indicating a depigmentation condition known as ‘vitiligo’.

Taken together along with his longstanding fear of snakes and strong aversion to onions, there was a clear picture of the remedy Thuja. Thuja is made from the fresh green twigs of the coniferous tree Arbor Vitae (meaning ‘Tree of Life’). It is, in homeopathic parlance, a ‘sycotic remedy’, (not ‘psychotic’!), meaning that it has a therapeutic relationship with one of the three most fundamental inherited dispositions or ‘miasms’.

In the six months since Samuel began treatment with this remedy, there has been a distinct improvement in his energy and a decrease in timidity. As his mother put it, “He has come out of himself.” The vitiligo is no longer spreading, though has not yet diminished.

The challenge in treating Jordan, as well as most Lyme’s patients, is the plethora of symptoms that usually accompany this condition. Although a discussion of the homeopathic treatment of Lyme’s is a lengthy topic unto itself, the gist of selecting an effective remedy lies in finding the truly characteristic symptoms. That is, it is essential to differentiate those symptoms common to the disease from those that are not. It is this latter group, the uncommon or characteristic symptoms, by which one can recognize the individual or constitutional nature of the patient and thus find a deep acting remedy.

One of the symptoms that stood out as most peculiar was the fact that Jordan’s fatigue and discomfort would always disappear just as the sun was setting. Combined with his difficulty falling asleep, fear of the dark (which was an old symptom of his still present even as a teenager) and a tendency to reproach himself for the slightest fault, the picture that emerged was of the remedy Medorrhinum.

This medicine is what is called a ‘nosode’. That is, it is a dilution that originates from diseased tissue. There are many such remedies in the homeopathic material medica that are derived from substances such a tubercular bacteria, cancer cells, syphilitic chancres or tissues infected with anthrax bacillus. They play an important role in homeopathy, often essential to treat deep-seated genetic or inherited imbalances.

Over the last year or so, the action of the Medorrhinum for Jordan has been nothing short of astounding. Not only have the Lyme’s symptoms all but totally disappeared, the angry, introverted and fearful adolescent that I had known for years, the one who found it nearly impossible to attend school or interact with the external world has blossomed into relatively well adjusted young man. He goes to school full time for the first time in his life, has gotten his drivers license and is a front line pitcher on the high school baseball team.

As for the remedy, Medorrhinum too is a sycotic medicine. In fact, it is derived from gonorrhea discharge. The sycotic miasm is an inherited disposition related to the venereal disease gonorrhea. From a homeopathic perspective, both Thuja and Medorrhinum are coupled together – a yin/yang pair, if you will – as the most important remedies to treat this genetic disposition.

There are many physical signs and symptoms related to this miasm, some of which Samuel and Jordan exhibited, but what may be of greater interest is the mental picture. A ‘sycotic’ persona has a deep sense that they are irreparably flawed, that they possess an internal weakness that cannot be resolved.

From this underlying disposition derive various behavior patterns such as introversion and timidity, dogmatic thinking and fanaticism or, conversely, extravagantly extroverted. All of these behavior patterns are mechanisms to hide and compensate for their inner sense of being flawed.

It is only through homeopathy that inherited traits can be understood and treated, and it is also on this deep level that one can understand how these two boys, so apparently different in physical constitution as well as personality, are indeed brothers.

 As was his nature, Samuel Hahnemann minced few words in describing his first hand observations of the treatment of the mentally ill.  In a footnote to his Organon of the Medical Art, which was first published in 1810, he wrote:

One must be astonished at the hard-heartedness and indiscretion of physicians in several mental institutions.  These cruel physicians, without seeking the true medical mode for such diseases…content themselves with tormenting these most pitiable of all human beings by means of the most violent beatings and other excruciating martyrdoms…. They lower themselves far beneath the level of prison guards, for prison guards execute such punishments only because it is the duty of their official position and do so upon criminals…¹

 It was, in fact, the plight of the mentally ill that was one of the main motivations for Hahnemann to create a radically different method of healing applicable to both physical and mental/emotional maladies.  While, thankfully, a lot has changed since that time in regard to the general attitude toward and the treatment of the mentally ill, the insights of the founder of Homeopathy two centuries ago concerning the nature of mental illness are still very instructive.

 Hahnemann categorized mental and emotional diseases as ‘one sided’ – meaning a type of illness where all the symptoms disappear except for a single main, prominent one.  In these diseases, the main symptom expressed itself in the mental sphere, the disease itself was of the entire organism, both mental and physical.

 Likewise, he insisted that, ‘in all the so-called somatic diseases…the mental and emotional frame of mind is always altered”. ²   It was his instruction that in the investigation of all disease conditions, the mental and emotional ones need to be thoroughly understood in order to get a true picture of the disease and to cure it.

 Centuries before the term even existed, Hahnemann was truly a ‘wholistic practitioner’.  No disease, he maintained, whether it manifested in one sphere or the other, could be properly understood or treated without comprehending that the mental/emotional and the soma (body) are always intimately interconnected.

 Interestingly, it was his observation that often in ‘so-called somatic diseases’ (he repeatedly used this term to emphasize the fact that there is no such thing as purely somatic illness), when the condition becomes life threatening, there will occur an increase in emotional symptoms accompanied by a decrease in the physical symptoms.  This is a way by which the organism holds onto life or as Hahnemann expresses it: “In a word, the maladies of the coarser bodily organs are transferred and diverted onto the almost spiritual, mental and emotional organs, which have never been reached, and are unreachable, by any dissecting scalpel.”³

 My own personal understanding and observation is that there are a significant number of cases in which suppressive therapies of physical illness can stimulate much the same phenomenon, that is the transference of disease from the body to the mental/emotional sphere.

 To manage these illnesses, it is necessary to use specific homeopathic remedies that match and quiet flare-ups of the acute symptoms of insanity, the ‘melancholia or frenzy’ that periodically arise.  Once the state is calmed, a deeper acting remedy can be chosen.

 The other main class of emotional disease does not originate from somatic illness, but is the result of ‘persistent worry, mortification, vexation, abuse, or repeated exposure to great fear or fright.’⁴   In contrast to the former group, these cases will respond to psychotherapeutic measures if they are relatively recent and have not yet affected the body.

 Whether of one class or another, curative remedies for these diseases are chosen to address the entire organism, the characteristics of the mental/emotional state as well as the physical.  (In order to adequately understand the physical side, it is necessary to investigate into the patient’s condition before the onset of the mental illness.)

 In modern parlance, these are called ‘constitutional’ remedies, that is, medicines that take into account and treat the entire complex of the mental, emotional and physical state as well as the dispositions that led to the state.

 1, 2, 3, 4:  Hahnemann, Samuel. The Organon of the Medical Art,  Aphorisms 228 edited by Wendy O’Reilly

PART II

The effective homeopathic treatment of mental illness is a challenging but often rewarding undertaking for patient and practitioner alike.

 Ideally, homeopaths endeavor to find a single remedy, the constitutional remedy, which reflects the full nature of the patient and, in turn, successfully addresses all aspects of his or her disease.  But as Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, wrote several hundred years ago, treatment will likely also demand the use of other remedies that reflect temporary acute states along with the constitutional.

 In today’s world, there is the additional challenge of working with persons who are under the influence of conventional pharmaceutical medicines.  Conventional drugs are in many ways a double-edged sword.

 On the one hand, in severe conditions where there can be extreme or dangerous behavior, the drugs can reduce the symptoms and modify the behavior.  The acute states will manifest less often, or not at all.  This makes managing the case simpler and less stressful for the practitioner, and can allow the patient, in certain cases, to live a relatively functional life.

 On the other hand, these drugs are rarely, if ever, curative.  That is, the underlying state that caused the patient to manifest an ‘illness’ is not changed, only the outward manifestations of the illness are suppressed.  So, without a potential cure, the patient is facing a life long regimen of medication, a pharmaceutical lobotomy in a sense.

 Supervising medical professionals, although they may change the medications or the dosages, are for the most part resistant to withdrawing them altogether because they understand their prescriptions are not curative and they are always working under the threat of malpractice suits.

 Of course, the medications themselves are usually toxic to the body, especially the liver, and cause other side-effects.  Amongst a whole host of drug induced problems, patients can appear zombie-like, experience extreme muscle tightness that makes them appear as if in a straightjacket, develop an uncontrollable appetite, have shakes, tremors or twitches.  These are all symptoms I have witnessed frequently.

 For the homeopath, perceiving the underlying nature of the patient from which the illness arises is crucial, but differentiating between the manifestations induced by medication and the manifestations of the patient’s illness can be difficult.  And if the drug regimen is heavy enough, the underlying state can be squelched to such an extent that neither patient nor prescriber can readily access it.

 In addition, the removal or reduction in dosage of the drugs induces a withdrawal reaction as the body begins to detoxify.  Patients can easily misinterpret this detoxification, often an unpleasant (to say the least) but positive sign that the body is cleansing itself, as an indication that they are still ill and should not or cannot get off the drug.  This will create a vicious cycle that can be difficult to break.

 One of the greatest challenges to proper homeopathic treatment is the need to meet the demands of acute episodes appropriately. Communications between patient and practitioner as well as access to medicines must be timely.  The telephone and internet make the former less of a problem than the latter.  A phone consult might reveal that the patient needs to a different remedy for the time being, but if they live a distance away without access to that remedy at a local pharmacy or healthfood store (or if it is after hours), then it might be a day or more before the prescription can be filled.

 Certainly, the existence of a homeopathic hospital would go a long way toward resolving these logistical issues.  It would also provide a safe situation where a patient could temporarily withdraw from the stresses and constraints of interacting with the outer world and receive attention from qualified practitioners who could rapidly respond to his or her needs.  Unfortunately, no such institutions have existed in this country for nearly a century.

 Yet, in spite of all these obstacles, there are many cases in which the partnership between patient and homeopath can produce profoundly positive results. (If there is a truly supportive conventional medical practitioner involved, who are few and far between but do in fact exist, so much the better.) Sometimes the circumstances will allow for a reduction or elimination of medication, sometimes they may not, but either way the patient is unalterably changed for the better.

]]> http://www.centerforhomeopathy.com/mental-illness-interpretation-treatment/feed/ 0 http://www.centerforhomeopathy.com/inflammation/ http://www.centerforhomeopathy.com/inflammation/#comments Sun, 16 Dec 2012 15:44:08 +0000 Center for Homepathy http://www.centerforhomeopathy.com/?p=673  

Rubor, calor, tumor, dolor and functio lasesa: These are the old medical terms for the five classic signs of inflammation, to wit redness, heat, swelling, pain and loss of function.   The word itself comes from the Latin term meaning ‘to set on fire’, and in the medical sense is an indication that the body is responding to signals that its tissues have in some manner been injured.

Inflammatory responses are initiated in order to rid the body of offending destructive stimuli such as pathogens like bacteria, viruses and parasites or chemical irritants, as well as repair the damage.   As such they are a vital protective response of a healthy organism.

Inflammation is typically mediated through the vascular tissue of the body as blood flow increases and blood vessels become more permeable so that fluids, proteins and white blood cells can be delivered to the area of injury.  As part of the response, there is an attempt to localize the insult and seal off the rest of the body from the pathogen, irritant or toxic agent.

Generally, inflammation, like diseases in general, is categorized as acute or chronic.  The classic five signs are indicators of the former while the latter tends to display more diffuse and generalized symptoms.  Acute inflammation is self-limiting, meaning that resolves relatively quickly.  Either the body overcomes the insult via an inflammatory response or else it succumbs to it.

Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, does not resolve in a timely fashion but continues over months, years or even decades.  It can be the result of an incomplete resolution of an acute situation, or else develop more insidiously over time without an initial strong inflammatory event.  Either way, slowly and inexorably, it compromises healthy physiological processes and the well being of the organism, contributing to or causing its demise.

The greatest medical challenges modern society faces today are in fact chronic inflammatory diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, eczema, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and a host of other auto-immune diseases such as scleroderma and Grave’s disease are but a few of the many that have long been understood to fall in this category.  In addition, it is becoming increasing clear that many other conditions such as heart disease and related conditions like high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, interstitial cystitis, and endometriosis are also the end result of chronic inflammatory responses.   Diseases that have flourished more recently such as Lymes and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are also included in this group.

The success of conventional pharmaceutical medicine is to a great extent due to drugs like antibiotics and steroids, both of which have proven to be powerful agents against acute inflammation.   But they also have strong side effects and are generally not suitable for long-term use in chronic inflammatory diseases.  More importantly, while they address inflammatory responses, these drugs generally do not resolve the underlying causes that initiate the inflammation.

Likewise, other pharmaceutical agents such as aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, immunosuppressive drugs such as methotrexate provide non-curative, symptomatic relief as well as a host of unwanted symptoms.

There are a host of non-pharmaceutical substances – botanical medicines, nutritional supplements, and homeopathic remedies – that can provide potent anti-inflammatory treatment.   One of the most common and effective is Omega 3 fatty acids.  Derived from marine as well as some plant sources, these poly-unsaturated fats decrease the production of pro-inflammatory molecules known as eicosanoids and cytokines.

Current research and clinical data have shown that Vitamin D is also a very strong anti-inflammatory.  It has been shown that it activates a gene that interferes with inflammatory responses by binding directly to DNA.  Because the importance of this vitamin and effective blood levels has only recently been recognized as well as publicity to avoid direct sunlight, most people tend to be deficient – often alarmingly so.  A simple blood test and inexpensive supplementation can easily rectify this.

Another traditional anti-inflammatory is curcumin, the active ingredient of the most common Indian spice and ayurvedic herb tumeric.  For thousands of years this member of the ginger family has been taken internally and applied topically for wide variety of conditions.  In addition to acting as an antibacterial, promoting digestion, and balancing intestinal flora, it is gaining widespread attention for the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s and a host of other inflammatory diseases.

Homeopathy provides perhaps the most sophisticated and specific form of anti-inflammatory treatment.   The homeopathic armamentarium provides a large number of remedies each with its own specific indications, action and affinity for particular body tissues.  Medicines such as the nightshade Belladonna, Apis mellifica derived from the honeybee and Arnica Montana, a member of the sunflower family, are all widely used for various inflammatory conditions.

While all these are valuable allies against unwanted inflammation, there is also a need to identify and remove the underlying causes for chronic inflammatory responses.

PART II

 Most disease on some level or another involves an inflammatory process.  For some conditions, a general strategy of avoiding commonly recognized inflammatory agents, introducing anti-inflammatory substances and enhancing the general vitality of the body is sufficient to affect a cure.

But there are other conditions, often more longstanding and more entrenched, for which effective treatment entails recognizing and addressing the underlying causes of the inflammation with greater specificity.  In these cases, diagnosis is often missed by conventional medical examination or test for two reasons: the cause is not being sought out and/or detection of the cause is too subtle for current standard methodology.

A very good – and common – example is cardiovascular disease.  While this is a general term encompassing many different specific conditions, conventional diagnosis whether it be an electrocardiogram or a blood test identifies the state of the heart, the blood vessels and the blood but reveals relatively little about the origins of that state.

Consequently, all too often treatment occurs only after the inflammatory process has continued undetected and unabated for many years.  This causes life threatening tissue destruction and demands ‘heroic’ intervention by means of surgery to repair the damage and accompanying pharmaceutical agents to reduce the inflammatory byproducts such as cholesterol.   Clearly, in such circumstances, these can be lifesaving procedures, but diagnosis from a different perspective and treatment at an earlier stage will often make it possible to avoid more dramatic procedures.

While there are a myriad of causes of inflammation, the majority can generally be classified into a relatively few categories: biotoxins, industrial toxins, medical toxins, environmental sensitivities and food sensitivities.  These are not absolutely exclusive of each other and a person can be – and often is – challenged with multiple sources of inflammation.

As an example, it is often the case that people suffering from mercury toxicity because of amalgam fillings will also have chronic fungal infections as well as become more susceptible to Lymes disease.   Sometimes it is difficult to tell which of the multiple toxins is primary, but clues can be found through a thorough history.

The biotoxins include microorganisms such as parasites, bacteria, viruses, fungi and a lesser-known category called mycoplasma.   While many of us are aware of health risks posed by acute viral, bacterial and parasitic infestations, there is generally less appreciation of the pervasive chronic presence of many of these and the problems that they can cause.

Much common pathology, especially autoimmune disorders, has been associated with various biotoxins.  For instance, the Coxsackie virus is often found in autoimmune thyroid disorder and Crohn’s disease is associated with amoebic and fungal infection.  Of particular note is the presence of mycoplasma in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

These unique organisms have no cell walls, seeming to fall somewhere between viruses and bacteria, although they have been classified as a genus of bacteria.  The discovery back some 30 years ago of the association with rheumatoid arthritis was quite controversial at the time and most allopathic authorities dismissed the proponents of this theory.  But over time it has gained widespread acceptance.

A fascinating perspective on the role of biotoxins in chronic illness can be found in the book “Accidental Cure”, by Dr. Simon Yu.  Currently a practicing physician in St. Louis, Yu found himself at one point in his career treating indigenous populations in South America.  He often prescribed potent anti-parasitic medications, since like many places in the third world, parasites were quite common.  Much to his surprise though, he saw how these medications would often reverse very severe pathologies that seemingly were unrelated.  Back in St. Louis, he began to treat his patients with severe illnesses such as cancer and Parkinson’s in a similar fashion with positive results.

Heavy metals, pesticides and insecticides are perhaps the most common industrial toxins that are almost universally present in the tissues of most animal species.  These can lie at the root of any number of diseases, but are particularly associated with various neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, ALS, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Medical toxins are chiefly comprised of pharmaceutical agents, although certain surgical interventions also fall into this category.  In a sense, these can be thought of as a subset of industrial toxins.  Long-term use can cause tissue degradation, irritation and inflammation, which can also open the door to various other toxicities.   A common example is the use of antibiotics or the birth control pill as a precursor to chronic fungal infection.

Also falling into this category are immunizations, which present an especially complex challenge to the body.  On the one hand, there is the well-publicized presence of mercury as a preservative in some vaccines, while on the other hand, the very notion of a vaccine is to irritate the body tissues into creating an immunological response.  Intentional introduction of toxic material into the system by inoculation bypasses most of the body’s normal defenses against external pathogens and can have long lasting repercussions.   These have been associated with a widespread number of conditions such as cognitive disorders and diabetes.

PART III

When the body mistakenly identifies part of itself as foreign or pathological, consequently initiating a damaging immunesystem attack on that part it is termed an autoimmune illness.  Currently, there are several hundred of these diseases thahave been recognized, ranging from the familiar such as rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile diabetes to the more esoteric such as ‘retroperitoneal fibrosis’.

The hallmark of such illnesses is widespread inflammation throughout the body. This self-destructive process can occur in just about any location and tissue in the body. The brain, the gut, the sense organs, the glands, the sexual organs, connective tissue, and the skin – nothing seems to be spared.  Of course, not all of these are assaulted in any one person. There is a factor of individual susceptibility, or what homeopaths call the “diathesis” (the hereditary predisposition of the body to a disease, a group of diseases, an allergy, or another disorder) that no doubt plays a critical role in determining what kind of autoimmune disorder might arise in any given person.

According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), there are about 50 million persons in the United States alone, about 1 in 6 of us suffering from some form of autoimmune illness. And, the number of people affected by them is increasing.  “It is one of the top ten causes of death in women under the age of 65, is the second highest cause of chronic illness, and is the top cause of morbidity in women in the United States.”¹

Many critical questions remain to be answered about this phenomenon. Through the lens of conventional medical research, the causes and treatment of autoimmune illness are not well understood.  Nor is the reason that they are affecting more and more people.

Certainly, common sense would dictate that the increasing degradation of the environment plays a causative role.  We are continually being inundated with heavy metals, chemicals and electro-magnetic fields to which our bodies have hitherto been unaccustomed.  Perhaps we can conceptualize autoimmune illness as a desperate attempt by our immune system to ‘clean house as the overall toxic burden becomes too great.

Theories aside though, there has been some harder evidence about at least one of the factors – and perhaps the main factor – involved in the precipitous rise in autoimmune disease.

Three scientists affiliated with Kobe University in Japan published a study in 2009 about their research into the role that antigen stimulation plays in the development of autoimmunity.²   Antigens are toxins or other foreign substances that induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies which are the blood proteins (or ‘immunoglubulins’) that the immune system uses to identify and neutralize foreign substances in the body, most commonly bacteria and viruses.

In common parlance, ‘antigen stimulation’ means immunization or vaccination.  The researchers wrote, “The method we have chosen was to stimulate the system maximally by antigen to the levels far beyond its steady-state just like testing the capability of automobile. In a perfectly reproducible experiment in which the mice not prone to autoimmune diseases were immunized repeatedly with an antigen, we have unexpectedly and surprisingly discovered that overstimulation of immune system beyond its self-organized criticality inevitably leads to systemic autoimmunity”.

This isn’t, in fact, the first research to point this fact out.  In the scientific journal “Autoimmunity”, a 2005 article states that while bacterial, viral and parasitic infections along with chemical exposures have been shown to induce autoimmune diseases, the same appears to be true for vaccines.³ The same mechanisms that act in infectious invasion of the host, apply equally to the host response to vaccination. It has been accepted for diphtheria and tetanus toxoid, polio and measles vaccines and GBS (group B streptococcus) . Also this theory has been accepted for MMR vaccination and development of autoimmune thrombocytopenia, MS has been associated with HBV vaccination.

Before World War II, the German physician Hans Heinrich Reckweg coined the term ‘Homotoxicology’, which is basically the study of how the body adapts to various forms of external and external toxins by manifesting various forms of illness progress deeper and deeper into the tissue structure.  To reverse this toxic process, he developed therapies based complex homeopathic formulas.

Reckweg strongly believed that since they are attenuated to be very weak and are introduced by methods that jump past the normal defense systems of the body, vaccinations confuse the immune system, making it difficult for it to judge whether the introduced substance is ‘self’ or ‘non-self’.   It is like being in a horror movie where aliens take over people’s bodies, making it impossible for the police or army to differentiate between ‘real’ people and ‘alien’ people and causing them to mistakenly attack the wrong ones.   The only difference is that this isn’t a movie…

Even before Reckweg, homeopaths have long inveighed against vaccinations.  James Tyler Kent, perhaps the most famous and influential American homeopath wrote in 1901:  “I have investigated the pros and cons of vaccinations and after perennial observ ations and accurate weighting of circumstances I came to the conclusion, that the proofs that argue for vaccinations are very doubtful. In fact vaccinations have contributed enormously to damage individuals and the entire mankind. They caused many humans to get sick, have produced many ulcers and have masked, I don’t doubt this, many constitutional ailments.” ⁴

1. AARDA, The Cost Burden of Autoimmune Disease: The Latest Front in the War on Healthcare Spending, 2011.http://www.aarda.org/pdf/cbad.pdf

2. Ken Tsumiyama, Yumi Miyazaki, Shunichi Shiozawa,  Self-Organized Criticality Theory of Autoimmunity.PLoS ONE, 9 December 2009 | Volume 4 | Issue 12 | e8382  http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/self-organized-theory-autoimmunity.pdf

3. Molina, Shoenfeld.  ‘Infection, vaccines and other environmental triggers of autoimmunity”, Autoimmunity. 2005 May: 38 (3): 235-45

4. Kent,  James Tyler, “The Homeopathic Recorder”, Vol. XVI, No.12, 1901

PART IV

Chronic inflammation is at the root of a broad spectrum of diseases that are amongst the most challenging to treat. Rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, allergies, heart disease, diabetes, interstitial cystitis, chronic Lymes disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, eczema, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and other auto-immune diseases too numerous to list all can be classified as such.

In fact, there are few chronic conditions that are not in some way related to inflammatory processes.  This also includes metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of raised triglycerides, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, low high density lipoproteins and obesity which affects nearly half of the population over 50 years of age in the United States.

Effective treatment – or better yet, prevention – of chronic inflammation would literally transform healthcare in this country.  Yet, conventional medical approaches for the most part focus on after the fact management of symptoms without offering much in the way of cure, let alone prophylactic measures.

There are though relatively effective measures that can be taken both in regard to prevention and cure of chronic inflammation.  Broadly speaking, there are two mutually complementary strategies.  One is the removal of specific agents of inflammation.  This would encompass elimination of parasites, viruses and other pathological microorganisms present in the body, detoxification from heavy metals such as lead and especially mercury, as well as detoxification from industrial or agricultural pollutants.

It is worthwhile to note that while these toxins may be present in the body without causing any symptoms, often it is the case that the body promotes inflammatory processes as a self-protective mechanism to rid itself of the toxic burden.  As one example, a patient was relieved of chronic abscesses in her upper torso when a large mercury amalgam dental filling was replaced with more benign materials while simultaneously undertaking a heavy metal cleanse.

Another as of yet under-appreciated cause of inflammation is electromagnetic field pollution, which unfortunately has become almost ubiquitous.  Computers, cell phones, wireless networks, ‘smart meters’ and even electric currents disturb metabolic processes to a greater or lesser extent resulting in various forms of inflammation.

While relatively few people are sensitive to the degree that they associate specific symptoms or pathology with EMF pollution, they do indeed exist.  These ‘canaries in the coal mine’ seem to have a particular susceptibility and commonly complain of disturbed sleep, confusion and/or fatigue in the presence of strong EMF fields.

Ironically, their sensitivity serves them well as they tend to get out of harms way.

For instance, a 15-year-old patient recently reported that her insomnia and stomachaches disappeared once the power company removed the smart meter that was placed on the wall below her bedroom.  More insidious are the effects on the majority of people who are not so sensitive. Researchers in the field have implicated EMF pollution in a wide variety of chronic inflammatory illnesses including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Aside from the removal of external causative factors, there are any number of treatment strategies that can effectively detoxify the body of inflammation causing agents.  There are herbal, homeopathic and nutritional supplement protocols designed for various organs and body tissues, as well as protocols aimed at various toxic factors, be they biological (‘biotoxins’) or chemical in nature.

The other general approach is to strengthen and cleanse the body as a whole without targeting specific agents or individual organs or systems.   Constitutional homeopathy can be very effective in this regard – sometimes to the extent that it stimulates the body to rid itself of the toxin.

Another very powerful therapy is the implementation of what is generally known as an ‘anti-inflammatory diet’.  Although there are some discrepancies between various versions promoted by different practitioners, the gist of it remains the same.

 The heart of the diet is reduced intake of starchy carbohydrates and simple sugars.  An abundance of carbohydrates and refined sugars promotes high blood sugar and consequently accelerated insulin production.  This in turn will promote inflammatory processes throughout the body.  Some diets allow a certain amount of whole grains while others eliminate them altogether, but refined or highly processed starches are excluded.

In particular, fructose – otherwise known as fruit sugar – which is most commonly derived from sugar cane, sugar beets and corn are prohibited.  This is especially the case for seemingly ubiquitous ingredient of high fructose corn syrup.

Good quality fats, as found in virgin coconut and palm oils as well as other saturated fats found in meats are anti-inflammatory and play an important role.  Other oils such as olive oil and avocado oil, which is rich in monounsaturated fats, are also helpful.  On the other hand, trans fats found in hydrogenated oils, margarine and many other processed foods are to be strictly avoided as they promote inflammation.

Vegetables and fruits, as fresh and organic are of as possible, are of course included since they have anti-inflammatory properties on top of providing necessary vitamins and minerals.  Juicing is an excellent way to take in an abundance of them.

Once the diet is in place, strengthening the gut with healthy bacteria found in probiotic supplements or in naturally fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchi is very helpful.   Finding or making these naturally fermented products does take some effort, but is worth the effort.

Along with this, supplementation with Omega 3 oils, Vitamins C, D and magnesium will go a long way in assisting the body to stop chronic inflammation.

Shingles can be one of the most painful illnesses.   It begins somewhat innocuously with a general malaise of fever, headache and fatigue but is soon followed by intense stinging and burning pains arising on the skin.  This is usually accompanied by local itching, skin hypersensitivity or tingling.  The outbreak is localized to a specific belt-like strip of skin on one side of the body.  It can be on the torso, chest and or back, on the head or face even extending into the eyes, or else in the arms or legs.

Sometime between a few days to a few weeks later, along with the continuing pains a rash appears.  Three are small fluid filled blisters that over time will dry up, crust over and fall off.

Formally known as ‘herpes zoster’ (‘zoster’ meaning a belt or girdle), this affliction is caused by the varicella zoster virus VZV), which is the same virus that causes chickenpox.  Although in the same family, it is distinct from the herpes simplex virus that causes oral and genital herpes.

Chicken pox is actually the result of the initial infection of VZV.  After this phase has resolved, the virus doesn’t leave the body but goes dormant, residing in nerve cells along the spine.  When reactivated, it appears as shingles traveling down the axon of the nerve into the area of the body (or ‘dermatone’) that the nerve covers.  This accounts for the belt-like appearance as well as the one sidedness.  The virus can also spread from one nerve to others, causing corresponding symptoms in other dermatones.

While shingles is quite painful it is usually a self-limiting illness, typically running its course in about a month.  But, for some people, estimates run at about 15% of those who develop shingles, the symptoms do not fully resolve after the initial rash disappears, instead evolving into a chronic syndrome of pain known as ‘post herpetic neuralgia’ that can last for months or years afterward.

While the cause for the reactivation of the VZV into shingles is not fully known, the single most important correlation is advancing age.  About 1 to 3 persons per 1000 develop shingles yearly, but this figure rises to somewhere between 4 to 11 per 1000 for those over the age of 65.  It is thought that deteriorating immunity against the virus is the chief reason that it reappears later in life as zoster.  Exposure to toxins and mechanical injury, along with significant stress – all of which also affect the immune system, can be a factor.  Shingles cannot be ‘caught’ by being exposed to someone suffering from it (although one can catch chickenpox from contact with shingles eruptions).

Interestingly, since the late 1990’s there has been a 90% increase in the occurrence of shingles in adults.  Not coincidentally, since 1995 a massive chicken pox vaccination campaign was initiated nationwide.  It is logical to surmise that the resulting suppression of active chicken pox in children has deprived the adult population with the exposure to the virus that kept the immunity against it strong.  (This is similar to the idea that widespread overuse of antibacterial soaps and handwipes deprives children from developing strong immunity against various bacteria.)

Since that point in time, there has also been an increase in children developing shingles – a phenomenon that almost unknown previously.  Of course, the pharmaceutical industry is copasetic with these developments because it allows them to role out yet another salable product – the shingles vaccine.   It is also worthwhile to mention that the chickenpox vaccination itself does not proffer immunity against shingles.

Conventional treatment of shingles is quite limited and certainly not curative, especially when it comes to post-herpetic neuralgia.  In the acute phase, anti-viral drugs such as acyclovir are prescribed with the goal of reducing the length of the illness.  They generally have little effect in terms of either preventing or treating the chronic neuralgia.  Once the illness has entered that phase, various topical medications, pain medications including narcotics, anti-depressants and even nerve-block surgery are the standard, but not very successful treatment.

Fortunately, homeopathic medicines provide a consistently effective approach in the treatment of shingles.  There are nearly 100 remedies that have been successfully prescribed for both the acute phase and post-herpetic neuralgia – and those are just the ones found in the standard literature.

The selection of a particular medicine is based on what are called the ‘characteristic’ or individuating symptoms experienced by the patient.   For instance, on what side of the body the rash appears, what time of the day are the pains better or worse, or whether heat or cold in the form of a shower or room temperature increases or decreases the pain.   The appearance of the rash itself as well as the emotional state also provides important information for choosing the remedy.

As an example, Ranunculus bulbosa – the bulbous Buttercup so common to our woods, is one of the most commonly prescribed remedies for acute and chronic neuralgia.  Ranunculus has a strong affinity for the nerves.  It is indicated when the zoster appears on the torso or chest, especially when it is preceded or followed by pain between the ribs.  The Ranunculus rash is characterized by blister-like vesicles with a dark bluish appearance.  There is with great itching and burning.  These patients tend to be chilly and feel better with warm applications and rest.  They also can be quite irritable, easily to start a quarrel but yet they generally do not like to be alone.

Each case of shingles, when carefully diagnosed, will yield similar specific details that allows for the successful selection of a remedy individualized to the symptoms – and more importantly, to the person.

Concerned about the antibiotic residues in the chicken you are eating?  It turns out that antibiotics is only one of a number of ‘additives’ that may be finding their way into poultry meat. Scientists from Johns Hopkins and Arizona State University researching the presence of antibiotics in poultry not only detected banned antibiotics but also found traces of Benadryl, Tylenol, caffeine, arsenic and personal care products (which could mean anything from chapstick to cosmetics to perfume).¹

 To quote one of the authors of the study, “It is unbelievable what we found.”  Not quite unbelievable.   It is known that arsenic is fed to poultry to prevent infection and give the meat a more appealing color. Benadryl and Tylenol have a sedative effect on the birds, which given their concentration camp like confinement, might be a blessing for them at least.  It isn’t clear why caffeine and cosmetics would be found, but I suppose we should be happy on two accounts: Prozac was only found in Chinese poultry, and, it makes one all but forget about ‘pink slime’.

The studies were actually done on chicken feathers, which might one hope that the contaminants wouldn’t actually find their way into the meat.  But, unfortunately, post-slaughter, the feathers are ‘rendered’ (meaning melted down and ground up, more or less) into ‘feather meal’.  The feather meal is then processed into animal feed and fertilizer.  So, these chemicals are being widely recycled into our food supply.

And those amongst us who could be feeling a tad comforted by the fact that they eat organically might want to reconsider.  Feather meal is an acceptable ingredient in ‘organic fertilizer’.

Speaking of cosmetics, a recently released study from the Journal of Applied Toxicology ² found that a common cosmetic ingredient to be present in 158 out of 160 samples of breast tissue collected from 40 different cancer related mastectomies.

The ingredient in question is a class of chemical compounds called parabens.  They are widely used as preservatives in varying forms of cosmetic products, including underarm deodorant, shampoos, shaving gels, pharmaceuticals and food additives.   Although parabens are effective and inexpensive ingredients, they also are known to have an estrogenic effect promoting the development of tumors, especially in the breast.

This estrogenic effect, often termed ‘estrogen mimicry’, occurs when molecules attach themselves to cellular estrogen receptor sites disturbing normal estrogen metabolism.  How these substances act appears not to be fully understood as of yet.  It is thought that they can actually act to either mimic natural estrogen or conversely, to block the action of natural estrogen because they are occupying the receptor sites.

Also, it seems that varying doses of the same mimic will affect the body in different ways.  A stronger dose does not necessary cause a more powerful but similar reaction as a lower dose.  This phenomenon, though somewhat counterintuitive but familiar to anyone well versed in homeopathy,  is known as ‘nonmonotonc dose response’.

As an example, when rats are exposed to 100 parts per billion of the infamous synthetic estrogen DES that was given to pregnant women for 30 years during the mid 20^th century, the rats became emaciated.   But when they were given only 1 part per billion, they developed morbid obesity.

There are known estrogen mimics – otherwise known as ‘environmental estrogens’ or ‘xenoestrogens’ – in a wide range of manmade chemicals such as plastics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, PCBs, and, of course, personal care products.   Recent research has also there is a class of mimics comprised of metals such as aluminum, cadmium, lead, tin, and mercury, to name but a few, that are now being implicated in cancers.3

Amongst these, cadmium has been the focus of research indicating that women with higher dietary consumption were 21% more likely to develop breast cancer than those with lower intake.   While foods such as potatoes, whole grains, and shellfish are natural sources of cadmium, it also finds its way in to the food supply from fossil fuel air pollution naturally and fertilizers.  Another source is costume jewelry manufactured in China.

Estrogen pollution is not only implicated in cancer, but is also thought to be a chief cause of endometriosis – a disease in which uterine cells grow outside the uterus, and contributes to low sperm counts in males of all species.   It has also been connected to a number of neurological diseases because these compounds can alter brain function.

Despite these pervasive pathological effects, the most common serious consequence of estrogen pollution appears to be cancer of the female reproductive system, especially breast cancer.

1. Kristof, Nicholas.  ‘Arsenic in Our Chicken?’.  NY Times, April 4, 2012  2. Journal of Applied Toxicology, V. 32, # 3, pgs 219-232, March 2012

3. Healy, Melissa.  ‘Cadmium in diet is linked to higher breast cancer

risk’, LA Times, March 15, 2012.

Part II

 In human beings, adipose tissue, or what we commonly call ‘body fat’ is found beneath the skin, around certain organs, in the bone marrow and in the breast.  Actually, fat only makes up about 80% of adipose tissue and it is a highly complex substance that performs many functions.  It contains connective tissue, nerve tissue, vascular tissue and immune cells.

Body fat is a significant endocrine organ, both receiving signals from the hormonal system elsewhere in the body as well as secretes endocrine substances.  For instance, one of the most significant of these is leptin, which is a hormone that is essential for regulating energy on a metabolic level and is plays a key role in controlling weight.  Another substance is plasminogen, a precursor of plasmin, which plays a key role in blood clotting.  In addition, these cells also play a role in the metabolism of certain forms of steroid hormones.

The human breast is primarily composed of adipose tissue that surrounds the mammary glands. This is the reason why the breast changes in size and hardness based on various hormonal fluctuations during puberty, menopause, menstruation, stimulation and lactation.  While both sexes have breasts with adipose and mammary glands, only females develop during puberty due to the stimulation of estrogen and other sex hormones.  The male breast remains undeveloped and is less hormonally sensitive.

Because of their hormonal sensitivity, it is easy to understand why the female breast is susceptible to disease due to hormonal irregularities. In addition, adipose tissue is also a significant repository for various types of toxins that accumulate in the body. Two of the most significant classes of these are heavy metals – such as mercury, cadmium, aluminum, lead, copper, chromium and nickel – and what is generally know as ‘POPS’ – persistent organic pollutants.

Heavy metals, particularly cadmium, have been shown to be hormone disruptors that mimic the effect of estrogen and thus enhance estrogen activity.  Most breast cancer is initially estrogen sensitive and is stimulated by the increased estrogen.   In addition, the metals have been connected to the production of destructive free radicals, damage to lipid cells, DNA damage and tumor growth.

These hydrocarbons (consisting of hydrogen and carbon) have an affinity for fat tissue because they are ‘lipophilic’, meaning that they dissolve in fat tissue.  Primary examples are PCBs, often found in coolant fluid, PBDEs and other flame retardants, DDT and other pesticides such as Mirex, Toxaphene, and hexachlobenzene.   They are also found in plastics, paints and many other substances that have become an integral part of modern human society.

At this point, contamination is pervasive throughout the globe, spread from their source by wind and water, they can be found in the Antarctic as well as the distant tropical seas.  The process of ‘bioaccumulation’ and ‘biomagnification’ enhances the effects of POPS, especially in humans and other living organisms at the top of the food chain.   Since they are fat soluble but have extremely poor water solubility, POPS move from water environments which they may have contaminated and bioaccumulate in organisms that have fat cells.

They first accumulate in phytoplankton and other microorganisms, then by animal planktons, and continue to work their way up the food chain:  through invertebrates, then smaller fishes to larger ones, to birds and mammals.  At each successive ‘trophic level’, the effects of the pollutants are magnified because the concentration increases and they are not released when the body uses the fat cells for energy production.    Research has shown that by the time they reach the top of the food chain, POPS can reach concentrations of 70,000 times the ‘background amount’ found in soil and water.2

Of course, breast disease is not the only outcome of exposure to POPS.

They are especially toxic to children.  Early exposure, whether in utero or thereafter, has been linked to lowered immune function, abnormal reproductive system develop, diminished cognitive function and higher risks for cancer.3

Given the pervasiveness of various forms of environmental pollution, whether heavy metals, POPS or the ever increasing exposure to various manmade electromagnetic frequencies, a proactive approach toward avoiding these influences, diagnosing their presence in various body tissues and eliminating them via physiological mechanisms of detoxification is essential in maintaining health over the long term.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of healthcare today is not proactive at all.  Instead, it is geared toward providing dramatic and often destructive interventions once the internalized toxicity manifests as overt pathologies and tissue degeneration.

Given the vulnerability of breast tissue to absorbing high levels of pollutants, it would be especially beneficial if there were truly prophylactic diagnostic and treatment options available to women in particular.  Ironically, even some of the most widespread diagnostic procedures currently used are toxic in and of themselves – and not necessarily all that accurate.

1. Blaurock-Busch, E. PhD, “ Chelation Corner – Toxic Metals and Breast Cancer: New Research and Development, Townshend Newsletter, 08/07

2.  “What are POPS?”, World Bank,  http://go.worldbank.org/K0JIG6N290

3. “Persistent Organic Pollutants:  Impact on Child Health”, World Health Organization, 2010

PART III

The susceptibility of breast tissue to the accumulation of toxins as well as the consequent high rate of breast cancer has made early stage diagnosis a priority for many decades.  But the widely accepted diagnostic procedure of choice, mammography, is not without significant flaws.

So great indeed are the problems with mammography that some are now wondering whether the negative consequences outweigh the benefits.  The controversial nature of the procedure is highlighted even further by the fact that there is another imaging technique available that is in many ways less problematic and also possesses a superior capacity to diagnose prophylactically, that is to indicate changes in breast tissue before the actual development of cancer.  This technique can often identify abnormalities years before X-rays.

Mounting concern about mammography culminated in a report issued nearly 3 years ago by the US Preventive Services Task Force – a Congressionally authorized & governmentally supported group of independent experts charged with making recommendations about preventive services – that suggested that women wait another 10 years until the age of 50 before having regular mammograms, and that they only get them every two years as opposed to annually.

The most obvious risk that led to the changed recommendation is the exposure to ionizing radiation.   Ionizing radiation, like X-rays, produces electrically charged particles – ions – that damage biological tissue.  It causes cancer, and even though the risk is often minimized, mammograms are cancerous.

There is also concern that ‘mammographic compression’, the squeezing of the breast that takes place, during the procedure is damaging to the tissue and can cause the spread of cancer if it is already present.

Another problem is the fact that interpretation of mammograms leads to a considerable number of false positives. These misdiagnoses, in turn, lead to invasive diagnostic procedures such as biopsies and treatment, both of which are unnecessary and harmful.  Part of the problem is that the technology does not allow radiologists to differentiate between harmful invasive cancers and non-invasive cancers that may not need aggressive treatment.

Recently, Harvard published research that indicated there is a 20% incidence of over-diagnosis, and that for every one woman who has been detected with breast cancer, 6 to 10 will mistakenly diagnosed.  The study points out that “Radiologists have been trained to find even the smallest of tumors… (and) that this practice has a caused a problem for women – diagnosis of breast cancer that wouldn’t cause symptoms or death.”

Dr. Christine Northrup, a well known and widely published authority on women’s health,  cites the research indicating  “that mammograms often led to needless treatments and were linked to a 20 percent increase in mastectomies, many of which were unnecessary”, and that “if a woman has an annual mammogram for 10 years, she has a 50 percent chance of having a breast biopsy.”

On the other hand, it is estimated that nearly one in 5 cancers can be missed by mammography. This is particularly an issue for women with high breast tissue density, which is nearly 50% of the population.  Dr. Joseph Mercola points out that “mammography’s sensitivity for dense breasts is as low as 27 percent—meaning about 75 percent of dense-breasted women are at risk for a cancer being missed if they rely solely on mammography.”

In contrast to all the challenges presented by mammography, a technology known as “thermography” has many advantages.  Thermography, or “thermographic imaging”, creates images showing the variations in heat being emitted from an object or a certain area.  It has long been used in industry and commerce and for the last 30 years has been an FDA approved medical diagnostic procedure.

The screening procedure uses ultra-sensitive, infra-red cameras to capture images of the breast to aid in the early detection of breast irregularities. Sophisticated computers analyze the images to detect the minute increases in surface temperature and vascular changes that may be occurring within the breast.

Thermography is based on the fact that the presence of cancer is associated with a phenomenon called ‘neoangiogenesis’, meaning the production of new blood vessels and the activation of previously inactive blood vessels.  The resultant increase in circulation provides the necessary nutrients to feed the malignant tissue.  The increased vascular activity increases temperatures in the affected area, which is picked up by the imaging.

PART IV

 There is a law of physics stating that all objects with a temperature above absolute zero (about 459 degrees Fahrenheit below 0) emit heat.  The heat energy thus produced falls in a part of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation known as ‘infrared light’.  With wavelengths longer than those the human eye can detect, heat or ‘thermal energy’ is felt but has long been an invisible domain.

This changed in the early 1950’s when a technology was developed that made it possible to see the thermal energy emanating from an object.  In the half century since, the technology producing these thermal images has evolved into a highly sophisticated and accurate means to make visible patterns of energy that can reveal crucial information about the nature of the object being viewed.

Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging (DITI), otherwise known as ‘Medical Infrared Thermographic Imaging’ (MTI) is, as the latter name implies, the use of this technology on living organisms for medical purposes.  More specifically, it is a powerful diagnostic technique that can reveal physiological abnormalities in the body, oftentimes well before gross pathological changes have manifested.

This is due to the fact that unlike many diagnostic procedures, with DITI the diagnostician is looking for patterns of energy – in this case heat energy, and not organic tissue changes.  Invariably, in any disease process, organic tissue change is preceded by some shift in healthy physiological processes accompanied by changes in the metabolism and cellular activity.  Consequently, the energy patterns emitted by the body will also be altered.

The  ‘digital map’ of the body that is created using DITI has been especially useful in revealing the following conditions:

• Inflammatory processes seen in arthritis, heart disease, physical trauma, amongst many other condition,

• Irritation of nerve tissue associated with chronic pain,

• Unusually rapid development of blood vessels – known as neoangiogenisis  – that accompanies cancer.

All of these applications are due to the fact that the surface temperature of the body rises in areas where inflammation, nerve irritation or increases in blood vessels appear.   Thermograms can also distinguish a characteristic appearance associated with neoangiogenisis.

Because of the superficial position of the breasts on the body, thermography is especially useful accurate in detecting abnormalities in breast tissue.  This is why currently by far the most common application – and one that has been officially approved by the FDA for over 30 years – is for the diagnosis of breast cancer.

In comparison to mammography, DITI has many advantages:

• A thermographic image will not produce false positives for scar tissue, implants or fibrocystic conditions.  It is often quite difficult to differentiate these from malignant tissue with mammograms, so women often are forced to undergo further testing which can be quite invasive and otherwise unnecessary.

• Thermography does a better job at visualizing dense breast tissue than mammography.  The dense tissue will appear nearly opaque in mammogram and it occurs in a large percentage of women, especially younger women.

• It is not dangerous. There is no destructive ionizing radiation as in the case of mammography, so it doesn’t cause the very condition that is being diagnosed.

• There is no need to flatten the breast or otherwise traumatize the tissue using DITI like there is in mammography.

Diagnostically, it also is quite accurate.  A research trial performed at New York Presbyterian Hospital–Cornell, published this spring in the Annals of Internal Medicine, studied 94 women who were recommended for breast biopsies based on mammograms and ultrasound, and who also were given DITI.  Of this group, 58 of the 60 women – 97% – who had positive biopsies had been identified by DITI.

In another study, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin found that thermal imaging when reviewed by trained experts is 10 times more accurate at determining if a person will develop breast cancer compared to her family history.

Even more notable is the fact that the research showed that many seemingly abnormal thermograms that did not correlate with positive mammograms at the time were accurate predictors of cancer.  That is, the thermogram was showing a disturbance in the breast tissue that years later – sometimes as much as 8 to 10 years – developed into a cancer diagnosable via mammography or a biopsy.

Obviously, if heeded, this advanced warning would allow for the possibility to take preventative measures to avoid further deterioration as well as improve the condition in the breast.  These might include any number of modalities such as diet, nutritional supplementation, botanical medicines, acupuncture, homeopath and the like.

Cancer doesn’t just happen.  It is a process that evolves over time.  The current binary medical model of diagnosis – one either has cancer or doesn’t – is outmoded and misleading.  Thermography is a tool that gives a picture of the state of breast tissue and affords a person the opportunity to respond proactively.

A woman I’ll call ‘Sandra’ came in for an appointment after a hiatus of over a decade. Originally, she had been successfully treated for some menstrual issues as well as skin rashes, but I lost touch with her after she moved away. With the prospect of moving back into the area plus the advent of Skype (which is a wonderful tool to do consultations at a distance), she decided to get back in touch regarding some more recent health concerns.

It seems that in the interim, Sandra had experienced some difficult times, and had gone on a psychoactive drug for a number of years. At a certain point, she decided it was time to be in the world without the assistance of this pharmaceutical and began to wean herself from it. It was a slow process, but she was in fact able to withdraw completely from the medication.

Having done that, she felt quite ‘moody’, swinging between various emotions without much rhyme or reason. She ‘didn’t feel herself’ – this was certainly not the way she felt while on the medication, nor was it similar to the way she felt before being medicated.

At our first consultation after having re-established contact, I spent several hours with Sandra updating her history and discussing her condition in great detail. This, in and of itself, was not unusual. It had been a long time and to reacquaint myself with her it was necessarily to pretty much start from scratch again. But what was unusual was the fact that her case wasn’t very coherent from a homeopathic perspective.

The process of a homeopathic consultation – and the reason that it can take several hours (or more) – is generally designed to culminate in a fairly comprehensive, integrated understanding of the patients state, physically, mentally and emotionally. The remedy is then chosen to reflect this state of the entire person.

Naturally, it isn’t always possible to arrive at this goal in one sitting. But as a rule, an experienced homeopath will get a somewhat coherent picture of the patient. Unfortunately, in Sandra’s case, that picture seemed quite muddled and inconsistent.

After we finished, I gave quite a bit of thought to Sandra’s case – reviewing my notes, organizing and reorganizing the information, and consulting reference material. This, too, is not an unusual process for a conscientious homeopath. Sometimes the remedy selection for a particular patient is quite straightforward and requires little time beyond the consultation itself, but there are always cases where the selection of an appropriate remedy is a more involved, even arduous, process.

Despite these efforts, my investigation into Sandra’s case provided little direction from a traditional or classical homeopathic perspective. But I did have a hunch as to why this so, and rather than consult once more with Sandra herself to try to further my understanding, I decided to act on my hunch.

I sent her a homeopathic prescription of Venlafaxine (Venlafaxine Hydrochloride, to be more exact). While this might not ring any bells in the mind of most people, its more common appellation ‘Effexor’ might.

Venlafaxine HCL has been around for about 20 years, and is an antidepressant – one of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants in the country – belonging to a class of drugs known as ‘serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors’. (Cymbalata is another well-known member of this group.) It is used for ‘major depressive disorder’ often combined with anxiety.

Now, just to be absolutely clear, what I gave Sandra was not Effexor itself, but a homeopathic dilution of the drug. That is, through the homeopathic dilution process, the material aspect of the drug – the molecules represented by the formula C17H27NO2 – where removed and what remained was an energetic pattern or vibrating memory of the substance.

The use of a homeopathically diluted substance or potency to remove the toxic effects of the actual physical substance is not a new or unusual concept. Casual users of homeopathic remedies know that one of the treatments for a bee sting is Apis mellifica – or the potentized form of honeybee, and that rhus toxicodendron, the homeopathic dilution of poison ivy, can be effective for poison ivy rash.

Strictly speaking, this is not a classical homeopathic approach, but a related form of treatment known as ‘tautopathy’. ‘Tauto’ is a Greek word meaning ‘the same’, and tautopathy is a method using a substance in diluted or potentized form to alleviate or remove the residues and toxicity the actual crude substance has caused.

Venlafaxine can cause a host of side effects – increased risk of suicide, sexual dysfunction, amnesia, sleepiness or sleeplessness, nausea, dizziness, weakness, dry mouth, constipation and nervousness to name only the most common. It can also cause a potentially fatal reaction called ‘serotonin syndrome.’ In addition, there can be long-term consequences after terminating the drug, a phenomena known as ‘discontinuation syndrome.’

In the short term, the symptoms associated with discontinuation include disorientation, fatigue, headache, poor coordination and nausea. More insidious, are the long-term effects. Drugs like Venlafaxine alter the way the brain works – and the effect remains after the drug itself is withdrawn. Thus a person no longer ‘feels theirself’ – just as Sandra verbalized.

Fortunately for Sandra, at our follow-up visit about a month after taking the homeopathic dilution of Venlafaxine, she was feeling much better. The mood swings had leveled out and a sense of wellbeing was beginning to return.

PART II

CHEMICAL INCARCERATION – II

One of the most powerful incentives that motivated Samuel Hahnemann to create the medical science of homeopathy over two centuries ago was to help those suffering from mental illness. He personally witnessed the horrors of contemporary treatment – the asylums where patients were straight jacketed or brutalized in various other ways and forced to live in the most primitive conditions, usually for their entire lives.

Having successfully treated epidemic diseases and the most serious medical conditions that afflicted people in that era, Hahnemann was certain that the same principles and medicines that had made homeopathy so effective in handling physical ailments would also apply to mental ones. In fact, he was one of the first medical authorities to insist that mental illness was akin to physical illness, but just had its seat in the mind instead of another bodily organ. Today, this might sound obvious, but in 1792, it was quite an insight.

Since that time, Hahnemann, his followers and subsequent generations of homeopathic practitioners have in fact been able to help countless persons with mental illness. Our books are replete with remarkable case histories as well as detailed descriptions of many hundreds of medicines useful in this sphere of treatment.

Contemporary practitioners, though, face a new challenge in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders. Since the 1950’s dramatic changes have swept across the mental health landscape both in terms of popularized notions of what causes mental illness and the way in which it is to be treated. In a sense, it is really the story of the evolution of the profession of psychiatry into a partner with the pharmaceutical industry with a shared common goal to promote prescription medication as the most effective means to treat mental illness.

The details of this story are told in an extraordinary book entitled “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America”, written by a medical journalist named Robert Whitaker and published in 2010. What is remarkable about it is the fact that Whitaker has not written a diatribe against psychiatry, but a steady handed review of research studies and case histories to reveal how a destructive combination of flawed assumptions, misplaced hopes and profit motive have created the contemporary ‘epidemic’ of mental illness in America.

Whitaker’s meticulous scrutiny of the facts leads to an array of significant conclusions about the interface of mental illness and conventional pharmaceutical treatment. Amongst them are the following:

One of the major incentives to establish prescription drugs as the predominant treatment modality for mental illness was a desire to legitimize the inclusion of psychiatry within the modern medical establishment. Psychoanalysis and other forms of ‘talk therapy’ were less ‘scientific’, and, in addition, could be performed by professionals who were not medical doctors. The use of pharmaceuticals was both a way to avoid being marginalized by elevating the status of the profession as well as a way to gain an advantage over the competition by offering treatment that was unavailable from non-MD therapy.

Many psychiatric drugs, especially the first generation discovered in the 1950s, were not developed to treat mental illness at all, but instead to treat some other type of physical disease. It then became apparent that as a side effect, these drugs also seemed to sedate the nervous system or otherwise modify the behavior of patients.

Thus, the treatment was not in fact addressing the cause of the problem nor rectifying the ‘chemical imbalance’, but just distorting brain function to make the patient less prone to certain forms of unacceptable behaviors. This also holds true for subsequent generations of psychoactive medications. People don’t get better per se, they get ‘different’ – and often stay ‘different’. My own clinical experience is that even after withdrawing from these drugs, many people will stay ‘different’.

In spite of this, there has been an aggressive marketing campaign to promote these medications. Various theories were put forth to promote these drugs as curative, when in fact they were not. For instance, perhaps the most well known one is the notion that serotonin deficiency is a cause of depression or other related illness. There is little to no evidence to back the claim. It is basically a myth propagated to encourage the use of SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), which are amongst the most popular and profitable drugs in the industry.

In the mid-1950’s, when the first wave of psychoactive drugs were introduced, about 350,000 persons were hospitalized in psychiatric institutions of one sort or another in the United States. One of the chief goals of prescribing these medications was to reduce this number – freeing both the individuals from incarceration and the nation of the burden of caring for them.

But the results show just the opposite effect. Over the next 30 years, the number of persons diagnosed as mentally disabled tripled. Again from the late 80’s, when the second generation of psychiatric drugs – led by Prozac – was introduced, the numbers increased again. Most startling is the fact that in this period of time the number of young Americans on mental disability has grown 35 fold.

The basic question that Whitaker seeks to answer is why these numbers have increased so dramatically. His conclusion becomes obvious as one reads through his analysis: psychiatric medications worsen mental illness over the long run. This runs the gamut of drugs – from the stimulants used to control children in school to powerful anti-psychotics. They may adequately control short-term behaviors, but over longer periods of time they create unhealthy distortions in brain function as well as produce systemic side effects.

This is the challenge that Hahnemann’s homeopathic descendants face today. It is no longer adequate to treat the underlying issues that psychiatric patients present. Often before a practitioner can even address those, it is necessary to deal with the disturbances caused by pharmaceutical interventions.

This can be an extremely complicated undertaking, depending on what medications – or combinations of medications – have been taken for how long, the willingness or capacity of the patient to wean off of them, as well as the cooperation of family and prescribing medical personnel. Despite these possible complications, it can be a successful and rewarding endeavour.

1. Whitaker, Robert. “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America”. 2010 Crown Publishing, New York

I hadn’t heard from him in quite a while, but as soon as I answered the phone and heard the voice at the other end, there was little doubt who it was. The combination of the thick Eastern European accent, breathy smoker’s tone and the plaintive quality brought instant recognition.

“Dr. Jonas, it seems we’re having a problem and we were wondering if you could help.”
“Alexi, I haven’t heard from you in years,” I replied. “What’s going on?”
“Dr. Jonas, it’s Irina. You see, last month she was feeling very weak and was complaining of dizziness. We took her to the doctor here, and after many tests they diagnosed her with diabetes…”
“Wow! She just suddenly developed juvenile diabetes?”
“Yes, it appears that way. Nina and I want to know if there is anything you can do to help.”
“There might be… It only just happened, maybe there is something we can do. But it’s important to find out what pushed her body into that state. Was there anything unusual happening? Any illnesses or stresses?”
“No, not that we can think of… The only thing that was any different was that Irina was given a flu shot a month before this all happened. The doctor assures me there is no connection.”
“No connection, my ass!” I couldn’t contain my frustration. “Didn’t we talk about giving Irina vaccinations? Her medical history makes her the most vulnerable type of person to suffer side effects from them.”
“I know that you had told us. But she had been doing well and her pediatrician wanted her to get the shot. She even showed us all this information about it and said it was absolutely safe.”

Irina (not her real name – nor are Alexi’s and Nina’s) is a 10 year old girl who I began treating four years earlier for chronic recurring pneumonias and gastric reflux as a result of an esophageal fistula (an abnormal hole in the esophagus which usually opens into the trachea and is present at birth). In point of fact, I had never met Irina nor her parents face to face. Living too far away for office visits, we had consulted on a consistent basis for several years over the phone. In spite of her delicate constitution, Irina made steady progress over that time until regular consultations were no longer necessary.

This made the news of her latest problem all the more disheartening — especially in the light of the fact that her parents had been duly warned against her vulnerability to the possible side-effects of vaccinations.

If this were the only story I have to tell about vaccine related illness, perhaps it wouldn’t disturb me so much. But it isn’t. This week a woman related to me how she developed chronic fatigue syndrome within weeks of a rubella vaccine. Two weeks before that I saw a 13 month old child who broke out with eczema within days of his first immunizations. The pediatrician swore there was no connection and insisted that the child continue with the series of scheduled shots. After each subsequent vaccination, the eczema would flare up again and his mother would be reassured that it had nothing to do with the shots. Now, unless he is lathered in cortisone creams, his intolerably itching and burning skin condition rages out of control.

Day in and day out, these stories are so commonplace in my practice. And that doesn’t include the patients who, although not consciously aware of it, have a hidden “vaccine connection” as a factor in their illness which becomes apparent either through careful review of their medical history or by energetic testing such as electro-dermal screening.

One would think that these complications would be generallly recognized by the medical establishment. Instead, they are either dismissed as an acceptable rate of “collateral damage” or, more frequentely” pointedly denied. Patients and parents of patients suspicious that a vaccination has caused a medical problem rarely are taken seriously.

But there is clear data that indicates otherwise. For instance, Dr. J. Bart Classen, an immunologist working at his own private laboratory, has presented data showing that, in his words, “80% of cases of insulin dependent diabetes in children who have received multiple vaccines starting after 2 month of life.”

Classen made a public presentation September 11, 2000 – of all dates – revealing that his research showed “causal relationship between many different vaccines and the development of insulin diabetes. “1 The data indicated that it was not a problem with a specific vaccine per se, but was connected with a broad range of them such as pertussis, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, hemophilus influenza and others. This indicates that the entire concept of immunization shots needs to be reconsidered. What makes the problem even more insidious is that his data indicated it may take 4 or more years after the vaccination for people to develop vaccine induced diabetes.

And now in the wake of our concern over biological terrorism we are faced with the spectra a host of other vaccinations such as smallpox and anthrax being forced on us. Several persons have already died from heart attacks after receiving the smallpox vaccine. And that is surely only the tip of the iceberg.

Nearly 4 years ago, the Dr. Classen tesified in front of the Committee on Government Reform of the United States House of Representatives that his research indicated “an increased risk of autoimmunity following immunization in the military and the link between vaccines and diabetes.”2

How long will it be until the “see no evil, hear no evil” attitude toward vaccinations of most medical authorities is replaced with the clear recognition that they pose a severe threat to the well being of a large number of people. This is especially, the true of the most vulnerable and valuable segment of our population — the immunologically undeveloped infants who on the receiving end of an ever increasing number of vaccine insults.

1. http://www.vaccines.net
2. Ibid

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SMALLPOX & OTHER POISONS — ll

The notion that vaccinations are the magic bullet of preventative medicine is deeply ingrained in both philosophy of the public hygiene establishment and the public imagination. When there is a perceived threat from any biological agent, the implementation of preventative vaccinations is often the first – and perhaps only – strategy that is either suggested or enacted.

Yet, there is far too little recognition that we are paying a price for our reliance on this strategy. There are widespread side effects associated with the ever-increasing number of vaccinations that have become part of the standard healthcare protocol for infants, children, the elderly, and military personnel.

The deleterious side effects go far beyond the acute distress, sometimes fatal, that develop in a relatively small percentage of immunized persons. There is evidence that vaccinations compromise our immune and nervous systems, leading to increased incidence of autoimmune disease, behavioral disorders and mental impairment. Research has linked diabetes, rheumatism, autism and other conditions to vaccinations. Recent reports of several deaths from heart attacks suffered after smallpox vaccinations suggest that the cardiovascular system is not immune from similar damaging consequences.

How much of a “vaccination load” can the immune system bear? The numbers of suggested vaccinations keeps on growing every year. The three or four childhood vaccinations of my youth have blossomed into many times that number. Over the past few years, vaccinating for various strains of hepatitis has become standard, vaccinating for various forms of the flu has become an annual autumnal ritual amongst the geriatric population and our concern with a terrorist attack using biological agents such as anthrax or smallpox has once again stimulated renewed interest in adding yet another series to the regimen. No doubt, a vaccine for SARS is in the pipeline…

It is easy to dismiss the negative consequences of vaccines as the inevitable collateral damage, a necessary evil so to speak, associated with a successful public hygiene policy. Yet, the widespread and severe nature of these side effects suggests that this policy is perhaps neither successful nor wise, and that the risks may outweigh the benefits. In other words, the possibility of conferred immunity is too high a price to pay for the long term – and, in some cases, immediate – problems associated with vaccinations.

Consider the case of Kathy (nor her real name), a 26-year-old woman who consulted with me in the fall of 2002. She has been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia, suffering from joint and muscle pains, inability to concentrate, disturbed sleep, and recurring respiratory infections for over 2 years.

Her problems are clearly related to a vaccination for hepatitis C. The day after receiving the shot, Kathy had for the first time what she refers to a ‘seizure’. In her own words, she described the experience thus: “I know they are coming and I lose the ability to focus on anything. I begin to feel numb. This numbness passes through me, from my nose to my back, from my shoulders down my arms and fingers. It goes into my lips. The right side of my body will start shaking first and I’ll need to lie down and just concentrate on my breathing”. This used to occur several times a day, but with time had diminished in frequency. Along with these phenomena, Kathy also developed an inflamed liver with internal bleeding.

It was after the resolution of the acute liver inflammation and hemorrhage that the chronic symptoms of fatigue, pain, respiratory infection and so on began. Fortunately, in Kathy’s case, she has responded well so far to a regimen of homeopathic cleansing where quite literally the information and energetic grip of the vaccines on her system has been neutralized and the related toxins expunged from her body. The process is by no means completed, but many of her most troubling symptoms have abated.

Although there are healthcare practitioners who, through various protocols involving homeopathics, vitamin and mineral supplementation, diet, botanical medicines and other modalities, are able to assist people who have suffered the negative consequences of vaccinations, their efforts are no match for the size and depth of the problem.

For one, the number of practitioners is miniscule in comparison to the number of persons affected by the vaccinations. Secondly, the general population is for the most part unaware that these remedial therapies exist and, to a great extent, unaware that there is a connection between the problems they or their children suffer and the vaccinations that caused them.

This situation will not change unless several things happen. People on the front lines of the healthcare delivery system – healthcare providers of every type – need to understand how serious the problem is, how widespread it is and learn to recognize it in individual cases. Only then will the “hear no evil, see no evil” attitude of denial in the medical profession begin to disappear.

Secondly, the coercive tactics of the medical establishment to force infants, school aged children, healthcare works and the elderly to be vaccinated needs to stop. No mother ought to be scolded, belittled or otherwise made to feel guilty for questioning the wisdom of vaccinations for her child. People, both professional and layperson alike, need to be educated about the pros and cons in order to make informed recommendations and decisions.

As a corollary, the grip of the pharmaceutical industry, which obviously has a very strong economic incentive to encourage widespread immunization campaigns, must be loosened. Of course, immunizations are only one aspect of the much large issue concerning the undue influence of drug companies on the way medicine is currently practiced in this country.

Finally, it is important for us to recognize that true preventive medicine does not necessarily rely on this prophylactic tinkering with our immune system that has so many known and unknown consequences. Proper hygiene, nutrition, and lifestyle, along with cohesive family and societal structures are the foundations upon which health is preserved and disease avoided.

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http://www.cure-guide.com>

http://www.vaccines.net

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For a number of years, she had been going through menopause and also had separated from her husband 6 months earlier. So, her symptoms of night sweats and low appetite with a subsequent loss of weight were not unusual in that context. But with fresh blood apparently coming out of her lungs, they took on another meaning – or more accurately, one of two meanings: cancer or tuberculosis.

Alarmed at what seemed the most likely possibilities, I encouraged her to get a diagnostic work-up as soon as possible and wanted to give something to soothe her throat since it had become rather raw from the coughing. Beyond that, I didn’t want to begin any treatment until the diagnosis was clearer.

Not yet having done the comprehensive consultation necessary to decide on a deep acting constitutional homeopathic remedy and not wanting to suppress her symptoms with a local or symptomatic remedy, I decided to use an herbal approach for the throat and wait for the diagnostic results.

To this end, it occurred to me that a commonly used an herb native to North America about which coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, I had just be reading.

The Red Elm tree, a relative of the American Elm otherwise known as Indian Elm, Moose Elm or Gray Elm, had long been highly valued by both Native Americans and the European settlers for a number of purposes, such as the construction of baskets, kettles, canoes and homes, as a food as well as a food preservative, and as a medicine. Nutritional and medicinal preparations use the tree use the inner bark, and are known as ‘Slippery Elm’. The bark is peeled from the tree in long strips and the outer layers then shaved off; the mucilaginous inner bark, which is about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, is then dried and put away for use.

In the 1830’s a European traveler to the New World described how he saw witnessed Slipper Elm being used: “The bark, if chewed or softened for a moment in water, … dissolves into a viscous slime, and is found very useful in dressing wounds, as it is cooling, and allays the inflammation. It is said to have been applied, in powder, with success in cholera, and is now apothecaries’ shops. A teaspoonful of this bark, in boiling water, makes a very useful beverage, which is sweetened with sugar, and has the same effect as linseed.”

The plant was also researched and adopted by American homeopaths in the 19th century, but was considered to be only a minor remedy with limited scope of action for certain cases that exhibited symptoms like numbness, tingling and pain in the arms and legs.

The Native Americans and the herbalists who subsequently learned from them considered it a very powerful healing agent, applicable for numerous conditions and for all sorts of persons including infants, pregnant women and the elderly.

Its viscous nature noted above is due to high mucilage content. Mucilage, produced by most plants to one degree or another, is a gelatinous substance that contains protein and polysaccharides and is similar to plant gums, and has demulcent properties. Herbalists use
Demulcents, – the word derives from the Latin demulcere, “caress”- are used by herbalists for their ‘calming’ properties because they form a soothing film over mucous membrane, relieving pain and inflammation of the membrane.

Slippery elm is a demulcent par excellence and it was for this action that it occurred to me to suggest it to the patient in order to soothe the irritation in her throat. Of course, there are many other mucous membranes throughout the body such as the intestinal and urinary tracts, and lungs which all respond favorably to it’s properties.

In addition to being a demulcent, Slippery
Elm is also quite nutritious, easily tolerated by those with compromised digestion, and is considered a “survival food” that reportedly was eaten by Revolutionary War soldiers lost in the woods. It is a wonderful food for poorly nourished infants, invalids, aged persons, or any cases where a person may be unable to eat due to lack of appetite, nausea or weakness.

In modern times, Slippery Elm has become an invaluable aid for people undergoing radiation and chemo- therapies. Not only does it soothe the tissues irritated by the treatments, but it also can antidote the common digestive side-effects such as constipation, diarrhea and nausea.

In larger doses, Slippery Elm acts like a bulking agent to promote bowel motions. In smaller quantities, it calms the intestines down, stopping diarrhea. It ought to be noted, though, that since it absorbs large amounts of water, anyone taking Slippery Elm needs to also increase water consumption.

Another common use of Slippery Elm is as an expectorant, that is, as an agent to promote the discharge of mucous from the respiratory tract. It is widely used from phlegmy coughs and any number of inflammations or infections of the bronchi and lungs where phlegm needs to be raised and cleared.

Back to the patient who I had suspected her of having tuberculosis or lung cancer, my hope was that while awaiting a diagnosis the Slippery Elm would merely sooth her throat that had become quite irritated from all the coughing. But the effect far exceeded expectations. Her throat did feel better, but the bleeding stopped, the coughing stopped and her menopausal symptoms like heat flashes and dryness cleared up in short order.

Fortunately, it turned out that the results were negative for both the TB and the cancer and it was surmised that perhaps the bleeding was in fact due to damage to the lining of the throat due to all the coughing. That would make sense of the efficacy of the Slippery Elm in stopping the bleeding, and its well known effect as an expectorant might explain why the coughing stopped altogether. But the action on the hormonal system is still something of a mystery.

Be that as it may, needless to say both of us were quite relieved at the results of both the testing and the Slippery Elm prescription. Since the patient was now without symptoms, she elected not to follow up with the suggestion of the medical doctor to visit a throat specialist, and instead, opted to just continue taking the Slipper Elm for a while longer.

One of the appealing characteristics of this herb is that it can be thought of and consumed as food, not merely a medicine. In the ancient Chinese medical texts, it is written that the purest and highest form of therapy comes from our food and that it is only in the ‘degenerate modern times’ (meaning 3 or 4 thousand years ago) that mankind has become so weak as to need specialized medicines. Although we have come to think of Slippery Elm as an herbal preparation, it could just as well be thought of as a wonderful form of nourishment.

Here are some ways to prepare Slippery Elm, variations of the same basic recipe:

1. Mix one teaspoon of the powder and mix well with same amount of honey or syrup. Add one pint of boiling water, soya milk, nut milk, or cow’s milk. Slowly mix as you add the liquid.

2. Put 2 –3 Tablespoons of the bark powder in 16 ounces of cold water for 6-8 hours, then heat slowly, being careful not to boil. Stir constantly while heating. Strain and drink.

3. Add 1/4 cup of slippery elm bark powder to 2 cups of cold water. Let stand 30 minutes. Slowly heat mixture for 5 minutes, gently stirring to prevent clumping. Let cool, and add sweetener such as honey (highly nutritious) and any spice that appeals to the person. Add peppermint leaves for their cooling action to lungs, ginger root to increase circulation, apple juice in place of water, rosemary leaves for their antioxidant properties. If constipation is a problem, try adding a pinch of clove, fennel or ginger.

3. Slippery Elm Food is generally made by mixing a teaspoonful of the powder into a thin and perfectly smooth paste with cold water and then pouring on a pint of boiling water, steadily stirring meanwhile. It can, if desired, be flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg or lemon rind.

4. Another mode of preparation is to beat up an egg with a teaspoonful of the powdered bark, pouring boiling milk over it and sweetening it.

5. Slippery elm “gruel”: Slowly add fresh, cold water, a little at a time, to the finely powdered bark. Stir until the mixture reaches the consistency of a thick porridge. Sweeten with honey and add cinnamon and ginger to taste. Refrigerate unused portions. Milk may also be used in place of water.

6. In cases where they may be unable to eat due to lack of appetite, nausea or weakness, this may be an option. One to three teaspoons of the powdered inner bark can be added to oatmeal and taken as a food.