Palliation of symptoms and suppression of disease from the surface (out of view) is probably the most common form of medical approach, not only in Orthodox medicine but amongst many Alternative medical systems as well. Practitioners often talk about Alternative medicine working in a 'Complementary' fashion alongside Pharmaceutical/Surgical medicine, however this is extremely problematic for Homoeopaths. Palliation and Suppression is the exact opposite of our medical approach.

We have several issues here, and while interconnected they all have their own considerations.

Can I first point out though, that Homoeopathy is NOT a complementary medicine. It is an alternative form of medicine, meant to be used as an alternate path to healing. It does not work well with any kind of palliative, suppressive, antipathic or allopathic medicine. While it *can* be used that way, it will always work poorly and rarely cures the patient. The goal of Homoeopathy is to remove the dependence on those other therapies completely. Homoeopathy is a lifestyle, a philosophy, and it demands a lot of us in terms of how we live and how we see the world. Dipping in and out is the choice of the patient, but the cost will be a lack of real progress towards health.
 
The more practitioners try to make Homoeopathy ‘complement’ therapies which work against it, the more it is distorted, diluted, and made impotent. It isn’t something we can control, because Homoeopathy works alongside the natural laws of cure, and we don’t get to decide what works and what doesn’t. Nature does that for us. It is like complaining that when jumping off a cliff, gravity keeps wanting to pull you down. We do need to balance that against the following issues though.
 
One issue is the safety of the client. When someone is used to palliating or suppressing an illness, and it is serious or even life threatening, we are forced to work along the palliative/suppressive treatments. This is slow work, difficult, often prolonging the time frame of treatment far beyond what we would like, and sometimes far beyond the patience of the client. Homoeopathy doesn’t complement the action of the palliative treatment, it opposes it directly, just as it is opposed. This is a conflict that can create quite a lot of tension in the health of the person, and makes good prescriptions much more difficult. It usually takes many more prescriptions than normal, as there will be a lot of one-sided presentations of a case, and many false or partial pictures.
 
So as long at the patient realizes that they will need to be a lot more patient with the length of time taken to get a result, AND that the ultimate goal (if possible) is to remove the palliative/suppressive treatment altogether, then a Homoeopath may be able to work successfully with them. I think that for a practitioner, this also requires patience, both client and practitioner need to discuss and make an agreement about it. We often talk about clients being impatient but it is just as frequently the practitioner and a contract needs to be clearly made about expectations on both sides.
 
Those clients on constant, long term palliative or suppressive treatment are most likely going to be the incurable ones. They are most likely going to be the clients we are going to have the least satisfying results with. Of course each case is different, but that has been my experience in clinic over many years. It is consistent when I look at my cured cases versus my uncured or ‘partially cured’ (not really cured) cases. Whenever symptoms are being directly countered by a treatment (which can include other ‘homoeopathic’ medicines) it becomes very difficult to create the healing aggravation necessary to start the path to cure. It certainly isn’t impossible, but I have noticed the following conditions definitely improve the prognosis.

1. Age – the younger the better. The older the more unlikely. Children are remarkable, because nature has designed them to change and grow and transform. Homoeopathy can take advantage of this and even with suppressed pathology you can see cure. Once the body has set, and especially once it has started to degenerate … it’s rare to see real cure occur. Age is always a factor in curability of a complaint, but when combined with suppression it becomes the main factor.

2. How much of the case has been suppressed – small or relatively insignificant symptoms won’t often affect the overall prognosis too badly. As long as the patient has been able to develop one or more safe vents for the internal pressure, you probably won’t see a dramatic drop in the curability of the chronic state. However, when palliation/suppression has been so extensive, and especially when it has included multiple treatments, that the disease state/s have been effectively ‘controlled’ or ‘managed’ (especially to allow the person to act almost as if they have very little problem functioning), this is always trouble. Big trouble. It is hard, it is painful, it may be impossible to solve. These cases are the ones I rarely am able to help, and the ones for whom Homoeopathy may expect too much.

However, I’ll add a caveat here. While we may not cure them, we can improve their ability to live with the illness, the mental and emotional pain, perhaps even a lot of the general suffering around things like sleep and energy. Again depending on what we are dealing with, removing the palliative treatments if possible at some future point can change that prognosis. If that isn’t done you will always see relapse, and it requires constant ongoing support from Homoeopathy to maintain that.
 
3.  How long the palliation and suppression has occurred – the shorter the better, the longer the worse. This is also moderated by point 2. Long and extensive suppression is a really poor prognosis. Palliation with LMs or low potencies might be the best we can hope for here, and even that may not last very long.
 
4. How effective the suppression is – when it leaves symptoms behind, or only party moderates the intensity, we are in a better position to help. When it removes most or all of the symptoms, and the person achieves an artificial ‘normality’, it will be difficult to overcome. Partly this is because the real picture is being hidden, but also because the disease will be reestablishing its position deeper in, at a place more difficult or more dangerous to cure. Effective palliation/suppression also directly counteracts the healing aggravation, and so the curative secondary action of a remedy may never occur, or not occur with enough strength to really do anything positive.
 
 

The issue of reliability in outcomes of prescriptions in Homoeopathy is an interesting one, and always contentious when it comes to how practitioners attempt to create reliability. It’s not just Homoeopathy – all kinds of medical therapy have this issue, and the reality is NOBODY ever  achieves 100%. The human condition, the complexity of our bodies and hearts and minds, and the unique ability of humans to connect to various substances in the world in an energetic/spiritual manner, means there will always be significant challenges for healers. Claims by ANYBODY that they cure 100% of the time should be met with extreme skepticism.
 
Homoeopathy came about as a response to the mechanically prescribing Allopathic system. Protocols which were applied without consideration for the uniqueness of the individual and their disease-experience , created the need and shaped the philosophy of Homoeopathy. Hahnemann railed endlessly against protocols, against ‘unintelligent’ methods where prescriptions ‘fly out of the mouth like pigeons’. The more Homoeopathy developed, the further away from the idea of giving specific remedies for specific medical conditions it went. Allopathy on the other hand moved further and further towards the philosophy of ‘one size fits all’ and we all know how that has turned out.
 
So you can see how returning to the idea of protocols conflicts with the very heart and soul of Homoeopathy. It is why we always voice concern and suspicion about it. Most of the evidence in Homoeopathy regarding  cure of chronic disease centers around the use of individualized medicines, so when practitioners state that the reputation of Homoeopathy’s ability to cure somehow relates to their use of protocols, it is a misrepresentation on their part. You cannot use the proof of Homoeopathy’s effectiveness when using individualized treatment, as proof that doing the opposite works!
 
I understand how difficult Homoeopathy is. I think anyone who has been able to last even a couple of years in practice will confirm it is a very tough gig, and that as your ability to deal with one level of problems increases, you discover another level beyond it which challenges you again to learn and grow and find new tools. Homoeopaths have to grow into their Wisdom, there is no shortcut to it that can be given out to others.  Replacing that Wisdom with rote prescriptions simply doesn’t make sense. I’d rather encourage the growth of Wisdom in my patients than try to dump them in a situation where they have no experience or tools to cope with it. Some of them do that, over time, they learn to see things as a Homoeopath sees them, and can become very good at knowing what is important to consider for choosing medicines. My greatest allies are experienced Homoeopathic patients! We can achieve so much more together that way.
 
There is a problem, no doubt – how to allow untrained people to use something that requires a lot of training and experience? I don’t believe it is by throwing out all the principles that define Homoeopathy, that make it entirely unique amongst other healing modalities. Remove those, what is left? You may as well just go back to Herbs and Supplements. That uniqueness is worth fighting for, it is a window into a depth of healing that simply cannot be achieved any other way.
 
Instead people need to become immersed in the philosophy. Homoeopathy really does become part of a certain lifestyle, a way of looking at health and disease and nature and the world. Without that, just giving people mathematical equations to follow, is about as successful as it would be in teaching someone to fall in love by following strict set of instructions. Sure you can give someone proverbs to follow, but how useful are they for complicated human interactions?
 
Homoeopathy actually requires a lot of both practitioners and patients. I have never agreed with trying to turn it into Allopathy, into junk food medicine. The very essence of Homoeopathy goes against that approach. Forcing it into that mold just takes away the soul of Homoeopathy. I feel like practitioners who go this way have lost their connection to the spirit of Homoeopathy too, which is sad. I see it happen, it happens to many who cannot evolve their practice to deal with more complex and difficult cases.
 
Regressing back to Allopathic methods is not the way forward for a Homoeopath who may be frustrated with lack of results in certain cases. This is not ‘modern’ Homoeopathy. It is the same old problems Hahnemann saw when he set out on his journey to discover a genuine healing art. Nobody can claim they are moving forward by returning to the old Allopathic practices of suppression, palliation, and lack of individualization in treatments. This is a defeat, and it is a defeat that is without need or reason. Real ‘modern’ Homoeopathy is already being developed by people like Jan Scholten and Rajan Sankaran  and many others, by increasing our systems of classification, by increasing our access to the number of remedies to prescribe, by improving our understanding of the vital force and how it speaks to us. Kingdom prescribing, Periodic Table prescribing, Sensation Prescribing, Universal Layer Prescribing, intelligent use of Isopathy … in the past cases I would have been frustrated with and perhaps given up on, have been solved using these methods.
 

THE ROLE OF HOMOEOPATHY IN VACCINOSIS
 
I thought I might write a bit about Vaccination and how Homoeopathy can help parents and other individuals affected by it. I am not going to enter into a long discussion about the dangers of it, or discuss in detail my personal (or professional) opinion about Vaccination, because as we know health professionals who do this publically tend to come under attack.

This is a bit of a ramble, not a list of instructions, nor specific advice being given by me as a professional  Homoeopath.

What I wanted to discuss though was a condition identified in the early days of Homoeopathy as ‘Vaccinosis’. In fact Homoeopaths noticed this from the first ever vaccinations performed by Jenner for Smallpox using Cowpox (the pus from an infected udder was rubbed into the open wounds of patients!)  This is a syndrome that develops after a vaccine and may result in a significant, complex and chronic degradation of a person’s health. Many patients I have seen have been ‘never well since’ a vaccine. In my practice Vaccinosis is becoming one of the main obstacles to cure I encounter.

Just to provide some background on my personal experience with Vaccinosis, I was a vaccine damaged child in 1967 from the DPT vaccine. According to my mother, I fell unconscious for 3 days, woke up with a raging chest infection that became chronic bronchitis, and eventually became Asthma that often resulted in emergency room visits over my childhood up until about 10 years. My dependence on bronchodilators like Ventolin remained even after the life-threatening episodes stopped.

Fortunately I managed to avoid any further vaccines, which probably saved my life. Until a GP talked me into having the Hep B vaccine in my mid-20s. This vaccine literally ruined my life. The complex, hydra-like syndrome that grew out of these 3 injections changed everything for me.  Even mentally my health declined, I believe I was slowly going quite mad.

However, it lead me somewhere remarkable, to the office of a very good Homoeopath, and over a mere 3 week period she had wound back a large part of my illness, most importantly the mental part. While the journey back to good health took YEARS, the change that a single medicine made was amazing.  The next few months involved more treatment, other remedies, and even older symptoms began to disappear. I was full of questions for the Homoeopath, and after a while she suggested I should contact her college to enquire about studying. I did that, and never looked back.

So a vaccine did change my life, in a completely unexpected way. Strange to hate an event so much and be grateful for it at the same time J
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
HOMOEOPATHIC TREATMENT OF VACCINOSIS
 
There are several typical points at which people seek treatment.
 
1. Prior to vaccines being done.
 
Parents especially may feel forced into giving them, based on various school, childcare and government policies currently in place. Parents may also be forced by the other parent, by family members, or even organizations like the Family Law Courts or DOCS. Healthcare workers may feel their jobs are being threatened if they don’t comply.

There is sometimes advice given to use a remedy ‘prophylactically’ to somehow mitigate the potential damage. This is poor advice from a homoeopathic point of view, as a remedy will only help if the reaction (symptoms) the patient are known and matched to a specific remedy.  Until the person develops their response, there is nothing to treat, and this cannot be predicted in any reliable way.

However, most people are already suffering from some kind of weakness, inherited instability, or chronic illness, and if enough time can be given for a homoeopath to work (constitutionally as we call it) on the underlying resilience of the person, resisting the worst of the damage is possible.
 
2. Immediately after the vaccine is given.

This is probably the ideal point at which help, if given, will do the most good. However, this is still no specific protocol for it. The symptoms will show which remedy is most needed. However, as there are a number of fairly common reactions which may allow this situation to be treated as a First Aid one, thereby allowing for some frequently indicated remedies to be used. What follows is a ‘crafted materia medica’, meaning I have selected indications for the remedies from a much larger number, which seem suitable for the situation being discussed. THIS IS ONLY A SMALL EXAMPLE OF WHAT MEDICINES MIGHT HELP. It is always best to have a professional ready to advise you during the event itself.

However, Homoeopathy is built on the concept of individualization, so any particular situation might call for something specific remedy to be chosen outside of such a list.

ACONITE – Like a great storm, the symptoms are violent and frightening. The reaction is sudden and intense. Dizzy, awful torture, anxious, moving constantly, red face, glassy eyes, great thirst, FEAR OF DYING!

AETHUSA – Death seems stamped on the face. Sudden reaction, extreme prostration. Awful exhaustion, the child sleeps far too long. Digestion absolutely ceases but they keep wanting to nibble or feed in small spurts. Cyanosis, blue lips. Waking with a start, fear of falling asleep in case they never wake up.

ARNICA – Full of nightmares. Horrors in the night. Sudden fear of death (ACONITE). Grasps at someone, looking like they are going to die. May be repeated night after night in someone who is appears well during the day. The injection sites displays a huge, possibly spreading bruise, or is so sore that the child will not allow anyone to touch it and may seem scared of being touched generally.  Head hot, hands and feet cold.

ARSENICUM – Extremely restless, extremely weak, clinging and desperate for company out of FEAR. Wants to talk (if they can) all the time, seem to be better while doing this. Head or even brain appears to be burning, wants (or better from) washing the head in cold water. Generally very cold and wants to be kept warm, huddling under blankets or needing to hug the heater.

BAPTISIA – Goes down very suddenly. A threatened septic state. Apparent blood poisoning. Great velocity in this reaction! They almost appear very drunk. Mind seems gone, don’t know what they are talking about, babbling, scattered, incoherent. Horrible smell coming from them, almost like rotten meat, penetrates the whole house.

BELLADONNA – Another remedy with VIOLENCE of symptoms. Suddenly become sick. Intense heat that can be felt even by the hand hovering over the skin. Pulsating, throbbing pains.  Throbbing everywhere, as if the heart is in every blood vessel, as if they are full of hot blood pumping into every corner of the body. Wild, delirious, hallucinating, biting and striking in rage. Violent nightmares making them scream out. May need to be restrained. Very strongly affecting by the slightest jarring movement. The skin may be so red you can write your name on it with your finger.

CARBO VEGETABILIS – Everything becomes sluggish. Slow, lazy, cannot be roused into activity or to be interested in anything. Loses interest in things that used to excite them. Everything puffs up. Just wants to lie there and doze. Very pale, but little things, even food, will bring a flush to the face. Sleep is almost death-like. Inability to get enough oxygen, anxiety and breathlessness. All the organs appear to be struggling. This is the CORPSE-REVIVER (brings someone back from the edge of death).
 
3. The person has settled into a more chronic state of ill health, often having already done the rounds of Orthodox Medicine and other therapies, before finally arriving at the doorstep of a Homoeopath.
 
This is unfortunately where I probably see patients most often. This is the hard slog. There will be multiple aspects of the case that need to be treated. Constitutional work is vital and must accompany any other way of dealing with the damage. Hope of recovery is however very high with Homoeopathic treatment.
What needs to be done will vary greatly on the individual.
 
 
 

Paper remedies have become a bit of a thing amongst people using Homoeopathy, mostly as a way of getting hold of remedies that either may take time, or may be expensive or difficult to get. It's created a bit of a problem for Homoeopathy generally, as their use tends to invalidate or at the very least challenge several important aspects of Homoeopathic philosophy and practice.

I thought I'd ramble a bit about them here. None of this is meant as a direct criticism of those who use such remedies, instead it is a discussion of what equating them to Homoeopathic medicines might mean.


1. Homoeopathy is clearly defined as ‘what a substance can cause it can cure’. Paper remedies have not been proven to cause symptoms. There is no Law of Similars being used. The name of a remedy is not a thing that can or has been proven for medicinal purposes. Even if they have a healing effect, it is not a homoeopathic one. The majority of cases I see where healing is said to take place, does not do so according to direction of cure, does not usually display the homoeopathic aggravation, does not provoke a healing crisis. I have never seen palliation either, but many people seem to report it, so I have to accept ‘something’ is happening with them. Hahnemann stated that disease can be altered by an act of will or faith, and I would even be willing to accept that another person could use their own will to enact a change. Is it Similarity at work though? Palliation without aggravation isn’t the homoeopathic process. It is often seen in herbal medicine, orthodox medicine, all sorts of other kinds of therapies.


2. The idea that the name of the remedy has some kind of power is a slippery path for us. Do different names for the same substance all do the same thing? Do partial names work as well as full names? Do common names of substance work as well as the Latin or Greek names?  Speaking from my own experience in clinic, why is it that when I do not have the remedy, but I speak it to the patient (and then wait several weeks for the remedy to arrive) that the patient does not then improve? What if I write it down for them to obtain from a pharmacy close to them, and they wait a week to obtain it, that there is no improvement in their case?  I HAVE seen a mild palliation I relate to hope and relief, which I also see when people get apparent good news from orthodox doctors as well. This does not last long, does not cure, and they are either the same or worse when the remedy finally arrives and then does everything I expect when given (Aggravation! Healing crisis. Movement of symptoms in the correct direction. Amelioration according to the hierarchy of symptoms/organs).  Can I simply put ‘healing’ on the bottle and expect it to work? Can I simply think of remedies and cure people around me? What if I misspell the name of the remedy? This cannot be considered part of the science when none of these questions have been examined scientifically and answered within the scope of our own principles.


3. How does writing a number relate to the process of potentization? If someone writes 30 instead of 30c, how does the paper remedy know they don’t mean 30x? We have a rigorous method of making remedies, and we know that if not done properly can affect the quality of the medicine and therefore of the cure. How does a paper remedy get around the need for this careful structured process? We have a gap in our understanding of how potentizing exactly does what it does, so does that mean we can chuck it away completely as an unnecessary complication?  Accepting paper remedies as the same as homoeopathic remedies provokes serious ramifications for us, and they need to be considered and dealt with if you are willing to do that.


4. As Masaru Emoto’s experiments showed us, words with strong positive meanings can affect water. As can music, chemicals, prayer. However, he only showed that the ability of the water to organize itself into more ‘pleasing’ forms, and that negative influences created chaos and disorder or ‘ugly’ forms. He specifically did experiments on homoeopathic medicines and found they created the same shaped crystals each time, according to the specific remedy. This was DIFFERENT to his other experiments where the crystals did not show such a specific reliable pattern.  If you wish to use his observations and conclusions to justify the use of paper remedies in place of homoeopathic ones, you should be ready to accept all of what those observations imply. The words can only produce pleasing, ordering of the water, only properly made remedies create specific structures.


5. I believe the logical consequences for accepting paper remedies into homoeopathic practice would be these. It rewrites homoeopathy into something else.

a. The substance is irrelevant, the source of the substance is irrelevant.
b. Potency has nothing to do with the process of potentization, of dilution, of trituration.
c. Similarity has nothing to do with the original substance, and therefore with the connections of that substance to other substances, to groups, to kingdoms

The remedies we make from Acids (hydrogen + a particular element) show a general quality of extreme exhaustion, of having indulged or experienced something for so long and so intensely, that it has resulted in a weariness relating to that aspect of life.


PHOSPHORIC ACID
 Acid-phosphorous

Exhaustion comes from:
 
- love affairs, especially passionate but short ones
- having several love affairs at the same time
- learning and studying, especially those things related to communication (languages)
- travelling to many countries
- socializing, meeting large numbers of people
- teaching others, exchanging ideas
 
Ph-ac is very useful for that fatigue that sets in after a person has travelled to a large number of places with different cultures and languages – they may call it ‘jet-lag’
 
SULPHURIC ACID
Acid-sulphur
 
Exhaustion comes from:
 
- creating (and losing) a deep relationship with someone
- pursuing selfish ends
- self-aggrandizement
- struggling to become successful and important (and failing)
- pursuing one's Ego and one's Pride
 
Sul-ac is useful for a person that has lost a position of great power and influence, who have been reduced in importance as well as vitality
 
MURIATIC ACID
Acid-chloride
 
Exhaustion comes from:
 
- caring for others, especially while neglecting your own needs
- trying to separate yourself from someone else and build your own life
- holding on too tightly to something  or being forced to let go of something before you are ready
- emotional entanglement
 
Mur-ac is quite useful for carers who have run themselves into the ground while looking after someone else
 
FLUORIC ACID
Acid-fluoride
 
Exhaustion comes from:
 
- overindulgence in drugs and sex (addictions of many kinds will lead to exhaustion for these people)
- pursuing money and wealth without conscience
- chasing the best house/car/job/partner
- training hard to get the most beautiful body (or using surgery for this same reason)
- living inside an unsuitable partnership
 
Fl-ac is useful for those people who have filled their lives with material things, attained all the goals that our society sets them (car/job/beauty etc), and has found them hollow, leaving them without purpose and spiritually empty
 
PICRIC ACID
Acid-picric
 
Exhaustion comes from:
 
- extreme mental exertion
- studying too many subjects at once
- studying under very difficult circumstances (for instance while caring for a newborn)
- attempting to study very complex subjects that are almost beyond your intellectual capacity
 
Pic-ac is very useful for people who push themselves too hard intellectually or who stretch their intellect over too many difficult subjects.
 
NITRIC ACID
Acid-nitrite
 
Exhaustion comes from:
 
- overindulging in rich food, wine, coffee etc, ‘the high life’
- from pursuing enjoyment with great passion, and burning out
- from parties and fun and excitement, leaving them unable to find pleasure in things
- holding grudges and pursuing revenge
 
Nit-ac is useful for those people who have eaten, drunk, and partied their way through life, but have ended up bitter and joyless
 
HYDROGEN
Acid base element
 
Exhaustion comes from:
 
- Everything, just from existing, from living
- Looking into the deepest mysteries of the universe, of life itself
- from pursuing every goal, task, and idea with total enthusiasm and commitment, reaching the very end or depth of something where there is nothing left
- attempting to feel unity with all things
 
Hydrogen is useful where the exhaustion is not specifically from anything or related to anything, where the person seems to have lost even the energy to remain in existence any longer. They are like a ghost, connected to no-one, waiting to pass on to the next life or feeling that they never really entered into this life.
.