The core principle in the medical jurisdiction is the law of similars, or like cures like. When correctly applied, a given symptom will follow the direction of cure, meaning that it moves from a more vital organ or system to one of lesser importance. I like Dr. Hahnemann’s language to describe this, when he refers to organs which have “greater or lesser nobility”.

The metaphor is apt, as our body functions as a kingdom, and not as a democracy. In a kingdom, there are clearly some figures more important than others, with the king and queen sitting at the centre of importance, and the peasants being the least important. Our heart and brain are like the king and queen, in this sense, and the body always works to keep disease as far from these organs as possible. A disease appearing on the skin is actually the sign of a relative state of health, meaning that there are sufficient healthy defences to keep it from penetrating to the more important (noble) organs.

The typical approach to this skin disease in conventional medicine, unfortunately, is suppressive, such as in the use of cortisone cream, which appears to do good (make the rash disappear), but which actually drives the disease into a deeper, more vital organ. The classic example is to find that such a suppressed rash actually comes back as asthma (the lungs having more nobility than the skin), which the doctor unwisely prescribes a cortisone puffer for, thus further driving the disease to an even deeper organ, say the kidneys in the form of an infection.

The correct approach to treatment, in contrast, needs to be curative rather than suppressive, and in my Heilkunst office I’ll be watching for this pattern to systematically reverse itself. Using the example above, the first order of business is to treat the kidney infection, and by the proper direction of cure, it will reverse direction and move back into the asthma conditions of the lungs. The following treatment of the lungs in addition to removing the iatrogenic effect of the cortisone puffer will reverse the condition one more step back to the skin, where it can finally be treated correctly, and truly eliminated for good.

The nature of chronic illness, in general, when left to its own devices follows this same path of deepening — that is, without correct medical intervention, all chronic disease is trying to burrow its way deeper and deeper into our more noble organs over time, which we can witness over the course of a single lifetime, or from one generation to the next in terms of inherited disease patterns (such as the chronic miasms).

When it comes to your health, it is a good idea to leave behind your modern ideas of democracy, and respect the direction of cure (eschewing the direction of suppression), choosing medicine and therapeutics which push things out, rather than in. The disappearance of a symptom isn’t necessarily something to celebrate, if you’re not sure which principle was applied, and which direction it went in. I’ve often seen “health conscious” individuals even suppress their deeper tendency to chronic illness using mega doses of vitamins and supplements. They may appear “healthy”, but it can often be a very shiny veneer covering over deeply suppressed layers of illness. This is also the reason why many cancers “come back” after conventional treatment of chemotherapy or radiation, as those modalities push the root of the disease deeper, while making the more superficial tumor (temporarily) disappear. This reference to the principle and direction of cure should be the gold standard for every modality of treatment. Any modality, even using natural means, which makes symptoms disappear this way (through suppression) is also ‘allopathic’. Principles should always precede the specifics of how a modality is conducted.

This same logic is also true for our own health – inflammation has a positive purpose for our health and development. Fever, for example, is not only a powerful part of our immune response, but it is also a trigger for the stages of childhood development. It has been widely observed that a child will go through a growth spurt after resolving a childhood illness, such as measles or chicken pox. If fever is suppressed with drugs or herbs, then the toxins and microbes are stored in the cells, rather than burned off. Also, a lack of fevers in childhood sets the stage for cancer later in life, as the unexpressed energy of the fever needs to manifest in another form. Nature balances the equation here as well.
The question of what to do for a child in the face of infection and fever puts many parents into a dilemma. On the one hand, the impulse to protect the child from the assumed dangers of fever is unfortunately translated into a suppressive medical approach, which takes its toll on long-term health. Oh the other hand, sitting back and doing nothing can also raise a great deal of anxiety – letting nature take its course may be a risk in certain cases. So the question shouldn’t be to intervene or not, but how to do so in accordance with nature and without risking unnecessary damage. Like the forestry example above, Homeopathy imitates nature, and “fights fire with fire”, with speedy results, and no side-effects.
Childhood fevers can be safely and easily treated with homeopathic remedies, which act to resolve the fever process more quickly, rather than suppress it. The Law of Similars, or “like cures like”, means that the correct homeopathic remedy will move the fever forward in the direction it is already going, rather than stall it. The result is a quicker resolution of the fever, with less pain and suffering, and without the toxic by-products of the fever being stored in the cellular memory. A number of parents are also choosing to use equivalent Homeopathic remedies in place of the standard vaccine program.
Fever is only one example of a healthy life function that can be suppressed. Certain physical traumas and emotional shocks can also create a blockage in the life force. These become the kindling which eventually ignites the latent diseases that have been passed down through the family tree, such as cancer and heart disease, which first start to manifest in “minor” symptoms, such as migraines, or chronic infections. By systematically removing these blockages, any symptoms or tendency towards illness will no longer find anywhere to root, and the life force will be able to function in full radiant health.

I used the word cloud generator at the Wordle website this morning with playful curiosity, and discovered an opportunity to blog about a few of the key words about the scientific framework and thought forms behind Heilkunst. The word cloud above was generated from some of my most recent blog posts, and, in no particular order, here are some thumb-nail definitions of the words which most grab my attention:

• Remedy : We spend much of our lives actively seeking “remedies” for all of the problems we encounter in our life, and our thinking about health is no different. “Do you have a remedy for <fill in the blank>?” is certainly one of the top 3 questions I’m asked about my practice. The critical difference about the “remedies” of Heilkunst, is that while they do generally “solve” all kinds of problems, the key is in exactly how these remedies do what they do — rather than just being happy with having made a symptom “disappear”, the whole method is designed around making symptoms disappear in a way which is permanent, and which improves the general state of health of the patient in the process. This is in contrast to the vast array of drugs and modalities which can make a symptom disappear, but often at the cost of the underlying state of health.
• State : To expand on the previous word, it is not just a symptom coming or going that commands the primary focus in Heilkunst, but rather on the underlying state of mind and which direction it is evolving or devolving. The working of our entire mind and body is governed by a particular state of mind, and whether it is one of health or one of disease. Dr. Hahnemann contrasted the concept of state with that of condition, which is where we usually tend to unproductively focus our attention — arthritis, bronchitis, migraines, and so on, are examples of conditions, but none of which will be linked back to the exact same state or states from one suffer of these conditions to the next.
• The Feeling : I’ve certainly discussed various aspects of our treatment in terms of treating the time line of the patient, including emotional shocks and traumas. The term the feeling, however, is not limited to the emotions that the patient experienced in the past or present, but has a much deeper, aesthetic meaning, and we use it in terms of understanding the unique signature of each disease. The feeling refers to the unique, objective feeling which is identifiable with each state of disease, and not to any of the subjective feelings which may be felt in the patient or the practitioner in discussing an issue.
• Life : Another unique aspect in Heilkunst as a medical science is its approach to healthcare which is fundamentally based on life, and living processes – contrast this, for example, with the teachings of physiology and pathology in the Allopathic system, which are based, respectively, on studying corpses, and on studying pathological disease states, and extrapolating them into the realm of life. The baseline, for example, of Dr. hahnemann’s methodology of provings, is health, as they are conducted on healthy individuals, who are observed as they illustrate deviations away from this healthy baseline when testing the effects of a medicinal substance. The system of testing drugs, by contrast, is conducted on groups of unhealthy people, and so the baseline of health is confounded. The definition of “success”, therefore, in Heilkunst is relative to a pure baseline of life and health, rather than a murky, relativistic, and statistical deviation from “disease”.

]]> http://arcanum.ca/2012/04/22/a-play-on-words/feed/ 0 http://arcanum.ca/2012/04/17/homeopathic-constitutional-types-nux-vomica/ http://arcanum.ca/2012/04/17/homeopathic-constitutional-types-nux-vomica/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:09:40 +0000 jkorentayer http://arcanum.ca/?p=1719 The key feeling of Nux Vomica is of thwarted ambition. Ambition is something which is derived from the false ego, and drives us to accomplish things which are not derived from our true self. Such pursuits are bound to lead us into conflict or stress of various kinds, and the need for a constant recharging of energy which peters out just as quickly.

The Nux Vomica phenotype is very hot-headed, with an explosive temper, which bursts out at anyone or anything they perceive to be in their way. Their perception is that everyone around them is moving too slowly, and when in the role of a boss, they will bark out orders and reprimands in a usually colourful palette of language.

They behave in a highly competitive way, and make very poor sports who can’t stand losing. This is true both at work as well as their “leisure” time, where winning is everything. They act overly confident, even to the point of arrogance. They are very impatient, and will break things out of frustration, such as smashing their computer keyboard when a page on the internet is loading too slowly. Small or large examples of ‘road rage’ are rooted back to the energy of this remedy.

They are attracted to the use of all forms of stimulants in order to keep themselves propelled forward, but then will hit a point of collapse sooner, or later. The famous, and tragic, examples of Elvis and Michael Jackson illustrate this pattern of being reliant on drugs and cycling through these great highs and lows in the name of “the show must go on”. All forms of caffeinated beverages, especially including coffee, are the general fuel for this underlying energy behind most of our modern working world, which participates this Nux Vomica energy, even if not in full-blown form as I’ve described in the paragraphs above. Many prescription or street drugs may be used as stimulants in this state. Nux Vomica is the ultimate hangover remedy, and should be served at every New Year’s Day breakfast.

The physical pathology of Nux Vomica affects the gastro-intestinal tract, including symptoms of spasms and cramping. They can suffer a form of constipation which has unproductive urging, and mirrors the underlying feeling of this state, which is a compensation for “wants to, but afraid they can’t”. Many symptoms of Nux centre around the nervous system, which is highly charged, as in “my nervous system is fried”.

• How can “forced medication” be medically or legally justified in a society that normally follows the principle of “informed consent”?
• Even if Hydrofluorosilic Acid provided the claimed benefits, wouldn’t there be much more cost effective, and accurate methods of delivering the correct dose to each individual who needed it? After all, putting it in the water doesn’t account for : the proportional body weight of each person to the dose they need relative to the amount of water each person drinks in a day (ie almost everyone will be overdosing or underdosing).
• Studies have shown that the benefits of fluoride treatment only occur from topical application, and not from ingestion. Why, then, would this ingestion method be selected?
• The ingestion of hydrofluorosilic acid has been linked to numerous health issues, including cancer of the bones and of the thyroid gland. Why are entire populations being exposed to this known toxin without their informed consent?
• The use of fluoride in children under 3 is contra-indicated. How can we keep it away from this age group, if it’s in the tap water?
• Why is the disposal of an industrial waste by-product being dumped into our water supply, instead of being disposed of properly?
• With the rates of cancer so high, why is a known carcinogen being added to the water?
• If a pea-sized quantity of fluoridated toothpaste is swallowed, it is recommended that the poison control centre is contacted immediately. What about the person who drinks large amounts of tap water every day? Why would it be assumed that that was OK?

These questions are just a small sample, but the key point here is to begin to really examine the so-called logic of the practice of water fluoridation.

Have you had to bring any of these issues up with your city council, and what sort of response did you receive?

Throughout this blog series, bear in mind that I’ll often interchange the terms “fluoride” with “hydrofluorosilic acid”, which are not exactly the same thing. The latter term is the industrial toxic by-product of the aluminum industry, which is what is added to the water supply in many municipalities. The former term is the natural form, which we actually receive from a natural diet, and is a healthy part of our bones. Part of how the issue of fluoride has been obscured is by the intentional confusion between these two terms, and taking the safety of the natural element fluoride, and insinuating that its industrial counter-part is equally safe, which it is not. I’ll often use the term “fluoride” throughout, but you’ll be able to tell by the context when I’m referring to “hydrofluorosilic acid”, the toxic form.

I will write about the range of these issues in a series of blog posts, and today I’ll start with one aspect of examining the toxicity of these fluoride treatments, as illustrated by the “proving” symptoms of fluoric acid in the homeopathic materia medica. A proving, as you may know, is the methodology by which a substance is ingested by a group of healthy individuals in order to meticulously observe and record its composite symptom picture, which can then be used to correctly identify when that given medicine can be prescribed curatively on the basis of the law of similars. An unintentional use of such proving data is that we can use it to illustrate the toxic effects of a given substance as used in the homeopathic materia medica, such as Mercurius, or Cannabis Indica. Such proving data illustrates both the state of mind, as well as the toxic physical symptoms of a disease which can be caused by a toxic substance.

Some of the key proving symptoms of fluoric acid are:

• A state of mind which is :
• predominantly materialistic, and preoccupied with sexual thoughts. [This may explain a big part of our pornographic culture].
• Hurried.
• Indifferent or disconnected.
• Over-heated; desire for cool drinks or cool bathing.
• Hair falling out
• Discoloured or breaking teeth.
• Teeth prone to cavitation.
• Impotence.
• Varicose veins.
• Distortion or weakness of the nails.
• Brittle bones.

So, this is certainly not a toxin that we would want to take on an individual basis, let alone to give to a whole population. In the following blog posts, I’ll continue to explore the various medical and legal issues of this bizarre practice of mass medication.

Do you know if there’s fluoride added in your municipality, and if so, how have you addressed it personally, as well as politically?

The field of Optometry is almost completely overrun with this Allopathic mindset, and the common practice of continuously prescribing corrective lenses of greater and greater strength creates a downward spiral for the eye health of most patients. This comes from the same general assumption in Allopathic practices that illness and symptoms of all kinds are an inevitable result of aging, and our best response is to apply medicine or other therapeutics in correspondingly greater doses over time.

The facts turn out to be different from this assumption. Many thousands of patients have actually been able to improve their vision, and some even get rid of their corrective lenses entirely. The Bates method (invented by Dr. William Bates) is simply a collection of exercises for the muscles in and around the eyes in order to progressively strengthen, and therefore improve the vision. Eyesight, after all, is largely a function of musculature — when we are focussed on the words in a book in our hands, and then shift our gaze to something farther away, the change in focus is accomplished by our eyes through muscle movements.

Due to our increasing focus on up close work (all of the work people do now on computers, for example, such as reading this blog!), our vision becomes more and more rigid, and less adaptable to re-focussing at different perspectives. The normal solution of progressively greater strengths of corrective lenses only reinforces the underlying problem, and contributes to its worsening over time.

The practices of the Bates method, by contrast, encourage a much more varied usage of the eyes, by using exercises that utilize all the different combinations of muscle groups within the eye, by looking at different horizons, angles, and so on. It also includes other aspects of encouraging relaxation in the eyes, to give them a break from the constant strain they are often put under. “Sunning” and “palming” are two staple exercises in this realm, as well.

Some optometrists are willing to work with the patient in parallel to these exercises, in order to prescribe them progressively lower prescriptions over time, as their eyes are strengthened. It is definitely worth searching around to find an optometrist who is willing to work with you on this goal.

Aside from the basic exercises in the Bates method (which are plenty effective in their own right), I also assist patients with homeopathic remedies as well. There are some homeopathic remedies which are useful for the physical aspects of these exercises, such as Ruta Graveolens, which is very effective for releasing habitual straining in the eyes, particular for those who do a lot of up close work.

There are also the whole range of the emotional remedies available, as patients find that their progressive work on eye improvement will be tied up with any number of layers of emotional conflicts or other shocks or traumas that are being energetically stored in their ocular segment. Think of all that we may desire not “to see” when faced with emotional traumas.

A good dose of healthy nutrition and lifestyle are always good complements to any health endeavor, and even the more specific use of certain herbs and supplements formulated to nourish the eye may also be used.

I have been working on my own vision with these methods, and have already had my relatively strong prescription drop a few points. I’ll let you know when I get rid of my lenses completely!

The word “I” is the only word in the English language which cannot be learned by direct example — for example, if I am teaching a child to say “I am going to the store”, the correct response is to say “You are going to the store”, and vice versa. One of the classic indications of autism is an inability to correctly make such reversals, as the healthy birth of the ontic organization has been impaired.

The details of this pronoun reversal are simply an expression of the deeper function of the ontic organization, which is the source of our self-consciousness, and identity as a separate entity. It is what provides the human kingdom with a unique waking consciousness, which is not posessed by any of the other three kingdoms of nature (mineral, plant, and animal). This is why, incidentally, for the treatment of any domestic animal, the health issues of the human owner need to be addressed in conjunction, as the pet will be drawing on the ontic function of their master.

Another counter-example to help us understand the healthy function of the ontic organization is the disease of cancer. Of course, there are very significant physical aspects of treating an active case of cancer, but here I am talking about the state of mind which is at the root of the disease (as every disease is built on a unique state of mind). In the disease of cancer, the state of mind is one which eclipses the healthy function of the ontic, or the sense of self, and the eventual physical symptoms are a reflection of this unclear definition of the self, and its corresponding weak immune system. In both the prevention of cancer, as well as its active reversal, a good prognosis will always include a palpable shift in this underlying sense of self, and healthy emotional boundaries (the emotional immune system, so to speak).

This is also the key to a truly “early” diagnosis for prevention of cancer — the well-trained Heilkunst physician can diagnose and treat at this level long before any tumour has emerged out of this deeper cancer state of mind. The so-called “early” detection of tumours within the conventional system is actually quite a late stage in the game. This is one of many reasons that having an annual “physical” with the conventional MD is not nearly enough for attaining true health at the level of all four of our bodies.

The topic of cancer is quite broad, and there are many areas to discuss from a Heilkunst perspective. In this blog post, I would like to make a few comments about this presentation made at a TEDMED conference about a new cancer treatment protocol, ‘Tumor Treating Fields”.

As I wrote recently, there is an urgent need for a truly integrative system of medicine that intelligently brings different health care modalities together to work towards commonly defined goals of health which are focussed on the patient rather than on winning the ‘turf wars’ between the different modalities (with the biggest war occurring between conventional and alternative medicines).

Conventional medicine claims a monopoly over cancer diagnosis and treatment, and this is an unfortunate barrier to establishing a more successful system for patient survival and quality of life. The type of discovery presented in this TEDMED talk is quite promising, at least along the lines of providing a better quality of life for patients (as it creates little to no side effects), but needs to be further contextualized within a broader understanding of what cancer is in the first place.

This new method of ‘Tumor Treating Fields’ is non-invasive (in sharp contrast to the big three modalities of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy), and without side effects. This point alone is a great achievement in terms of the “miracles” of modern medical technologies, and is worthy of further development and integration into health care of cancer patients.

This is where this, and any, cancer treatment modalities (both conventional and alternative), need to be further understood within the context of the principles of Heilkunst in general, and its understanding of cancer in particular. The key point to start with, is that the conventional diagnosis of ‘cancer’ is only referring to the existence of cancer cells or tumors. The cancer cell or tumor is not the cancer disease, but rather only the manifestation of it. This is why the story in cancer that is heard so often is of cancer returning some time after the apparently successful treatment with whichever modality. The conventional definition of whether cancer was cured, or not, is reduced to a statistical definition of “no recurrence within 5 years of treatment”. Statistics, while interesting, are not able to define essential issues of health, disease, or cure.

The fundamental disease of cancer is both diagnosable and treatable even in the absence of any physical manifestations of tumors within the Heilkunst framework. All diseases, including cancer, fundamentally originate in a diseased state of mind, which will result in physical symptoms developing over time. Whichever method of cancer treatment succeeds in eliminating a cancerous tumor has not succeeded in curing the root disease of cancer, until this deeper state of mind has been reverted to a healthy state of mind. I certainly endorse the exploration and use of any treatment modalities for cancer tumors, such as this new “Tumor Treating Field” technology, but only within an enlarged context of a treatment philosophy which understands this deeper structural aspect of the disease of cancer as distinct from the physical symptoms.

This is the starting point for how we help cancer patients with Heilkunst at whichever level they would like — whether they are choosing to use Heilkunst in conjunction with conventional treatments, or if they have decided that they only wish to use natural medicine, the same underlying philosophy of treating the deeper structure of cancer is applied towards the goal of cure. Quality of life and longevity are some of the highest goals to strive for in cancer treatment, and this deeper structural understanding of the disease of cancer is the surest context to do this in, regardless of which modalities are chosen by an individual cancer patient.

We recently watched a very illuminating documentary called Orgasm, Inc. It illustrates how a number of pharmaceutical companies are in a race to be the first to bring to market an effective drug for “Female Sexual Dysfunction”. This movie illuminated very well the inherent problem in trying to treat such an abstract condition label, as if it were a singular medical entity, presumably always exactly the same for every woman, and always treatable by the same drug protocol. Furthermore, as with most other false disease labels, this has more to do with marketing, and making more and more women “eligible” for a drug which they may not need, and which often won’t help them.

Something I learned from this documentary, is how it is actually the pharmaceutical industry which proposes new condition labels to be officially approved, so that they can then develop new lines of profitable drugs designed to address these newly made up condition labels. Once the pharmaceutical industry successfully had “female sexual dysfunction” declared a new condition label, they set out to work on developing a new drug which could treat it.

It was upsetting to witness this process in action, and to realize that the whole pharmaceutical industry is built on such a game of artificial construction of condition labels, as a mechanism to develop ever more profitable lines of drugs which largely rob people of their health. Did you know that iatrogenesis (disease which is caused by drugs or other medical errors) is actually the number one cause of death in North America?

The cure for this massive disease of our medical system is to solve this problem of false disease names, by understanding Dr. Hahnemann’s teachings about how to apply curative remedies based on true diagnoses.