Dose, Potency, and Methods of Delivery
Once a homeopathic remedy has been selected as the match for my patient’s disease, based on the law of similars (the jurisdiction of medicine), the equally challenging question remains of how to prescribe the remedy, in terms of its dose, potency, and form of delivery.
dose and potency
Roughly speaking, the idea of similars also applies to the dose and potency, as it does to the selection of the remedy itself. A more acute (ie intense in this moment) disease should usually be treated with a higher potency, in order to match the intensity (fight fire with fire). Likewise, a long-term, slowly progressing chronic illness can be started with a lower potency, which is slowly increased over time as the roots of the disease are gradually chipped away at. Along these lines, the form of the remedy needs to be the best match for its purpose. When I’m treating a specific traumatic time line event from the patient’s past, I’ll typically provide the remedy in a series of ascending potencies in a dry form (either a lactose powder, or rice paper base). This more condensed version of the remedy energy better matches the more contracted form of energy that this old event has taken up inside the patient’s energy. Likewise, a wet remedy (ie dropper bottle) is more suitable for a much more pervasive or entrenched disease process, which needs to be treated “drop by drop” over an extended period of time. These basic principles are true, but there are a number of other factors and disease dimensions which will call for specific modifications. One of the constant concerns of patients is around anticipating healing reactions, as well as effectively dealing with them when they arise. In the case of long-term, deeper diseases, the intensity of the healing reaction unleashed by the typical 3-dose dry remedy, can often be deftly brought under control with a dose of the same remedy in the LM potency scale. The usual 3-powder doses I give are remedies from the C scale, with ‘C’ being the Roman numeral for 100, and these remedies all prepared from the base 1 in 100 dilution ratio. There is much more density and ‘punch’ to this series, and is appropriate to destroy the outer container or structure of the disease. The LM scale (Roman numeral for 50,000), is a very different energy scale and is very good at absorbing all of the debris and shrapnel that was let loose from the C scale. The other general area of concern that comes up (but fortunately not so frequently) is of patients with extreme sensitivity to the remedies. They can barely take one single drop, or even one whiff, without their whole system being thrown into complete chaos. This is a conundrum, because it is the disease which is creating such sensitivity, yet which is also preventing the disease from being touched by the remedy. There are a number of ways of creating a reduced dose for this patient, so that they can go at a pace that they can handle. One way is to dilute 1 drop of the remedy into a glass of water, and then one drop of this mixture into a second glass, and so on up to perhaps 6 or 10 levels of dilution, until the point is reached where the patient can handle a dose. Eventually, the underlying disease is reduced to the point where they can start to take the remedy with one of the typical dosing methods, after they’ve gradually worked their way back to the original glass of water, and then straight into the dropper bottle itself for their dose. As important as selecting the correct remedy is, it can be especially interesting to properly adjust the dose, potency, and energy delivery of the remedy, once I enter into the unique terrain of the patient. Fortunately, most fall within the average zone of the bell curve, and can handle the typical protocols, but I always have to be ready to find a custom solution for a patient that doesn’t fit the mould.