Observing Homeopathy at work

( Here is a case report illustrating how a homeopath works and thinks, in a truly psychosomatic perspective)     
       She was a short , pudgy ,mild woman, 45 years old, a housewife from a suburban town.
 The following were her complaints. .Two major problems,

•  joint pains and swelling
•  A chronic skin eruption.

      Two months back she developed fever , painful swelling of both wrists and ankles and was diagnosed as chikungunya in her hometown.The left wrist was the first to get affected, followed by the ankles.the pain was aggravated by even slight motion and she took homeopathic treatment for this in the form of bryonia 200c which did not relieve her condition.The swelling persists even now and the joints on the left side ankle and wrist are more affected . The swelling comes down considerably in the morning and comes back in the evening after a day’s moving about and working. Her hands are weak and she is unable to work with full strength.  

    when the fever came down she got back an old eruption in the right foot which had been troubling her since past 6 years.—history of eruption—this eruption used to come during April-may, some years and other years , it used to start in December and continue until April. These eruptions are purplish/ bluish with a slight thickening of skin and a few vesicles . Two years back the eruptions and discharge was very troublesome and offensive, which led her to take allopathic treatment. With ointment and internal allopathic medication the eruptions disappeared. Now, 2 years later with this chikungunya episode the eruptions have come back.

   she also gets headache which is aggravated by walking in sun.Headache improved on wearing eyeglasses and now she has to wear glasses especially when she is travelling long distance by car.

  4. Her B.P was checked for the headache and was found to be high 160/100mm Hg, ( she is not on any anti-hypertensives.)

 5.Occasionally she feels dizzy and her vision dims and everything seems to turn yellow and she feels like she is going to fall.(fainting fits). She actually fell once this month., she feels she fell because her step was not steady.

 6. she does not like to drink water, warm or hot . she prefers water that is neither hot nor cold. Warm

water or hot water makes her feel uncomfortable.

7. she likes sweets(2), salt(1), spicy(1)

 8. fatty food aggravates –like biriyani, ghee rice,-- produces a sense of heaviness of head.

9.sleep—as she goes to sleep( falls asleep) she feels her throat getting parched and dry and she coughs and wakes up. She then has to get up and drink a glass of cool water. She sleeps mostly on her back and also in right side on position.she does not like to sleep in the left side on position.

10. during the day she does not have much thirst but in the evening And night she drinks many glasses of water.

 11. she cannot stand darkness, if the electricity goes off suddenly, she gets afraid and feels suffocated. she sleeps with the lights on.

12. she has fear of snakes ,and any creepy thing like centipede .. she is particularly scared of snakes.

13. she has dreams of snakes,

14. menses are irregular – occur once in 4 months, since 2005 december when she visited AbuDhabi.

 15. she is a warm person intolerant of heat.

.when asked to protrude the tongue the tip of the tongue was found to hitch and get stuck behind her lower incisors.

 Case analysis in homeopathy

 So after getting the case notes what does the homeopath look for?

 1. conditions that aggravate or ameliorate the person as a whole or her symptoms.

 • Walking in the sun aggravates her headache

 • Warm or hot drinks aggravate her.(we can readily see these two symptoms in the light of her generally warm body temperature)

 • Fatty food aggravates

 • Cool or tepid water ameliorates

• Aggravation , falling asleep on

• A seasonal aggravation mostly in February, march, April as winter gives way to summer , what is known in the western countries as a springtime aggravation.

2.Any characteristic, persistent mental symptoms

 On the whole she is a placid(mild) sort of a person except when she talked about her fear of creepy things , mainly snakes. She has a strong fear of snakes. And a strong fear of darkness associated with feelings of suffocation.

 3. any peculiar or unusual symptom ?

The persistent symptom of sudden dryness, and cough coming on exactly at the time she falls asleep!!, which wakes her up and then she has to drink a glass of cool water!! Is a truly peculiar and unusual symptom which is very valuable in this case.

 4. any existing disease/pathology

• Arthritis more on the left side

• Arthritis that first involved the left side joints

• Eczematous eruptions

 • Hypertension

 5. general features about the person

• she is generally a hot or warm bodied person

 • with more symptoms on the left side

• with a shift of symptoms from left to right

• menstruation only once in 4 months for past 5 years.

Case analysis and summary:

        Here is a 45 year old hypertensive woman with a regular spring time aggravation of bluish eruptions for past 5-6 years, roughly during the same period of 5 years she has had reduced menstruation only once in 4 months.and arthritis affecting the left side more, beginning in the left side then involving the right sided joints. she is persistently aggravated on falling asleep with a suffocating feeling and is also intolerant of warm or hot drink or the hot sun. In addition she is a warm person.In addition to all this she has a strong fear of snakes and other creepy things and also has been dreaming about snakes.

 Medicine selection in homeopathy Homeopathic remedy indicated is chosen on the basis of the principle—similia similibus curenter or the law of similars. In simple words the remedy capable of causing, these very characteristic symptoms (seen in the patient) in a healthy human being ,will have a curative influence when given to the patient .

 Lachesis was the remedy chosen for her. Lachesis is prepared from the venom of a deadly south-American snake called surukuku or lachesis trigonocephalus and was introduced into homeopathic use by the famous American pioneer in homeopathy – Constantine Hering .

 In homeopathy drugs are first studied by the effects produced in several healthy individuals by highly diluted doses of the particular medicine. Symptoms that repeatedly appear in many individuals are noted as being characteristic of the drug and are called “drug provings”.

     One of the first proving of lachesis was done by Constantine Hering himself an allopath who crossed over joyously after knowing the truth and scientific reliability of homeopathy. The most common and pronounced symptoms of drug proving are called the keynotes of the remedy.

 The important keynotes of lachesis are…

 1. extreme sensitivity to heat & touch.

 2. touch especially on the neck , which easily causes feelings of suffocation.

 3. ailments beginning on left side and may go to right side .

 4. aggravation on going to sleep, during sleep and on waking.

 5. aggravation in warm , relaxing weather, especially in spring( when winter gives way to summer)

 6. relief with appearance of discharges (menstruation etc)

 7. lachesis is also known to have cured several cardiac illnesses including hypertension . (cured symptoms are also considered as equivalent to proving symptoms ) .

      since the  patient’s symptoms matches so well -- especially the modalities- warmth aggravation, warm drinks aggravation, left sidedness, left to right movement of symptoms, and feelings of suffocation,fear of snakes, dreams of snakes, presence of hypertension…etc Lachesis appears to be the right choice.

  Repertorisation:

    A repertory is an index of symptoms with the list of remedies capable of causing them , quite like a telephone directory. If we know the characteristic symptoms of the patient, then we can look up in the repertory the drug which commonly runs through all the prominent, symptoms highly characteristic of the patient’s illness or the patient.

 for eg in this case

 • Cough,sleep,going to, on—lachesis,lycopodium, sulphur, agaricus, carbo-vegetabilis,conium,hepar sulphuris,and phoshorus

• Warm drinks, aggravate—rhustox,bismuth,drosera,lachesis,south pole of magnet,merc-i-f, mezereum, nux-vomica,pariera,phosphorus, pulsatilla,sulph

• Mind,fear of snakes—Lac-caninum,abel,elap,lachesis

• Bluish discoloration—lachesis,and other remedies

• Fear of dark—stram,cann-I,aconite, calc, camph, carb-an, carb-veg,caust,cupr,lyc, med,phos, puls,stron-carb,tub

So repertorisation also shows lachesis to be the leading remedy common in all the symptoms except two.

Repertorisation also brings up the possibility of Phosphorus.

 Result:

 After taking lachesis in highly diluted dose in about 3 days time a discharge started , followed by gradual improvement of joint swelling and pain. Her feeling of general well being also increased.

 A period of at least one month has to pass before a definite follow up and detailed review of the patient is done.

Follow up:

  she did well for an year and then there was a mild relapse a repeat of lachesis 200 relieved.since then she has been doing well. she has not called with any complaints after that.

Comments:

 1. Note that characteristic mental symptoms of lachesis-- the loquacity, the arrogance ,or haughtiness are not evident. Disease Centre of gravity refers to the organ systems which have maximum disorder. In this case most of her symptoms involve the musculoskeletal system, and skin . Mental and emotional symptoms were not significantly affected.hence mental symptoms are not there as expected.

 2. fatty food aggravation and fear of darknes was very prominent in this case , but these highly clear and characteristic symptoms of this patient are not noted under lachesis. But, this should not deter us from prescribing lachesis because these could be the symptoms of an underlying layer!. For example pulsatilla or phosphorus is a possibility considering the symptoms . After improvement with lachesis …. Phosphorus or Pulsatilla symptoms may come up.( look at the repertorisation phosphorus covers most of the symptoms and is Likely to be the constitutional remedy . phosphorus and lachesis are complementary remedies. Knowledge of complementary remedies also helps in selection of subsequent medicine. Homeopathy is a scientific and systematic medical knowledge , that is borne out in reality as an effective system, both by itself and as a complementary to other branches of medicine.