Homeopathy Book Reviews

Cancer My Homeopathic Method -Dr. AU Ramakrishnan

Dr. AU Ramakrishnan’s newest book, Cancer My Homeopathic Method is reviewed by homeopath Rochelle Marsden

Title – Cancer My Homeopathic MethodDr. AU Ramakrishnan’s march2016

Author – Dr AU Ramakrishnan

Publisher – Narayana Verlag

Price- 48 Euros ($54 U.S.)

Format – Hardback, 207 pages

First English Edition 2015

This book is an updated version of “A Homeopathic Approach to Cancer” (2001). It is divided into a Preamble, 3 parts and Acknowledgments.

In the Introduction Dr Ramakrishnan (often referred to as Dr Ram) explains how he came to be interested in treating Cancer. Right at the beginning he emphasises that the book is meant as an instruction manual for trained homeopaths and is not a self care manual.

The book starts with an extremely brief introduction to homeopathy and an explanation of why he uses the plussing method. Details of the changes in plussing methods and new directions for plussing are included. One change involves raising the potency of the organ specific remedy and keeping the nosode at the lower potency.

Similar to Chapter 4 in “A Homeopathic Approach to Cancer”, Part 1 is divided into the types of cancer with the principal organ specific remedies that Dr Ram has found most successful being listed first. He then gives two or three cases for each type of cancer showing the prescriptions given. All the cases in this part are his successes, i.e. they have been free of cancer for 5 years since treatment.

Unfortunately he has not given the reason why he prescribed the organ specific remedy in the first case mentioned (bladder), which is information that any homeopath would like to know! With most of the other cancer conditions I found the same issue. An explanation of why an organ specific remedy was given, was the exception rather than the rule!

Looking at the Brain Cancer section, I see one of the main remedies at the top is Plumbum Iodum, and he describes the case of a man he gave this to in 2004 who is still clear of cancer in 2014. My problem is, why did he give this remedy? I have looked up the indications for it in the MM and I don’t see the symptoms described. In the Complete Rep I see Plumbum and Iodum separately in ordinary type for tremors (one of the symptoms) but nowhere was Plumbum Iodium I find it frustrating that I can’t work out why this remedy was given, let alone why it is in the main remedies for brain cancer. This remedy was also given as the second organ specific remedy in the following case and the only organ specific remedy in the very next case described with no explanation why. However when we come to breast cancer I don’t need to be told why Conium was given when the lump was described as large and as hard as a glass marble but with the case of a small remedy like Plumbum Iodum I do!

In case 26 a remedy is used with success which is not mentioned as an organ remedy for the specific condition, and we are not told why it was given. In the Lymphoma section, the first two cases described were given remedies which again were not mentioned as specific organ remedies for this complaint and there was no indication of why they were given.

Alas, in part three, I finally discovered the reason for giving Plumbum Iodum. In this section he describes many organ specific remedies and the reasoning behind prescribing them.

At the end of some cases we are told that the remedy had been chosen because it matched the constitutional remedy (and I noticed it was one of the organ specific remedies given). At the end of Case 20 we are told why Phytolacca was chosen out of the main remedies given for Neuroblastoma. Now this is useful information and it is a shame the same format was not applied to all the cases.

Unlike in his first book, the majority of the cases presented had already undergone chemotherapy and radiation before coming to homeopathy which tells us that that homeopathy will work despite these allopathic interventions. There are some very impressive “cures”/long term remissions in this book even for cancers like AML in a 68 year old. In fact a lot of the successes in this book are of the elderly.

Part 2 of the book concentrates on Palliations of Situations Beyond Cure. It is impressive in the cases given how many patients lived many months longer than expected with a better quality of life and often died suddenly.

Part 3 begins with “Gentling the end of life”. In the cases given, no remedies are specified, as he says there is no “recipe”. A practitioner should give the remedy needed at the time, often in water and sipping every few minutes.

Next he discusses the Frequently Used Remedies beginning with Carcinosin and Scirrhinum, then the Cancer Specifics and finally the Organ specifics. This is a very useful part of the book and may help to explain his choices in the cases if read in conjunction with them. Reading Arsenicum Iod has reminded me to consider prescribing it to one of my cancer patients who has a urinary infection. I have even found the Plumbum Iodum in this section which was frustrating me when I was reading the cases using it. I now know why it was used. If Dr. Ram writes another edition of this book it may be prudent to put this section at the front of the book to prevent frustration when reading the cases!

The section on Palliation for End of Life is a very useful addition to the book and is more extensive than in his first book. The directions for dosing are the same as those given in the Gentling the End of Life chapter. He also gives a list of the remedies most frequently used for pain control.

The directions for Plussing are given in detail for those who are new to this way of prescribing for cancer and he says that the roots of the protocol are found in Hahnemann’s work on LM potencies.

Another very useful chapter is Homeopathy with Conventional Medicine as he gives indications for acute prescribing for surgery and for problems during radiation treatment. Since some patients wish to do chemo and radiotherapy alongside homeopathy, he is now finding that it is fine to do the plussing regime through this as it still offers benefit.

The last chapters of the book are Prevention and Recurrence, Statistics and Frequently Asked Questions with Answers.

Overall I would recommend this book to those practitioners who currently use plussing with their patients and have the original book, as there is a lot of new information here, especially on the new way the potencies are now increased. It will be useful to those who are thinking about using this posology as much of the information they need to make a start on it is here. In some ways it is clearer than the previous book. There is a lot of pertinent help in the FAQ section regarding airport security and how to deal with hospital admissions while plussing. The cases given offer hope that cancers can be helped, even the notoriously impossible ones like AML, pancreatic and oesophageal cancers. The book itself is a hardback with good quality paper and a bookmark attached.

About the author

Rochelle Marsden

Rochelle Marsden MSc, RSHom, MNWCH, AAMET is a member of the Hpathy team, a registered classical homeopath (Society of Homeopaths), and has run Southport Homeopathic Practice in the UK SINCE 1999. Rochelle completed a 2 year post-grad course with Dr. Ramakrishnan and another with Dr. S. Banerjea, and an intense Clinical Training in India with Dr. Ramakrishnan. She is a tutor for The British Institute for Homeopathy (BIH) and is a regional tutor for local homeopathic colleges. She is also a practitioner in meridian therapies, EFT (Cert. Advanced) and Matrix Reimprinting. Visit Rochelle at : http://www.southporthomeopathy.co.uk/

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