Homeopathy Papers

Dealing With Cancer

Written by Amit Karkare

Dr.Karkare discusses the role of homeopathy in treating cancer, including its use for emotional stress, the side effects of conventional treatment and in pain management.

INTRODUCTION

Cancer has reached almost every household in today’s era of lack of exercise, unhealthy food habits, addictions, stress and moral famine. The overall treatment options available in the medical ‘market’ provide more pain than relief. Various kinds of surgery, radiation and newer chemotherapy drugs, in their own way, are posing a threat to the individual’s quality of life. Apart from the treatment options, the patient is getting bogged down by the battery of investigations and imaging requisitions, often without assessing the case clinically. The pain of cancer has thus extended from the physical and emotional sphere, to moral and financial downfall. The patient is exhausted and emptied in every sense, and gets nothing in return, but a different form of suffering. Is there anything that we as homeopaths can offer?

Most of the patients we meet at our clinics are already in an advanced stage of cancer, or have already undergone a couple of cycles of chemotherapy for the respective malignancy. They pose three significant questions to a homeopath:

  1. Do you offer anything for cancer, and if yes, what is its scope?
  2. Is it safe to take homeopathy simultaneously with chemotherapy? Will that affect the efficacy of either of them?
  3. Can you prescribe anything on a preventive basis, to avoid the recurrence of disease for this patient, or the rest of the family?

We will try to discuss all such issues…

I have heard a lot of claims by eminent homeopaths of my city regarding the CURE of cancer, but I think “Let’s not cheat patients or homeopathy”. I do not doubt the efficacy of homeopathy, but if we make such claims without statistically and objectively proving them, the medical community will accuse us of misguiding the patients, which in turn diminishes the faith of the public in our system.

Apart from its effect against malignant growths, I have seen homeopathy doing wonders by –

  1. Dealing with the mental trauma that the cancer diagnosis causes, as with further depression and a hopeless mental state.
  2. Reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy, especially in cases of CINV (chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting).
  3. Relieving the pains in terminal cancer cases.

The shock and the aftermath

It is very common to have a patient in a mental state of shock and its aftereffects after being diagnosed with cancer. There is a strong sense of approaching death, leading to mixed feelings of fear, despair, hopelessness and sadness. Within no time, you suddenly shift to a permanently unhealthy state, never to return back to your original health. The strong feeling of ‘Why me?’ haunts the patient day and night, leading to a sense of guilt.

ARNICA is the best remedy for such a mental shock, and I have used it often to relieve the effect of this sudden blow, when the patient least expected the diagnosis. There is a strong sense of being good for nothing in such a patient, with a morose and hopeless feeling, along with great apathy.

An ARSENICUM ALB patient will be in a state of anguish with marked restlessness and fear of approaching death. The restlessness gets aggravated at night, keeping the patient awake. There is an oversensitive mind with great melancholy and despair of recovery. He gets irritated at trifles, especially over untidiness around him.

A patient needing PHOS ACID would be sitting quiet, with unwillingness to talk or discuss his health status. There is a strong apathy and indifference with great reluctance to answer questions. It is a hopeless state with dread of anticipated crisis or death. There is a weeping mood triggered by the least stimuli.

ACONITE will be called upon if the patient is in an agonizingly frightful, anxious state with a strong sense of death. He screams with fear and is afraid to go out of the house. It is a situation of emergency, due to the state of panic and terror. There is an overwhelming nervous state with the typical prediction of death.

I have also seen remedies like SEPIA and AURUM MET do excellent work to lift the mood of the patient from the sad and indifferent state. I also use certain Bach flower remedies like Aspen, Rock Rose, Wild Rose, Gorse, White Chestnut, or Rescue Remedy to relieve the acute panic and hopelessness.

CHEMOTHERAPY INDUCED NAUSEA AND VOMITING

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting can negatively affect the quality of life, making it hard for the patient to function in a normal manner on daily chores, and motivating him to stop chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments. Up to 60% of patients experience severe nausea and vomiting and rank it as the most disturbing side effect of the cancer therapy.

Along with remedial measures, the patient should follow a pattern of small and frequent meals. Dry toast or crackers can help relieve the nausea. One should drink plenty of fluids throughout the day and avoid eating spicy and oily foods.

Among the top-rated remedies for CINV, I have used – IPECAC, ARSENIC ALB, VERATRUM ALBUM, RADIUM BROM and COLCHICUM.

Where colchicum is indicated, I have often found the patient craving carbonated drinks [pepsi or coke] and alcohol [which obviously should not be provided]. There is a strong nauseating feeling from the slightest odor of food. The patient craves a specific food, but when offered, the smell gives rise to nausea preventing him from enjoying it.

The RADIUM BROMATUM patient shows a strong feeling of nausea that is better by eating, as in the case of SEPIA. The patient who needs VERATRUM ALBUM would complain of a strong nauseating feeling that is triggered by starting to eat, along with marked prostration.

PAIN RELIEF

I often get patients who are in advanced or terminal stages, and were referred for pain relief, especially when due to bone metastases. There is severe bone pain that is relieved by nothing in particular. No specific position can relieve the pain and it gives rise to intense physical restlessness.

I had used various remedies for this bone pain – including ARNICA, RUTA, EUPATORIUM and RHUS TOX; but the most significant relief has been achieved with the administration of SYMPHYTUM in a mother tincture form.

Conclusion:

Homeopathy has much to offer in cases of cancer, apart from treating the malignant growth. A patient or his family will often inquire about the role we as homeopaths can play in the overall treatment process. We need to be clear within ourselves about our scope.

About the author

Amit Karkare

Dr Amit Karkare BHMS, BFP (UK) is from Pune, India. He has been studying Homeopathy and Bach Flower Therapy for over a decade and also learning through his patients and students. As a research-oriented homoeopath, Dr. Karkare has worked extensively in cases with Refractory Epilepsy, ADHD, Infantile Autism, and Plantar fasciitis.

27 Comments

  • Extremely useful piece of infomation. I am sure it will help many in distress since you have clinically verified it, we still need more information on application of hom. remedies to cancer patients, more physicians should come forward and share their experiences to be able to relief suffering of such patients.Thank you.

  • your view is homoeopathy has limited scope in cancer.If so how the patients will come to you for treatment.Patients wont come to you for the removal of one or two symptoms.Did you prove all remedies you mentioned in your clinic?Did you try combination of remedies.If homoeopathy acting well in elephatiasis(combination of some remedies)why not in cancer?In cancer your view is to palliate only.then why are you trapped in single remedy selection.How will you come to the conclusion that homoeopathy has no scope in cancer?This article is spoiling the image of homoeopathy

  • Whether it be cancer or any other ailment, remedies differ between patients and differ as the case progresses. A patient I had with terminal cancer found most relief of pain with Arsenicum, as restlessness was his presenting symptom. Higher and higher doses of Morphene did nothing for him. When in pain he screamed for Ars.

  • Very nice article thank u very much sir. and also let me know the mouth cancer because they cannot eat so please can u write about .
    thanks a lot.

    • Dear sir, combining remedies is not homeopathic. There is, and can only be one simillimum. This breaks the very basic, fundamental rules of homeopathy. If it were to “work” how would you know which remedy had effect?

      This defies all that Hahnemann taught. True, classical homeopathy is not practiced in this way.

  • Dont come to the blind decision that homeo remedies have limited action in cancer homeo remedies alone can give improvement in breast cancer.50 mill potencies acting nicely in cancer.we know two doctors practising in southern tamilnadu treat only for cancer both asking fee of Rs.100 per visit you are not have enough experience to treat cancer

  • as a homeo student articles like this dicouraging me.r u oncologist?did u treat one lakh patients?i ask hpathy to not publish like this article

  • A very interesting article on Amit Karkare a research-oriented homoeopath; having lost so many family members and friends through Cancer and treatment from Allopathic Communities there needs to be better research into Homeopathy and Cancer, and also raising the profile. Change is happening; through the HPATHY.com it enables that information to be accessible for the planet communities.

  • Nice article, but almighty Allh says there is remedy available for all diseases, I would not exposed any disease in the world till not released it’s remedy. So, there is a remdedy but our homeopaths has to find out.

  • I read the article, It is nice for understanding the cancer situation. I want to give my heartiest thanks to the writer, from me and Bangladesh.

  • This article is childish.

    This author has the mind to say some thing about other homoeopaths with out he going to these great homoeopaths of his city and claims he has done some thing to some patients. No one can have numbers . How many numbers can each doctor have in his whole life time may be 10000.What does this author want?100000or a crore?…. It is each patient at a time. Why does he not believe other docrtors who claim that they have cured?

    There are great doctors curing cancer or something else. Commenting on others work and say let us not cheat…. sounds… childish.

    The author has not given any specific cases rather he has reminded us some of the symptoms on which he chose certain remidies.

    Homoeopathy is bigger than doctors and numbers. Can you grasp the principles and apply to heal the suffering?…. then let us do it …
    Do not to worry about to prove anything to any one.

    It is the patient that matters. Thats all.

    My sincere advice ( not asked for) is to keep humility and respect others work.

  • hey why keep this article.the author???think that he is second hahnemann.if you keep it it is spoiling homeopathy.anybody can tell story.are you ready to present all your cases in hpathy with evidence otherwise h.pathy should apologise for publishing like this article

  • Hello doctor your articls are really helpful to us.. I was your student in D.s. homoeopathic medical coolege,Pune..now I am in China so to be in touch with field i prefer reading Hpathy.com articls…they are really very helpful..

  • Dear Dr. Amit,
    Why get doctors more panic than public ? Because the death-pain of a cancer patient paralyzes the skill of the Allopathic physician since any amount morphine doses is fruitless to null the pain. But in homeopathic treatment death-pain is nullified and patient will get a pleasant termination. Instead of narrating the common mental picture of the suffering patient, it is better to cite indicative symptom of a remedy which gave successful pleasant termination.Your articles have only indicating the medicine. No presentation of cases with successful facts and figures, at least one case, is found in Cancer Article.
    Like you everyone can write who has a good knowledge in M.M.
    yours,
    ganesan.m

  • Dear Amit,

    You have written a nice, concise and very useful article on cancer. thanks a lot. Please write more on cancer with case report.

  • i think you are very correct that moral famine addication are very promiminent reason for reaching of cancer in every household

  • It is distrusting to note some of the inappropriate and negative comments written about the auther. He has drawn somewhat a correct picture of some of the so called Cancer experts doctors, but he does not deny there are some very good doctors also who have cured cancer. From my own experience, a few of the cancer patients who were refered to some renewed Cancer expert homeopathic doctors, all of them died after their homeopathic treatment lasting for one to two years. The patients were quite young, but they were also taking conventional treatment, and it was in the knowledge of the homeopathic doctors. Hence I request, pse don’t give your hasty comments about your fellow collegues.
    The article is on the whole quite good and many have liked it.

  • we are not against article.we argue the author has not enough experience to comment about other doctors. im open-heartedly asking does the author ready to give proof for this article. we heard so many stories from many authors like this.

  • Dears !

    Oh nO!

    Blind ignorant to what Hahnemann has given and entrusted
    us with/. Back to the schoolbench ! H ; Hering ;Lippe;
    Boenninghausen, Stapf, Gross; Jahr; Allen; B0ger; Kent;
    Tyler, Foubister, P. Schmidt, Voegeli, Eichelberger,
    Kuenzli, and the hom cancer clinic results of present day
    Drs Spinedi and Wurster + + +

    Good night,
    Stefan Talmatzky

  • In Brasil ´common people and traditional medicine don´t trust Homeopathy nor believe its capacity of treating serious illnesses like cancer – I believe the most knowledge we obtain in materia medica and the more we understand the essential aspects of human sufferings and the essence of homeopathic remedies, the more we will be able to cure such difficult cases. This is a nice and resasonable article!!!

  • Dear All,

    Many thanks for the feedbacks and the inputs. I would like to mention a few things in reply:

    1.
    The main objective of the article is to enlist the scope in dealing with the emotional trauma, CINV and the pain-management (in terminal cases). I have clearly stated “Apart from its effect against malignant growths…” whereby I do admit the role in the treatment of the cancer pathology, but that was not the focus of this article.

    2.
    I do not have any kind of doubt about the scope of homeopathy in treating the malignant cases, and I am NOT saying anywhere that we CAN’T CURE it, but my objection is against those homeopaths who ‘claim to cure any and every case that presents to them’. I am definitely well aware of the pioneering work done by Dr A U Ramkrishnan in this domain. Would never mean to taint work by similar homeopathic stalwarts.

    3.
    As regards the cases, will surely present them in my next article.

    Thanks once again for your inputs and feedbacks.
    Regards,
    Dr Amit

  • I had breast cancer in the ’90s (or my doctor said I did — who knows), had slash/burn/poison, learned of homeopathy and how like cures like, ordered carcinosinum, have taken it a few times since (after muscle-testing to see if needed), seems to have “worked.” No more cancer. My situation wasn’t about pain, just degeneration.

  • Dr.Karkare –

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am a student of homeopathy and not an M.D. or an oncologist. I read your article while I was attending a week-end seminar on a totally unrelated topic. I started taking notes, because I didn’t have access to a printer. No less than three people around me had either family members or close friends who were actively undergoing cancer treatment. They were thrilled to hear that there might be something – ANYTHING – to assist their loved ones with the awful side effects of the treatments. Both of my parents died of cancer and my brother is a brain cancer survivor, so I know what it is like to watch someone go through this. Now that I have access to a printer, I’ll have your article available to share with even more people who are supporting loved ones through their cancer treatment.

  • gosh, I find the scope and attitude expressed in many of these comments somewhat disappointing. This article does not set out to be a comprehensive treatment manual for cancer nor is it an attempt to discredit homeopathy’s treatment of cancer: I found it to be an extremely balanced, very articulate GLIMPSE into a handful of ideas about cancer, and cancer treatments, and our BEGINNING attitude as healers. Treating a patient with Cancer, as is the case with many other terminal diseases, is a complex situation, and one does not attempt to sum it up in a 2 page article: one merely points the way to an approach. It is a practical approach to focus, as a beginning point, in an article which is going to be consumed, not just by professional homeopaths, but by all sorts of interested readers, on the reality that many many patients, with all sorts of diseases, end up coming to the homeopath late in the day. In no way, as I read it, did the author of the article suggest that homeopathy can not help people with cancer; he did not even say homeopathy cannot cure cancer: he merely, and conscientiously suggested that we be mindful, sensitive and humble in our approach.

  • I found this article really interesting. Everyone who knows homeopathy knows that homeopathy is not limited to the treatment of a few types of disease presentation, but it is limited by the experience and knowledge of the homeopath and maintaining causes and blocks coming from the patient and others. I recently had a friend die of brain cancer. He approached me for help using homeopathy but also chose to take the conventional route. At first his progress was good and the tumours regressed or disappeared – his medical team was astounded (I used Dr. RamaKrishnan’s methods). But their response was to give extra chemo – just to make sure it all went. This was debilitating for him and he developed inflammation which was then treated with steroids. He seemed to lose heart and next news his tumours were back in force and he eventually died. The thing is that as a homeopath in western cultures you are not usually the patient’s primary carer. And if the family does not keep you informed of changes in their treatment you can find yourself quickly out of the loop. So, decisions made by the conventional medical team can affect your ability to support your patient and you may end up only assisting them to die with more dignity and peace of mind than otherwise. Also the reason’s for a person experiencing a ‘terminal’ disease can involve complex family/personal dynamics which may be stronger than the influence of your remedies.Articles like this one offer useful advice for when you need to support a dying person who you cannot treat ‘properly’ but whose cries for help cannot be ignored.

  • Please refer to the works on Burnett and Grimmer on cancer. This is only the start, and the rest is a very difficult slog ahead, for reasons already stated above.
    My one objection to this article is that it is far too shallow a treatment of such a difficult to treat condition, and with too many cliched descriptions of remedies. Please give it the respect it requires and write with more depth. Otherwise great to see people tackling this subject.

  • This is a very useful article to help understand the cancer miasm. Deep study and careful practice. Every symptom is challenging for the busy homeopath..

Leave a Comment