Homeopathy Papers

Homeopathy: Frequently Asked Questions

Homeopathy medicine for sebaceous cyst
Written by Elaine Lewis

A homeopathic remedy literally does the opposite of what it used to do in its original form. Homeopathic coffee puts you to sleep, and homeopathic alcohol sobers you up! I think you can see that in this way, a world of cures opens up for things where previously no hope was to be found!

1. What Is Homeopathy?

What is homeopathy?  It’s probably best not to ask, it makes absolutely no sense to a lot of people!  Our remedies have nothing in them but a “ghost” of their former selves!  

We start with a substance that’s usually toxic, like poison ivy.  We mash it up and place it in a container of wine; let it sit, stir it around, and after a time, strain the liquid off.  That liquid is the “tincture”.  We put a drop of that into 99 drops of water or alcohol, like Brandy, shake X-number of times (typically 40 times), dump out the vial, refill with water or alcohol, shake again, dump out, refill, keep going in this manner …. until there’s literally “nothing” left of the original substance at all!  Then we give it for the very thing it used to cause!  A homeopathic remedy literally does the opposite of what it used to do in its original form.

In fact, whatever something causes?  The homeopathic version of that is the cure!  Think about any substance and what it causes, the homeopathic version does just the opposite!  So, yes, homeopathic coffee puts you to sleep, and homeopathic alcohol sobers you up!  I think you can see that in this way, a world of cures opens up for things where previously no hope was to be found!

Is it that easy?  Sometimes, yes; when the case is recent and uncomplicated.

Believe it or not, some “skeptics” find homeopathy so inscrutable that they say it can’t possibly work and if you tell them, “Yes, it really does, it’s saved my life many times!” they accuse you of having “tricked” yourself into getting better by means of the “placebo effect”, and to them, that’s all homeopathy is.  The problem with this “convenient” theory is that homeopathy works on cats and dogs and other animals too!  The skeptics’ response to this is, “The pets are only responding to the attention, the care you’re giving them!”  Unfortunately…  dogs and cats are not children, they don’t want your “care” when they’re sick!  Sick animals hide away.  They growl, bite, scratch if you come near them!  They go under the bed, hide in closets.  All pet owners know what I’m talking about!  Fortunately, with homeopathy, you only need to pat a liquid remedy on their lips or squirt a dropper into their mouths and then leave!  Pretty soon they’ll come out all by themselves, all better!

I think it’s revealing that “skeptics” never say that homeopathy doesn’t work!  Because they KNOW we have the before-and-after pictures, the X-rays, lab tests and the doctor’s report showing the patient got better!  So how do they counter this?  “We’re not saying you didn’t get better, we’re just saying it’s only Placebo!!!”  You know, they wouldn’t like it if we said the same thing about their drugs!  “We have studies!” they would boast.

I remind them of Dr. Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Pharma, who said that we have no reliable information on any drug:

“… Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analyzed using techniques that are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments. Unsurprisingly, these trials tend to produce results that favor the manufacturer. When trials end in results that companies don’t like, they are perfectly entitled to hide them from doctors and patients, so we only ever see a distorted picture of any drug’s true effects.”

The Drugs Don’t Work: A Modern Medical Scandal

So my final word to “skeptics” is this: redirect your considerable energies to the real “snake oil salesmen”–your friends in the pharmaceutical industry.

2. When should I repeat the remedy?

This is a really important question.  Probably the easiest thing in the world to do is come up with the remedy in the first place, but then what do you do?  What potency do you give it in, how often do you give it, when should you stop repeating it and what do you do if it stops working?

The potency (what we call 30C, 200C, 1M, etc.) is dictated by the intensity of the complaint.  Most acute cases will respond to a 30C (a medium potency) and even just a single dose if you act right away.  A cold that’s been around for a week or more may require a 30C three times a day for up to three days before a striking improvement is felt.

Figure on this as a basic answer:  Most people have the 30C potency there because that’s what’s generally sold in stores.  Put two 30C pellets of your remedy into a small-to-medium sized, half-filled bottle of spring water, take three doses a day.  A dose is a sip.  Succuss your bottle five times before each dose.  For a demonstration of what I’m talking about, see video below called “How To Make A Remedy Solution Bottle”; but, don’t do what this lady is doing in the sense that she is not using disposable cups and not using disposable spoons; also, she’s “going to the second cup”–which is “advanced prescribing”, something you only have to do if you’ve got a hyper-sensitive patient; but most of us only need to take a sip directly from the bottle, or you can pour your dose into the bottle cap and drink from that; but remember to succuss 5 times before each dose; even having said that, there’s still a lot you can learn from watching this video (and PS, let me just say for people who can’t watch videos online, “succussion” is just a fancy way of “shaking” the bottle!  It is done by pounding or banging the bottom of the bottle into the palm of your opposite hand):

As soon as you feel a striking improvement take place, stop dosing for as long as the improvement lasts; but if the improvement starts to back-slide, then start dosing again.  If you should get an “aggravation” (feeling worse after taking the remedy), stop dosing.  If you feel only slightly better, continue with 3 times a day.  As you get better, take less and less often.

Occasionally an acute illness or injury is so intense that the right remedy in a 30C potency does absolutely nothing and a 200C is needed.  In pneumonia, for example, a 200C would be my preference and even a 1M or 10M (10,000 C) might be needed, as with a serious car accident or any other major injury, and the remedy may have to be repeated often.  Where do you get these high potencies?  You have to order them online if you’re not lucky enough to live near a homeopathic pharmacy.  Amazon.com is a very good source for remedies.  So you see, the potency and frequency of repetition should be appropriate to the degree of suffering!  Less suffering means less dosing and a lower potency.  

I will never forget one really horrible virus Shana had when she was little.  She was very sick.  I did eventually find the right remedy–it was Kali bichromicum (which we call “Kali bic” for short)–but she kept relapsing!  All I had left was Kali bic 10M, a really high potency!  I was afraid to give it, but it was all I had!  I gave it to her and I watched as her face changed right before my eyes!  Her expression returned to normal and she fell fast asleep!  She woke up the next morning, with no trace of having been sick the night before!  With 10M being, apparently, the perfect potency, the virus must have been very virulent, very severe, indeed! 

People tell me, “My remedy only works for, like, 2 hours,” implying that it must be the wrong remedy.  I say, “During those two hours, are you well?  If so, just take the remedy again!”  People, remedies can stop working, that’s just a fact!  All it means is that you have to take it again!  Maybe your potency is too low, maybe your virus or whatever, is very intense, highly aggressive; all of this is capable of making your remedy stop working.  Just take it again!  And you may have to raise your potency if it keeps happening.  You raise it by “plussing” your remedy bottle.  See “How To Plus My Bottle” below.

For a chronic problem that’s not intense and has been around for a long time, starting with a 12C once a day or a 9C twice a day or a 6C three or four times a day is appropriate as it matches the plodding nature of a chronic complaint.  Keep in mind that this is just the starting potency, as it will surely have to be raised going forward as the potency wears off; and, again, we do that by “plussing” the bottle.

How do I plus my bottle?

Funny you should ask!  Hopefully you’ve already put your remedy in water, a half-filled bottle of water (you can’t succuss a FULL bottle!) and again, I refer you to the video above.  Now, dump out 90% of your bottle.  Refill half way with water, succuss (pound the bottle into your opposite palm) 40 times.  Dump out, refill the bottle again, succuss 40 times.  Dump out again, refill half way, succuss 40 times again.  There!  You’ve just raised your 6C to a 9C; your 9C to a 12C or your 12C to a 15C, etc.  It should work again now.  See also #5 below (“How Do I Plus My Remedy Bottle?”) 

What about repetitions?  

Even though your homeopath may have given you a schedule to follow (30C three times a day for three days), remember that this is just a suggestion based on the average person or average case, but remember, it’s still a GUESS!  This means:

Every prescription has to be tailored by you to match your progress!

You have to assume responsibility for your progress!

This is a major plea to our patients:  Use common sense:

If the remedy worked the first time you took it but then stopped working, take it again!!!   If you did take it again but it didn’t work, it probably means you need to plus your bottle!  What happened was, you caught your virus off-guard the first time, sleeping, as it were, and you clobbered it with your first dose but then you gave it a chance to recover; to pick itself up and dust itself off, and now it’s furious at what you did!  That original potency isn’t going to work anymore!  You have to make your remedy stronger!  By all rights, you should be prepared to repeat your remedy at the very first sign of relapse!  Don’t wait around and say, “I’ll take it after dinner….” or, “I’ll take it when I get home,” or whatever other excuses are out there.  Don’t give your illness a chance to pull itself together and become twice as strong!

Aggravation?

If you take a remedy and it causes an aggravation, stop taking it!  Contact your homeopath and she will tell you how to antidote the aggravation if it’s really bothering you and you can’t wait it out because it will, eventually, go away.  I’ve written an article along with Diane Fuller called “The Aggravation Zapper”:

Aggravation Zapper

Under-repeating and over-repeating a remedy are BOTH to be avoided.

Not taking the remedy often enough to get the case under control is just as bad as overdosing, you don’t want to do either; which means you should be constantly re-evaluating your dosing schedule and potency selection according to your progress or lack of progress!  If you’ve gotten a lot better, take the remedy less often and see if the progress holds; if it does, try cutting back further.

30C three times a day might have been the perfect prescription for you in the beginning, but maybe now you’re feeling 80% better, so, go to once a day and see if the improvement continues.  If you start relapsing, go back to the three times a day and after you’ve recovered, try cutting back to twice a day this time.  What we expect is that eventually you’ll be down to once a day, then once every other day, and eventually stopping the remedy altogether.  But there is no rule for this, you have to navigate this path–only you know how you feel.

We are always striving for the minimum dose.

We want to be applying only the force that’s necessary to stop the complaint, not pushing too hard, not nagging our immune system to work harder like beating a horse to make him go faster; in fact, “as needed” is an appropriate phrase for homeopathic treatment.

The homeopathic patient has a greater responsibility than the average medical patient who is just following orders.  We expect you to be partners with us in managing your case, to use your judgement.  We can’t always be there to know how you’re feeling.  You have to stay on top of things, you’re going to have to adjust your dosing according to how you’re improving or not improving–don’t allow your case to get away from you!  Get more aggressive with the dosing if you slide backwards; and P.S., this implies that you’re going to need an acute prescribing book and a home remedy kit so that you can handle whatever unexpected emergency may arise!  Emergencies happen! It could be anything from a bee sting to a fall to a sudden virus!  Don’t you want to be self-sufficient?  Able to take care of yourself?  Or do you want to be constantly going to the hospital?  Acute prescribing books and home remedy kits are available at many places online, including Amazon.com and www.homeopathic.com

Sometimes, getting aggressive can simply mean letting your homeopath know the remedy stopped working.  In homeopathy we have an expression:

“Homeopathy is like skating on thin ice–you have to keep moving or you’ll fall through!”

What about the 200C? 

We’ve talked about how often to repeat the 30C; but, very often, the starting potency for the flu is a 200C because of how severe the flu usually is.  How often should you take it?  The 200C potency is generally a potency that you take just once, because at that potency, you should expect to see some result—good or bad.  If it’s bad, stop dosing.  If it’s good, no need to repeat it until such time as you relapse, then you can take it again.  If it doesn’t work so well the 2nd time, plus your bottle 3 times and take it again.  If you get no result at all after a few hours, you can try again one more time, but, you should be considering the possibility that you may have chosen the wrong remedy.  If you’re quite positive that you have chosen the remedy that matches the best, give the 1M a try.  “1M” is just another way of saying “1,000C”.  “M” is the Roman Numeral for 1,000.  I just had a flu patient who took Bryonia 200C and it was all she needed, she never had to repeat it.  In the worst flu Shana ever had, the remedy was Arnica 200C, she took it once, got better in no time, and never had to repeat it.

3. How often should I see or be in touch with my homeopath?  And when I do get in touch, what information do you need?

Most homeopaths will tell you to come back in a month or six weeks or even 2 months.  That’s because they’re imitating doctors!  That’s what doctors say, “Come back in a month.”  It doesn’t suit homeopathic treatment at all.  I tell my clients to email me whenever there’s a change in the case for better or worse, I tell them that I need to stay on top of things, that remedies need to change, potencies need to change, some cases are so challenging, they change every day, especially in the beginning!  

I get concerned when I don’t hear from someone for days or weeks at a time!  When they finally do get in touch with me, sometimes I don’t even remember who they are or what their case was!  Because of this, you should always recap your case, don’t assume the homeopath remembers you because they have many patients and are giving all their attention to the person in front of them at this moment. 

So, you might begin with, “Hi, this is Joe Sixpack?  You put me on Lycopodium 12C once a day, in water, with five succussions before each dose for gas and bloating three weeks ago?  And I was doing fine and I was even getting over my fear of public speaking and exam failure, but now the gas and bloating is back and I’m starting to become fearful of exams again, what should I do?”  This tells the homeopath that Lycopodium was, indeed, the correct remedy, the “simillimum” as we say (“the most similar” remedy) but that the 12C is no longer strong enough and the potency needs to be raised.  This is the kind of comprehensive reporting-back that we need.  The sooner you get back to your homeopath with this information, the better.  

Some people write to me and say, “This is what I’ve been doing: on April 12th I took Arnica, on May 3rd I took Rhus tox, on June 1st I took Bryonia….” and never tell me if the remedies worked or why they took them!  If I’m not told that, this is all useless information!  You should basically assume that I’m clueless and from Mars and know nothing.

People also tell me they took a remedy but don’t tell me the potency or how often they took it, or if they took it in water or took it “dry”, or if they did or didn’t succuss before each dose …  It just doesn’t help me figure out what went wrong!  Maybe you over-dosed, how would I know?  Some people write to me and say, “I took the remedy last night,” and don’t say what remedy they’re talking about! 

So, remember that I need to know your complaint, what you’ve been taking for it, your dosing schedule and what the results were.  Also, if the remedy stopped working, and you have some idea of why (“I got a cold so I stopped the remedy 3 weeks ago,” or even, “I got a cold but I continued the remedy anyway and never treated the cold, per se.”)  I really need to know these things.  I have to emphasize this because the typical follow-up email I get from people consists of only one or two sentences ending in, “What should I do now?” and by golly, I have no idea; you really have to help me out here! 

First of all, tell me who you are and why you came to see me, what remedy I told you to take, in what potency, and what results did you get from taking it; after all, you’re asking me to figure out what to do next, isn’t that right?  “Oh, just look at my file, I’m sure all the information is there.”  So you’re saying I should read a whole file instead of you just helping me out by saying, “Here’s my complaint, here’s what I took, here’s the result and here’s where I am now.”  

Some people think that just because I’m a homeopath, I automatically “know” things, that no explanation is necessary, no chronology is necessary, no time-line, no details….  And yes, I know you’ve been to doctors and other homeopaths before, and none of them ever wanted to know anything, never asked about anything, so you naturally assume that I don’t want to know anything.  Well, shame on those other practitioners!  Yes, I have heard people say, “My other homeopath was very hard to get hold of,” or “Didn’t want to be gotten a hold of”, or “All my other practitioner ever needed from me was a diagnosis.”  Yes, I know about these people; but, be assured that I am not one of them, so, please keep me appropriately informed! 

I often tell people, “Make a list of your symptoms, give them a grade on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst.  Every day go back to your list, grade them again.
When the numbers go down, but come back up again, what does that tell you?  That you’re relapsing!  Also, it helps you to keep track of your case.  If something improves, most people forget that they ever had it!  For example, frequent urination gets better.  So the homeopath asks you, “Did Lycopodium help you?”  “No, not at all,” forgetting about the frequent urination entirely.  Once people are well, they don’t dwell on how sick they once were.

4. I don’t see why I have to make an RSB (Remedy Solution Bottle)

People hate it when I tell them to put the remedy in water, no one else ever told them to do that!  Surely I’m being a bit eccentric.  No, this is how Hahnemann, homeopathy’s founder, instructed us to take remedies, and if other homeopaths don’t know about it?  How utterly bizarre!  There is no excuse!  How else are you going to manage a case?  You can’t adjust or alter a “dry” dose!  All you can do is take the exact same, unchanged dose over and over again which opens you up to “provings” and aggravations!  What that lady is doing in the video?  She’s got it right!  Here it is again if you didn’t watch it the first time:

Your first dose can be dry (popping a few pellets in your mouth).  It’s what comes after that dose that concerns me!  You don’t want to antidote your remedy with your second dose, do you?  Because that’s what can happen if you take the exact same potency again too soon while the first dose is still working!  For the second dose, you should drop roughly 2 pellets into a half-filled water bottle so that you can succuss your bottle five times before each dose, which will slightly raise the potency and keep you from developing a “tolerance” to the remedy.

Now here’s a question for you, what do you do if your remedy stops working and you haven’t ordered your next potency?  Answer:  You can “plus” your remedy bottle!

5. How do I “plus” or “raise the potency” of my RSB? (remedy solution bottle)

“Plussing” raises the potency of your remedy bottle.  Pour 90% of the water out, leaving just a tiny bit at the bottom–a swallow’s worth, or “one dose left” at the bottom.  Refill half way with water.  Succuss (pound the bottle into your opposite palm) 40 times.  Dump the bottle out again, refill half way, succuss 40 times again.  Repeat this dumping out and refilling and succussing once more and you now have a potency three degrees higher and it may work now.  If it’s still not strong enough, there’s no limit to the number of times you can plus your bottle until it’s finally strong enough to kick back in.  Some of you may prefer to simply order the next potency if that option is available.  But, you should have ordered it in advance!  You can’t sit around waiting for your new potency to come in the mail and meanwhile your whole case is relapsing!

6. How should I feel after the remedy?

After a remedy, we generally look for one thing–has the person relaxed, calmed down, maybe fallen asleep?  That’s the sign to us that the remedy was chosen correctly.  And by the way, if you feel like sleeping after a remedy, don’t fight it!  It’s part of the cure!  

The physical complaint may not go away immediately, but we have confidence if we’ve seen the all-important improvement on the mental/emotional plane that the physicals will catch up to the mentals in short order.

Why would we see improvement on the mental/emotional plane first?  Because when the body heals itself, it demonstrates that it has priorities: always the mental/emotional plane comes first.  The first thing a person does is relax.

When you take an antibiotic for an infection and the infection goes away but you get a “crazy feeling” in your head (which has happened to me!), or you feel depressed or unlike yourself (which has happened to me also), we would say, “This person is technically worse than before, the case is going the wrong way!”  When we give a remedy, we expect that the first thing to resolve will be any disturbance on the mental plane, such as anxiety, irritability, negativity, etc. and then the physical complaint will follow.  We often hear the patient say, “My [local complaint] is still there, but, I don’t care, it doesn’t bother me anymore!” 

If the case has no mental symptoms, if there’s no irritability, worry, anxiety, depression, stupor, confusion, combativeness, etc., then we’re going to be looking for the physical complaint to resolve right away.  It may initially get worse if the potency selected was too high (aggravation?)  This has only happened to me once or twice and in half an hour or so I felt better.  I had taken Rhus tox for a toothache and I said to myself, “Oh no, I think this remedy has made me worse!”  Then I said, “Wait a minute!  This could be an aggravation, and if that’s so, I’m going to be OK soon!” and that was exactly what happened!  But, I hasten to add that one or two times I took a remedy that made me feel strange and very uncomfortable and I antidoted it right away and was very relieved that the antidote worked!

If you’re taking a remedy for something that just happened, for example, eating bad food, you should see signs of the remedy working within roughly 15 minutes.  If there’s no sign of improvement, try a higher potency if you’re sure you chose right, or try another remedy.  Keep trying until something works!  Heaven knows, that’s what I do!

If you’re taking a remedy for a chronic complaint, you may or may not get immediate relief.  In fact, you may have to wait a while, up to two weeks or possibly longer before noticing an improvement.  This is especially the case if you’ve taken a high potency.  Lower potencies repeated often tend to show positive results in chronic cases faster, like in less than a week or even a few days, even one day.  This doesn’t mean you’re cured!  The remedy has to be continued, relapses will probably occur and the dosing will have to be adjusted and the potency raised along the way.  Expect relapses to occur especially if you’re not staying on top of things!

7. If I get worse after a remedy, how do I know if it’s an aggravation or I’m actually coming down with some acute illness?

If it’s your exact complaint that’s gotten worse, that would be an aggravation, and probably a sign that the right remedy was chosen but in too high a potency and you’re probably going to feel better soon.

If the aggravation is something else entirely, tell your homeopath or look it up under your remedy in the Homeopathic Materia Medica and see if your symptom matches a symptom the remedy is known for causing.  If that’s the case, you may be “proving” the remedy.  In that case, the remedy can be antidoted—“zapped” (see below).

What is the “Materia Medica”?  We have two main books that we use in homeopathic practice: The Repertory, and the Materia Medica.  The Materia Medica lists the remedies alphabetically and contains information on what each remedy is known to cause, and therefore, cure.  The Repertory is an index of symptoms along with the remedies that have cured those symptoms.

If you’ve attained a relaxed and calm feeling along with your so-called “aggravation”, it probably means you got the right remedy but in too high a potency, the aggravation should wear off soon .  If it doesn’t, let your homeopath know and she’ll probably say, “Do the Aggravation Zapper.”  

Any illness you had that was suppressed with drugs may temporarily reappear after the right remedy is given.  It will either go away or a homeopathic remedy can be prescribed for it.  In chronic prescribing, expect the possibility of muscle aches, joint pains, rashes, discharging, etc. after a correct remedy.  That’s because the disturbance is making it’s way out of your body starting with the mental-emotional plane, leaving the vital organs, making it’s way through the bones, the muscles and finally the skin, so don’t be alarmed, and don’t run and put cortisone cream on whatever it is and suppress it back to the mental plane or the vital organs!  Just leave the rashes, pimples, etc. alone, they’ll go away.  Think of it as “de-toxing”.  If it’s too much discomfort for you, however, contact your homeopath and see what can be done about it.

On the other hand, if you break out into symptoms after a remedy that have nothing to do with your complaint and they’re not old symptoms you once had, and there’s no improvement on the mental-emotional plane, then it’s probably an actual acute or even possibly a “proving” of the wrong remedy and either way your homeopath can find a solution for it.

8. When my RSB is practically down to empty, do I refill it and add more pellets (or more drops of my liquid remedy)?

No, no, no, a thousand times no, do not add anything!!!!  Just water, add more water to the half-way mark of your bottle and succuss (pound the bottle into your opposite palm) 40 times to raise the potency, that’s all you have to do.  Don’t add more pellets, the pellets are a lower potency than your water bottle, you’d be going backwards!

9. How do I zap an aggravation?

See article, “The Aggravation Zapper”

The Aggravation Zapper

Here is the “Cliff Notes” version:

1.  Stand at the sink

2.  Turn on the cold water full blast (but not so full that water gets all over the kitchen!)

3.  Fill up a medium-to-large disposable cup with water.  Don’t use the good glassware!

4.  Drop in a pellet of the remedy that aggravated (if the remedy was in water, make it a drop or as close to a drop as possible and drop it in the cup–and DON’T succuss your bottle first!!!  OK?  We want to antidote the EXACT SAME potency that aggravated; when you succuss, you change the potency).  P.S. The pellet doesn’t have to melt.

5.  Wait a couple of seconds, then dump the cup out.

6.  Refill with water.

7.  Dump out again.

8.  Refill with water.

9.  Dump out again.

10.  Keep doing this dumping and refilling.

11.  Stop at the 12th cup (the 12th refill) and take a small sip.

12.  Wait an hour.  It should work by then.  It may work right away.  While you’re waiting, read the actual article.

10. How do I store my remedy bottle?

Put your bottle in a dark place, like the refrigerator.  We don’t want light to get in for an extended period of time.  And if you expect to be using the bottle for more than two weeks, adding a bit of alcohol, like Brandy or Vodka, will keep mold from growing in the bottle.

11.  What does the number on the bottle mean? (6C, 30C, 1M etc.)

These are potencies.  Even the drugs you take have potencies.  You have 2.5 mg. of Valium–that’s a low potency, and you have 10 mg. of Valium–that’s a high potency.  In homeopathy, 30C is a medium potency.  6C would be a low potency and 200C, 1M and 10M would be high potencies.  The pharmacies generally sell the following potencies:

6C, 9C, 12C, 30C, 200C, 1M, 10M, 50M and CM.

There are other potency scales too: The X/D scale and the LM/Q scale.  They’re not as common as the C scale; so, if you have a question about them, ask your homeopath directly.

12. What are homeopathic remedies made of?  How do you make them?

They can be made out of anything at all!  There are remedies all around you!  They’re all over your kitchen!  You can make a remedy out of anything:  Salt, pepper, parsley, coffee, red onion… they all have specific uses in homeopathy.  See my article, “How To Make Your Own Remedy”:

How To Make Your Own Remedy

13. I tried homeopathy and it didn’t work.

The “skeptics” are always saying, “Homeopathy doesn’t work.  I tried it.”  The wrong remedy is not going to work!  That doesn’t mean homeopathy doesn’t work.   A certain amount of studying is required and you may actually have to invest in buying an acute prescribing book or seeing a homeopath to make sure you’re getting the right remedy.

14. Now that I’m on a homeopathic remedy, can I continue with my regular junk food, irresponsible life-style?

No, no, a thousand times no!  Junk food is what we call a “maintaining cause”.  Homeopathy is great; but, you can actually cure someone of almost any disease using nutrition alone!  It’s actually junk food and drugs that are responsible for the majority of diseases we see today.

15. Now that I’m on a homeopathic remedy, can I keep taking my drugs?

Oh geez!  Actually, yes, you have to because stopping a drug can be very dangerous!  I’m really surprised at how people don’t know that you cannot stop your drugs!  They’re addicting!  If you stop them suddenly, you’ll cause what’s known as “rebound”!  All your symptoms will come bounding back!  This can be quite life-threatening!  All I can do is wish that you had never started these things in the first place.  They don’t cure anything and they’re all addictive.  You can get off of them, but only very slowly. 

16. Since I’m seeing you, do I have to keep seeing a doctor?

If you’re on drugs, probably yes.  Plus, your doctor can continue to run diagnostic tests that will let us know how we’re doing.   

17. Do I keep taking my constitutional remedy during an “acute”?

No!  Especially if you see a clear picture for another remedy and especially if you see a change on the mental/emotional plane.  For example, let’s say your homeopath has you on Phosphorus 12C once a day as your constitutional remedy.  Suddenly you come down with the flu: you’re thirstless, lethargic, drowsy, dizzy, sleepy with muscle aches, chills and a headache.  You’ve got a perfect “Gelsemium” flu.  Why would you be taking phosphorus for that?  It just doesn’t make any sense!  This is the value of having a home remedy kit and an acute prescribing book so you can handle these things!  When the flu is over, if your chronic condition is still there, resume Phosphorus as before.

18. What Are the LM Potencies?

Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy, wrote the 6th edition of The Organon of Medicine to promote his newest discovery–the LM potencies: powerful, like the high potencies, but gentle and short-acting, like the low potencies–the best of both worlds, in other words, a perfect system, according to Hahnemann.  Have they caught on?  No; though more and more homeopaths are using them; still their use requires very specific instructions, they’re more expensive, and most homeopaths are using them improperly.

The LM’s must be given in water.  It is basically as I said above, about the remedies in water: the bottle is succussed before each dose in order to raise the potency ever so slightly to keep the case moving forward.

Aggravations can be better managed with the LM’s–not eliminated, but better managed.  Their action dissipates sooner, so a mistake in prescribing is less of a crisis.  Because their action dissipates sooner, they have to be repeated more often, perhaps daily.  This allows you to better manage your case.  You can stop your remedy, deal with an acute and then go back to it.  You don’t have to worry about dental appointments and other “antidoting” factors because if your remedy is antidoted, you’re going to take it again anyway, so it’s only the last dose that was antidoted.  If you took a 200C two weeks prior, a potency which is usually only supposed to be taken once, you’re constantly on the look-out for antidoting factors and trying to avoid them; it’s just not practical!

If you’re on an LM potency, you definitely have to stay in touch with your homeopath because when your LM/1 bottle finishes, you’ll be needing to go up to LM/2, and then LM/3…it’s very methodical and the case has to be followed closely but these potencies are supposed to move your case along faster with less waiting and uncertainty than is sometimes the case with the C potencies.

19. What are the instructions for taking an LM?

1. You’ll need a bottle that holds 8 ounces of water.  You can buy an eight ounce (the smallest) bottle of spring water, pour half out as we’ve explained before.

2. Into this bottle, drop one pellet of your LM potency.  Hint: tap the remedy bottle into a plastic spoon, jiggle the spoon until most of the pellets fall off, then jiggle the spoon some more so that the remaining ones separate.  Gently push off all the remaining pellets but one; then slide the single remaining pellet into the water bottle.  These pellets are tiny, I must warn you.  LM’s are supposed to be made with #10 pellets, poppy seed-sized pellets.  They’re not supposed to be sold in dropper bottles or sold as #30 or #40 sized pellets (the standard pellet size).

3. After you’ve dropped a single pellet into the water bottle, a teaspoon of the water now goes into a disposable cup containing four ounces of water.  Stir and take a teaspoon from the cup as a dose as the video demonstrates.  Throw the rest of the cup away. Put the water bottle in the refrigerator to keep it out of the light.  Here’s that video again I showed you earlier.  It’s showing you, basically, how to do this; they’re using Thuja 6C but it could just as easily be Thuja LM/1:

4. The next day, succuss (pound the bottle into your opposite palm) 5 times.  Pour a teaspoon or capful from the water bottle into a disposable cup containing four ounces of water, stir with a plastic disposable spoon, take a teaspoonful as a dose, put the bottle back into the refrigerator, and repeat this step again tomorrow if needed.

5. When you’re finished with the LM/1 water bottle, throw it out and begin LM/2 the same way with a new bottle.  Buy a new water bottle, new cup and new spoon for the new potency.

20. How Do I Know When I’m all better?  (What do we look for after a correctly-chosen remedy?)

a. You may experience a “proving” if there’s nothing left for the remedy to work on (a proving can also be caused by over-dosing, so, definitely stop taking the remedy if you’re proving it!  What’s a “proving”?  It’s when you take on the characteristics of the remedy; for example, a person who’s “drunk” is “proving” alcohol!  A person who’s “stoned” is “proving” marijuana.)  Always report an aggravation or proving to your homeopath.  He or she will look in the Materia Medica to see if, in fact, you’re proving it.  If you are, usually just stopping it is sufficient to fix the problem.  The way to stop proving an LM potency is to take one dose of the next potency.  I’ve tried it and it works!  (Also, you can stop taking a remedy because you’re well!  But be prepared to start again if you relapse.)

b. Return of “old symptoms”: An old rash comes back that you suppressed with cortisone cream, an old discharge comes back that you suppressed with antibiotics, and so on.  If these phenomena coincide with an increase in energy or a positive inner feeling, stop the remedy as it has worked!  The return of old symptoms should resolve quickly, go away on their own.  But if they don’t, you might need to take a remedy for them.

c. The Signs of Health.  When you see the signs of health, stop the remedy (or take less often) as it has worked!  The signs of health are:

  • clarity of mind
  • calmness
  • improvement in energy
  • able to adapt to change more easily
  • feeling of well-being
  • waking refreshed in the morning
  • improvement in sleep
  • improvement in appetite
  • improvement in attitude

Here is an illustration of THE SIGNS OF HEALTH, the way you should feel after a correctly-chosen remedy:

I might want to add “improved appetite” to the above. 

d. Always be prepared to start the remedy again at the first sign of a relapse.  If the remedy stops working, take more often.  When that fails, raise the potency.

e. Stop the remedy if you’re getting worse.  There are times when an aggravation is a sign that the right remedy has been given but in too high a potency.  Stop the remedy and an improvement is sure to follow.  Even so, never keep taking a remedy if it’s making you worse!!!!

f. If you’ve taken on a new remedy picture, stop the remedy: If you’ve developed a craving for food you’re not usually interested in, if your disposition has changed, if your body temperature has changed, if your thirst has changed, if your energy has changed…all this is an indication that you’re in a new remedy state.  See #17 also: “Do I Keep Taking My Constitutional Remedy During an Acute?”

21.  When you say “Take the remedy in the 3rd cup, or the 6th cup, etc.” what does that mean?

When you have a hyper-sensitive patient, you need a way of making the dose a lot gentler!  One way of doing this is by increasing the amount of water.  The video above demonstrates going to the 2nd cup.  That’s one way of doing it.  In fact, the number of cups you can go to is limitless.  But lining up cups like that is unnecessary and wasteful!  You actually only need one cup.  Stand at the sink, turn on the cold water, fill up a medium-to-large sized disposable cup, drop in a remedy pellet.  Wait a second.  Now dump it out (no, the pellet doesn’t have to melt first and yes, the pellet will be dumped out too), refill the cup with water, dump it out again, refill, dump out, refill, dump out, do this 6 times and then take a sip of the “6th cup”!  There’s nothing magical about the number 6.  It could just as easily be the 3rd cup or the 12th cup.  It’s a function of how sensitive to remedies your patient is!  

If your remedy is in a water bottle, succuss your bottle just two times, and then drop a drop, or as close to a drop, as you can, into a disposable cup of water and then dump out, refill, etc. as above.  When you finally reach a cup that doesn’t aggravate your sensitive patient, pour a drop from that cup into a new small, half-filled spring water bottle, and that will be your new RSB for that particular patient.   OK?  This way, he can dose without aggravating.  We would surely call this “advanced prescribing”.

22. How do I wean myself off of drugs? 

No drug can be stopped suddenly!  I can’t believe people don’t know this!  You can kill yourself doing that!  Especially the heart drugs but also the tranquilizers and sleeping pills.  The following is my colleague, Dr. Firuzi Mehta’s, protocol for weaning yourself off drugs:  

For ten-to-fourteen days, cut your dose in half every other day; meaning, your dosing schedule will look like this: half, whole, half, whole, half, whole, etc.  Then, for the next 10 to 14 days, your dosing schedule should be half, half, half half, etc.  The following ten to 14 days: half, 1/4, half, 1/4, etc.  Then, for the next ten to fourteen days, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4.  Then 1/4 every other day for 10 to 14 days.  Then 1/4 every third day for 10 to 14 days.  Then 1/4 every 4th day for 10 to 14 days.  Presumably, you can stop at this point; but, I have to add, this is a general guideline; some people may need an even more gradual and longer tapering process, while others a shorter one if they’ve only been on the drug a short time; so, you have to be flexible.  If there are withdrawal symptoms, making a remedy out of the drug can help deal with them.  See my article, “How To Make Your Own Remedy” which is on my website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com .  I’ve already posted a link to this above.

23. Complex Disease (needing more than one remedy)

Some of you have numerous things wrong with you!  You may have nightmares, eczema, arthritis, heaven-only-knows what else!  These things may all have different causes.  Don’t be surprised if some of them are side-effects of drugs.  Some may be from a recent emotional trauma.  You might wonder, “Where do I start?  Will one remedy cover all of these things?”  Of course not.  A good place to start is with the most recent thing that happened, that’s usually the worst thing.  Or, if the most recent thing isn’t so serious, start with the worst thing that’s wrong with you, the thing that’s consuming all your time, energy and attention, the most limiting thing, the most painful thing, the thing that’s causing all the distress.  Try to match a remedy to that.  Though I hasten to say, if you’ve got a disease, BUT, you just sprained your ankle….  You really do need to take the ankle remedy first.  It’s a general rule in homeopathy that you treat the most recent thing first, as Hering’s Law Of Cure states: “Healing takes place in reverse order.”  The last thing that happened goes first.  

But still, some of you may have issues that are equally active on a constant basis!  If you’ve figured out that you need Apis for your swollen knee and you need Calc-carb for your constipation, and Lycopodium for your hernia, don’t take them all at once!  How can you evaluate your improvement or lack of improvement if you’re doing 3 things at the same time?  Maybe only one of those remedies is working and the other two are doing nothing!  How would you know?  If you’re getting worse, which remedy is responsible?  Which one needs to be stopped?  Please, just do one remedy at a time, find out what that remedy is going to accomplish, get a handle on that, then you can add the next one, and so on. 

 

24.  What if my bottle gets almost empty, but I don’t want to raise the potency, I just want to keep going with the potency I have?

Good question, and a very simple answer:  Just add water, don’t succuss 40 times, and you’ll have the exact same potency you had before.

P.S.  Did I Mention…

don’t use the good glassware and good silverware when working with remedies?  The remedies stick to everything, you can’t wash them off or rinse them off; use plastic cups, plastic bottles, paper cups, and use straws or plastic spoons, etc. for stirring, not the good silverware!

***

If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask.

Good luck!  See you again next time!

_______________

Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom

Elaine takes online cases.  Write to her at [email protected]

Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at [email protected]
Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at:
https://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org

23 Comments

  • A great article – lucid and detailed. Very practicable. Will guide beginners/ dabblers in the right direction. Will reassure many.

  • i got scared by homoeopath treatment ..my old rashes come bek again n it last for 10 days!now stil haven stop…

    • I’ve been using homopathic remedies for over a year for my son but i’ve seen no real results. Last remedy caused a terrible aggravation. It’s scary!

      • Homeopathy is complex and requires specific knowledge. If you don’t know what your doing, I can see how it might scare you. In the hands of an experienced homeopath, homeopathy is both safe and effective.

  • I had a severe case of eczema which my homeopath treated with homeopathic sulphur. It was going well until he changed the dose and the rash turned into very deep burns on my arms. When another doctor looked at my skin he said the wounds looked like 3rd degree burns. My homeopath told me to drink coffee as an antidote.

    I then started using acupuncture to heal the burns, which worked slowly over a period of many months. In the meantime I was unable to work as I couldn’t move my arms. The skin in the crook of my arms would tear when I extended my arms.

    What could have happened to cause the deep burns? I have never had this type of reaction before or since this that treament.

  • You were proving Sulphur and the homeopath didn’t know how to antidote and in general does not know how to manage cases. If you were doing well, there was no reason to change anything! As Dr. Luc De Schepper said in my interview with him, case management in homeopathy is bad world-wide! People should read his book, HAHNEMANN REVISITED.

  • My daughter had surgery, with acute trauma (swelling, bruising) to her jaw. Several people said to go a homeopathic store and get Arnica pills. The first woman suggested 6C, for acute trauma. We ran out and the next store (the first was close to Dr not home) said to try 30C. How do I know if the increased swelling is due to the change in dosage or the actual “healing” of her wound? Arnica, when searched has a whole list of “bad” things. Like “DON’T USE” it will cause heart attack, abdominal swelling, tongue swelling, lip swelling….I don’t want to so wrong and kill my daughter, but in the beginning she thought she felt swelling relief from the swelling. she was taking 6C ever 15 min for the 1st hour, then 4 times a day. Ran out and we switched to 30C @ 4 times a day and lots more swelling now…HELP!

  • Pam, I emailed you (lucky I saw your post!) and gave you antidoting instructions. I hope it went OK. So, everything was going well on 6C, you switched to 30C and I’m guessing you over-dosed and “proved” Arnica! (If arnica relieves swelling, that means that in over-dose it causes swelling!) The thing to remember about homeopathy is, once you feel a striking improvement, stop dosing! I am not aware of arnica causing heart attacks and all these other things you mentioned; but, it’s possible that the flower itself is toxic in over-dose. You won’t have these worries if you just stop dosing once you start improving.

  • I was taking Lycopodium, 30c,, for gas, bloating, indigestion. I took it every 2 hours the first day, and then 3 times a day for the next 4 days. It worked fine, so I stopped taking it, then noticed my symptoms coming back. So I took it about every other day, whenever I started feeling symptoms. That worked for a week or two, then all my symptoms came back worse, and now the remedy doesn’t work at all. Do I need a different strength, or a different remedy?

  • Sir,
    Good evening ,
    I am subscriber since 2013, but I am not a homeopathic practitioner. My maid servant aged about 18 years suffering from breast tumor,She has a tumor in left breast ,that is movable and have no pain. I have given her Conium-30 & Calc.Flour 30 thrice a day for one month but the tumor did not reduce .Please suggest me for further medicine.size of tumor approx.Tennis bal. I will be highly oblidge.Thanking you

  • Hello, does this mean that when my remedy I’ve made up into a bottle with brandy is really low I can just top it up with more water and brandy and that will still equal the same potency of remedy? So I can keep topping it up endlessly? Thanks

    • Thank you! Would the same apply to cell salts? And also, I’m still confused after reading your post on the basics about homeopathy. If dilutions increase the potency, wouldn’t each refill bring the potency up by one? Like when you say to make a 6th cup for sensitive people, if with each cup we succuss, doesn’t that increase the potency?

  • Thank you! Would the same apply to cell salts?

    YES BUT, I’VE NEVER HAD TO PUT CELL SALTS IN WATER FOR SOME REASON, I’VE ALWAYS TAKEN THEM DRY. I GUESS BECAUSE THEIR POTENCY IS SO LOW, THEIR ACTION EXPIRES QUICKLY SO BY THE TIME YOU REDOSE, THE FIST DOSE YOU TOOK HAS EXPIRED ALREADY; THEREFORE, NO FEAR ABOUT THE SECOND DOSE ANTIDOTING THE FIRST; AND ALSO, i HAVE TO TELL YOU, I DON’T TAKE THE CELL SALTS ALL THAT MUCH.

    And also, I’m still confused after reading your post on the basics about homeopathy. If dilutions increase the potency, wouldn’t each refill bring the potency up by one?

    WHAT RAISES THE POTENCY IS THE COMBINATION OF DILUTION AND SUCCUSSION. WITHOUT SUCCUSSION, THERE IS NO INCREASE IN POTENCY.

    Like when you say to make a 6th cup for sensitive people, if with each cup we succuss,

    NO, YOU ACTUALLY DON’T SUCCUSS WHEN GOING FROM ONE CUP TO THE NEXT.

    doesn’t that increase the potency?

    GOING FROM ONE CUP TO THE NEXT DOESN’T INCREASE THE POTENCY.

    • There aren’t machines in your own home. And you have to succuss your remedy before each dose so you’re not giving the exact same potency every time, which can lead to something called “tolerance”, and beyond that, aggravation.

Leave a Comment

Subscribe
Homeopathy for Everyone
Learn homeopathy with the world's greatest experts every month - for FREE!
World's No.1 Homeopathy e-Journal - for the community, by the community.
No Thanks!