Adapted from a Virtual Talk Series: 12-step Program for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Aarogyam (UK) CIC with Dr Neha Sharma, Director – 3 February 2022
Homeopathy is a profound but exacting science. It may seem complicated at first, but it has quite a logical application when it is understood. Unfortunately many people who have studied homeopathy, and even practice it, still do not understand exactly how it works. It’s simple yet profound message gets lost as various teachers and students have passed their mistakes on. Let me explain how an important message can get lost.
During World War II a joke went round about a battle. It doesn’t matter whose side it was about. But the joke went like this. The soldiers on the frontline of a battle were coming under a bad attack. These soldiers had orders to take a hill, but they couldn’t. The enemy was too strong.
The soldiers badly needed reinforcements to win the battle. They only had days left. So they sent an urgent message out: “Send reinforcements – we are going to advance.” This written message was carried from the frontline to the nearest village. From there it was relayed to the underground resistance movement in the next town.
It was passed from underground resistance movement to underground resistance movement by various means. Finally it arrived at its destination – the war office. The corporal handed the urgent message to the general. It read: “Send three-and-four pence – we are going to a dance.”
In this short article, I hope I can deliver the original message about classical homeopathy. My brief explanation will help you to understand how to recognise a traditional classical homeopath – and avoid disappointment with homeopathy.
You will come to understand unfamiliar words. Unfamiliar words for many – but familiar to those who’ve benefited from classical homeopathy. Words that are pregnant with meaning. Words like Vital Force, Simillimum, Minimum Dose, Single Remedy, and Levels of Health. And the genuine homeopathic remedy is also pregnant – with energy, for the right recipient.
How can homeopathy regenerate, you ask?
In a nutshell, we are basically, energy. We generate energy all the time, to a greater or lesser extent. Of course this depends on our age and health. But with stress from various sources, this energy can become depleted. Stress can come, for example, from excessive or prolonged emotional or mental trauma. Or excessive or prolonged medical or recreational drugs.
These can deplete our natural allotted energy. But these influences are also part of life’s rich pattern. However, should our lifespan’s worth of energy be depleted, we may become sick for short or long periods. Short periods are known as acute illness. Long periods are known as chronic illness. And this is where homeopathy can help pick you up. Generally speaking, homeopaths view symptoms as an expression of the vital force attempting to heal itself.
Vital Force?
What, you may ask, is the Vital Force? I will quote from one of the educational foundation books for homeopaths. It is known as The Organon (6th edition), and was written in the 19th century by Dr Samuel Hahnemann MD (1755-1843). Hahnemann was the German founder of homeopathy. This text, known as Aphorism 9, is very familiar to homeopaths:
“In the healthy condition of man, the spiritual vital force (autocracy), the dynamis that animates the material body (organism,) rules with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, reason-gifted mind can freely employ this living, healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence.”
So – without a Vital Force, without this autocracy or energy – we no longer exist.
To counteract the depletion of energy, the loss of strength, the exactly matching remedy enables the organism to heal itself. An exact match is known as the homeopathic remedy. This is also known as the simillimum. Thus a homeopathic remedy can encourage a struggling Vital Force to take up that extra bit of energy to heal – energy that’s been extracted from the world of nature. And all that is needed is a very minimum dose. The extent of ‘healing’, by the way, depends on the person’s age and level of health. But more about that later.
Simillimum?
So what is this simillimum? If you’re new to homeopathy, you may not have come across the Latin phrase similia similibus curentur. This phrase means ‘like cures like’. This is an ancient method of healing advocated by Hippocrates, the ‘Father of Medicine’. Prescribing the right homeopathic remedy, the ‘simillimum’, is important if you want a successful outcome or cure. Let’s look at what this means.
The first prerequisite is a potentised remedy. Potent – energy. This is where we might say matter is taken back to its primal energetic state. I have used the term ‘energy’ because energy is what the recipient of a homeopathic remedy experiences when they have taken their simillimum. And it is energy that comprises the primal state of matter. There are a variety of ways of making a homeopathic medicine. For example, a medicinal material is selected and crushed. Then it is diluted in water. And then the container is shaken over and over again.
After many repetitions of diluting and shaking there appears to be none of the original material left. That is to say, there is nothing much left that can be detected by common scientific means. But there definitely is evidence, when various sophisticated scientific instruments are used. However, one thing remaining is intrinsic energy.
This energy is inherent in all forms. For example energy is found all over the animal, vegetable and mineral realms. Energy is in poisonous substances. Energy, then, is inherent within everything – in what your senses can perceive, and in what your senses cannot perceive. And this energy is brought to light, so to speak, during the course of homeopathic provings.
Provings?
The empirical evidence that energy is latent in matter is clearly shown during provings. For instance, after a potentised remedy has been given to healthy volunteers, a variety of symptoms on the mental, emotional and physical levels may surface.
These symptoms depend on the provers’ susceptibilities. For example the remedy Arsenicum Album may produce anxieties for some provers. While the remedy Ignatia may produce hysteria. Or the remedy Mercurius may produce an ulcerated throat.
All these symptoms are then precisely recorded in exacting detail. These records give an accurate account of the effects of taking potentised matter. And this process is known as a proving of a remedy. Thus a group of healthy volunteers take a potentised remedy and any different or abnormal symptoms that appear afterwards are noted.
These notes are published as a materia medica. A practicing homeopath gets information about a remedy from their materia medica books which are catalogues of the provings of single remedies.
The second prerequisite of similia similibus curentur is to choose a potentised remedy to match the symptoms of the ill individual. The symptoms of a remedy from the materia medica should match closely the symptoms of the patient. I will simplify the process: if the match is right, there will be a change in the person’s overall energy on the mental, emotional and/or physical level.
This will often be followed by an amelioration of their symptoms. Much like an oscilloscope, two similar frequencies brought together will cancel each other out. Remember: homeopathy does not treat diseases per se, but addresses the individual and their symptoms. Of course, the outcome of prescribing a homeopathic remedy will be dependent on the patient’s overall general health.
Based on an individual’s unique mental, emotional and physical symptomology, a homeopath will match the most appropriate homeopathic remedy in order to stimulate the patient’s innate healing abilities – their vital force. Their energy. But not just any remedy will do. It must be as close a match as possible. The best success stories of homeopathic “cures” are due to exact, or very close, matches.
Thus homeopathic remedies are prescribed according to what is known as the Law of Similars. Of course the reaction after the potentised remedy has been given will differ. This will depend on factors like the individual’s energy level, general health, medical history, surgery, vaccinations, and so on. A strong vitality with vivid symptoms, as seen in a healthy child, will generate a strong curative response. A weaker vitality with indefinite symptoms may respond slowly to their simillimum remedy.
In a best-case scenario, the presenting symptoms of the patient may briefly be enhanced at first (sometimes called an aggravation) before they are ameliorated. Or there may be just a gradual improvement in the individual’s wellbeing and energy as their symptoms steadily diminish. Similia similibus curentur. Like cures like.
The minimum dose…
What about this minimum dose? Newcomers to homeopathy may wonder what the phrase ‘minimum dose’ means. A homeopathic remedy only needs to be a very minimum dose because it contains intrinsic energy. This energy is released from repeated dilutions and succussions.
It becomes in effect medicinal energy. So only one application, one initial stimulus, of the simillimum is usually enough to start the vital force’s movement towards curing itself. Much like rolling a ball… The curative effect can be profound.
This is because the intrinsic energy in a potentised remedy can cover very many symptoms. This simillimum may gradually and gently heal many layers of disease over time. The greatest exponent of the minimum dose in homeopathy was its founder, Hahnemann.
Hahnemann was appalled at the sufferings and deaths of so many patients. The physicians of his day heroically tried to heal patients with high doses of medicinal substances. So Hahnemann experimented with smaller and then very much smaller doses of single medicines in order to minimize the side effects.
And he developed a new method of dilution which included a vigorous shaking of the substance called succussion. The resulting product he called a ‘potentised remedy’.
To repeat: Hahnemann found that not only did he have a remedy without any side effects but also that the more he diluted it with succussion, the better his remedy cured. Succussion released the energy inherent in the substance, with none of the toxic effects.
He then numbered the remedies according to the number of times they had been diluted. The sequential dilution of the substance along with succussion is known as potentisation.
Classical homeopathy involves treating an individual with extremely dilute substances. These are usually contained in saccharum lactis tablet forms, or milk sugar. The aim is to trigger a person’s natural healing abilities.
Above the homeopathic potency of 12C there is nothing physical left of the original material, only its intrinsic energy. It is only a matter of time before science develops the technology advanced enough to accurately measure the inherent energy within potentised remedies. And as science progresses and curiosity grows about homeopathy, the homeopath’s minimum dose will reveal that an infinitesimal amount contains much healing power.
For acute (short-acting illnesses) and most first-aid self-prescribing, the 30C potency is recommended. This is within the low-potency range. However, if you’re consulting a classical homeopath the potency chosen and the dosage will be tailored according to your specific requirements.
This is because the homeopathic medicines are so infinitesimally diluted they will act according to your tour own personal biophysical or energetic paradigm. Only an extremely minute dose is needed to encourage the vital force to start healing itself.
The Single Remedy
With homeopathic remedies prescribed in the classical manner, only one single remedy is given at any one time. This is because with the stimulus of only one dose of energy, it is only necessary to use one homeopathic pill, or one drop. This is more than enough to encourage the vital force to start healing. Because homeopathic remedies are proven singly at a time, they are prescribed singly at a time.
The reason is that if two or more different remedies are taken at the same time, or an unproven combination remedy is taken, a homeopath cannot ascertain which of the remedies has been the active ingredient – either positively or negatively. Some remedies antidote one another.
However there are always exceptions. For various medicinal reasons some remedies have been combined before dilution and succussion. However these remedies have gone through the potentisation procedure simultaneously from their material beginnings – and have therefore been proven as one remedy.
In a proving, a single homeopathic remedy can produce a plethora of symptoms on the mental, emotional and/or physical levels. This means that one single remedy can re-balance a sick person’s whole dynamic system – including symptoms on their mental, emotional and physical levels.
Even if the symptoms of the ill person are localized, it is the person’s whole system that has lost equilibrium. They are, in effect, trying to regulate themselves, trying to find balance, through their symptoms. So, as a rule, not only physical but also mental or emotional symptoms are taken into consideration. These symptoms are all evidence of a unified effort to resolve an inner disturbance.
Thus, in prescribing homeopathic remedies, only one single remedy is taken at a time, followed by observation of its effects on the person’s energy. By waiting and observing, one can see the single simillimum remedy activate change.
Levels of Health
I will now explain about levels of health. This ground-breaking concept will be of special interest to doctors and medical practitioners. Professor George Vithoulkas briefly mentions the foundations for “The Levels of Health” in his book, “The Science of Homeopathy” published in 1977. After nearly 60 years of experience and observation in his practice, he presented this fully developed practical theory for application in everyday practice.
The book “Levels of Health” 3 is an original contribution to homeopathy and the medical field as a whole. George Vithoulkas explains his concept of the twelve levels of health in detail, elaborating on the indications to which level a patient belongs.
He explains the possible reactions of an organism’s defence mechanism to homeopathic treatment – as well as what the reactions indicate, from the rarely seen extremely healthy person, to the extremely ill person at the end of their life – and all the other levels that we all fall into during the course of our lives.
This book provides formulas for the physician to recognize whether a patient is improving after the prescribed remedy, as well as their prognosis. It also gives invaluable advice to the practitioner for assessing the gravity and severity of cases. In short, it supplies common-sense guidance in case management. This knowledge helps to avoid wrong prescribing and false hope – for practitioner and patient alike.
Acute or Chronic Illness?
If you’re unsure about the difference between an acute illness and a chronic illness, an analogy may be drawn from nature. Think of a tree, one that is not too healthy-looking. Now zero in and examine the unhealthy leaves of this tree, leaves which can be likened to an acute illness. If you removed an unhealthy leaf, there would in all probability be another unhealthy leaf appearing somewhere else.
This is much like acute illnesses that keep appearing even after you’ve treated one and think it’s gone. Trees, seen from a distance, can be identified by their overall presence – and an unhealthy tree is no exception. A horticulturist may diagnose a healthy or unhealthy tree from either its leaves or its overall being in much the same way as a classical homeopath can diagnose a person’s level of health from either their acute or chronic illness.
Therefore for long-term chronic illness, or illness that hasn’t improved with conventional allopathic treatment, it is advisable to see an experienced classical homeopath, someone you feel comfortable with. Don’t treat yourself with homeopathic remedies for chronic issues.
Practitioners, with specifically trained objectivity to analyse your case, have taken many years to learn the science and art of practicing traditional homeopathy – they will know how to treat you safely and gently.
With some of the more serious chronic illnesses, dedicated classical homeopaths can work alongside your doctor or other medical professionals. A classical homeopath’s specialized knowledge of prescribing will be invaluable in returning you gently back to health or, at the very least, alleviating your symptoms.
Depending on the length and severity of your chronic illness, improvement in your general health may take time. Dr. Constantine Hering, the American ‘Father’ of homeopathy, revealed what was later known as ‘Hering’s Law of Cure’. This is an astute observation of the process of cure whereby during healing, a disease will move from the top downwards, from the inside to the outside of your body, and from more important organs to less important organs.
For instance, it is quite common in homeopathic records that a patient being treated with homeopathy for asthma may find their asthma decreasing in severity – or even disappearing, while eczema (re-)appears on their skin. This is a curative response on the part of their immune system moving the disease from their respiratory system outwards onto their skin.
Homeopaths have often seen illnesses leave more serious organs to later appear on less serious organs, like the skin or mucous membranes, in the form of rashes, discharges, etc. So – give it time.
Health benefits in chronic illness have been known to occur after only a few months’ treatment with homeopathy. But of course how long improvement takes depends a great deal on the duration of the illness, the general level of health, and the medical history. It is unethical to give assurances on the outcome of homeopathic treatment. However, homeopathy is a non-suppressive, natural method of medicine which may assist those with chronic ill health to improve their condition.
Research in Homeopathy
You may ask yourself is there is any good scientific research in homeopathy? After all, that is what is done with conventional medicine. Well, yes, there is! And for the serious researcher, a significant quantity of credible and positive experimental studies for homeopathy at molecular, cellular and clinical levels are available.1
It should be stressed that homeopathy does not treat diseases, whatever the disease may be called. Homeopathy treats diseased individuals. It is an individualised medicine. Therefore every case may need a different remedy, or sequence of remedies, even though the persons involved are suffering with the same diagnosed pathology.
In homeopathy research, this rule has been violated by almost all trials in all the meta-analyses, even in those trials that were called ‘classical’. An exception was the trials that attempted to be closer to the idea of the homeopathic principles as well.
These trials showed excellent results in spite of the fact they did not follow a process of complete individualisation of the cases. Homeopathy demands individualisation of the cases in order to show its best therapeutic effect.
Research should take into consideration the length of time and the severity of the case. The prognosis of a chronic condition (the possible time after which an amelioration sets in through homeopathic treatment) differs according to the length of time the disease is active and the severity of the case.
It is important to note that: “Most of the papers published on homeopathic trials till today are confused and confusing. In homeopathy, there is no such thing as giving a remedy for a specific ailment or disease. The idea of double blind research is valid for conventional medicine but not for homeopathy which is based on the principle of giving a remedy for a totality of symptoms of an individual and not only for his single ailment, disease or pathology.”4 I have quoted liberally here from Professor Vithoulkas’ website, by the way.
However, good scientific research is to be found.
For instance, at the Cell Symposia on Translational Immunometabolism in Basel, Switzerland in June 2022, Doctors Seema Mahesh, Mahesh Mallappa, Nuria Calbet, Alexander Eschbach and George Vithoulkas presented a paper “Correlation Between Acute and Chronic Inflammatory States – A Retrospective Evaluation of 544 Diabetes Mellitus Case Histories”2
Its aim was the detection of a pattern between the occurrence of acute and chronic inflammatory states in 544 patients with diabetes mellitus. This research showed that there may be a connection between suppressed acute inflammation and development of chronic disease.
A very interesting point is that with complete improvement in the chronic, the original acute inflammation reappears. This is the amazing action of the simillimum, the truly homeopathic remedy. So good scientific research into the effectiveness of homeopathy is ongoing and improving year by year.
Is Causation Important?
The causation of a disease is very important to the classical homeopath. Homeopaths are like detectives. They search for the source of dis-ease in a person’s medical history. This search includes emotional distress as well.
The Diagnosis
As mentioned earlier, the Classical Homeopath looks at the whole individual, not just the diagnosis. A diagnosis will help, of course, as a guide as to what general symptoms will be there. It can act as a pointer to possible causation. But the overall symptomology as the patient presents, including marked symptoms in the medical history, are the beacons to prescribe on.
These symptoms are a sign that the organism is trying to heal itself. The correct homeopathic remedy is a booster to health. Much like a leg-up on a ladder. Remember, homeopathy treats the person, not the disease.
All the symptoms are taken into consideration, like for example the physical ones, the emotional ones, the medical history and general lifestyle. We also look at any strange, rare or peculiar symptoms, and what we call ‘keynotes’. Every individual is unique.
What Causes Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body. As far as the medical profession is concerned, the exact cause of fibromyalgia is unknown. However, it is probably related to abnormal levels of certain chemicals in the brain – and changes in the way the central nervous system – (i.e. the brain, spinal cord and nerves) – processes pain messages carried around the body.
It could also develop due to certain genes inherited from parents. Usually the condition appears to be triggered by a physically or emotionally stressful event, such as:
- an injury or infection
- giving birth
- having an operation
- the breakdown of a relationship
- the death of a loved one
What Can Homeopathy Do for Fibromyalgia?
Homoeopathy has quite a good record in managing fibromyalgia. It can relieve symptoms like aches and pains when other methods fail. A homeopath will want to gradually decrease any prescription drugs like antidepressants, sleeping pills or painkillers. This will be done alongside careful homeopathic prescribing. If possible, conventional medications are stopped.
Those with fibromyalgia have their own special pattern of symptoms and dynamics – their own way of coping. This is where classical homeopathy can help. We focus on individualisation when we choose a remedy. In the homeopath’s repertory, like the Vithoulkas Compass software for example, there are 83 medicines for wandering pains and 45 medicines for muscle pain.
So, you can see why the homeopath concentrates on tailoring the medicine for each individual patient. Note that a remedy is ONLY homeopathic when its proven symptoms match those symptoms of the patient being treated.
It’s unusual to find someone with ONLY the symptoms of fibromyalgia – most people are struggling with multiple diagnoses as well. This is the benefit of classical homeopathic treatment. The simillimum has the potential of helping to alleviate – or even cure – other symptoms while addressing the fibromyalgia at the same time.
What Causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?
Chronic fatigue syndrome, known also as encephalomyelitis, myalgic encephalitis or ME, is a long-term condition. There are a wide range of symptoms, the most common of which is extreme tiredness. Again, with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the medical profession do not know exactly what causes the symptoms but they believe it may be triggered by an infection, or certain other factors, for instance:
- viral infections, such as influenza or glandular fever
- bacterial infections, such as pneumonia
- problems with the immune system
- a hormone imbalance
- your genes – chronic fatigue syndrome seems to be more common in some families
What can homeopathy do for chronic fatigue syndrome?
Chronic fatigue syndrome is not easy to treat, and an instant cure cannot be promised – there are hundreds of remedies for weakness and fatigue, and a homeopath must gather a lot of information to disentangle the right remedy. In the Vithoulkas Compass repertory software there are 357 medicines for weakness, 154 medicines for lassitude, and 146 medicines for weariness!
It is also important that a doctor has already been consulted to exclude any serious illnesses that CFS may mimic. On the positive side, even if a complete cure may not be possible, alleviation of symptoms can happen after correct homeopathic treatment. Again, a homeopath will want to gradually decrease any antidepressants, sleeping pills or painkillers being taken during homeopathic prescribing – and then stop conventional medications if possible.
Once a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome has been made, it is important to take a full homeopathic history. The emphasis should be on what is individual and special about symptoms. The common symptoms for ME/CFS are taken into consideration of course.
But specific feelings that are different for each individual are important, like for instance, the sensations felt in muscles e.g. trembling or jerking, – or the type of headaches experienced, e.g. what side of the head, whether the head pain extends somewhere else, what side of the throat is affected – and so on.
When treating both CFS and Fibromyalgia, general symptoms, physical and mental, and what homeopaths call modalities, are all important. For instance, the homeopath will look for reactions to different weather changes (like the rain, thunderstorms, fog), reactions to different room temperatures, (like needing windows open or closed), reactions to weather temperatures (like heatwaves, snow storms), the best or worst time of day (like late afternoon, early morning, midnight), or food cravings (like unripe fruit, salt) and food aversions (like onions, pork). You see, every person is different, even if their diagnosis is the same.
Particular note should be taken of any conventional treatment given either during acute illness, or during the original causation of the chronic fatigue syndrome. Choosing the correct medicine will usually take time and consideration with both the homeopath and patient being prepared to try more than one homeopathic medicine if there is no result with the first. As they say, the patient must be patient.
So the aim of homeopathy is not only to treat the chronic fatigue syndrome but to address its underlying cause and the individual’s susceptibility, all of which brings us backs to causation. Ideally, to access the most reliable source of individualized remedy selection and treatment, those with chronic fatigue syndrome should consult a qualified classical homeopath.
Now I trust you are familiar with words that are associated with, and indicate, classical homeopathy. And yes, homeopathy may indeed regenerate the human organism – provided
- there is a Vital Force of course!
- they are given their simillimum – that is, a genuine homeopathic remedy
- they are given the minimum dose – a potentised dynamic remedy
- and they are given a single remedy at any one time, not a combination or a mixture
- and, most important, the degree of regeneration will depend on their level of health.
Don’t expect to run before you can walk! I will conclude with an excerpt from an article by Kim Ridley, which appeared in Ode magazine, issue: 30, and which is published on the Vithoulkas website:
“Valerie Ohanian was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the late 1970s when severe fatigue descended out of nowhere. Suddenly, she couldn’t stay up for more than 15 minutes at a time without feeling exhausted.
Ohanian consulted several doctors, one of whom suggested she might just be depressed and referred her to a psychologist. The psychologist told her she definitely had health problems. Nothing Ohanian’s doctors prescribed alleviated her fatigue and painfully swollen glands. She suffered through the mysterious illness for two years, unable to work. “I didn’t know if I’d ever get over it,” she says. “I was really willing to try something different at that point.”
A chiropractor who gave her acupuncture provided some relief, but Ohanian always relapsed in a few days. “The chiropractor told me, ‘I think the only thing that will help you is homeopathy.’ I remembered reading about it and I contacted the only person in Minnesota at that time who was practising,” Ohanian says.
“After taking Mercurius Vivus, the remedy this fellow gave me, I didn’t feel anything for a few days. Then one day I realized I had been up doing things for three hours and I was able to stay up all day. Within a month, I had my energy back.”
Treating conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia can vary, depending on the level of health. Some cases can be cured with just two or three remedies. If the condition is treated in the early stages, the outcome may be quite successful. But some chronic conditions are very hard to treat, especially if they’ve been there for 20 years or more.
I hope this article instils interest in traditional classical homeopathy – for patients and for doctors. If you would like to know more about practising homeopathy yourself, thousands of doctors and medical specialists are learning to practice classical homeopathy from the world-leading homeopath Professor George Vithoulkas’ postgraduate E-Learning Program in Classical Homeopathy6 – this academic 2-year course is accredited and adopted by many medical universities around the world. See you there!
End
References:
1 Scientific Published Research in Classical Homeopathy: https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/positive-articles
2 Cell Symposia: https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/congresses/cell-symposia-tranlsational-immunometabolism-2022
3 Levels of Health: https://www.vithoulkas.com/learning-tools/books-gv/levels-health
4 Another point of view for the homeopathic trials and meta-analyses by Prof. George Vithoulkas
https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/articles/another-point-view-homeopathic-trials-and-meta-analyses
5 Ann Sorrell Website: https://dharmabum2008-laur.wixsite.com/annsorrell
6 E-Learning Program in Classical Homeopathy: https://elearning.vithoulkas.edu.gr/annsorrell
