I often hear , in my practice:
"If we only can take care of the symptoms related to the antibiotics, I would be happy. "
"If we can only address the Benzo withdrawal symptoms , I would be happy"
When we are in pain we negotiate.
We are willing to accept some relief if it is available, even if we lose the chance to be pain free. Just some help is better than none.
We have been taught to think of the body in parts. Medical specialties are like a map of the body. Neurology, Ear Nose & Throat, Orthopedics, Endocryonology, Gastroentorology, Psychology.. And then certain illnesses have specialists: Oncology, Pain specialists, Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology...
Wholism as an idea seems to go against all the ways we have been trained to view the body. All aspects of It seemed to be important today to address this disconnect.
Can we, from a Wholisitc POV actually dictate how the body heals? Do we get to cherry pick our symptoms?
There is a short answer and a longer answer.
It comes down to the distinction of Acute complaints vs Chronic complaints.
Daily in my practice clients discuss their main complaint. The one thing that disrupts their day the most, interferes with their abundance, peace, and comfort.
Usually it is something that demands a great deal of time to palliate, comfort or adjust to.
A broken foot requires crutches and more time getting here and there. A child's fever takes a parent out of work. Sometimes these complaints would clear up on their own :the sniffles, a fever , an allergic reaction - temporary inflammation, a bleeding cut, a borken bone. Or they might be our end- a bleeding artery, complications from a car accident.
Acute Complaints- Homeopathy can help and often acts as quickly as any suppressive, palliative over the counter medication.
Homeopathy has the added benefit of NOT suppressing symptoms- Most allopathic remedies are "anti-this" or "anti-that" as a rule of thumb they take away the symptoms but do not address the cause of those symptoms and these symptoms may go away in the moment, only to come back with more gusto exacerbated by the added layer of symptomology of the side effects of the treatment.
Such as- microbiome disordered after antibiotics, or adrenal imbalance/exhaustion after steroid use.
The highest ideal of therapy is to restore health rapidly, gently, permanently.
Samuel Hahnemann
Bottom line: the question we ask when treating a symptom, an acute- will the care given suppress symptoms ? Will the mishandling of an acute lead towards chronic illness?
So a well managed acute can rapidly heal.
This is the Homeopathic POV that looks to the overall wholeness of the individual, of their symptoms. I quoted Aristotle in the title, to underscore how ancient this thought is. All parts of us working together, in synchronization, make up who we are, make up our state of health or dis-ease. We are not a bag of parts whose functioning is independent of each other.
HOWEVER... what if it proves not to be permanent?
Suppression
So- homeopathy can palliate, it can take away symptoms. You can purchase homepathic medications labeled for colds or fevers. Usually these have several remedies of various potencies in them. One of those remedies probably will help your symptoms. The presence of the other remedies may however, tax the vital force (the self-healing intelligence that allocates resources for healing throughout the organism) and palliate and perhaps even mask symptoms, and suppress , as they are given frequently.
And because of suppression permanent relief of symptoms is not likely .
"Effective use of remedies is to stimulate the vital force to return to self healing. When there is a change we stop dosing, when the change slows down or plateaus we repeat the remedy. "
Lise Battaglia, CCH, MHC, CAP, BFRP
I repeat this statement often in my practice, and that's ok. It is a statement that bears repeating.
Overlap of ACUTE, CHRONIC symptoms- and removal of root cause.
So what happens when the "acute" symptom is a flare up of an underlying chronic condition?
Let's look at constipation.
We can take laxatives and move our bowels . And we can become dependent on them.
Or we can have difficulty in moving our bowels relative to our montly cycles for women, or in response to our changing environment.
A recent case of Chronic constipation, type one Diabetes, low libido, hyperhydrosis; around the monthly cycle some movements were possible, excessive perspriation. History of early use of endochrine disruptors (the pill at 10) and many suppressive antibiotics in early childhood, and more forms of birthcontrol each causing side effects.
Take away the constipation! Was the main complaint. Any time something is not of short duration - it is not an acute, despite the feeling of intensity and immediacy.
The remedy Sepia has been very very helpful. Did the Constipation go away first? No. The vital force determines how symptoms unravel or resolve. And did in this case as well. What happened first? The excessive perspiration had a dramatic improvement. A few repeated doses brought occassional relief of constipation, followed by more consistent bowel movements. The perspiration changed, and the skin as an organ of elimination was still working/needed, but the perspiration was limited to periods of activiity and was no longer continually as clothing soaking as it had been.
Do we stop here? Do we only stop at the main complaint? Perhaps.
It depends- how deep is the underlying cause, the root cause of these complaints? When we are able to find such a remedy that is working on the underlying issues AND relieves the most aggravating , "main complaint". symptoms, we can use this remedy to address future flare ups - so if this client gets long lasting relief and loses that relief- perhaps she has difficulty moving her bowels again in the future, this can look like an urelated, acute condition. We use the same remedy again . The chronic remedy will address what looks like an acute, but may be just a chronic flare.
The presence of the perspiration is very telling. We know in this case that there were endocrine and gut disruptors, and years of inability to eliminate . Whatever is inside seems to seek an exit point. the compromised bowels may have placed the demand for elimination from somewhere else! As long as this is present I would suggest that there is more to heal. Correcting the gut microbiome and clearing the effects of birthcontrol are all possible with properly selected homeopathic remedies .
Once these "maintaining causes" no longer produce symptoms, we can probably call this a completed case.
We wanted to choose to go after one symptom- but it was not possible. The whole body heals at it's own rate, and the determination of which symptoms serve us (perspiration) and which we can release (constipation) - are accomplished in the order and pace dictated by the body's wisdom, known as the Vital Force.
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You may have noticed that I do not place
Unless they are an aggravation or flare up of an underlying chronic condition- such as back pain from a mis aligned spine or disk issue. Another common acute like symptom related to a chronic condition is