Water potencies, was tetanus prevention

[Sheri Nakken]

>
"essential". Severe acute situations *have* been successfully treated with
dry doses as well, and also in some cases via frequent (as appropriate)
repetition. I was taught that it would be very unusual for someone to
aggravate during repetition for a severe acute; I would be interested to
hear if someone has seen that happen?

§ 246, 247, 248 Sixth Edition
The Watery Doses In Homeopathy and the Dosing (How Much to give?)
What most homeopaths in the world do

Most homeopaths follow Hahnemann's directions set out in the 4th Edition of
the Organon, published in 1828. They put a certain amount of dry pellets of
the chosen remedy on the tongue and wait and watch for the reaction. Most
homeopaths are also convinced that it does not matter how many pellets are
put on the tongue: 3, 5, 20,&it does not matter! This was an unfortunate
inheritage from Kent and blindly followed by most homeopaths. This dose
(how much of the remedy) as well as when to repeat the dose will be
discussed in the next two lessons. The question is here, dry doses versus
watery doses or solutions.
The Watery Doses

Up till 1828 Hahnemann administered one or two poppy-seed pellets dry and
then "waited and watched." However he was not entirely satisfied with this
dosing technique. Even in 1828 Hahnemann already mentioned the exceptional
use of watery solutions and in 1833, in his 5th edition of the Organon he
made it the rule! He explained his reasoning in A286 of the 5th edition:
"&the effect of the homeopathic dose increases, the greater the quantity of
fluid in which it is dissolved&(in other words, it does make a difference
if we give 1 tsp, 1 TBS, 1 cup, 3 drops, etc.)&For in this case, when the
medicine is taken, it comes into contact with a much larger surface of
sensitive nerves responsive to the remedy action."
So 1 drop will stimulate less nerve endings than 1 tsp; 1 tsp less than 1
TBS, etc. We can see here the importance of such dosing especially in the
view of the many very sensitive patients we encounter. Each individual has
a different reactivity of his Vital Force (Qi, Immune response) and the
dose of the remedy must be tailored to the individual patient! More about
this further.
Hahnemann at this point (1833) added another facet to his dosing: the
succussions! A succussion is hitting the bottle in which the remedy is
dissolved hard against a book or the palm of your hand. Each time you
succuss, the remedy changes slightly in potency, and gets a little
stronger. The amount of the succussions will be determined by your
homeopath as he knows the results of your first test dose: the response to
it determines the amount of succussions. It is like driving a car: once we
know how comfortable the patient is, we can determine the speed (amount of
succussions) which he is able to drive. This is very important in order to
achieve the fastest possible response to the remedy and to assure the
fastest and gentlest cure!
As one can see, due to the wide range of patient sensitivity
levels-something that is greatly magnified today-and the variation of the
disease states (some are long time suppressed, making a gentle cure
difficult), the homeopath needs more ways to administer doses. Hahnemann
felt that the best way to adapt to these various circumstances was to
prepare remedies in watery solutions.
The succussions, altering each dose to become more potent is another issue
neglected worldwide by homeopaths! They claim that they can give unpunished
a dry dose of a certain potency unchanged once a month for a year, and
worse, some repeat such dose daily and unchanged! What is the result?
Hahnemann tells us (in Chronic Diseases) that by doing so, the patient will
add symptoms belonging to the remedy but not to his disease picture&in
other words, he will add symptoms to his disease he never had! The danger
is even that great that through such mechanical repetition, the original
disease of the patient will be totally replaced by a new disease, entirely
consisting of the remedy symptoms, symptoms you never had! You could
compare this to the side effects of allopathic medicine which create in the
long run more symptoms and new diseases often worse than the original
disease! So don't think homeopathy cannot harm: if your homeopath continues
to give unchanged doses you will have all the "side effects" of our remedy
(we call it accessory symptoms). It is even worse if you receive the wrong
remedy and your homeopath repeats such dry doses unchanged and too
frequent. Patients who are suffering from such medicinal or remedy diseases
are much more difficult to treat further!
The Importance of the Dose (How Much?)

I am horrified by the statements of many homeopaths who claim that "It does
not matter how much (and some add what potency!) the homeopath gives to the
patient, as long as we have the correct remedy!" Such people must go back
to school and read carefully in the Organon what they are doing to their
patients. For anyone who has his eyes open in practice and for anyone who
cares about his patients, the determination of the right dose (how much of
the remedy should I give?) is extremely important if we want to limit the
suffering of our patients! Of course those homeopaths who adhere to the 4th
edition of the Organon do not care that their patients go through a similar
aggravation of their symptoms (existing symptoms aggravate), in fact they
welcome it as it tells them that they have chosen the right remedy. How
cruel to deny their patients the gentler cure to be obtained following the
watery doses of the 5th and 6th edition of the Organon. Ask your homeopath
why he is doing so: I don't expect him to be able to give you a decent
answer!
This is what Hahnemann had to say about the dose (A275 and 276):
"The correctness of a remedy for a given case of disease depends not only
on the accurate homeopathic selection but also on the correct size or
rather smallness of the dose! (In other words it is not sufficient to
choose the correct remedy, but the accent is put here on the smallness of
the dose!). A remedy given in too large of a dose though completely
homeopathic to the case will still harm the patient by its quantity and
unnecessarily strong action on the vital force&
"In strong doses, the more homeopathic the medicine and the higher the
potency (note that dose and potency are two different things!) the more
harm is done. Indeed it is far more harmful than equally large doses of
unhomeopathic medicine&Excessively large doses of an accurately selected
homeopathic medicine, especially if frequently repeated, are, as a rule
very destructive! Not infrequently they endanger the patient's life or make
his disease almost incurable!
So what Hahnemann says here and what has been seen in the practice for over
the last two hundred years is that it is far more dangerous to administer
too frequently too large doses of the right homeopathic remedy than the
wrongly chosen remedy!
What a condemnation of those homeopaths who "don't care about the dose," as
if it can do no harm and what a pity of those patients coming under their
care.
What can we conclude from Lesson 2?
1. ALWAYS (for acute as well as Chronic diseases) put the remedy into
water!

2. The dose (how much needs to be given) is just as much part of the
rightfully selected remedy as the name of the remedy

3. Do not accept similar aggravations (an aggravation of your existing
symptoms). The watery solutions allow the homeopath to minimize and even
avoid such similar aggravation.

4. The smallness of the dose is a very much neglected part in
homeopathic circles. Many aggravations are due to giving a too large dose
rather than a too high potency. Always rather start with a cautious small
dose!

5. We will discuss potencies in the next lesson and will then take the
opportunity to accurately describe HOW these watery solutions should be
taken in acute and chronic diseases. The guidelines by Hahnemann are found
to be very exact and those who want to impose their own inventions on the
patient should try it first on themselves and their loved ones!
Warm regards from Dr Luc!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
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[always.question]

Thank you very much for all the info direct from Dr Luc after he'd been
mentioned so often by so many of you; most interesting & useful to read.

It would be worth bearing in mind, though, that what he writes is not
actually Hahnemann. Hahnemann was constantly experimenting and there
was nothing fixed or rigid about his dosing regimes; he was
experimenting right until the end (cf 'In Search of the Later Hahnemann'
by Rima Handley, among others).

Likewise, Kent & his followers did actually do wonderful work with the
dry method, and in England in particular the success of homeoapthy is
down to the great work done by his immediate followers in the late 19th
and early 20th Century. We dismiss them at our peril, I think.

As a first impression, there are many points in the excerpt from the
good Doctor that struck me as selective and questionable (quotes?
references?). Like Kent, he seems to be rather insistent that his own
interpretation of SH is correct to the exclusion of all else. If I were
a complete newcomer to homeopathy, I imagine I might find myself rather
fearful of making dreadful & dangerous mistakes after reading the
excerpt.

I agree entirely that liquid dosing is gentler & far more flexible. I
also agree that aggravations need not be a feature of good homeopathic
practice (though SH still mentions mild aggravation as desirable in the
6th). I don't think the way liquid dosing is employed need be fixed and
rigid, and I've got some doubts about Luc's interpretation of quantities
in dosing (but not the time to go into this in detail right now).

Having read everything SH wrote about potency and posology in the 6th
Edition and some of what he wrote elsewhere, and subsequent experience
in practice gave me confidence to continue experimenting with posology
(including dilution, succussion, repetition etc), and to trust the VF to
express its needs vis-a-vis the potency question.

I would say (but then how could I not?) that my patients have benefited
from this rather than having been harmed. Nor did my first homeopath
harm me when she completely transformed my life through homeopathic
treatment - with the infrequent single doses according to Kent she'd
been trained in (that experience was, after all, what set me on the path
to becoming a practitioner myself).

Re Kent's observation that the amount of medicated lactose taken per
dose did not make a difference, in dry doses I do believe this to be the
case - from experience. Kent was a keen and skilled observer (cf his
MM, which is full of clinical experience that demonstrates this in a
lively way) - it is fairly unlikely that he would have missed or
completely misunderstood such a fundamental aspect of treatment, even
when under the sway of Swedenborgian theorising.

It does seem funny to be defending old Kent here, because there are so
many things he said that turned me rather against him (like the famous
old chestnut about rather seeing a patient die than going against 'the
law' of homeopathic principles...). He had his faults, he had only the
fourth edition to work from, but he was a master of homeopathy, and it
is at our peril that we 'pour him out with the bathw- ah - the distilled
water'.

Dry dose does work, in the hands of a skilled practitioner - and I would
like to see it less vilified. One sometimes almost gets the impression
that some people consider anything other than plussing or LMs not real
homeopathy, as if the 200 years of successful treatment before the
publication of the 6th edition hadn't happened.

Before you all jump on me - as said before: I do use LMs and plussed Cs
almost exclusively (and where I do recommend an occasional dry dose it
will be well-indicated - there are scenarios where that too has it's
place). It is the trend to diss anything prior that I find difficult
when it is clear that those classic practitioners were extraordinarily
skilled and amazing homeopaths whose writings have so much to teach us,
yet we are in danger of ignoring them (as well as the many excellent
writers/teachers of the 1970s homeopathic revival) simply because they
based their practice on the 4th edition.

Suse
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, Sheri Nakken
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