A word of honest warning

[Gaby Rottler]

Dear colleagues,

I'm sure some of you recall the discussions in autumn 2000 on Lyghtforce
about the dangerous effects of continued long-term repetition.

I had written:
******************
This remedial disease is, in my opinion, not only the possible result of a
treatment with substantial doses, but also with homoeopathic remedies,
where - by definition - the vital force reacts even stronger.

Last but not least we shouldn't forget, that it's not the HEALTHY people
that buy remedies, but patients. Someone with symptoms.
The continuous use of remedies can make people sick - or how else would we
get provings? So, yes, in my opinion remedies can do harm when used
- continually (no matter if high or low potencies)
- in wild combination or in rapid succession
I remember the case of Gross, better said his daughter, which Gross had been
unable to treat successfully, and she was near death. He fervently attacked
Hahnemann, saying, homoeopathy was absolutely useless and gave no results
whatever. Hahnemann replied, that the non-effects of homoeopathy were
obviously showing in such a manner, that by giving remedies in rapid
succession to his daughter, Gross had caused an over-irritability and so
brought his daughter to the edge of the grave, which he could only have
corrected by
- omitting all homoeopahtic remedies and
- applying several 'slow mesmeric strokes'.

Gross followed his advice, and his daughter was saved.
[Source: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Samuel Hahnemann und Clemens von
Bönninghausen, Haug Verlag, p. 97]
*****************

Now I want to backup my former statements with even more substantial proofs.

--------------------------------------------
A word of honest warning:
Against the repeated, uncontrolled use of homoeopathic remedies

The repeated use of homoeopathic remedies, in lower or higher potencies, has
been discussed by many homoeopaths. Most often this was a debate between the
'classical' homoeopaths and the 'non-classicals'.

An article in the esteemed German journal 'Zeitschrift fuer Klassische
Homoeopathie" (Journal for classical homoeopathy), Haug Verlag, 1/2002,
p.18-28, documents a case with lethal
consequences following an uncontrolled repeated ingestion of Arnica 6X.

Title:
'Unkontrollierte Niedrigpotenzeinnahme mit letalem Ausgang' (Uncontrolled
ingestion of low potencies with lethal outcome), by Prof.Dr.med. C. Reiter,
Institute of forensic medicine, University of Vienna, and Dr. med. C.
Abermann, Altmuenster

English summary enclosed in the German text:
'Conventional medicine tends to perceive homeopathy as harmless. Common
opinion holds, that not only do homoeopathic remedies have no positive
effect, but also no negative ones.
In this article, first the opinions of renowned homoeopaths concerning the
harmlessness of homoeopathic remedies are discussed, followed by a case
demonstrating the lethal outcome of an unintentional remedy disease. In
addition, possible conclusions from this case are discussed.'

A short review of the article:
The authors first refer to Hahnemann and Aph. 276, Organon 6th ed., where he
warns about too frequent repetitions of a remedy, which could even risk the
patient's life.
Though these words were mainly meant for patients, these words are also
confirmed for provers by Mezger (referring to a proving of Mandragora 6X,
where the prover developped the most violent ischialgia; Ars did not help,
the Sulph cured). Even J. Sherr added that a continuous repetition of the
remedy could endanger the security of provers. Contrary to the instructions,
some provers of Scorpio had continued to take the remedy, and some of them
developped persistent, disagreeable symptoms.
The case:
female patient, 32 ys. old. healthy , no chronic diseases. Interested in
homeopathy for 12 years.
August 15, 1992: diarrhea with vomiting after eating ice-cream. 2 days later
the patient, who feels weak, anxious restless, ask her doctor:'What do you
think about Arsenicum?'

About 14 days later, after eating some fish, another bout of vomiting and
diarrhea. According to the husband of the patient, the patient took Ars 6X,
3 times 3 glob. daily, till her death on October 29, 1992.

During the time in-between some additional symptoms developped:
oversensitivity to cold; insensitivity on finger-tips and legs; swelling of
eye-lids; itching dry skin without eruption, ascending paralysis.

Arsenicum levels elevated in urine and blood.

Probably other remedies were taken as well, such as Verat 3x, Kali-br X3,
and others.

In the discussion the authors conlude that the death of the patient was
obviously the consequence of a prolonged remedial disease caused by
self-prescribing Ars X6. This is confirmed by the laboratory values and the
results of the post-mortem examination.
The elevated values of Arsenicum in urine and serum could, hypothetically,
be explained by a mobilisation of endogenous Arsenicum, e.g. from the bones.
-----------------------------------------------

Several pictures in the article (Degeneration of the sceleton muscle fibres;
demyelinizing, non-inflammatory polyneuropathia of the N. suralis) , some
repertorization grids and the bibliography will show the well-documented
basis of this article.

As far as I know this is the first description of a death, caused by
homoeopathic medicines.
Other, more recent adverse effects were described in the journal Contact
Dermatitis, 2001, 45, 185:
"An unusual case of baboon syndrome due to mercury present in a homeopathic
medicine' © Munksgaard 2001.
Here the author describes the case of a 5-year-old girl, who presented with
a baboon syndrome (systemic contact dermatitis due to mercury), 24 h after
having taken for a cough a tablet of Mercurius Heel ® S (which contains Merc
X10 and 6 other remedies in low potencies). Anamnestically, the as a
new-born she had had a neonatal periumbilical dermatitis associated with
merbromin use on the cord.
Prick testing showed positive reactions to thimerosal and metallic mercury.

What are the consequences?

For all of us who use the classical approach with C or LMs (minimum dose,
which includes the aqueous solution; no repetition as long as an action is
perceived) nothing will change in the case-management.
But what is important: more emphasis has to be put on the anamnesis:
- which remedies were precribed?
- how often?
- which potency?
- did the patient self-prescribe?
- which remedies/which potencies does the patient have at home for personal
use?

Many of us know that bad prescriptions may make a case difficult or even
uncurable. It was Hahnemann who mentioned this for the first time:
"Preface about the repetition of a homoeopathic remedy", 1833, (3):
".that by giving small doses quickly one after another nearly never the most
possible Good can be achieved in the cure of diseases, especially in chronic
diseases, and that, because by such a procedure the vital force won't calmly
turn from her mistunement by the natural disease to a mistunement in a
similar remedial disease, but generally gets so violently excited and
disturbed by a large dose or several small doses, given quickly one after
another, that its [the vital force's; GR] reaction can express itself in
most of the cases the least helpful, but damages more, than helps."

Boenninghausen writes about the continued use of remedies (here he talks
about provings of healthy persons) (4):
"Only if the use of a medicine is continued for a long time, a chronic
artificial disease develops..."

We have enough hints about the damage of such repetitions in our older
literature, and the experiences of the present.

© Copyright 2002, Gaby Rottler

Literature:
1) Zeitschrift fuer klass. Homoeopathie,46, 1/2002, Haug Verlag
2)Contact Dermatitis, 2001, 45, 185:"An unusual casen of baboon syndrome due
to mercury present in a homeopathic medicine' © Munksgaard 2001.
3)Samuel Hahnemann - gesammelte kleine Schriften; Haug Verlag, Heidelberg,
2001
4)Boenninghausen: Ein Lesebuch für das gebildete, nicht-ärztliche Publikum;
Münster, 1834

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaby Rottler
Germany
rottler@curantur.de

http://www.curantur.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Rochelle]

Hi Gaby,
How do you explain the use of Eisayaga's prescribing as that is continual
dosing?

Regards
Rochelle
www.rochellemarsden.co.uk
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[Gaby Rottler]

Hi Rochelle,
I don't think repeated dosing per se is dangerous - as long as the rules are
observed, as laid out in the Organon, the Chronic diseases and other
literature.
And may be many patients can self-prescribe many remedies for a continued
time without any problems, when they are relatively insensitive to the
remedy.

But it all depends of the sensitivity of the patient and the entire case, of
the original substance , of the potency, and of the dose taken, too.
As we know, there are many persons, who can take a remedy and get no
symptoms. But some people are extraordinary sensitive to the remedy (or even
to many remedies) and therefore make wonderful provers. If such a person
continues to take a remedy for a longer time inspite of the symptoms that
appear - that's bound to provoke difficulties.

If this person is not under professional homoeopathic care, with a
homoeopath able to see the symptoms of the remedy and to antidote it - what
will happen?

Of course I know there were many homoeopaths who prescribed e.g. low
potencies on a continuous basis (Burnett being one of them, in treatment or
palliation of cancer).
But they prescribed, and then checked the symptoms.

I don't think a responsible homoeopath would continue a medication, which
obviously made the patient worse and even provoked new dangerous symptoms.
And that's exactly what had happened in this case of Ars 6X.

All the best,

Gaby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaby Rottler
Germany
rottler@curantur.de

http://www.curantur.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~