Homeopathic vitamins -- cell salts

[Shannon Nelson]

Cell salts are sometimes referred to that way.
On my understanding the meaning of the term is simply that, when used this way -- according to the indications and for the purposes of "cell salts", they don't have the same type of broad and deep effectiveness of "regular" homeopathic prescribing -- but can be actually pretty wonderful.

The similarity with "vitamins", as I see it, is that like vitamins, they are considered to be essential *functional* units of the physiology. The definition of a "vitamin" is a nutrient that the body cannot put together from other factors, but needs to take in (more or less) as it is. Similarly (per my understanding) with the cell salts. You can't make, say, ferrum phos out of something else, you need to take it in as-is. (if any of that's not accurate, feel free to correct.)

I first decided to "take them seriously" and try to get some bit of experience with them, after reading David Little's remarks about them, years back, probably via Minutus (though it was probably someone quoting him, rather than his writing on the list). I recall him quoted as saying that one could "pretty much run a practice" with just "cell salts and anti-miasmatic remedies". My use of them has been almost entirely on myself, on occasions when I either couldn't identify or couldn't get the remedy I needed for an acute situation, and I wound up being surprised, impressed, and very grateful at how well they worked -- though needing LOTS more repetition (and repetition, and repetition…) than what I have been accustomed to with "regular" remedies; as is consistent with the very low potency (usually 6x).

Shannon

[yerewan]

I familiar with cell salts but this converssation
was really about h pthic vitamins, a set of B's
if I remember right, that's why I got intrigued.

Will

[Shannon Nelson]

Oh, a set of Bs? I didn't see that on the page, but the pictures are very small…

Well, I know there are people who use many things potentized as substitutes for the crude substance.
I see it done with herbs and drugs, for various purposes, so why not B vitamins… But hm, that I know nothing about.

[Irene de Villiers]

Becasue herbs and such are medicines - not body components.
Their medicinal power is increased by potentisation.
Vitamins are body components, not medicines, and are thus needed in material dose to physically hold the body together and alow it to physically function.
Vitamins ALSO can be used as medicine in potency - we need the proving symptoms they might help - but that would not be their structural use as body building blocks. That would be an energy instruction to the body with no materials to do the construction changes.
A potentized remedy has no physical building blocks. It only tells the body to use building blocks.
Vitamins ARE the building blocks, they need to be there as such.

So a potentised remedy is like the plans for building repairs - the instructions.
Vitamins - material amounts - are like the bricks.
No bricks, no building.

Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.Furryboots.info
(Info on Feline health, genetics, nutrition & homeopathy)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Irene,

Just to clarify, I didn't say, and I don't think anyone else said either, that potentized substance could *substitute* for nutrients. So let's just agree that they can't. Yet somehow they perform the functions that they do…

I would not offer someone potentized stew as a substitute for dinner; nor expect potentized anything to take the place entirely of any needed nutrient.

Might I note, though, that the fact that something *is* needed in material doses, does *not* mean that it might not also be helpful in potency; and that the potentized version might not help with uptake the utilization of the nutrient(s) -- and in fact, it demonstrably does.

[yerewan]

The thoughts Irene expressed are something I can start relating to.
It is something I partailly had somewhre at the back of my head but couldn't quite materialize it.
So my thoughts so far....
As we are not giving any *Pulsatilla* to a person but enhancing certain similar qualities
or aligning a balance gone awry with a remedy holding the essence of Pulsatilla
-a balance/mistunement that resonates with Pulsatilla qualities a person has.
Now, we don't know what an essence of say B6 is so, why would someone give that in potency?
Instead if there is a reason to believe that a person has difficulties assimilating VitB6 from nutrition
is that enough to give it in potency or should a homeopath try figure out the reason for problems with
assimilation in a deeper level and find a more precise remedy for the condition that by simply
administering vitB6 in potency .....
Why am I so thick about this ? Because I find it hard to swallow that along with constitutional
treatment someone would give single nutrients in potency with no (to me) obvious homeopathically
relevant indication. With bioelemental nutrients I can see the connection more easily but not with
vitamins which work more like enzymes (not really being ones ofcourse).
Or am I just being not only thick but narrowminded as well here??
Will

[Fran Sheffield]

Just coming in quickly. Haven't had time to read all of what went on before so apologies if this has already been mentioned.

I can remember David Little discussing how much the potentised Cell Salts helped impoverished and malnutritioned communities in India who were deficient in these minerals. I also know others who have worked in these types of communities who say the same thing. From memory, the Indian Prime Minister, Modi has recently said the same, encouraging their use for this problem. Obviously they can't replace good nutrition but do seem to have the ability to help the body absorb or utilise what is available more efficiently.

The same thing with Silicea in agrohomeopathy. Kaviraj frequently spoke about the need and benefit of potentised Silicea for plants growing in Silica deficient soils.

All very interesting. The lines between what does what and how are blurred.

Fran.

[Shannon Nelson]

My personal thoughts -- from observation and from "principal", I would think / believe / assume that a *well matched* "constitutional" / etc., classically derived remedy would act MUCH more deeply and broadly; more lastingly, more fully, versus potentized versions of isolated vitamins. I can't imagine that anyone familiar with "classical" (sorry, I know that some people don't like that term, and it is fuzzily defined) homeopathy could argue that point.

But the potentized other-things are different tools, which will be used by different folks, toward different ends.

If we're e.g. evaluating a hammer and a shovel, it's not that one is better than the other; rather they're different tools with different spheres of usefulness. (I've used a shovel for a hammer, and could imagine using a hammer as a shovel; sometimes one uses what one has available!)
What makes you think this is something for *homeopaths* to use alongside constitutional treatment? That would surprise me very much! (But if someone *is* doing that, and feels it's useful in their practice, I'd be very interested to hear about it, since the "obvious" is not always "true", and I am chronically curious. )

But I think this is aimed at lay folks, without training in homeopathy; eager to be corrected if I'm wrong.
Shannon

[Tanya Marquette]

Truly interesting stuff. WE do need more experience with this.

And I do very fondly think of Kaviraj, particularly at this time of year when gardening is on the mind.

t

[Roger B]

So, while we are discussing "homeopathic vitamins", my online Scrabble program came up with "vitamins", and it was not a straight shot. There were a bunch of letters already in place. Coincidence? I think not.
Roger Bird