Can a Naturopathic be a homeopath?

[Irene de Villiers]

I looked at the course requirements in three different naturopathy
schools. It looks like the standard homeopathy part of the course is
8 credit hours. (plus 8 hrs each for a long list of other things too
- nothing in depth)

It is a choice by some, to do EXTRA in depth study in a chosen area....

Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Irene de Villiers]

On Aug 17, 2008, at 1:32 AM,
wrote:

Only if they started healthy and always lived in a healthy
environment - none of which exists in reality

Today, the world is polluted as are we, and vitamins are there to
detoxify and to ward off problems.
It's not for nothing that nature ensures that we get 10,000 IU of
Vitamin D just by being in the sun for 15 minutes, with 50% or so of
skin exposed. (After 15 mins we stop making Vit D that day.) This
design for humans was no accident - it's because that's the Vit D we
need.
But not everyone gets that exposure daily.
Do you (whomever is reading this)?
If not, you need Vit D3 supplements to make up for the deficit
In nature the 10,000 a day is the standard for humans.

USDA regs say to take a LOT less than that - but that's because the
historical origin of the RDA or MDR had to do with what they could
afford country-wide, so was to try to hide vitamin deficiencies in
the population - nothing to do with optimum health.

Similar guidelines apply to other vitamins as I used in Vit D as an
example.
The fear of overdosing is vastly exaggerated by those who want to
have drugs used more, and it's actually very hard to overdose.

Nature does have a sensible level we are designed to get - but we can
not get it the way we live.
Again using Vit D as the example - you do not get it through glass
windows, it needs UV which is blocked by glass - and you do not get
it through your work clothes, and you might not have a job if you
arrived in swimgear 365 days a year as Adam and Eve presumably did,
for an outdoor sunny job So how to get the Vit D needed in modern
life without supplements????

And we are lucky that we can use many vitamins to detoxify from
anything from pollution to allergic reactions (due to atopy from
vaccines).

NOBODY these days can get by healthily from "fresh food" alone.
I have done the analysis of foods to just try to get the RDA of each
nutrient without going over a decent calorie level. It's very
difficult to do.
Please feel free to find any combination of a daily food intake to
provide all the vitamins and minerals needed, using the USDA food
database tables which give you a ready to use food analysis for
component nutrients.... and do it for about 2000 calories, so as not
to encouraqge gluttony and obesity in a non-exercised society.
Just trying to be real-world realistic here....

Even assuming huge nutritional knowledge and also assuming the food
is very fresh despite whatever climate one lives in, it's not
possible. In USA this year that also means snow up till mid-June
where I am and snow from mid-August in Colorado. How to get fresh
food, and not truck it in, losing nutrient value en route????

So I disagree with that opinion and I suggest every person needs to
be educated to a reasonable extent about Vitamins and what they do
for us, where to find them in food and how much to supplement them to
improve health and nutrient balance. I started teaching my kids this
from age 3, but there are several good references, one of which is
the Nutrition Almanac that comes out every few years with a new edition.
Vitamin deficiency is usually a hidden aspect of every case - or they
would not have been ill to start with.
By the time it is a visible deficiency (like rickets for Vit D) you
have a very serious issue in addition to any consequential diseases
that took advantage of the situation.
Homeopathy can not supply the missing vitamin/s, the homeopath needs
to know which ones are missing and how to supply them.
For example Vit D is essential to immune system function - and if
someone has an infection - it means there is not enough Vit D among
other issues.... Yet this kind of Vit D deficiency is not "visible"
other than that there is infection present.
It's not usually possible to do through food.
For example to get enough Vit D to help overcome infection, needs
fish liver oil capsules - OR with food needs more fish than anyone I
know will east in a day. Nature did not intend it that way - it was
to come from sun, not just fish.
Or take pantothenic acid that is so essential to stressful
situations. There is a little - very little - in all foods, but not
a lot anywhere. You'd need to eat tons of food becoming extremely
obese - or else take a supplement - to handle the shortage in the
body due to modern day stress.
What is the point of that?
Carrots are loaded with sugar, which is highly inflammatory and a
most unsuitable way to get carotene in the hope that it will convert
suitably to Vit A. A sick person will not do the conversion properly
anyway. They will need to get Vit A directly, such as in a fish liver
oil supplement.
One can not overdose on (natural) Vit A unless one does something
crazy such as eating an entire polar bear liver for breakfast daily.
And even then, the symptoms of overdose go away when you stop taking
too much.

Surely, the point here is to ensure a healthy level of all nutrients,
and not to pretend that they are not needed for a myriad of important
functions. To fail to supply them in *optimum* amounts, and to say
"there is no deficiency" as the excuse for not supplementing them, is
like keeping a car in a mechanically unsound condition, just so long
as it actually goes along the road, ready to break down or be
involved in an accident at any second.
So can excess homeopathic remedies or excess water
But your advice above did not look like avoiding excess., It looked
like avoiding supplementing vitamins at all.
And in the case of vitamins - excess is not harmful unlike too low a
level.
To fail to supplement vitamins to optimum levels, is to me like
failing to use homeopathy where indicated.
Both remedy and nutrition (including supplements to achieve this)
need to be optimum in my view, to build health.

Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Luise Kunkle]

Hi Shannon,
Just concerning your last sentence:

What MD's do nowadays and what they did at the time of Hahnemann is
absolutely incomparable! A lot of what they did then can be read in
H's Preface to the Organon, some info is in v. Boenninghausen's first
casebooks, some in the clinical studies of those days, where
homeopathy was tested in hospitals for the treatment of cholera and
other diseases.

Regards

Luise
--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
==========> ICQ yinyang 96391801 <==========

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Luise,
I know that! But I based my last sentence not on what allopaths did in
Hahnemann's day, but on what the allopaths that I and family members
have unfortunately had to deal with now and then, in *today's* world.
it's very different from my experiences with naturapaths!

My biggest lessons, from my personal forays into the allopathic world,
have been:
Smile and nod--they don't want to hear my opinions.
underlying assumptions are the same:
- Herbs are dangerous, because they may interfere with your
medications--never mind that I'm not *on* any medications, and I do
know my herbs!
- "They" know more than "I" know--never mind that only very little of
what they know is of possible use to me, and they are taught not to
trust most of what I know.
- It's a dangerous world, and how can I be such a wicked mama as to
"deny" my children the glories of vaccination--and they would not trust
anything written in any book I would offer. Etc., etc., etc.

None of these, for instance, have been problems when I've worked with
any of the naturapths. (I don't pursue *their* methods either, but at
least there's not the mistrust and lack of comprehension between my
thinking and theirs.)

I do not make blanket condemnation of MDs--not at all--and since I lack
sufficient clinical and diagnostic skills, I will continue to have to
occasionally do that interface!

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Laura,

I'll re-send that post, below. I took it from MacRep, but it's
originally from the IFH casebook "Small Remedies and Interesting
Cases," Maud Nerman's presentation at the 1993 conference (and rats I
can't lay hands on its title. They're a *wonderful* series of books,
BTW--I love the way each case was discussed, with examination of
various remedy suggestions, and nice, detailed materia medica!)

As Luise pointed out, in this case the chosen remedy *does* have
clinical applicability to the presenting complaint, but still I found a
lot of interest in the article. Enjoy!
Shannon
Reading up for a case, I came across this bit, which speaks directly to
a debate we've periodically had, i.e. the usefulness (or not) of
prescribing "constitutionally" (and here I use the word in the sense of
chronic remedy, I guess) for specific and/or local problems. So, I
thought I would share it. This is from a seminar presentation on a
case of debilitating sciatica, which had received extensive treatment
by other homeopaths without result, and he describes how he identified
the remedy that cured. (It's also a nice piece on the remedy Ginseng.)

She vividly describes the patient, her situation, and some
characteristic (and unusual) responses. She lists the numerous
remedies the patient has already had for the sciatica, without benefit.
She remarks, "At the time, I did not know what remedies she had
received homeopathically, but I knew a number of excellent homeopaths
had prescribed for her. So, I figured I could remove the regular back
remedies from consideration. [...] (She decides to focus on those
remedies listed under the rubric "Courageous.")
- I read the small remedies until I came to Ginseng. I read
Boericke. I found nothing of compelling significance there. [...]
- According to Clarke in his Dictionary of Practical Materia
Medica, J.H. Henry said that Ginseng acts on the lower part of the
spinal marrow, as indicated by "bruised pain in the small of the back
and thighs (on rising from the bed)." Henry also mentions "nightly
digging in the right lower limb from the hip to the big toe, cramp,
pains from right hip to toes." Henry considers Ginseng specific for
lumbago, sciatica, and chronic rheumatism, with frequent desire to
urinate.
Ginseng is an aromatic stimulant and removes feelings of fatigue,
imparting a joyous sense of vigor and elasticity to the limbs,
especially the upper limbs, and clearness of the mind...the right side
of the body is most affected. Many symptoms are worse at night and from
bending or turning, descending stairs, or sitting. [N.B.: Some of the
preceding are examples of where *positive* traits can be used in
prescribing. In the case, just this sort of extraordinarily positive
attitude in the face of tremendous suffering and "challenge" was a
striking feature. So one isn't trying to "cure" her "joyous sense of
vigor" etc.; but they are nonetheless characteristic and indicative of
a state which *is* cured by the remedy.]
- Clarke says the mood is "quiet and contented, with good
courage." The mind is generally calm, but the patient can have
impatient impulses and a fear of accidents. (She noted that before
taking the remedy she had a tremendous fear of accidents. When she was
a passenger in a car, she was terrified there would be an accident.
This symptom resolved with the remedy.) I do believe this is a common,
but under-represented, symptom. Many people who have lived with a lot
of pain can't tolerate the possibility of another injury."

[The speaker continues:]
"How Do We Find Remedies?
- There would have been no way to find this remedy by
repertorizing her back symptomatology. Even in retrospect, it is not
possible to find this remedy by looking through back symptoms in
ReferenceWorks. I don't think this problem is unique to this case.
- The musculoskeletal rubrics, as a group, are weak and
incomplete. Osteopathic physicians who treated patients 50 years ago
say that people's bodies were much healthier then. They were easier to
treat and help. Something terrible has happened to our tissues, as we
can see in problems like chronic fatigue syndrome, environmental
illness, AIDS, and other unknown and undefined weaknesses in the
system. The skeletal system inevitably reflects these problems;
however, the repertory does not yet do so.
- So, how do we find remedies? About 30 to 40 percent of the time
the back rubrics will lead you to the remedy, such as finding Kali
carbonicum in Case Number 1. About 20 to 30 percent of the time, the
essence will lead you to the remedy and the materia medica will confirm
the back pathology, as Clarke confirms Ginseng so nicely for us. The
rest of the time, about 20 or 40 percent, the remedy cannot be
confirmed with back symptomatology. These are the cases we too often
miss. We must base the remedy on the essence and generalities we find.
We must think of as many ways as possible to come to know the core of
the person. In this case, I believe her central core is represented by
courage."

And further:
" The Courage of Other Remedies
- Other remedies are courageous in different ways. Persons
needing Ignatia develop a hard shell so as to endure the world's
assaults on their sensitive systems. Within the confines of this hard
covering, they are capable of considerable fortitude in very difficult
situations. Tabaccum has a kind of exhilarated fierceness that drives
them to run over the hot coals of their pain. Phosphorus people tend to
float over situations and move forward almost untouched by the
awfulness that they must overcome. Or, perhaps, Phosphorus people tend
to become involved in awful situations because of their sensitivity to
others - situations that others might more wisely avoid.
Pathological Courage?
- Did courage in these Ginseng cases have a tinge of pathology?
Possibly. In the first case, she may have pushed herself too hard, too
sure of her own vital, physical strength. Whereas some cultures demand
a lot of emotional suppression, as we have seen in some of the English
and some of the Asian cultures, perhaps America drives people of talent
to "burn out" and pushes most of us to our limits. Aristotle said that
core virtues are based on a balance between two extremes. Courage is
the balance between recklessness and cowardice on either side.
- Our greatest strength can also be our weakness. Many tragedies
are written from this perspective. So, in this case, we can see her as
trudging through hardship with fortitude, creativity, and discipline -
surviving a winter that might destroy someone else. And we might only
suppose that her vitality and strength also prompted her to try to
survive mountain ranges with fierce blizzards. Such an attempt could
certainly jeopardize her health and well-being.

Look to the Best
- On the other hand, I think it is dangerous to repeatedly see
people in a pathological light. In the Organon of Medicine, Hahnemann
initially talked about the incredible healing and positive power of the
vital force. I believe that, like osteopaths, he too had an awe and
respect for this vital force. As many religious traditions state, if we
look to what is best in the person we can link with their vital force
and people will heal. If we sense what moves them and their core of
genius - where their heroism, courage, tenderness, and concern lie -
then we will know them. Then, we will find the remedies that most
reflect the deepest part of our patients, and they will heal."