Suppression of symptoms - homeopathic perspective

[Sheri Nakken]

Suppression of symptoms - homeopathic perspective

From a homeopathic perspective, if you get rid of symptoms, the disease is still there and the body has to find another outlet. It's already chosen the symptoms least threatening to its integrity (to exteriorize the disturbance) and now it will have to find another outlet, usually in a more serious organ system. This is what is called suppression. If something is suppressed on the skin, often the respiratory system is where you will see symptoms next - ie - suppress eczema and asthma results eventually in many cases.

Any application to the skin the SUPPRESSES the immune response to "release" and to "discharge" or "excrete" a toxic material is a suppression. This goes for Vaseline, cortisone or tea tree oil or continual use of calendula cream, possibly..

Why is everyone chronically ill?????? Vaccines, antibiotics, steroids, hormones and OTHER suppression.
Sheri
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From Will Taylor, an MD homeopath in the US

it might be a little deep but give it a try...

He's talking here about taking herbs...

A possible (tho not guaranteed) result is suppression. With some luck, reasonably low sensitivity, and reasonable vitality, the body will avoid the suppression - in this case, the herb will have no effect on the disease. In others, the suppression is of little consequence, because the alternate expression of the disease, denied its most benign expression, is only slightly worse, and not to the major detriment of the organism - in acute disease still manageable by the dynamis given time; in chronic disease, still presenting us a reasonable symptom picture and still responsive to the well-chosen simillimum. In still others, the suppression may be the cause of significant deterioration to health and obstacle to cure.

Can we tolerate suppression in acute disease & still do OK & recover completely without significant sequellae? Sure. It happens all the time. Lots of kids with otitis media get antibiotics, with upper respiratory stuff get dimetap, with coughs get robitussin, whatever. Some are suppressed profoundly & become the continuous otitis media crowd or the asthmatics, but really most do OK. It's a Testament to the strength of the dynamis that we can abuse the dynamis this way & get away with it so often. Now don't get the idea that I recommend it - I certainly don't, & those kids don't get the stuff above from me. Some folks might even, recognizing suppression for what it is, recommend minor suppressive treatments in acute disease to ease the local symptoms, knowing the dynamis usually can deal with it & go on to recover OK. Some folks bungee-jump. When it comes to colds and Echinacea, the jump is small & the cord is strong, so I don't get too upset. My own counsel, tho, is to listen to the body, use a simillimum (from Sheri, this is the term for the remedy that most matches the whole symptom picture of the person that is then given homeopathically to assist the body) if it is called for, and understand that there is a healthy way for a body to express a cold which does not call for treatment.

Can we tolerate suppression in chronic disease & still do OK? Sure again, tho it's not such a pretty picture. We aren't expecting spontaneous (unassisted) recovery from chronic disease, like we are from minor acute disease. Coffee is likely the widespread beverage of choice of suffering humanity - even in its decaffeinated form - because it is suppressive of psora. (Sheri says...This means that people seem to have chosen coffee because of imbalances that many of society have).

Most folks have adequate vitality & low enough sensitivity such that, even though they feel a little better superficially with their coffee habit, enough to find it hard to stop, their health is only minimally impacted and they still respond decently to their well-chosen simillimum. We all treat folks effectively through coffee, suppressive allopathic drugs, suppressive herbs, and dietary items with suppressive effects. It would be nicer if we could easily eliminate these factors, but we often cannot. On the other side, are those folks of higher sensitivity and/or lower vitality, whose health may be tremendously impacted by suppressive influences, and whose response to homoeopathic treatment may depend on identifying & removing suppressive influences prior to treatment.

That suppression may often be of minor consequence and overcomeable by the dynamis spontaneously in acute disease, or with the appropriate similimum in chronic disease, does not mean that we can disregard it or minimize its significance as a factor for us to acknowledge & recognize & address in our work.
Will Taylor, MD
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http://www.vithoulkas.com/en/writings/o ... /2226.html
The controversial cure
Kim Ridley

Homeopaths believe conventional drugs often suppress symptoms rather than cure illness. Vithoulkas says this suppression actually drives illness deeper into the patient, eventually expressing itself as mental illness and diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. He also contends that the medical establishment's overemphasis on increasingly stronger drugs may be making us sicker.

The immune systems of the Western population, through strong chemical drugs and repeated vaccinations, have broken down," Vithoulkas told the Swedish Parliament in his acceptance speech for the Right Livelihood Award. He linked the rising rates of diseases such as asthma and cancer with wrong intervention." Vithoulkas told the gathering, "If conventional medicine were really curing chronic diseases, today we would have a population in the West that was healthy, mentally, emotionally and physically."

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http://www.centerforhomeopathy.com/home ... hp?page=12

SUPPRESSION OF SYMPTOMS

Homeopaths are trained to look at a person's health history as an evolution of the expression of the vital force. Symptoms, illnesses and their treatment, along with a history of emotional traumas or griefs during an earlier period of life, are understood to have a vital impact on the current state of health.

Sometimes a symptom that was eliminated by an operation or strong medication, or a strong emotion that was never expressed, will be transformed into a deeper level of disease in the person. This phenomena is called "suppression." In our present society, suppression is a very frequent phenomenon.

The most typical cases involve skin diseases - rashes, eczema, psoriasis or acne - that have been treated with topical ointments. Sometime later, a chronic allergy or respiratory problem may occur. When that is treated conventionally, the vital force expresses itself through yet another disease. And so, years later, a deep-seated chronic condition is established.

Under homeopathic care, such cases often begin to reverse themselves. An asthmatic patient will notice an old skin rash reappear as their breathing improves. Or a person with migraines relives a grief was never expressed. Although this may cause consternation in the patient, it really is a sign that the case is moving forward.
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http://www.healthyhomeopathy.com/hsc/pg10.htm (url no longer works)
Suppression Versus Cure

Suppression occurs when a treatment apparently removes symptoms on one level, but causes them to appear at a different, often deeper, level. If the body is prevented from expressing symptoms on a more superficial level, it may have no other recourse than to generate symptoms at a deeper one. Many common treatments in orthodox medicine, such as hydrocortisone cream for eczema, laser treatment for venereal warts, or antihistamines for allergy-induced nasal discharge, are potentially suppressive. Some people can receive these conventional medications and interventions without experiencing suppression. For others, the treatment will make the person even sicker.

Helen
Helen, age 53, developed an acute skin condition called erythema nodosum at age 30. A large, red, irritated area appeared on one of her legs. She was hospitalized and given intravenous antibiotics and corticosteroids. Shortly after she was discharged from the hospital, she began to feel pain in her joints. This pain, diagnosed as arthritis, plagued her for more than twenty years. It was only when she sought homeopathic care that her arthritis was considerably relieved. As her joint pains improved, Helen briefly re-experienced a rash similar to erythema nodusum on her face and hands. The rash went away and so did her joint pains.

The phenomenon of suppression has been observed by homeopaths since the time of Hahnemann and has become much more prevalent due to the increasing strength of pharmaceuticals and widespread self-treatment with topical hydrocortisone preparations. Whether or not a treatment will be suppressive depends on your state of health, the strength of your resistance to disease, and the intensity and duration of the treatment.

Another common way that suppression occurs is through the use of products such as antiperspirants and antihistamines. Discharges are the body's way to vent waste and the products of disease. In certain susceptible individuals, suppressing a discharge will lead to more serious health problems.

Jamie
Jamie, age 9, was brought to us by his parents because of left hip pain which caused him to limp. He had received conventional care, even hip surgery, without relief. He was a sensitive and delicate child and fit the picture of the homeopathic medicine, Silica (flint). Soon after receiving the medicine, the hip pain quickly resolved. We did not see Jamie again for two years. At that time, his parents brought him back for another visit. His hip pain had been completely gone until the previous few weeks, then suddenly returned for no apparent reason. When we questioned Jamie thoroughly, he told us that he had begun to have body odor recently and that his mother had bought him an antiperspirant. Soon after he started using it, his hip pain returned. Patients needing Silica are particularly susceptible to illness from suppressed perspiration. He stopped using the antiperspirant, we repeated the Silica, and his hip pain again went away quickly.

Your body, in its attempt to keep your symptoms at the most superficial level possible, frequently develops skin eruptions as its first defense. Infants may develop eczema, either at birth or when they are first introduced to cow's milk or formula. If the cow's milk is removed or the child is treated homeopathically, the eczema will usually resolve readily. If the child's eczema is treated with hydrocortisone cream, the eruption and itch disappear, but the allergic tendency remains. Homeopaths have observed that infants treated in this way may go on to develop asthma, a more serious allergic condition. Although the eczema is gone, the child is much less healthy. If suppression continues, with more hydrocortisone being given to suppress the asthma, then a deeper mental and emotional problem, such as severe depression, may eventually occur.

The body has a reason for generating particular symptoms as part of its attempt to cure the illness. Some medical doctors are beginning to recognize this phenomenon of suppression in childhood asthma. In a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics in 1991, the authors speculated that a type of paralysis in asthmatic children may in fact be due to suppression by asthma medications such as steroids.
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http://www.drluc.com/lecture-one.html

MISC: The Law of Similars and Dissimilars and its Consequences
by Dr. Luc de Schepper, , MD, PhD, DI Hom., CHom., Lic.Ac.

2. The new disease suspends the old one, but does not CURE them! (A38)

This is exactly what allopathy with its drugs tries to achieve. The stronger action of the dissimilar drug creates a dissimilar disease that suppresses the existing patient's presenting natural disease (let's assume chronic migraines) until the action of this medication runs out (half-life time of medications). Then of course repetition of the drug or as time goes on, larger amount of stronger suppression are necessary to obtain the same results, however with more side effects, but no cure of the migraine is achieved. Often the "cure" (read suppression) is worse than the original disease as an array of drug side effects takes place. That in allopathy we create a dissimilar disease is easily shown when in allopathy we always speak of anti-this or that; for diarrhea we give an anti diarrhea drug, anti-fever drugs, anti-arthritic drugs, etc, always the perfect dissimilar drug for the disease as it is a 100% the opposite; this is not the same as hormonal replacements like estrogen, insulin for diabetes, etc.). So the only thing we achieve with allopathic drugs is suspending, the chronic disease, not curing it. That's why your doctor always answers on the question, "How long do I need to take this drug," "For the rest of your life." This tells you right away that allopathy does not have a cure for your disease.
http://www.homeopathyhome.com/reference ... trev.shtml


Coulter Book Review
by Julian Winston
Divided Legacy: A History of the Schism in Medical Thought
Volume IV; Twentieth Century Medicine: The Bacteriological Era
by Harris L. Coulter

The Center for Empirical Medicine, Washington DC and North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 1995
Hardbound, 776 pages, $50.00, ISBN 1-55643-170-8
Reviewed by Julian Winston

The second section ends with a discussion of how allopathic medicine views Hering's Law of Cure. Case after case is presented where a suppression of the external caused a deeper internal problem.

Patrick Hall-Smith is quoted: "There is a significant but poorly understood association between [ichthyosis-- a skin disease] and eczema, asthma, and hay fever." Says Harris: "Allopathic dermatology is aware that internal conditions are often externalized on the skin, but this information is not put into a dynamic context."