Very often I have heated disputes with my colleagues who are homeopaths belonging to different schools, who make doctrines out of their beliefs and philosophies. It causes confusion to my patients who often ask me the following questions: “Doctor, could you please explain what Pluralism, Unicism and Complexism mean? Why do other homeopaths prescribe only one medication whereas you prescribe three or four consequent medications? Who is right?” Trying to enlighten the merits of this problem, I have decided to describe some principal differences in homeopathy.
Selection of Techniques in Homeopathic Medicine
1) Unicism
As a result of his research and practice Hahnemann made a doctrine out of unicism – prescription of only one drug. However, I need to make several comments:
a) Hahnemann talked about the treatment aiming for a complete recovery, while we should consider the cases where full recovery is impossible, when we can talk only about some improvement or about some relief of the symptoms. For example, disorders caused by the degenerative disease or conditions when neither patient nor doctor can do anything – chemical and noise pollution of the atmosphere, a traumatic family or business situation, and other stress related experiences, which are very common nowadays. Nevertheless, we can provide relief in such situations.
b) A prescription of one homeopathic remedy clearly excludes mixing it with other homeopathic remedies. We give a patient one medication and observe his or her reaction to it.
Advantages of Unicism:
- An organism has the needed opportunity to be treated by one pure remedy; unicism demands that a homeopath should be very precise in his or her choice of prescription. In this case a doctor using well-known repertories very carefully and accurately chooses a prescription in accordance with the present symptoms.
Disadvantages of Unicism:
- In practice to hit the bull's-eye can be very difficult because today patients use a lot of allopathic medicine, which changes their clear symptoms, suppresses the other ones, so that it makes it almost impossible for a homeopath to see the illness in its clear and clinical state described many years ago by Hahnemann. So, Unicism becomes some kind of a lottery that is very difficult to win. Only an outstanding doctor, a great expert can win this lottery. From my point of view, this method is only designed for exclusive cases.
My everyday experience confirms that the majority of the patients coming to the consultation are:
- people for whom relief is possible;
- people with insufficiently expressed symptoms, as they take allopathic medications;
- people with changed symptoms caused by the toxic environment, toxic food products, chemistry, etc.
2) Pluralism
Pluralism is a method when a doctor prescribes simultaneously several remedies that form one system; or when he or she prescribes consecutively several remedies that act differently, considering their complementariness or their incompatibility.
Advantages of Pluralism:
- There are different circumstances when we may need the pluralism approach. When we use this method we do not need to hit the bull's-eye (as in the case of Unicism, when prescribing only one remedy), but we rather “describe” a present case using several means, and that allows us to soften the result of using this exclusive drug.
- This technique, to my mind, better considers all the complexness of the history of the illness; and it tries to cover the maximum of the signs on different levels. The method of Pluralism gives the most satisfaction, i.e. the full coverage of each individual case. It makes teaching more effective as it is based on thinking and not on memorizing; it provides the most reliable and the most long lasting results, although they are not so sensational as the results produced when using the method of Unicism.
Disadvantages of Pluralism:
- Diversity of the prescribed remedies. Some doctors show “coverage-mania”, i.e. they try to cover absolutely all the symptoms – this diversity, in my opinion, is not very suitable in homeopathy. Pluralism, mainly, is a pragmatic solution for solving concrete problems; it is more difficult to codify than Unicism.
- Frequent prescription of the homeopathic remedies causes a large quantity of artificially created symptoms. That damages the clearness of the main symptoms of the disease.
Even in the paragraph that is labeled the 273 of the Organ we can find the following quote: “It is not conceivable how the slightest dubiety could exist as to whether it was more consistent with nature and more rational to prescribe a single well-known medicine at one time in a disease, or a mixture of several differently acting drugs”.
Hahnemann and then Hering, as well as many other not so less prominent figures after them, stated that the fast interchange of the drugs might be necessary sometimes, while separate use of either of these drugs would not help the recovery process.
3) Complexism
I may say that Complexism is right on the border with Pluralism: it is a prescription for large or small quantities of substances, prepared together in different dilutions (usually low or very low) with more or less frequently repeated dosages that are taken: three times a day or more often.
However, we must distinguish preparations made in advance, and sold under the mark of the patented remedies and prescribed in accordance with the symptoms of the illness: migraine, flue, arthritis, asthma, obesity, fatigue.
From my point of view, these preparations are useful as draining substances, based on the last publications, the mixtures of the vegetable preparations in small potencies cause a homeopathic drainage, clearing the organism from toxic elements, which have been accumulating there for years.
In my practice, however, this technique is only the initial step or preparing stage for the prescription of deeper homeopathic preparations.
As the preparations in my potencies are mixed in large quantities, they have, as a result, a very superficial effect, and, of course, sometimes cannot cure symptoms without adding more homeopathic preparations in bigger dilutions.
Homeopaths, who continue the whole course of treatment using mixed forms in small dilutions, never achieve any type of a serious effect, and if there is any, then it is only for a short time.
This technique can easily be called an improper degeneration of practical homeopathy, because it does not comply with the fundamental principles of homeopathy regarding both individuality of the patient and personalization of the drugs. In other words, it is a symptomatic medicine that has mainly (and not even always) a symptomatic effect.
CONCLUSION
From the information that has been said above, it is clear that it is absolutely useless to compare Unicism and Pluralism, and more than that – to make a dogma of either of them.
Nowadays, diseases and their symptomatizing have been changed so much, they have become so different by nature, that it is impossible to squeeze them into any particular conception.
After all I have said it is clear that Unicistic or Pluralistic homeopathy in no way can be an inexplicit therapeutic method, it is based on all the rules that we owe to Hahnemann.
ILLNESS – AND MY UNDERSTANDING
OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF ILLNESS
Intoxication: – I consider intoxication to be the beginning of an illness, it is a thrown in the soil seed, which will soon turn into a tree, that is the meaning of a disease, which in turn, year by year surely and steadily begins the process of destroying the organism.
There are several important levels of intoxication:
1. Autointoxication: it is the process of a function which is called a sedentary life, unwholesome nutrition, and excessive consumption of meat, saturated fat and carbohydrates, as well as a lack of the fiber component in food. As a result, the balance of the organism is upset and the organism is intoxicated with the products of its own metabolism.
2. Environmental or External Intoxication: water and air pollution, use of different shampoos, hair colors, nail polishes and lipsticks, these are all artificial, chemically polluted products, that people come in contact with in the outside world.
3. Heterointoxication: it can hardly be seen in form. Usually it joins the previous and the subsequent reasons. Heterointoxication is a secondary infection; genital, viral and yeast infections, herpes, and it is also a mental intoxication, which leads to the block of the eliminated toxins. It is a constant flow of different emotions like: jealousy, anger, sadness, hate; constant action of unrestrained passions – hidden but desirable; any long lasting conflict in a situation, which a person cannot overcome.
Heterointoxication or any cooperative intoxication can be caused by intestinal parasites or by microbial or viral toxins, and chronically repeated viral infections such as herpes, as well as chronic bacterial infections.
Importance of Heredity in the Process of Intoxication
and Secretion for Restoration or Regeneration
In certain cases, especially for children, it is impossible to find any particular reason of irregular elimination and intoxication, but the symptoms of intoxication seem very obvious.
In this case we think about the parents, about their genetically transmitted information for the weak elimination systems of the organism.
Beginning of an Illness
If somebody believes that an appearance of a cancerous tumor is the beginning of cancer; or a high fever is the beginning of a flue; or pain in the knee is the beginning of arthritis; then he or she is wrong.
The beginning of any illness is a block in the elimination systems (kidneys, liver, urinary system, etc.), and it is followed by internal intoxication; the immune system becomes weaker, which leads to penetration of different viruses and bacteria from the outside into the organism. At the same time, the viruses and bacteria, which already exist in the organism, become pathogenic, and begin to multiply, and by that process are amplifying the intoxication, which in turn, deepens the block of the secretory organs. Thus, it is a vicious circle.
A blockage in the elimination organs and systems (filters) leads to the damage of the whole organism, which begins with functional disorders. These disorders affect the following systems:
1. Elimination System includes the following (liver, kidneys, lymphatic system, and the skin)
2. Endocrine System includes the following (endocrine glands: thyroid – hypo – or hyperthyroidism)
· Ovaries (an irregular menstrual period, pain, formation of cysts)
· Pancreas (an enzymatic activity disorder, digestive disorders, e.g. flatulence, constipation, and diarrhea)
· Insulin Secretion Disorder:
a) Lack of secreted insulin leads to hyperglycemia – abnormally high concentration of glucose in the blood – and diabetes – dryness in the mouth, creating persistent thirst. Hyperglycemia or diabetes are accompanied by metabolic disorders of the lipid-carbohydrate exchange.
b) Excessive secretion of insulin leads to hypoglycemia – an abnormally low level of glucose in the blood. This condition is accompanied by weakness, giddiness, which disappears when taking carbohydrates.
3. Nervous System: functional imbalance of the nervous system leads to irritability, insomnia, moodiness, and drowsiness during the daytime, awakening at night, depression.
4. Nervous-Muscular System: neck pain, shoulder pain, pain between the shoulder-blades, in the small of the back, cramps in the calves, knee pain, pain in the ankles and elbows.
5. Urinary System: frequent urge to urinate with small portions of urine being discharged.
6. Sexual System: decrease of the sexual drive (libido), difficulty in reaching orgasm, erection problems for men, and a dry vagina for women.
7. Skin System: allergic reactions to food products like (sugar, and alcohol). The allergic reactions will appear on the skin. After the meal there may be itching, a rush may appear on the face, dry crusts near the nose, eczema, dermatitis and fungous skin infection. To my mind, all this is a result of acute intoxication in the organism, while the skin is just a mirror reflecting the inner imbalance and the state of the organism as a whole.
Undoubtedly, when the secretory systems of the organism begin suffering from toxic autointoxication and intoxication, this, in turn, affects the ability of the organism to absorb and to assimilate the ions of Ca, P, Mg, Si, Cl, Na, as well as the vitamins A, B, C, D, E and F. That, in turn, blocks the secretory systems even more, and changes the acidity in the organism (its pH), which leads to the possible growth and multiplication of the different viruses and bacteria: for instance, yeast infection or development of the intestinal bacillus from relatively pathogenic into the more serious pathogenic-Esherihia Coli, upsetting by this action the biological balance of the organism which has its various organs and critical systems that ensure the proper functions of the human body.
Then there are different functional blocks and separate systems disorders – some bigger and some smaller depending on genetic predisposition (diseases that parents might have when conceiving the child), as well as having different factors gained in a course of a lifetime (poisoning by drugs: Tylenol, aspirin, advil, birth control pills, hormone replacement therapy– taken during a long period of time all of these drugs can change the normal hormonal balance and the metabolism; vaccinations and post-poisoning).
Naturally, our organism is a wonderful system, ideally created for self-regulation and regeneration. As soon as the symptoms of intoxication increase to the level that creates the possibility for having serious complications, our organism begins to search for an emergency path to remove the toxins. Suddenly, a person experiences diarrhea or a rush like (eczema, dermatitis, psoriases, etc.). Skin itching, sweating at night accompanied by an unpleasant odor, vaginal discharges, chronic nasal discharges accompanied by constant nasal congestion – all of these symptoms out of many others are a compensatory reaction that the organism displays. The organism tries with all of its strength to recover, to move the toxins out of the system; or to isolate them inside when it overworks itself (gallbladder or kidney stones, fibromas, and cysts).
In many cases our patients do not understand that their chronic diarrhea or running nose is a result of their organism fighting to remove the toxic materials out from their bodies and organ systems. Our patients go to doctors and get some nasal drops. By doing that they block the ability of the organism to create the self-recovery process. After patients depress the discharges, the inner intoxication begins, and the next process haappens in organic changes and systems disorders:
§ Tumors (malignant and non-malignant);
§ Fatty degeneration of the organs;
§ Metabolic liver disorders, which result in the increased level of cholesterol, lipoproteins, uric acid and bilirubin;
§ Insulin secretion disorder – an increased glucose level;
§ Thyroid function disorder – hypo- or hyper-function;
§ Adrenal glands imbalance – adrenal crises: panic attack, and high blood pressure;
§ Kidneys failure – frequent urination, especially at night, which leads to the loss of important mineral complexes and trace elements like Zn, Ca, Cr, Mg, etc.
The change in the chemical balance of the organism leads to chemical imbalance of the brain, which, in turn, causes depression, fears and inability to take responsibility. A high level of cholesterol in the blood system turns into deposits in the arteries including the coronary ones, blocking them and in turn causing a disease such as Angina Pectoris. But a similar process takes place in the other arteries as well. The liver, as a result, becomes congested, which leads to stagnation in the pulmonary circulation, and that, in turn, - to the swelling of the prostate, hemorrhoid, and varicose veins of the lower extremities.
The signs of mineral imbalance lead to the degenerative processes in the spinal cord, joints and ligaments.
That is how I see illness, which begins gradually, little by little capturing new horizons and borders. And the patient goes for treatment to many different doctors specializing in different fields of medicine: knee, back, liver, eyes, thyroid, glucose in blood, heart, etc.
Whereas, if this very patient came to us on time, we would begin homeopathic cleaning and balancing the systems of his or her organism by the methods of using homeopathy, by prescribing a special diet, physical activities, meditations, so that this patient would not be in such bad shape as he or she is now.
That is why our first step in the beginning of the treatment is detoxification of the organism. This stage may continue from a month to a year, depending on how long a time frame the symptoms of a disease will last and how many diseases a patient has, how serious the diseases are in terms of fatality or the chance of complete recovery from the diseases.
Detoxification at the cellular and organic level is the first step of our treatment, and of our effort to help the organism regenerate. That is why I am not a big supporter of taking vitamins and minerals at the beginning of the cleaning process, because their assimilation is minimal but their removal from the organism is delayed. This can cause extra-intoxication in addition to already existing intoxication like (autointoxication, environmental intoxication, etc.).
Environmental Intoxication
Any intoxication from outside sources (it may be from the environment – water, air or it may be some food chemical supplements, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, creams, cosmetic products, deodorants, etc.) based on something unnatural is considered to be environmental intoxication. For instance, toothpaste, dissolved in saliva, stays in the organism, year after year causing more and more intoxication with fluorine or some other additions; shampoos, soaps, eau de colognes, shirts after they have been dry-cleaned with chemicals which get absorbed through the skin; using non-natural cleansing materials for dishwashing and laundry, etc.; use of lipsticks, chemical colorants for hair, mascara for eyelashes or the use of beauty products to enhance the eyebrows. After all of these products containing some types of chemicals are used for a long period of time, they begin to have harmful side effects on the skin and the organism. The process of using chemical products or beauty products with synthesized elements that are not naturally made leads to intoxication and also to producing the elimination systems block in the organism.
That is why when we speak about illness with my colleagues, medical doctors, we disagree in many points: what to call the beginning of an illness, and where the starting-point is supposed to originate.
For me, the starting-point is a block in the elimination canals with the first symptoms of the systems' functional disintegration. For my colleagues, it is some physical values and their dynamics: changed blood panel, appearance of ulcers, tumors, and stones, high temperature, enlargement of the organs, etc. That is why the following conception, derived from my understanding of illness, is so important to me: prevention of illness, stopping it at the early stages of the functional disorders, instead of waiting passively until the illness would get to the level of physical, sometimes irreversible, changes. Only then would the medical blood tests and X-ray analyses confirm the definite presence of diabetes, stones or tumors. But at this stage it would be too late, the precious time would be lost, and to stop the process that has gone so far would be impossible!
How do doctors proceed in order to see and make a record of the first symptoms of intoxication or the beginning of an illness?
To answer this question I will refer you to the sources of the Chinese and East Indian traditional medicine and to the expertise of the doctors in the Middle East. For millenniums, bit by bit, they have been accumulating experience in reading the organism by examining the eyes (iridology), tongue (Chinese tongue diagnostics), nails (Indian mastery of reading nails), as well as pulse diagnostics (the reading of meridians pertaining to the organism in Chinese medicine).
These are the ancient informative systems, which begin to provide information to the watchful doctor that the illness has already begun, that there is a blockage in the secretory canals, (which can clearly be seen by the changed status in the nails due to the blockage of the mineral metabolism – please see the photos with the provided examples). You can also see the pronounced changes in the structure and color of the eye pupil and the iris, and, of course, the changes on the tongue's surface.
For me these are the main diagnostic criteria, when I am looking for early disorders, which have not yet turned into an organic imbalance, meaning that changes are not yet being shown in the blood, urine or in X-rays. It is these early signals indicating the secretory systems imbalance that are the most important diagnostic criteria for us. These are the windows through which we can look into the organism and understand where the beginning of the illness first originated and where precisely it is residing in the human body, in what organ or group of organs the first elimination blockage happened and that another blockage could create a disease to appear in the future.
The method that I have just described is the main philosophical direction in my practice that has already been used for eighteen years. There are outstanding cases for recovering patients states of health or improving their symptoms, some patients had been ill for six-ten-fifteen years and who had been through all levels of medical consultations and yet never experienced any improvement, until they began treatment by using the methods of cleansing, homeopathic drainage, etc. These cases are proof for showing the correctness of this philosophy, and the correctness of this approach.
The best proof of any conception is the practical result reached from it.
Vaccinations
Vaccination, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons why bio-energetic blockage happens in many cases.
In many cases of my practice I observed my patients showing various symptoms after vaccination: from fibromyalgia to chronic fatigue.
I do not object to all vaccinations; I just think that every vaccination should be prepared for each individual patient, considering his or her individuality and his or her previous diseases.
A) It may practically look as the following: a child is constantly suffering from respiratory viral infections, and all of a sudden he or she gets a vaccination – in many cases the state of health for this child will get worse instead of actually improving like it is supposed to. The child's immune system will weaken even more, and he or she will also start showing the symptoms of some new organs' imbalance.
B) Another example: a patient with liver and gallbladder disease has pain in the liver area. The gallbladder was removed in the past. In the patient's case history: her mother had liver diseases (genetic predisposition). The patient is going to receive a vaccination in order to prevent the probability of getting the hepatitis virus: to my mind, presently, without my homeopathic care, she is not ready for such a vaccination, as the risk of the incurring side effects is very high.
C) A student, having in her parents history a digestive system disorder, is going to Africa. She is about to take six vaccinations at the same time, including a vaccine in order to prevent the probability of getting the yellow fever and from having to take malaria pills, which have a huge toxic effect on the liver. In my opinion, vaccinations in her case are absolutely not helpful and counter-productive at the present time. This patient needs two-months of homeopathic care that would prepare her for the vaccinations.
D) Example: a young man that is twenty-five years old, is absolutely healthy, has no complaints, there are no chronic secretory blockages of any type. The results of the iridology test, electrodermal testing, as well as the tests performed on his tongue and nails do not show any blockage in secretion. The conclusion is, that there are no counter-indications for the vaccination; this young man may take it if it is necessary. However, the best thing to do is to go through a series of homeopathic treatments after the vaccination for two weeks, for the full prevention of the potential post-vaccination side effects.
Physical and (Psychological) Factors that are Created in
the Beginning of an Illness
When we look for the first signs of the secretory systems blockage, concretely the first signs of the beginning of the illness, we must ask our patients about their previous traumas. Based on my long years of experience, my opinion is that in many cases it is these traumas that were the beginning factors which contributed to the formation of the energetic blockages, essentially leading to the eventual disease.
For example, car accidents involving chest traumas often lead to having problems with the intestines, liver, gallbladder and pancreas diseases.
Whiplash injuries lead to problems in having increased heart palpitations, and also having problems with the intestines and bronchi diseases.
Traumas involving the lumbar part of the spinal column result in having disorders of the large intestine, kidneys, prostate gland and womb, these types of traumas may also cause hemorrhoid problems.
Post-surgery scars in many cases create energetic blockages in the system of meridians (Chinese medicine) and in the system of chakras [East-Indian medicine), which, in turn, leads to metabolic disorders in the organs adjoining the injured zone.
Psychological Shocks:
Shocks from divorce, death of close people like family or friends, a feeling of grief and sorrow will often cause energetic blockages in the internal organs, by the following principle: a psychological – physical connection.
A treatment provided in these cases will be the treatment of the deep roots of an illness (see Psychological Homeopathy). By prescribing certain homeopathic preparations or their complexes, we will be able to unblock the initial blockage, which has caused the physical disorders.
I consider all these factors, processes, symptoms/diseases, and their treatments in my practice, carefully tracing and analyzing the time when the first symptoms appear after a car accident or psychological stress.
In many of my cases the approach mentioned in the above paragraphs provides great results like: the right technique and strategy that was used in order to cure symptoms of a blockage or a disease, a prescription of the right homeopathic preparations capable of unblocking a situation that happened even four-six-seven years ago.
In my practice there are many such examples, when even I was surprised to see how homeopathy could cure people and at the same time save their lives.