Basic Principles of Homeopathic Treatment

The thing that distinguishes homeopathy from allopathy is a clear definition of the principles and laws on which treatment works and conforms thereto, and which agree with the natural ones.

The first basic principle of homeopathic treatment is LIKENESS already discussed hereinabove.

The second one reads that always ONLY ONE REMEDY shall be given under the principle of likeness according to the totality of symptoms. This means that after the patient is examined he should take only Pulsatilla, and while it is taken and until its effect is found, no other homeopathic remedies are allowed. Simultaneous intake of several homeopathic remedies (or mixed preparations) practiced by some “homeopaths”, for example, Belladonna in the morning, Pyrogenium at noon, and Mercurius in the evening, does not conform to “proving” of the remedies and their way of action. This upsets the response of the patient’s organism, and of the attending physician, as well.

The third principle refers to MINIMAL DOSE. Remedy shall be given in the smallest possible amount and shall not be repeated until the effect of the first dose finishes.

The fourth principle is the LAW OF HERING. Unfortunately, it is unknown to most of the physicians and medicine students because when patients suffering from chronic diseases are treated with common allopathic means, no real health restoration is achieved, and thus its manifestation remains unnoticed.

The Law of Hering describes the spots where the symptoms move to and disappear in the process of treatment of chronic diseases, namely:

• From head downside: for example, when a man with skin disease is treated, the eruptions began to disappear from head to legs.
• From within and outwards, and from primary to minor organs – for example, strongly manifested symptoms disappear on the part of the stomach and intestines, as a skin eruption appears, which later also disappears, or serious heart and joint complaints disappear, and mild diarrhea appears in a short time, which also soon disappears.
• In the process of treatment, it often happens that for hours or days on, previous complaints come back in the opposite order of their appearance prior to intake of the remedy, after what they disappear. This means that they were not really cured in the past, but were only suppressed. For example, soon after remedy intake, there may appear a rash, which the patient had two years ago, and it was smeared with various preparations and “cured”. Some days after the rash disappears, the patient may suffer headache for several hours, which he had for a long time 4 years ago, etc. In homeopathy such a short manifestation of different complaints, which the patient had months or years ago, is called “treatment crisis”.

(When mixed preparations or several homeopathic remedies are simultaneously applied, the Law of Hering does not work).

An idea of the “medical picture” of any remedy and its effects can be derived from:

1. The “proving” of the relevant substance, which makes up the remedy: i.e., it is given to healthy volunteers until symptoms and objective signs are manifested, which are carefully and comprehensively recorded by both the people who take it in and those who monitor the proving.
2. Occasional cases of poisoning with the substance, which the remedy is made of, described in the medical literature.
3. Treated and cured illnesses in some people by applying the same remedy.
4. Types of people with given constitutional peculiarities, in whom the remedy has the best effect, for example: slim dark males, ambitious, easy irritable, fond of spicy food, or female blondes with bright eyes, tending to get fat, fretful, who do not stand fatty meat and food.

All this information is collected in homeopathic medicinal reference books called Repertorium and Materia Medica.