Spectrum of Homeopathy 2024-1, Autoimmunity

1/2024 AUTOIMMUNE

When the immune system becomes the enemy…

Our immune system successfully combats toxins, invaders or rogue cells behind the scenes. But when this concentrated defensive force turns aggressively against our own body, we fall ill. 
Medicine strikes back with similarly aggressive and destructive weapons: to counter the force of autoimmune pathology, it employs the counterforce of uncompromising suppression of the immune system. Autoimmune diseases are still considered incurable, and patients must expect increasingly severe side effects from conventional treatment throughout their lives. Autoimmune diseases are the most common cause of chronic inflammatory conditions and affect 5 to 8 percent of the population; they often begin in young people.

How homeopathy can alleviate and often cure such conditions is shown in this issue of SPEKTRUM. This themed issue is intended to encourage taking on the challenges that seriously ill patients repeatedly present to us. The many case studies impressively demonstrate that with consistent application of our healing art we need not fear diagnoses such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, systemic lupus erythematosus or PANDAS syndrome.
The contributions in this issue teach us that even in severe pathologies there are many routes to the simile. For example, Farokh Master demonstrates in a case of rheumatoid arthritis the often arduous procedure, following Samuel Hahnemann’s principles, whereby in long‑standing autoimmune processes different layers of suppression are gradually dismantled with a series of remedies until healing at the constitutional level becomes possible. Susan Sonz relies on the immediate language of the remedy Mangifera indica, Rajan Sankaran on the sensation method and the systematics of the Materia Medica, and Jan Scholten and Resie Moonen consider the special relationship of the lanthanide quality to autoimmune phenomena. Alongside the rare earths and their homeopathic plant relatives, the Asteranae, our authors introduce several other groups of remedies to consider for this issue’s topic. Here SPEKTRUM once again benefits from the homeopathic work of our Indian colleagues, who have extensive experience with severe illnesses.
In the face of often threatening pathology, however, courage and confidence in one’s own method are required. Nevertheless, even though there are some established groups of remedies, individualisation remains the homeopathic royal road, regardless of clinical diagnosis or the severity of the pathology.