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Dear readers,
This issue of SPECTRUM is devoted to the topic of Lyme disease or
borreliosis, which is not so much a specific illness as a gray area of
medical diagnosis. On the one hand, there are multiple manifesta-
tions of borreliosis infection, on the other hand, the diagnostic
power of the serology is often overrated. In the overview article at
the beginning of this issue, we examine this dilemma more closely.
The classic example is the patient with diffuse joint pain, chronic
fatigue and IgG antibodies for borreliosis. Is this Lyme disease or is
it fibromyalgia with evidence of antibodies trace following contact
with the infectious agent? Should this be treated with antibiotics?
The clinical postulate of conventional medicine, “a diagnosis is
needed in order to treat,” does not always apply to us homeopaths
– we can also treat very effectively in the gray zone of an uncertain
diagnosis. The authors in this issue demonstrate how this works
with the syndrome mentioned above: arthralgia, exhaustion, and a
positive blood test for borreliosis. Seven contributions deal with
such cases, in which all patients came to the homeopathic practice
with a diagnosis of borreliosis.
It was striking how patients have so many things in common
beyond the initial diagnosis of borreliosis. The authors, although
working with different homeopathic approaches, noticed very
similar psychodynamics in these patients: they tend to be self-
sacrificing, are easily exploited, so becoming victims and outsiders.
Ulrich Welte derives this theme from the Ericales order, using
Scholten‘s Plant theory, and shows why Ledum and other plants of
this order are such good borreliosis remedies. Three other cases,
from Alex Leupen, Annemiek Klitsie, and Deborah Collins demon-
strate the use of remedies from the Ericaceae family, with or with-
out the use of the Borrelia nosode. Marco Riefer identifies the
theme of victims who are sucked and sapped in quite different
groups and natural kingdoms. At the sensation level, one can feel
as “sucked dry as a lump of chewing gum,” as Jürgen Faust demon-
strates in his case of Strophanthus and the typical reaction patterns
of the Dogbane family. Together with Anne Schadde‘s depiction of
the Poaceae family, using an example of chronic borreliosis, and
Welte‘s order of Ericales, this edition of SPECTRUM therefore ex-
pands its systematic coverage of the materia medica with three
new remedy groups from the Plant kingdom.
We also have information on two more new remedies: Heidi Brand
has successfully used the freshwater alga Chara intermedia – of which
EDITORIAL
she made the proving – in a case of “Post-Treatment Lyme Disease
Syndrome” (PTLDS), in which the typical victim theme again surfaces.
As in most other case histories, her homeopathic treatment heals
not just the physical symptoms but also leads to a deep transforma-
tion in the underlying psychodynamics. Hans Eberle and Friedrich
Ritzer also recognized the symptoms from their own remedy proving
in the illness of a borreliosis patient. This example introduces us to
the new homeopathic remedy Adalia bipunctata, the two-spot
ladybird. In the second case, the two authors explain how they
identified Thuja occidentalis using Scholten‘s analysis rather than
via the well-known remedy picture. Danièle Joulin and Guy Payen
took the same route to the remedy. They treat the syndrome
characterized as “chronic borreliosis” with the nosode Borrelia
burgdorferi in addition to the simillimum. The nosode is – together
with Ledum – a key element in the treatment approach used by
Christina Ari. In her contribution, she is concerned not with the
diagnostic gray zone of chronic borreliosis but rather with the
distinctive skin symptoms seen in the initial phase of the illness,
which she treats homeopathically when the patient has declined
antibiotics. According to Ari, the susceptibility to borreliosis can
frequently be traced to poor living conditions, which weaken patients
and predispose them to disease.
In proven, clear cases of borreliosis, antibiotic treatment is medically
indicated and only the patient can then decline this approach. Yet,
in the ever more frequent cases from the gray zone, we consider
homeopathic treatment the better choice.
Christa Gebhardt & Dr Jürgen Hansel
Chief editors
BORRELIOSIS
EDITORIAL
SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY