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EDITORIAL
Christa Gebhardt & Dr Jürgen Hansel
Chief editors
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EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
Dear readers,
Almost 10 of the German population suffers from rheumatism,
a widespread and multifaceted disease. Rheumatic disorders
include around 240 various illnesses with differing symptom
pictures and treatment modalities. The number of homeopathic
remedies that can be used to treat rheumatism is even larger. We
have chosen a selection of remedies to highlight certain trends,
at the same presenting various homeopathic approaches in the
treatment of patients with rheumatism.
Obviously there is a number of classic homeopathic remedies for
rheumatism which are frequently used in practice. One of these
is
Ruta graveolens
.
Jürgen Hansel’s
case of incipient rheumatoid
arthritis shows how the remedy picture of Rue encompasses not
just the physical symptoms of chronic polyarthritis but also the
typical personality traits of rheumatismpatients. In the Rue remedy
family,
Ruta
is assigned to the cancer miasm. It is therefore no
coincidence that the contributions of our authors repeatedly
refer to this miasm. The pain, the restricted movement, and the
deformation of the joints indicate, according to
Tali Levi
, rigid
thought patterns and inner fixations: „The blockage starts in
the head“ is her pithy description.
Artur Wölfel’s
patient with lupus erythematodes demonstrates
another aspect of the cancer miasm. Her basic attitude is:
„Fitting in with the wishes of others. I’m a perfectionist.“
Since starting treatment with
Carcinosinum
she has been able
to stop all the immunosuppressants and biotechnology treat
ments, and the severe collagenosis involving multiple organs
has now been in remission for over five years. A similarly
positive result is seen in
Urvi Chauhan’s
case of seronega
tive polyarthritis with the Papaveraceae plant family remedy
from the cancer miasm.
Opium
causes the unbearable joint
pains to recede and permits previously repressed feelings to
be expressed.
Taciturnity, emotional repression, an emphasis on rational un
derstanding and a tendency to perfectionism are personality
traits frequently found in rheumatism patients and
Massimo
Mangialavori
says this can point to the Primrose family: „They
tend not to be open but they suffer greatly and do not easily
show themselves.“ If the reserve and the lack of emotional
expression go deeper to the point of isolation and depression,
and if this state of inner rigidity is expressed in painful stiff
ness and deformation of the joints, a precious stone remedy
should generally be considered, specifically Lapis lazuli. This
tip comes from
Franz Swoboda
following his long odyssey
through the materia medica. Only when his patient’s joints
are already severely deformed and after several operations
can he find the right homeopathic path with the help of her
dream of starving.
Even if many case histories in this issue of SPECTRUM share
common characteristics, there are also some very different
patterns found in rheumatism patients, such as
Tali Levi’s
patient who experiences unbearable pain all over her body
after the death of her mother. In her primitive dependence
on her mother she is like a foetus. She describes her pain
as something that restricts you like a rubber band, preven
ting any independent movement. Here we can also recognize
a specific correspondence between the inner state and the
physical symptoms. In
Heinz Wittwer’s
patient too, the mother-
daughter relationship is characterised by dependence, here
experienced as restrictive. She also experiences her illness in
terms of restriction. The healing in such cases involves an in
ner process of clarification, as shown by
Norbert Groeger
and
Heidi Brand
in their case of
Chara intermedia
, an alga with
purifying power.
The short path to the simile is described by the vet
Peter
Gregory
, who offers an overview of homeopathic ‘rheumatism
remedies’ with his examples of limping dogs. The classic rheu
matism remedy is of course
Rhus toxicondendron
, for which
Reinhard Flick
provides a case history.
S. Chidambaranathan
presents his experience with Bryonia for joint complaints in
connection with a raised anti-streptolysin titre. The Lanthanides
have also proved to be of great use when the rheumatic illness
is based on autoimmune disturbance. In the practice of
Jan
Scholten
and
Anton Kramer
, Neodymium salts are very often
prescribed. Hormonally-caused rheumatic complaints, espe
cially in the menopause, frequently react well to the sarcode
Folliculinum according to
Christina Ari
. The tried-and-tested
remedies obviously work best when the similarity to the person
holds at all levels.