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Homeopathy’s Best Kept Secret!
by Luc De Schepper, MD, PhD, DI
Hom., CHom., Lic.Ac
Reprinted by permission.
Dr. Luc is the author of excellent
books on Classical Homeopathy.
You were trained as a Western
medical doctor. What made you turn to homeopathy?
Dr. Luc: When I was a young doctor fresh out of medical school in
Belgium, I thought I knew everything. But then I started seeing patients whom
Western medicine just couldn’t help. One young girl of 15 got headaches every
time the weather changed—and in Belgium the weather changes three times a day!
She had everything in Western medicine you can dream of, but nothing helped.
Another lady, I will never forget it, she came in my office absolutely dripping
with sweat. The sweat was pouring off her and dripping onto the floor. Western
medicine could do nothing for her. Another lady could not speak. There was
nothing physically wrong with her. Her family said she had not spoken a word
since looking out the window and seeing a funeral procession—with her best
friend’s husband walking behind the hearse. The sudden shock of her best
friend’s death made her mute. I wanted to do something for these patients, but
my Western medical training gave me no answers. So I went to a bookstore to look
up alternative medicine and found a book on homeopathy. I wish these patients
would walk through my door today, because these would all be easy cases for
homeopathy.
What would you suggest for someone who wants to get started with homeopathy
but feels bewildered by all the different remedies?
Dr. Luc: Get to know one or two remedies and all the different things
they can be used for. Arnica would be my first choice—it’s king of the trauma
remedies and king of the sports remedies. Arnica is good for the whole
family for bumps, bruises, pulled muscles, and overuse of muscles, like someone
who has a desk job and then gets 14 days vacation and wants to be a hero playing
sports with his kids. It’s even good for elderly people who get spontaneous
bruises, because as we get older the capillaries become fragile and burst
easily.
Some lesser known uses of Arnica include overworry, overuse of the voice
when someone is speaking all day, and for the flu, especially when there is a
bruised feeling. Arnica is for bruises in general, and for illnesses with a
bruised feeling, like when you feel as though a tank just ran over you and
everything is sore, you don’t want to be touched. Arnica is also a great
absorber of blood. For example, my patients have had amazing experiences with
their kids who bump their heads and get a big egg on their forehead, which of
course means there is a hematoma, a leakage of blood. With
Arnica the swelling
goes right down and then they don’t have to take their kids to the emergency
room. So Arnica is great for the whole family starting from Day One. In fact
it’s a great remedy for Day One! Give Arnica 200c to the mother for bruising
from the delivery and give it to the baby for the trauma of coming through the
birth canal.
Any other favorite remedies?
Dr. Luc: Arsenicum would be my second choice, especially for traveling.
Never leave home without it! It’s the top remedy for traveler’s diarrhea and for
food poisoning. Some people get diarrhea just from the change of diet when they
travel.
Arsenicum has rescued many, many a vacation, especially in the Middle
East, China and South America where the water can be contaminated.
Arsenicum is
also great for the first stages of a cold or flu, when you are just getting a
scratchy throat and your nose is running like a faucet with a clear, watery
discharge.
Arsenicum will nip it in the bud.
Arsenicum is one of the top
remedies for asthma and for shortness of breath in general, especially when you
feel as though you are going to die because you can’t catch your breath. And
it’s one of the best remedies for people who wake up after midnight, anxious and
restless and unable to get back to sleep. But in both these cases people
shouldn’t diagnose themselves. For example, in homeopathy we have so many
remedies for anxiety. The remedies are so precise, depending on whether the
patient has fear for the future, fear of death, of disease, of failure, of
flying, of taking exams, and so on. This is the kind of thing we will teach in
our school.
What’s the best way to take the remedies?
Dr. Luc: This is one of homeopathy’s best-kept secrets: take the remedies
in water. When you buy a little tube in the store with 80 pellets, the label
says to take 3 pellets 3 to 5 times a day under the tongue. (There is no secret
door under the tongue!) But it will work much better and much faster if you take
one pellet and dissolve it in 4 ounces of water. Take one teaspoon as needed—as
often as every 20 to 30 minutes in acute cases such as high fevers and
accidents. One cup will is good for 24 hours. If you need the remedy again the
next day, make another cup. Putting it in water makes it reach more nerve
endings. As soon as it touches the mucous membranes it starts to work. If
someone can’t swallow, you can even swab it on their skin.
What if you run out the same day, can you make another cup?
Dr. Luc: You could but you shouldn’t need to, because as you start to
feel better you slow down and take a teaspoon only maybe every hour or two. If
you don’t see any improvement by the time you finish the cup, it probably means
you have the wrong remedy. (It could also mean the potency is too low, but this
is something you will learn from experience.)
So why don’t they say this on the label?
Dr. Luc: Maybe because they can sell more tubes this way! Or maybe
because they just don’t know. Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, developed
this method of taking the remedies in water at the very end of his life, and the
manuscript in which he described it was lost for nearly 100 years. Even now it
is not well known. The people who work in the pharmaceutical companies have
probably never read it.
Are there any situations when it’s better to take the remedy dry?
Dr. Luc: Only if it’s impractical to take it in water. When I play tennis
I keep Arnica and Rhus tox. in my pockets in case I sprain my ankle. I can take
some pellets and keep on playing, then as soon as I have a chance I put them in
water.
Here’s another secret: if you are going to be out all day, driving around in the
car, put the remedy in a water bottle and take it with you. Then each time you
take the remedy you can succuss it (give it a hard thwack, a “slam-dunk”). This
gradually increases the potency of the remedy and it will work even better this
way.
How many pellets, say for a typical 16 oz. spring water bottle?
Dr. Luc: Just one. You don’t need four just because there is four times
as much water. We are dealing with energy, not with molecules. It’s a little
more dilute this way, but succussing it will keep increasing the potency of the
remedy.
Should you reduce the dosage for kids?
Dr. Luc: Not at all! In fact kids need higher potencies than adults.
Never hesitate to give a child a high potency. It’s the opposite of Western
medicine, where our dosages are based on bodyweight. In homeopathy the dosage is
based on the vital energy of the patient, and kids usually have much stronger
vital energy than adults. Look at how fast a child can spike a fever. That shows
how strong the vital energy is.
Let’s say someone looks up in a homeopathy book and figures out that Lachesis is
the best remedy for her left-sided headache, but when she goes to the store to
buy it, the tube says it’s for hot flashes.
Why is that?
Dr. Luc: Each of the major remedies (the polychrests) has many, many
different indications or uses. The pharmaceutical company can only fit one or
two of them on the label. The good thing is that they have the freedom to do
that, unlike vitamin companies, because homeopathic remedies are under a
different law and the FDA allows this kind of labeling.
Do the remedies have side effects?
Dr. Luc: No, again because we are talking energy, not molecules. When you
use potencies over 24c there is not even one molecule of the original substance
left, and then when you put it in water it is even more dilute. You can get what
we call a similar aggravation, though, if you take too much. An aggravation is a
temporary intensification of the symptoms. It’s unlikely to happen in acute
cases, because you are using up the remedy so fast. You would have to really
take a lot, maybe 3 or 4 cups of the remedy in a row, to get this kind of
reaction.
If you do get an aggravation, just stop taking the remedy and your body will use
up the excess. It’s like speeding in a car. It’s not a bad car, just a bad
driver! You need to get used to the car. As you get experience using the
remedies, you will get to know how fast you can take repeated doses.
Some people say you have to go through an aggravation to be cured with
homeopathy. Would you agree with that?
Dr. Luc: Not at all! Hahnemann developed the water method to save people
from the discomfort of aggravations.
Can you be allergic to the remedies?
Dr. Luc: No, for the same reason. Sometimes my patients say they can’t
take Sulphur as a remedy because they are
allergic to sulfa drugs. An allergy to sulfa drugs is actually a good indication
that the patient needs Sulphur!
What if someone is allergic to lactose, can they have a reaction to the
lactose the pills are made from?
Dr. Luc: Not usually, but if they are extremely sensitive they could have a
reaction if they take the pills dry. It’s another good reason to take the
remedies in water.
Can you develop a tolerance to the remedies the way you can to a drug?
Dr. Luc: As long as you need the remedy, it will continue to work. If
your baby is learning to walk, all the time falling and smacking his head, you
can give Arnica every day and it will continue to work. If a remedy stops
working, it means you no longer need it.
Can the remedies be addictive? There is not one patient in a Betty Ford
center addicted to homeopathic remedies!
Dr. Luc: Whereas there are many treatment centers and detox centers for
people addicted to Western drugs. It’s scary how easy it is for people to and
get addicted. All it takes is one hospitalization, and they give you painkillers
sleeping pills without your knowledge or your permission. Before you know it
you’re addicted. I have seen it many times in my practice.
What do the numbers mean — 6c, 30c, 200c?
Dr. Luc: They represent the successive dilutions the remedies go through.
“C” stands for centesimal and it means a dilution of 1 part of the remedy to 99
parts of alcohol at each stage. The remedy is succussed, or shaken, 100 times at
each stage so that the energy of the remedy is imparted to the liquid. The
higher the number, the higher the dilution—which in homeopathy means a more
powerful remedy, because the vibrational energy is higher. Usually in health
food stores you find 6c, 12c and 30c potencies.
What’s the difference in how they are used?
Dr. Luc: I would rather see 30c and 200c in stores. I encourage my
students to get 200c kits once they are familiar with the remedies. 30c is
better when you are first starting out because if you take the wrong remedy in a
200c, you could get an aggravation. 6c and 12c are too low to do any good for
acute situations. 6c and 12c are only indicated for chronic diseases, and people
should definitely not diagnose or treat themselves for chronic diseases. Only a
professional homeopath can do that.
Is that because 6c and 12c could be dangerous?
Dr. Luc: Not at all. It’s because a layperson could not prescribe the
right remedy for a chronic situation, in which the choice of remedy depends not
so much on the physical symptoms as on the mental and emotional onset of the
disease. For example, if I have four patients with chronic fatigue, one may be
never well since taking birth control pills, another never well since overwork
and overworry, another never well since multiple operations, and the fourth
never well since heartbreak. They may all have the exact same physical symptoms
and the same diagnosis in Western medicine, but they each get a different remedy
from me, because homeopathy is so individualized to the patient.
What do you mean by acute and chronic?
Dr. Luc: Acute is something that just happened within the last day or
two, within the last several weeks at most, that is self-limiting (it will go
away by itself). In an acute disease, the vital energy of the patient is usually
strong enough to overcome it. If not, it can turn into a chronic condition, one
that develops over a long period of time and does not go away by itself. In a
chronic condition there can be a steady overall downfall of the patient’s health
unless it is opposed by the right remedy. Other times there can be acute
symptoms of a chronic state of imbalance or disorder in the system, such as PMS.
A woman can have acute symptoms each month which can be treated with acute
over-the-counter remedies each time—but if her overall constitution is treated
by a professional homeopath, her symptoms will not recur. I have seen this many
times in my practice—I do not even address the patient’s PMS symptoms directly
because they go away automatically with the well-chosen remedy.
A lot of times health food stores have combinations that have 6 or 8 different
remedies. Wouldn’t that be better than a single remedy, since you would be sure
to cover your bases?
Dr. Luc: Actually, no, because the remedies can cancel each other out. I
would rather see people become familiar with the single remedies. For example,
I’ve seen a combination for Grief that has one remedy,
Pulsatilla, for people
who are very clingy and needy of consolation, and another, Nat. mur., for people
who just want to be left alone in their grief. How can one person possibly need
both?
Many homeopaths say you can’t use mint, camphor or coffee when you are taking
remedies. Would you agree?
Dr. Luc: Coffee is the only one I put the accent on in my own practice. If
someone is drinking more than one cup a day, I get them off the coffee first
(with Chamomilla, Nux vomica or
Coffea). Decaffeinated coffee and other
caffeine-containing foods like chocolate and cola are okay (not in other ways
but in terms of canceling the remedy!) Mint and camphor are only important for
the high potencies used by certain professional homeopaths, the Kentian
prescribers. They won’t make much difference in acute situations where you are
repeating the doses frequently.
Some homeopaths tell their patients not to do acupuncture or polarity or take
vitamins while on a remedy. Why is that?
Dr. Luc: I tell my patients to do anything they can to support their
vital energy while they are healing. Any healing modality such as acupuncture
that follows the same natural laws as homeopathy will do nothing but help. The
only thing is, they shouldn’t start doing these things the same week they start
the remedy. That will muddy the picture. Then if they have a reaction, it’s not
clear what they are reacting to.
I’ve heard that remedies are prescribed based on the symptoms present. So
does that mean the remedies can’t be used preventively?
Dr. Luc: No, in fact here’s another little-known tip. They can be used ahead
of time if you know you are going to need them, but in this case take 3 pellets
dry in the mouth. For example, Arnica should be taken before and after strenuous
sports for someone who is not in shape, or for weightlifters, football players,
soccer players and others who are likely to get pulled muscles or bruises. And
if one person in the family comes down with a flu or cold, everyone else in the
family can take the same remedy. If you know there is a flu coming to your area,
before it even hits you can start taking Arsenicum or Oscillococcinum, the two
top preventive flu remedies. Take 30c doses, 3 pellets dry once a day during an
epidemic.
What’s your basic approach in finding a remedy for your patients?
Dr. Luc: I have them make a timeline with all the major traumas in their life,
whether mental, emotional, physical, financial, or whatever. Any event that
causes lasting symptoms will need to be treated eventually. We call it a layer.
We start with the most recent layer first and work backwards, every time
treating the Never Well Since (usually a mental or emotional trauma that
triggered the onset of symptoms).
You are both a homeopath and an acupuncturist. What do you see as the
connection between these two healing modalities?
Dr. Luc: They both work with the healing energy or vital qi, and they
both follow the same natural laws of healing. For example, we know the patient
is healing if the disease goes from the inside to the outside. Also both
disciplines accent the mental and emotional origins of disease (unless there is
a direct physical trauma like a cut, blow or burn). In both, each organ has
certain emotions associated with it, like the liver and anger. Each of the main
homeopathic remedies has a place on the Star of the Five Elements in Traditional
Chinese Medicine. Homeopathy is so similar to acupuncture that Hahnemann must
have read the acupuncture texts that were available to him in translation.
Does someone have to be a medical doctor to practice homeopathy?
Dr. Luc: In terms of licensing, it varies from state to state. In terms
of knowledge, many of the greatest homeopaths of the past have been laypeople.
Can you share one last secret with us?
Dr. Luc: Here’s a great one for sports injuries: if you’re a basically
healthy person and have a serious acute injury, like a pulled muscle, take
Arnica 30c, then 200c, then 1M, each time 3 pellets dry, 4 hours apart. I did
this once when I pulled my thigh muscle while playing soccer. The muscle swelled
up and turned hard as a rock. By the time I was through the
Arnica it was back
to normal again! I learned this tip from a Swiss-French homeopath and very few
people in this country know about it.
Resources
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If your local health food
store doesn’t have the remedies or potencies you need, try call Boiron Labs
at 1-800-BLU-TUBE,
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Call Natural Living Products for Homeopathic kits at
1-888-624-8590.
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Dr. Luc’s introduction to
homeopathy, Human
Condition Critical is available on line.
Luc
De Schepper, M.D., Ph.D., D.I.Hom., C.Hom., Lic.Ac. is a Western medical
doctor, acupuncturist and homeopath with over 200,000 patients in 25 years of
practice. He is the author of ten books on homeopathy, acupuncture and holistic
health care, including Candida: the Cause, the Symptoms, the Cure;
Acupuncture
in Practice; Peak Immunity;
and
Human Condition Critical. He has been a popular
guest on numerous television shows in the United States and abroad as well as
being interviewed on dozens of radio shows.
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