Professor George Vithoulkas reminds us of the fact that all organs in the body are interrelated parts of one whole organism, mutually influencing each other, therefore there can be no such thing as a local disease.
To infer that one organ independently suffers is an incorrect, increasingly common allopathic viewpoint.
An organism as a whole responds to stimuli, being affected only by that which it is predisposed to and has a particular affinity for, this is called susceptibility.
While under stress, susceptibility to certain stimuli will manifest acute or chronic pathology.
Susceptibility must be understood as an organism’s potential Achilles heel.1
Disease is multifactorial, metamorphosing with time.2
Cognizant of this ever evolving process, homeopathy interprets symptoms as reflective of inner turmoil recognizing that it is the disturbance within which is to be treated, not the disease.3
All human beings are affected by acute and chronic diseases which are inter-dependent, during a lifetime, in a continuum of a unified substratum of diseases, preceding that final disease condition which ends the life.4
Therefore, it is the totality of symptoms, evaluated independently of the disease syndrome, which are paramount to successful homeopathic prescribing.5
Homeopathy makes an important distinction in medicine by combining a person’s disposition with their pathology.
“Disposition is that which shapes each person’s unique way of responding to events. This includes those consistent attributes, positive and negative, that form our attitudes and our actions.”6
Hahnemann’s §210 stressed the disposition is to be particularly noted.7
Real life examples can be seen in the conference paper Assessment of homeopathic remedies effects in type 1 diabetics - a seven year observational study of fifteen T1DM patients prescribed individualized homeopathic medicine.8 80% of participants showed improved fasting blood sugars and haemoglobin A1c, reducing the amounts of insulin required, with the parents of juvenile patients also reporting changes in disposition with notably improved behaviours, while adult patients cited feelings of inner calm, and experienced greater self-control.
Original homeopathic theory & philosophy according to Hahnemann §80 - §82 states that it is the miasms’ which effect an individual’s predisposition to inherit or acquire disease.
Hahnemann’s miasms’ were a 19th century glimpse of genetics.
According to the Levels of Health (Figure 1) model9 the further we descend the ladder of health, the more we will become overloaded and affected by our inherited predisposition - genetic influences.
Individuals belonging to the upper levels of health have optimal health (becoming rare and rarer) are not as detrimentally affected by their miasmatic influences (inherited predisposition) as those individuals in the lower levels of health.
Typically, individuals with Auto Immune Disease (AID) belong to Group C, level 7-9.
For example, juvenile diabetes is seen in Group D, level 10-12 - the lowest level of health - which relates to serious, wide ranging organic changes in an organism, characterized by sub-inflammatory processes.
Researchers have suggested that chronic disease has a sub-acute inflammatory character, and that inflammation constitutes the main common parameter of all diseases.10
The “continuum” of a unified theory of diseases proposes that when acute inflammatory diseases are suppressed with strong drugs repeatedly, the immune system loses the ability to defend itself through efficient acute inflammation.11
Low grade chronic inflammation will eventually trigger the chronic disease/s the person is predisposed to genetically.
Classical homeopathy observes an association between chronic disease and absence of fever - researchers found that people with chronic disease were able to produce a fever only around the time they showed clinical improvement.12
The article An integrated perspective on transmutation of acute inflammation into chronic and the role of the microbiome13 discusses the mechanism by which a healthy person subjected to continuous drug treatment for acute inflammatory conditions (at a certain time) leads to chronic disease is well worth the read (especially if you are a homeopath!)
‘In contrast to frequent claims, the available Meta Analyses of homoeopathy in placebo-controlled randomised trials for any indication show significant positive effects beyond placebo.
Compared to other medical interventions, the quality of evidence for efficacy of homoeopathy was similar or higher than for 90% of interventions across medicine.
Accordingly, the efficacy evidence from placebo-controlled randomised trials provides no justification for regulatory or political actions against homoeopathy in health-care systems.’14
Vithoulkas, G. 2015. Homeopathy, Medicine for the New Millennium. 28th Edition. Alonissos. The International Academy of Classical Homeopathy. (Originally published in 1985.)
Klein, L. 2003. Clinical Focus Guide to homeopathic remedies, volume 1. Canada. Luminos Homeopathic Courses Ltd.
Sankaran, R. 1991. Homeopathy, the science of healing. Reprint edition. New Delhi: B. Jain Publishers. (Originally published in 1983).
Vithoulkas, G and Carlino, S. 2010. The “continuum” of a unified theory of diseases. Medical Science Monitor. 16(2): SR7-15. Available from: http://www.radaruk. co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/vithoulkas-continuum-of-disease-fulltxt.pdf
Chatterjee, T.P. 1982. Fundamentals of Homoeopathy and Valuable Hints for Practice. New Delhi. World Homeopathic Links.
Klein, L. 2010. Miasms and Nosodes; Origin of Disease. Kandern: Narayana Verlag.
Hahnemann, S. 2005. Organon of Medicine. Sixth edition. Translated from German by W. Boericke. New Delhi. Indian Books and Periodicals Publishers. (Originally published in 1842.)
Sadeghi, S. 2016. Assessment of homeopathic remedies effects in type 1 diabetics. Hilaris; Alternative and Integrative Medicine. 5th International Conference and Exhibition on Natural & Alternative Medicine, September 05-07, 2016 Beijing, China. Available from: https://www.hilarispublisher.com/proceedings/assessment-ofhomeopathic-remedies-effects-in-type-1-diabetics-28227.html
Vithoulkas, G. 2017. Levels of Health, The second volume of the Science of Homeopathy, revised edition. Alonissos: International Academy of Classical Homeopathy.
Mahesh et al., 2018. A Novel Perspective on The Growing Global Burden of Multiple Sclerosis (Oral Presentation) The International Congress on Advanced Treatments & Technologies in Multiple Sclerosis, 4th October 2018, London. https://www.vithoulkas.com/research/congresses/international-congress-advanced-treatment-and-technologies-multiple-sclerosis/?s=multiple%20sclerosis
Vithoulkas, G and Carlino, S. 2010. The “continuum” of a unified theory of diseases. Medical Science Monitor. 16(2): SR7-15. Available from: http://www.radaruk. co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/vithoulkas-continuum-of-disease-fulltxt.pdf
Mahesh et al. 2024. Association between Acute and Chronic Inflammatory States: A Case-Control Study. Homeopathy. Feb. Available from: https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0043-1777119
Vithoulkas, 2021. An integrated perspective on transmutation of acute inflammation into chronic and the role of the microbiome. JOURNAL of MEDICINE and LIFE. https://medandlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2.-jml-2021-0375.pdf
Hamre et al., 2023. Efficacy of homoeopathic treatment: Systematic review of meta-analyses of randomised placebo-controlled homoeopathy trials for any indication. Systematic Rev. Oct 7;12(1):191. https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-023-02313-2#Abs1
I shared your post with one of my email subscribers (I get more email comments than Web ones) while reminding her of my Layers post last week, with this comment ...
"There will not be much improvement with your Mum if you're simply "throwing remedies at her". They have to be matched with her layer of disease and her level of health. You give one remedy, then follow up with the next remedy, and so on. This is why I'm so cagey about suggesting remedies."
I'm really interested in the idea of inflammation as the root of disease. I love the connection you make here -- because if the problem is inflammation, then how can disease be local? There may indeed be a susceptible system that breaks down more easily in the presence of low level, chronic, ineffective inflammation -- but that break down is not an isolated issue, it is merely the place where we can easily observe the damage. Thank you for tying these threads together!