Homeopathic Healthcare: More Homeopathic Articles
George Guess, MD
The Laws of Healing
These “Laws”of Healing represent years of observation of cured clinical cases by one of America’s foremost homeopaths, Dr. Constantine Herring, about one hundred years ago. While not infallible, these criteria of cure do generally apply and have withstood the test of time. When a patient’s clinical course after treatment is viewed with these laws (or, more accurately, rules of cure) in mind, one can readily determine not only if the treatment has been effective, but if it has been truly curative. Too often therapeutic results are gauged solely by the immediate symptom relief obtained, the overall well-being of the individual being lost in the process. In homeopathy we recognize that some treatments (of any system of healing) can be suppressive (or palliative) as opposed to curative. Such results are typically characterized by fairly prompt relief of the presenting complaint with a subsequent (the time interval is variable) or simultaneous diminution in one’s general sense of well-being and the later development of more serious pathology. I will illustrate below. If Herring’s rules of cure were employed universally for all therapies, we could quickly ascertain the appropriateness of a treatment and move rapidly to correct suppressive effects. As it stands to date, though, homeopathy is the only therapeutic system that utilizes this invaluable tool.
Rules of Cure.
1. Cure proceeds from the center of the organism to the periphery, from greater organs to lesser.
This is the most important rule, superseding all others. It means that, after treatment, more serious health problems (including psychological illness) should be the first to improve or should improve at the same time as more minor problems improve. For example, in a patient with heart disease and arthritis (both, for the sake of argument, of equal intensity), the heart disease should improve before or simultaneously with the arthritis. Were the arthritis to improve and the heart condition to worsen or remain unchanged, we would suspect that our treatment was incorrect and should be changed. The same would apply to a patient with significant depression and, say, psoriasis, or any other clinical situation (with but few exceptions). Truly curative effects should proceed from more vital structures or aspects of the organism to less vital. The reverse is suppression and detrimental.
2. Cure proceeds in the reverse order of the appearance of symptoms.
This observation means simply that a patient’s most recent symptoms will be the first to disappear after correct treatment; subsequently, older symptoms will also disappear in reverse chronological order. While this rule very often applies, it may be superseded by the first rule, as in the hypothetical case of someone with ulcerative colitis who subsequently develops a skin rash. While the rash might disappear prior to improvement of the colitis, the reverse might also be seen as healing ensues on the deeper level.
3. Cure proceeds from above downward (or toward the periphery).
This observation applies primarily to skin rashes and arthritis. Typically after correct homeopathic treatment, one sees rashes improve from the head downward toward the hands and feet. Similarly, arthritic inflammations flare and subside progressively toward the periphery, as in the case of a hip arthritis improving, followed by latter involvement of the ankle and eventual relief of that joint as well.
The above represent the signposts to a deeply curative response to homeopathic and other holistic treatments. An awareness of the laws of healing can help to preclude the long-term health consequences of suppressive therapies — the deepening of disease processes.
Dr. Guess, a family physician, has practiced classical homeopathic medicine for 25 years. He is the editor of the American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine. He practices in Charlottesville. 434-295-0362. Web page: www.doctorguess.com
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Dr. George Guess
2776 Hydraulic Rd, Suite 101
Charlottesville, VA 22901
office: 434-295-0362
fax: 434-295-0798
email: gguessmd@earthlink.net
website: http://www.doctorguess.com/
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